Tingles at the British Museum

South American mosaic face -  Cool or not?

The more I see, the more I realise that I am not hip or cool or groovy or wicked, in fact this very list of synonyms shows how unconnected to youth and celebrity culture I am. Every city I've been to is plastered with advertising for the 'latest thing' that I don't seem to notice but even that is old.  The 'underground' stuff is what counts as 'it' and I'm guessing that because even I have heard of this there is a layer deeper in the entertainment/exploratory of the senses world that truly counts as the bohemia of this generation.  If you have to be told what is trending - you are not in the trend! 

I don't think that Cambridge actually has a 'scene'. Buses stop around 10:30 and most of the youth disappear to either their study desks (you don't chuck away a chance to study at this University), into London or over to Norwich which apparently is a really happening place. (I wouldn't trust this information) The very busy Corn Exchange provides one nights of touring acts and classical music performances are everywhere for those 'descending into the vale of a certain age'(Coleridge).

Magnificent space - Museum Courtyard

I admit that I feel more at ease with THEN rather than NOW, so museums and galleries are where I get my thrills. These excited tingles and a true sense of place in time and culture are delivered in abundance at the British Museum.

This is a fairly serious place, designed to attract the cerebral thrill seeker rather than the adventure tourist. You won't get to experience a tall ship excursion to the antipodes like Banks in the Enlightenment room, or dig out sea dinosaur fossils from genuine Lime Regis Cliff face like Mary Anning discovering Britain's first Ichthyosaurus. There are no large rooms devoted to a chariot battle ride between Mesopotamian kings or filled with tacky boards filling the gaps between the marbles Lord Elgin bought back from the Parthenon in which to watch the reenactment of Socrates trial and suicide.  Yet looking at these objects on their stark pedestals and lined up in their glass cabinets surrounded by laser alarms and do not touch signs; the past seeps out to challenge your understanding of humanity.

Hieroglyphic details above the Demotic which is above the Greek not in shot. Three scripts, same message a code breaker's idea of paradise. Notice the Ptolemy cartouche in the centre of the 6 line down - an important key.

The Rosetta stone was the key to linguists like Jean Champollion and Thomas Young to crack the ancient Egyptian language. We still have no real concept of how it sounded but those in the know can tell us what is says. It is a remnant from a stela informing the locals of Rosetta about how great the current Ptolemy Pharaoh was and his tax cuts for them. The French soldiers, who had orders from Napoleon to let his scholars see anything with script, knew not to add it to the defence wall they were building from the ruins around them.  The English beat the French in the desert battle and took the stone back to England.  The French had taken a rubbing of the text and the race was on for academic glory.  How cool is that!

Drain holes at the base made us think of bathtime - but no. Preserve the body and your soul can live forever.

Giant scarab

The scarab's labours to roll dung in which to lay their eggs reminded the Ancient Egyptians of the wonder of the ball of fire that rolled across their sky every day and gave them life. A heavenly scarab beetle was one explanation for the sphere's movement across the heavens and so the little green sparkle insect became revered on Earth.  These good scarab shaped luck charms, made from gold and lapis lazuli and other precious materials, were often wrapped as amulets in the mummies dressings to help keep the spirit safe. 
(Museum thrills!)
Fun fact  1 - the word mummy is an English phonetic approximation of the Arabic word for the bitumen that they thought the corpses had been dipped in for preservation. (Egypt was an Arabic country when the archaeologists came to town.)  
Fun fact 2 - the origins of the party game 'Pass the Parcel' may be found in the slightly macabre fashion of wealthy Edwardian tourists buying a mummy as a souvenir from their trip to Egypt and having an unwrapping ceremony in candle lit drawing rooms. Guests sat in a circle around the mummy and each person unrolled one bandage, keeping any of the precious amulets found for their own. They kept unwrapping until the corpse was revealed.  I bet there were a few burnt feathers and smelling salts used at those parties. 
Fun fact 3 - If the tourist could not afford a whole mummy, the traders would happily lop off the limb or head they could pay for. A couple of examples were bought back by Sir Nicholson  and now reside in the Sydney University Museum named after him. An excellent venue for Yr7 History excursions.
Abusing cultures you don't understand by word or deed is not cool.

Looking from one face of Ramses to another - not many similarities.

The Shabako stone. It's use as a threshing stone and perhaps a foundation stone has destroyed many of the glyphs.

This relates the ancient Memphis myth of creation and relates the story of how Ptah, perhaps the oldest of the Egyptian gods, spoke the Earth and it's living creatures to life after his father had separated the dark from the light.  Sound familiar - John 1:1? Of course it also talks extensively about how cool the Pharoah of the time was and how, as Horus he was the link between Ptah and mankind. The glyphs also state that it is a copy of an ancient stone worn with age and damaged beyond repair. Yep, in 750BCE they knew that give humans another couple of thousand years they'd be able to spot fakes with radio carbon dating!

Elgin's Marbles : today his triumph would be called theft and he'd spend some serious time in jail for smuggling.

Imagine the rest of the beast

A child running to serve.
How do you get such life from stone?

M thought she needed her back scratched

Half of an Assyrian gate

 In the Pacific room
They only took a little one from Easter Island

The cylinder on the right is carved marble from c1300-1200BCE. Rolled on the clay tablets used for their cuneiform writing at the time to demonstrate the presence and approval of the Assyrian authority. As long as not stolen, it is certainly more secure than a signature.  Imagine forging that artistry exactly.

Beauty is cool!

The Standard of Ur - Peace panel (the opposite is the war one)  Dated to around 2600BCE

This has been reconstructed as it was found in an ancient burial site near Baghdad and had collapsed from the weight of the dirt.  It was placed near a corpse who may have been holding an attached pole, but it's purpose may only be surmised.  Some think it may be a sound box for a large instrument rather than a standard to be held. It was one of the pieces found by the group of archaeologists that Agatha Christie's husband was working with.  She was known to dust down his discoveries.  There is even an online tour you can do of the artifacts in the museum associated with this famous author and her not so famous husband.  http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/online_tours/middle_east/agatha_christie__archaeology/agatha_christie__archaeology.aspx  That's cool!

Advised that you can see these objects in an hour - I don't think so!  Too many distractions around them!

The tea rooms on the top level just out from the Mesopotamia rooms have the most divine strawberry jam, although it looks a little bit fancy the prices were very reasonable. An order of Eng Breakfast, Earl Grey and Peppermint teas resulted in three pots on our table.
As we sat and enjoyed the rest from our rip around following the top ten guide, we noticed a group of well dressed individuals walking past with Bible tour stickers on their chests.  What a great Sabbath afternoon activity that would be (maybe without the stickers though).

Putting photos of M being the fourth tea pot on FBk

Crockery to colour coordinate with the marble and ficus

'Discussing' how Willow and I were going to divide the Victoria sponge fairly

Why is funny not the same as cool?

Petal was recuperating at the Vicarage if anyone is wondering why she didn't join the fun.

Nicolas Santinaque has gained Tumblr stardom

As parents often need help with the whole 'what is cool' thing - I am going to share a site that may help you understand some of the things that the teens come out with. http://www.trendhunter.com/#20  Mind you if this leg jewelry has been called cool - it seems like another reason why I don't want to be - just looks like she hasn't shaved for a while.

Help is at hand.  Prof. Dinerstein has put together an 'American Cool' exhibition at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery.  It runs from Feb 7 to Sept 7 2014.  I'm sure there will be an online viewing available for those wanting to see this academic's interpretation.
Quoted from an interview about the exhibit the Professor says - "The exhibit and book represent inquiry into one question: "What do we mean when we say someone is cool?" We can all point to people – both public figures and those in our own lives – to which we attribute this supreme compliment. However, there has been little analysis of this key concept and how it works in American life. The three essays in the book present the analysis of the concept’s origins, shifting meanings and cultural work. The icons are the avatars of the concept. To be “American Cool” – in the sense of the exhibit – a person had to create an original persona in American life, one without precedent.

In short, the exhibit presents the successful cultural rebels of American culture over the past century. Cool always carries a social charge of rebellious self-expression, edge, charisma and mystery.

Any discussion of what’s cool is superficial: “cool” is a synonym for what’s trending, what’s in-style or what’s in-vogue. We don’t need the concept of cool for that analysis of consumerism nor to recognize that we simply say “cool!” to mean, “I like that,” “I’m good with that.”
More to read here -  http://www.myneworleans.com/Blogs/Uptown-Life/February-2014/The-Tulane-Professor-Defining-Cool/

So all is not lost - someone, somewhere has cool in a Gallery - the rest of us museum nerds can breath a sigh of relief that we are not completely cut off from current culture.

Have just found this http://www.theschooloflife.com/shop/how-to-be-cool/?sku=3828

Alain de Botton has written lots of philosophical type books that are very entertaining. His book 'Religion for Atheists' looks at how humanity without faith struggles to live life well but does not preach or theologise. I am going to buy 'How to Travel'. His latest is 'The News, a user's manual' He has also founded 'The School of life' here in London and I will try to get into one of his courses. Not sure that 'How to be cool is quite the one for  me!  Check him out here http://alaindebotton.com/  I like 'cool' thinkers.

Just Read:

The Gourmet by Muriel Barbery 
Author of one of my favourite all time novels The Elegance of the Hedgehog

Both published by Gallic Books, translated from French by Alison Anderson 2010

Published as Gourmet Rhapsody
in some countries.

The great food critic lies on his deathbed (those who have read Elegance will recognise Renée's voice in the 2nd chapter).

He craves a flavour that he cannot identify and trips through his memories while those from his life share with us their eulogies without fear of his audience. Perhaps taste is not what he sought, but a state of being.

The protagonist is not a likable persona and the story less 'unveiling' than 'The Elegance'. The chapter shared by his cat, Rick(named after the character in Casablanca) is perhaps my favourite although the dog gourmet is an anecdote to be savoured again. 

"I wrote pieces inspired by the greatest chefs' menus claiming that I had penetrated its secret.  What an idiot, what a pity ... I invented mysteries where there were none, in order to justify my perfectly pathetic metier.  What is writing, no matter how lavish the pieces, if it says nothing of truth, cares little for the heart, and is merely subservient to the pleasure of showing one's brilliance?  p45

"People think that children don't know anything.  It's enough to make you wonder if grownups were ever children themselves once." p71

http://www.amazon.com/Gourmet-Muriel-Barbery/dp/1906040265
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6366085-gourmet-rhapsody