art you should know / j.m.w. turner's slave ship

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i still remember the day i fell in love with this painting. we were in art theory and methodology and a girl in my class was presenting her research on this work. at the time i was working on my research for the raft of the medusa, so images of the sea and slavery were near and dear to my heart. the girl told us the story behind the image: a slavedriver was transporting slaves, and decided to throw over the sick and dying during a storm to collect the insurance money. what once seemed like a beautiful yet banal work revealed itself as the magnificently macabre painting that it is. when you look a little bit closer, you can see broken shackles and random limbs dispersed throughout the water. the fiery sky seems to reinforce the tumultuous scene and the rough water is a backdrop embodying the abolitionist movement.

when j.m.w. turner exhibited the work in 1840, he included a poem that he wrote:

"Aloft all hands, strike the top-masts and belay;
Yon angry setting sun and fierce-edged clouds
Declare the Typhon's coming.
Before it sweeps your decks, throw overboard
The dead and dying – ne'er heed their chains
Hope, Hope, fallacious Hope!
Where is thy market now? 
 

the poem further enhances the painting, lyrically describing the horrific event. i have yet to see this painting in person, but am so excited to visit it at the museum of fine arts in boston this december!

fashion / summer staples to fall favorites #2

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i wear dresses more than anything else, which is great in the summer, but come fall and winter i am generally freezing all the time. to shift this dress in to fall, i added an olive blazer which warmed me up and made my palette super autumnal. i got my heels this summer at the rack (of course), and they were by far my favorite summer heels. i don't want to not wear them for the next six months because i love them too much, so i added some coral socks to make them look and feel more seasonal. i added my gold bangles, my olive alexis bittar bangle, and my tortoise michael kors watch. underneath the dress is a black and white striped shirt, instead of the white shirt that i normally pair it with. this outfit is perfect for those fall days that have a cool chill in the morning air, but warm up in the afternoons.

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from my camera / gettysburg

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we visited gettysburg this weekend! it was beautiful, just at the beginning of fall. we learned a lot about the civil war. i really need to freshen up my us history, i only know what is happening in european art during the years we talked about.  luckily the whole park wasn't closed due to the shut down, only some parts. my favorite part was the old covered bridge- which is how most of the bridges would have been during that time. we drove through many of the fields where the battles were, including the field where pickett's charge took place (a battle which i wrote about for my eighth grade project!).we also visited gettysburg college and saw lots of old buildings that were used as hospitals during the war. some of them even have holes from gunfire still. 

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the anti-critical critique / movies out this weekend

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jarman and i are movie whores to say the least. going to the movies is literally our favorite thing to do together. last winter, we made a habit of doing an mdm (movie dinner movie) almost every friday. this past week we have seen four movies. don't judge us. the government shutdown is seriously limiting our tourist activities, and the weather has provided some other setbacks (last weekend was a major heatwave, and this one is totally rainy). 

we are terrrible movie critics, because we just generally like movies. we never regret seeing a movie, even if we don't love it. we love to discuss what movies were trying to convey, whether or not we would watch it again, etc. we are going to attempt to rank the movies we have seen recently. we didn't necessarily love any of these movies, but we did appreciate certain aspects and were definitely glad that we saw them. here we go. 

 

1. rush

i'm not going to lie, half of the reason we liked this movie so much was because of thor, sorry, chris hemsworth. it is hard for us to discriminate against our favorite actors. rush is a story about the male ego and its major flaws, disguised as a true story about european racecar drivers. each of the main characters are arrogant and narcissistic in their owns ways. james hunt and nicki lauda were major rivals in the 1970s, and pushed one another to become their best. eventually this leads to lauda's crash and subsequent nearly fatal injuries. (i'm not going to lie, i closed my eyes for about 5 minutes because his recovery was so gross). this movie is at the top of our list because it had great cinematography, and showed the ways in which competition can make or break a person.

 

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2. captain phillips

i was unsure about this movie until the last ten minutes, when tom hanks performed one of the greatest scenes of human angst i have ever scene. the movie is about somalian pirates who take over an american ship delivering goods around the horn of africa. as captain of the ship, phillips was responsible for keeping his men safe, even though that put his own life in danger. the entire movie was stressful and suspenseful, though it dragged on a little bit towards the end. however, like i said, that last ten minutes made the movie great, and tom hanks should be given an award. 

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3. prisoners

this was probably one of the darkest movies i have ever seen. again, it is hard to dislike anything with hugh jackman, and he was great at the role that he played. this was another interesting portrayal of how male egos can completely change the person as a whole. the movie starts out with hugh jackman and cuba goodings daughters being lost, presumably kidnapped on thanksgiving. the monsters that this event turns the men into are terrifying in and of themselves. our stomachs were in knots the entire time, and i nearly couldn't sleep that night just thinking about it. the tagline of the movie was 'hope for the best, prepare for the worst', but it seemed to prove that no matter how prepared you are, even worse things can happen. i probably could not handle the agony of watching it again, but like i said, i don't regret seeing it.

 

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4. runner runner

i love justin timberlake and jarman loves ben affleck so we were stoked to see this movie. it is your typical story of a boy who tries to gamble his way through college, and gets caught up in a circle of lawbreaking and misdeeds. while this type of movie generally catches our interest, we found runner runner to be anticlimactic. it was all talk and no action. ben affleck did a stellar job of being the bad guy, and i actually didn't think jt was anything spectacular (which is hard for me to say).

 

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a perfect day in... / london pt. 3

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i am finally finishing my london series! on your last day of your trip to london i am going to give you plenty of options, because maybe i realized that you just can't do london in three days. so this is going to be a kind of pick your poison ride where you can choose whatever you want from a few different categories: museums, classically london, and walk till you drop.

(ps. for those of you who are new, i am writing for my cousin krista who will get to spend a weekend in london this month. to see the first two day you can look here and here) 

 

museums: 

option 1: the british museum. if you do not choose to go here, i have to say i will be quite disappointed in you. this museum is amazing, it has treasures from around the world, it would literally take days to get through if you wanted to look at every single thing. there are two must-sees on my list. first are the mummies, if you're lucky maybe you will see a modern dance/theater interpretation of egyptian life (which actually happened to me). the second must-see is the elgin marbles (taken from the parthenon), they are classically beautiful.

option 2: the tate britain. this is the one museum that i did not spend enough time in when i was in london. and i regret it more than anything. just looking at their collection online gives me butterflies, they have so many great works. if i were to go i would check out the pre-raphaelite brotherhood works, like this one and this one, as well as their significant collection of modern works.

option 3: sir john soane's museum. this is one of the few museums that you have to pay for in london, but its kitschy and quirky and i loved visiting it. sir john soane spent his life collecting architectural pieces and displayed them in his house. he donated his house to become a museum with the one provison that it not be changed. it is completely filled from top to bottom with the most interesting details.

classically british: 

option 1: buckingham palace. when i lived in london, the queen resided at buckingham so i never got to go inside. however, if you are there when she is out you can get a short tour. either way, visiting the palace is positively royal. i love looking longingly through the gates and wishing i were a princess living in that palace. if you choose to do this you should also go to st. james park. though sometimes it is filled with more tourists than other london parks, it is still lovely and worth the visit. 

option 2: st. paul's cathedral. this is the second major church in london and lives up to the name. the outside is classical white marble, and the inside is decorated to the nines. it is the place where princess diana got married (need i say more?). be sure to go up to the 'whispering gallery' at the base of the dome. if you go to one side, lean against the wall and whisper, people at the other side can hear you!

option 3: sir christopher wren's monument. walking up the many steps of this monument is not easy, but the view is totally worth it. you can basically see all of london. the monument commemorates the great fire in london, and is beautiful. it is near st. paul's, so you could try to do both at the same time. 

walk till you drop:

option 1: walk around hampstead heath. one of my favorite days was spent in hampstead heath. you can walk, hike, bike, visit a lovely house turned into a museum. you can do no wrong there. it is a little out of the way, but is definitely worth it. also, remember the house that julia roberts is filming at in the end of notting hill? that is in hampstead heath. 

option two: walk down oxford street. if you are looking for a more urban experience, oxford street is the place for you. there is great shopping and eating, and some of london's finest architecture. this is a great place to go at night and to enjoy london nightlife. 

option 3: walk around camden town. camden is a funky place. i'm not sure if there is a better word for it. it is kind of a punk central, but could also be almost hipster in it's oddities. there are lots of fun outdoor markets: food, clothing, jewelry, etc. there are tons of cheap thrills and delicious eats.

so, there it is. the final piece to your weekend in london. there are so many more things to do and see, but this is a good start for your first time. have fun for me, and tell london i love and miss her!