"Oh my!" The British Museum, Dracula, Frankenstein, Mummies & Elton John, Sex Pistols, Moody Blues!

I don't think that anyone would argue that even those with only a modest interest in history would find the British Museum to be one of the finest museums in the world. We will spend several hours exploring the museum. Unfortunately, because it is so large, we could not possible visit each and every exhibit. Because of this, my recommendation is that you become familiar with the museum BEFORE you leave - thereby, upon your arrival at this prestigious institution, you will be able to find and spend some "quality time" with the exhibits that are of the most interest to you. (Before we leave, you might catch 'Night at the Museum 3 - Secret of the Tomb - which is in theaters now. Preview Here.)

From statuary from Easter Island, to the mummies and the Rosetta Stone, The British Museum has some of the best known relics and art pieces in the world. Hear the radio podcast about the Rosetta Stone, here.

Recently renovated, the British Museum Reading Room has hosted some of the finest minds in the world including: Marx, Wilde, Hayek (economics), Bram Stoker (Irish author who wrote Dracula), Ghandi, Darwin, Dickens, Kipling, Orwell, Shaw, Twain, Wolfe, and H.G. Wells.

Ghandi, the Founder of Modern India

American, Mark Twain (a/k/a Samuel Clemens) who said,
"Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest."

In order to prepare for your time at the Museum, they have a spectacular podcast entitled, 'History of the World in 100 objects' that I highly recommend. There is also a free Smart Phone app, here. PLEASE BE AWARE - if you take your cellular telephone with you, contact your carrier BEFORE you go. I have known people that took their phones outside of the United States with making prior arrangements: their phone bills were THOUSANDS of DOLLARS (and in some cases they never even used their phone. Evidently, simply having the phone triangulate with overseas cellular towers can be enormously expensive!

This Japanese painting, 'The Wave' is familiar to most. Hear the radio podcast here. The BM also has a display that includes the Japanese version of the Kama Sutra or the art of making love. This is called Shunga. "In early modern Japan, thousands of sexually explicit paintings, prints, and illustrated books with texts were produced, euphemistically called ‘spring pictures’ (shunga). Official life in this period was governed by strict Confucian laws, but private life was less controlled in practice."

"Upon ascending the throne at the age of 13 (in 246 BC), Qin Shi Huang, later the first Emperor of all China, had begun to work for his mausoleum. It took 11 years to finish. It is speculated that many buried treasures and sacrificial objects had accompanied the emperor in his after life. A group of peasants uncovered some pottery while digging for a well nearby the royal tomb in 1974. It caught the attention of archeologists immediately. They came to Xian in droves to study and to extend the digs. They had established beyond doubt that these artifacts were associated with the Qin Dynasty (211-206 BC)." As a part of his memorial, Qin Shi Huang created armies of terrocotta warriors: a few of which as displayed at the British Museum. Here is what one, of numerous, areas near the original tomb sited looked like upon excavation.

The 'Jade Two-Header Serpent' radio podcast, here.

Anyone remember Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull? "The famed crystal skulls of ancient Mesoamerica have been a source of mystery and controversy for decades. The handful of known skulls have defied even the most advanced scientific efforts to determine who made them, when, and most puzzling, how. This specimen, owned by the British Museum in London, was originally thought to have been made by the Aztec of Mexico but was later determined to be a fake."

Many believe these skulls were carved thousands or even tens of thousands of years ago by an ancient Mesoamerican civilization. Others think they may be relics from the legendary island of Atlantis or proof that extraterrestrials visited the Aztec sometime before the Spanish conquest.

Stories about the skulls focus heavily on their perceived supernatural powers.

Joshua Shapiro, coauthor of Mysteries of the Crystal Skulls Revealed, on his Web site cites claims of healings and expanded psychic abilities from people who have been in the presence of such skulls.

"We believe the Crystal Skulls are a form of computer which are able to record energy and vibration that occur around them," he writes. " The skull will pictorially replay all events or images of the people who have come into contact with them (i.e. they contain the history of our world)."

Most archaeologists and scientists are skeptical, to say the least.

Skulls were prominent in ancient Mesoamerican artwork, particularly among the Aztec, so the connection between these artifacts and these civilizations is apt.

"[I]t was a symbol of regeneration," says Michael Smith, a professor of anthropology at Arizona State University. "There were several Aztec gods that were represented by skulls, so they were probably invoking these gods. I don't think they were supposed to have specific powers or anything like that."



Museum Floor Plans
Highlighted Objects and displays.
Search the collection online.


There will be numerous exhibits on at the BM when we are there. Most are free. The museum is also free. Poetry and Exile: works by Abdallah Benanteur, Ipek Duben, Mireille Kassar, Mona Saudi and Canan Tolon.

Also, 'Connecting Continents: Indian Ocean Trade and Exchange."For thousands of years, the Indian Ocean has been a space through which people, objects and ideas have circulated. The navigable monsoon winds enabled merchants to travel between Africa, the Middle East and Asia, exchanging valuable commodities such as textiles, spices and ceramics. From early coastal trade between the great ancient civilisations of the Indus Valley and Mesopotamia through to the heyday of European East India Companies and to the present, the Indian Ocean has remained a dynamic economic maritime zone."

Also, Bonaparte and the British - prints and propaganda in the age of Napoleon. "2015 marks the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo – the final undoing of brilliant French general and emperor Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821). The exhibition will include works by British and French satirists who were inspired by political and military tensions to exploit a new visual language combining caricature and traditional satire with the vigorous narrative introduced by Hogarth earlier in the century."

'Defining beauty- the body in ancient Greek art.' Online Book."Experience the brilliance and diversity of ancient Greek art in this major exhibition focusing on the human body.

For centuries the ancient Greeks experimented with ways of representing the human body, both as an object of beauty and a bearer of meaning.





'The chief forms of beauty are order, symmetry and clear delineation’ – Aristotle

'In portraying ideal types of beauty... you bring together from many models the most beautiful features of each' – Socrates

Ancient Lives: New Discoveries. Video Link here.'Discover the hidden secrets of eight mummies at the museum.'






Daily eye-opener tours
Free

30-40 minute tours - given throughout the day
Meet at the relevant gallery

11.00 Japan, Room 92
11.15 Roman Britain, Room 49
11.30 Ancient Greece, Room 17
11.45 Ancient Iraq, Room 56
12.00 Africa, Room 24
12.15 China, Room 33
12.30 Enlightenment Gallery, Room 1
12.45 South Asia, Room 33
13.00 Mexico, Room 27
14.00 Art of the Middle East, Room 34
14.15 World of Money, Room 68
14.30 Ancient Egypt, Room 64
14.45 Medieval Europe, Room 40
15.15 Ancient Rome, Room 70
15.45 Assyrian Reliefs, Room 6


Site for lunch time lectures (March was not posted at the time that that blog was created.)

As we wind-up our time at the British Museum, we'll have some leisure time. And there are four directions we might choose from which to go...

To the North, and just up Eversholt Street, within a moderate walking distance, is the home of Mary Shelley. While the home has been replaced by a modern apartment complex, the location where Mary Shelley wrote 'Frankenstein.' On a ten scale, I would rate this a four.

To the East, if the group chooses, the Charles Dickens Museum is about a mile away, located at 48 Doughty Street in London. "British novelist Charles Dickens was born on February 7, 1812, in Portsmouth, England. Over the course of his writing career, he wrote the beloved classic novels Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol, Nicholas Nickleby, David Copperfield, A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations. On June 9, 1870, Dickens died of a stroke in Kent, England, leaving his final novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, unfinished." I would rate this an 8 but, remember, we'll have spent quite a few hours in a museum already.

To the Northwest is where Iggy Pop and the Stooges recorded the landmark album, 'Raw Power' at 31-37 Whitfield Street. Hear it. Known as a massive influence on David Bowie, Detroit's Iggy Pop is considered by many rock critics to be the Father of the Punk Rock sound. Recorded in 1977, this video display's Pop's nihlistic styling that formented a musical revolution in England and America. Live concert audio from National Public Radio, here. Since the studio is gone, I would rate this a 4 on a ten scale.

Finally, to the Southwest, in the near-by Soho/ Kensington area, is famed Denmark Street. At 22 Denmark Street is the 'tin pan alley' of England. This is where songwriters would craft their tunes which would later be sold to named performers. Elton John would begin his career as a song writer in this area and in 1970 record 'Your Song' here. (watch). The Rolling Stones recorded their first album, England's Newest Hitmakers, and the Kink's recorded 'Lola' at 4 Denmark Street (in Regent Studios).

Watch the Kinks here.

"I met her in a club down in old Soho
Where you drink champagne and it tastes just like Cola cola
C-O-L-A cola.

She walked up to me and she asked me to dance.
I asked her name and in a guttural voice she said, "Lola"
L-O-L-A Lola, lo lo lo lo Lola"

Before their infamy, the Sex Pistols lived above 6 Denmark street and recorded demos of songs that would later appear on their highly controversial album, 'Never Mind the Bollocks.' Here is a rare and wonderful video of the Sex Pistols prior to Sid Vicious replacing bassist Glen Matlock.

In his song, Bitter Fingers, from the album, Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy, Elton John references the Denmark Street area in the song's lyrics,



"It's hard to write a song with bitter fingers
So much to prove, so few to tell you why
Those old die-hards in Denmark Street start laughing
At the keyboard player's hollow haunted eyes
It seems to me a change is really needed
I'm sick of tra-la-las and la-de-das
No more long days hocking hunks of garbage
Bitter fingers never swung on swinging stars, swinging stars."
Hear and read it here.

In the 1980's the promotional music video of the 1988 The Moody Blues song "I Know You're Out There Somewhere" shows a man walking along Denmark Street and then picking up a guitar in one of the shops.(watch it.)








In a more contemporary setting,Denmark Street is mentioned in Jamie T's track '368' on the album Kings and Queens. (watch it.)Denmark street include shops such as Sax.co.uk ,Wunjoguitars, London Bass Cellar ,Hank's Guitar Shop ,The London PA Centre, Macari's, Musicroom, The Early Music Shop ,Rose Morris, Rockers,Regent Sound Studio ,Vintage & Rare Guitars. [Find out more about Denmark Street here from the official site. .

There's nothing like a friendly 'earworm' to hum while we're walking about London. Scottish born Donovan's song, 'Sunny South Kensignton' is the perfect fit for our ventures about London. Lyrically the song is set in the 1960's and amid the height of the 'Swinging London' era.

Come take a walk in sunny South Kensington
Any day of the week
See the girl with the silk Chinese blouse on
You know she ain't no freak

Come loon soon down Cromwell Road, man
You got to spread your wings
A flip out, skip out, trip-out, and a make your stand, folks
To dig me as I sing