London: Museums and glorious food!!!

After a high stress week, Tracy and I decided it was time to hit up London. For the low, low price of £5 and two hours on the British version of megabus, it was ours for one Sunday and Monday. Tracy had organized the whole thing like a pro while I had panicked over finishing some last minute readings, so we navigated the tube almost as well as the natives.

We hit up the National History Museum right off the bat, and even though we only had about an hour to explore, the place was still a dream to see again after four years (the last time I went to London)-- today there was a massive dinosaur exhibit going on.

Recognize the bridge? If I'm not mistaken, that's the one the Death Eaters blew up in the Harry Potter movie (fact courtesy of Tracy Cheung). 

Entrance to the Tate Modern! Anybody from the London trip of Early Bird '06 should recognize this ramp??
(nobody was rolling coins down the ramp this time, but still pretty easy to recognize!)

Brilliant modern art doesn't just exist, it thrives. There is plenty of it, and it pushes thought and culture forward in the challenging, intensively creative ways of artistic genius, etc. The Tate Modern houses a lot of it too, and it is SO surreal to stand in front of a Dali, a Picasso, and know the paint is just a breath away:

I stood in front of this!!!

However... all that brilliance does not mean that occasionally some hilarious "what the heck is that, you have GOT to be kidding me" art does not slip through. Take for example:

Picture three of them. Enormous. Hung each per one wall. Concept description was something about "violence and ecstasy intertwined" as inspired by the tales of Bacchus' festivals which ended with participants tearing each other to pieces. So the concept? Fully worthy of exploration. The painting? Not accomplishing that. AT ALL. At least not in my book. 

Also... the winner of the "why am I going to college instead of being an 'artist'" competition? I'm not kidding... .... .... a mirror. Just... a mirror. You could at least pretend to try guys.

On the other hand, some very new things are just brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. I present to you the glory of contemporary art in one tiny frame:

"Notice!
I've changed my name to Mr. Titties.
Thank you for your time."

One final display, though, which was one of those mind-boggling sorts of shows, was the sea of porcelain sunflower seeds. Each one apparently hand-made. Had we gotten there a month or so earlier, we could have actually walked on them, but it turns out even the porcelain couldn't take all the visitors. 

Oh well! Still cool to see-- you can forward the significance of this piece for me. At the end of the day though, that is one happy, well-fed face (good grief, the food in London was spectacular).

Highlights: 

OMG. This kid was wearing nothing less than a FULL. DINOSAUR. SUIT. to the dinosaur exhibit. I've never seen such a glorious display of dinosaur fanaticism. Can you envision this kid's room?? His face when mom said they're going to the museum for the dino exhibit??? Totally worth being a creeper to bring you this nostalgic glimpse of just how awesome pure childhood really was (or justification for why most of us just refuse to give it up).