SL Days 15-17

Reading, writing, and catching a suntan through the window of a coffee shop.

( LXIII: Ursula Le Guin, The Dispossessed (1974) )

( LXIV: Tom Robbins, Another Roadside Attraction (1971) )

( LXV: Tom Robbins, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1976) )

( LXVI: Kurt Vonnegut, Slapstick, Or Lonesome No More! (1976) )

I've been trying to track this quote down for years - I'd thought it was Doctor Who or Douglas Adams, or both, in fact it was Slapstick

[A safety officer has looked at the mess and chaos in Bernard's lab, and shouted at him.]

"My brother said this to him, tapping his own forehead with his fingertips: 'If you think this laboratory is bad, you should see what it's like in here.'"

Exhibitions for Expotitions

A belated updating - red events should be open now. Check with venue before travel.

Closes in May 2010

• Chris Ofili 27/1/10-16/5/10 Tate Britain
  
• Van Doesburg and the International Avant-Garde: Constructing a New World 4/2/2010-16/5/2010 Tate Modern Recommended
• Painting History: Delaroche and Lady Jane Grey 24/2/2010-23/5/2010 National Gallery
  

Closes in June 2010

• Irving Penn Portraits 18/22/2010-6/6/2010 National Portrait Gallery
• Christen Kobke: Danish Master of Light 17/3/2010-13/6/2010 National Gallery
• Paul Sandby RA: Picturing Britain, A Bicentenary Exhibition 13/3/2010-13/6/2010 RAA, Sackler Wing
• Modern Times: Responding to Chaos 3/4/2010-13/6/2010 De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill on Sea
• Tony Bevan 3/4/2010-13/6/2010 De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill on Sea
• Barbara Rae RA: Prints 19/4/2010-20/6/2010 RAA
• Underwater 3/4/2010-20/6/2010 Towner, Eastbourne
• The Indian Portrait 1560 - 1860 11/3/2010-20/6/2010 National Portrait Gallery
• Relics of old London: Photography and the spirit of the city 10/2/2010-22/6/2010 RAA, Architecture space
• Treasures from Medieval York: England’s other capital - 27/6/2010 British Museum

( Closes after June 2010 )

Clutching

I await with interest how Private Eye satirises the ConDemmed years - it feels somewhere between The Odd Couple (Clegg as Jack Lemmon) and Ant and Dec (Cameron is the one who stands on the right, I think). I guess there was a fear that satire would have nothing to do in 1997 - we were sadly wrong - and we'll need it even more. Even if it achieves nothing.

I was talking about the 1997 Armando Ianucci 1997 election special the other night with someone who hadn't seen it (nor did I, I suspect, not just because I was in deepest darkest Northamptonshire) and realised the reason he didn't see it was that he was about 12. Ook. Then I had a panicked and checked - yes, I may have been older than the last two Doctors, but I am still younger than My Two PMs. (A sitcom?)



Meanwhile the one to look out for is Sayeeda Warsi, the Chairman of the Tories, who has expressed some er, views over the years.