Blogs from Bankside, Greater London, England, United Kingdom, Europe

First order of business is Shakespeare's Globe Theater which is short one block walk from our Bankside House. We enjoyed the exibition and tour of the Theater. Next we went to the pier and took the clipper ship down the Thames to the London Bridge and the Tower of Londin. We toured the Tower (really like a midevil city), viewed the Crown Jewels, and had lunch at the Armory - Cafe inside the Tower. We reboarded the clipper ship to cruise back to Bankside pier. I still had sore feet and was tired so I went back to my room and rested (we took a nap). Next we got ready to go see "Blood Brothers" at the Phoenix Theater. We met the Fringe Group an took "the Tube" to the west end theater district. We surfaced ... read more

Every day is so full here, I've decided to just write for now about one great day we had, last Thursday. We decided to visit two great art museums, the Tate Britain and the Tate Modern, and we took advantage of the "Tate-to-Tate" boat service to travel along the Thames in between. First up was the Tate Britain, which focuses on British artists. I particularly like the Victorian-era painters, the Pre-Raphaelites, etc. (By the way, there is currently a TV series on in England about these painters, called “Desperate Romantics.”) They also had some good modern work, on the theme of Classification that were very interesting. One featuring an alleged collection of primitive artifacts, called the Chapman Family Collection. The more you looked at these, the more you realized that they were not authentic, but instead ... read more

We always thought that whenever we go to London, it will be my official visit & Sonu's personal along with me.IN fact not only London but also all visits abroad.But you know what, so far its been the opposite. Its always been her official visit & my personal visit.This time was no diffrent.After transitioning from Asia Rates to EMEA Rates in late 2008,Sonu has streamlined the Options piece of EMEA Rates in very short span time.To add to team's knowledge, Management at JPM thought it would be worthwhile to send 2 key people from Mumbai to London for training with Middle office.Ofcourse Sonu was part of that. After making sure that all shraddha rituals for Baba are done, we left for London on Feb 14th.What could have been a better B'day gift than this to Sonu? ... read more

The "Andy Warhol, Other Voices, Other Rooms" exhibition at the Hayward was a laugh. My first impression was that we were the willing subjects of an extended piss-take and that the joke was on us....ha ha very funny mofo! As my fellow art critic Tash and I moved around the gallery it seemed to me that 'satirist' was a suitable endgame for Androwski Warholi whose artistic evolution took him through stages as dancer and jester. I imagined he would have delighted (satirically of course) in an extravaganza composed of his photo, audio and video detritus. The 'stuff' in the exhibit, we learned, was Warhol's attempt to present contemporary culture as art and through it comment on life, death, love and philosophy. As well as this 'art' Warhol objectified the 'Andy Warhol' persona, making it a product ... read more