Week round-up

Hey guys,

I've been pretty busy this week so feeling much better! I've put up adverts to teach Latin so that I can make some money before India (at the moment it's probably going to be about £40 but at least that's something!) - if anyone knows people who want Latin tuition in the London area then let me know!! :P. I also went to a friend's 21st birthday, which was the first time I've been clubbing in London and it was pretty fun! (Moonlighting Club in Soho).

 But the highlights of my week were the Picasso and British Modern Art exhibition at the Tate Britain and a John Cage concert I went to last night! I went to both with my dad so I've had some really good bonding time with him this week.

The Picasso Exhibition was actually really interesting - some of the painters like Duncan Grant didn't really come off that well compared to Picasso, but it showed how deeply influential Picasso was to everyone, from Francis Bacon and Henry Moore to David Hockney. The highlights of the exhibition, in my opinion were the Marie Therese painting, with beautiful mirroring curves, Guernica, a horrific anti-war piece and any of the Henry Moore sculptures because they are just beautiful. I would really recommend going because it's a really good and varied exhibition. It's running to the 15th July and here you can find more information! I also found out some new things about Picasso, which was pleasantly surprising, like the fact that he designed costumes for the ballet.

Marie Therese by Picasso

And as I said, last night I went to a John Cage concert, as part of the Spitalfields Music Festival. The concert was performed in a church and it was absolutely beautiful! I particularly enjoyed the Four Solos for Voice 93-96 which was a really amusing piece of music and the tenor had perfect comedic timing! To describe it the programme said it was a piece that was like channel changing on a really bizarre evening of TV. The singers have ample opportunity to improvise, since rather than normal music, it's performed within three sorts of time brackets and they are given the sense of pitches to hit, but no actual notes (I think). So, for example, the tenor had to make a buzzing sound like a fly between 1m30s and 1m45s. Unfortunately it's a bit of an obscure piece so I can't find it on either youtube or spotify but if you can hunt it down it's really worth it. 

The last piece was called Hymns and Variations and it was stunningly beautiful. It was based on 18th century hymns, with notes elongated, missed out or placed at different pitches etc and there were no words as far as I could make out. I think Cage is my new favourite composer and I can't wait for the notorious 4"33 at the Proms this year! 

So all in all, I've had quite a cultural week I suppose and next week I am going up to Leamington to get my Finals results (and my degree classification), as well as for the end of term Summer Party! Exciting times. 

What are you up to this weekend?