"from now on we will travel in TUBES!"

...Does anyone know that Tenacious D song? "Two Kings?" It's really funny, except for that line, which is not so funny when you actually do spend a large portion of your time in tubes.



I went to see the William Hogarth exhibit at the Tate Britain. I love that the Tate has chosen this image as their poster image, the image that says "THIS IS WHAT THIS EXHIBIT is ALL ABOUT!" and the one that a stuffy board of directors sat around debating: "hm, what will get people in to see this exhibit?" "I know, how about a picture of a bored playboy johnny-come-lately and his drunk, cheating wife whose boyfriend may or may not be in the next room?" "Genius! I love it!" Hogarth was a painter/engraver in the early mid 17th century, whose "speciality" were series of paintings, usually on some moral topic or another. This painting comes from my favourite series "Marriage ala Mode" where a poor aristocratic woman is forced into marrying a rich young man and they end up spending their lives by drinking, gambling and cheating on one another until the husband catches his wife in the arms of his laywer: the lawer kills the husband and is then sentenced to hang, at which point the wife kills herself in despair. I love it. It's got everything: Sex. Wine. Syphllis. Murder. Dogs. (Hogarth loved dogs: not sure why.) Until this exhibition opened the four paintings from "M ala M" were hanging in the National Gallery, another favourite haunt of mine. I'm glad I paid £8 to see them in the Tate Britain, but my one complaint was the huge number of people, all squashed in to see these very small and very detailed engravings. I think the Tate needs to either have less paintings or spread out more. Also it was very hot in there, but I guess when you're a famous painting you can refuse to be shown if the temperature is under 80. Then of course there was the tall jerk in the suit who kept huddling in front of the paintings, prompting me to mutter under my breath "hey, don't bogart the Hogarths!" which was funny.

Afterward Sarah and I went out for sushi until we realised the restaurant was a dim sum place. So I got bao and dumplings instead. Mmm. I'm all cultured and stuff. Now Lisa has made some soup, so I'm going to curl up in front of the TV and finally get rid of this cough I've had for the last week.