The Story Museum

So today my friend Anna and I headed off to check out two exhibitions at the as yet officially unopened Story Museum in Oxford (its due to open properly in 2015, I really cannot wait). The first was Rochesters EXTRAORDINARY story loom, a large steampunk creation with a backstory which must have made the  writers of EastEnders jealous...

(Although the backstory also confirmed something I had thought for a while that Oxford is a centre for Literary genius as it is centre to a vortex of story energy (Philip Pullman etc al you have been rumbled!)) Anyway  I digress...

The story goes that a the main protagonists, a young man (Barnabas) invented this machine for the object of his affections (Felicity, who was at this point obsessed by literature and falling for the charms of a writer, Charles Dodgson). It worked by feeding off the imaginations of children, leaving them as husks.

The chap in question sent many metal roses and wrote many a wooing letter to the maiden in question but nul points, so he unveiled his creation.

 

 Perhaps unsurprisingly she was horrified and went off with the writer anyway. He was heartbroken for a bit but cashed in on his misfortune by selling the patent to the machine and becoming wildly rich (yes I also noticed the excellent use of slinky's at the top of the machine).

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But these were massed produced stories and soon the tide began to turn. People stopped buying them and instead turned back to stories written by people and thus the revolution was complete and most of the story machines were smashed, this claims the museum is the last one in existence.... Anna was brave enough to have a go (although alas we couldn't find any children to put in...). 

ready to roll, oh and we are off

wha ha ha, at the end of the exhibition we got to vote did we think the machine was pure humbug or a machine marvel. We obviously said machine marvel (it was very pretty and must have taken AGES to build).

Next up was the sister exhibition tea with Alice. First off the lights were amazing 

 Upside down teacups you see, isn't that lovely? 

The exhibition was lots of Alice illustrations (and a few photos that Anna very much fell in love with). All were very different but all really captured the spirit of the story quite beautifully. Here are some of our favourites

Absolem - Drugs are baaaaddddddd

 Time for tea (you can't see it very clearly on this pic but that is the white rabbit in the middle)

This may well have been my favourite favourite but it was a close call.

This is exactly how I imagine the queen to be!

warrrrrrr

Excellent hatter

This was the other serious contender for favourite for me, I love how vivid the hatter is even though you can't see his face. After the main gallery there was a reading room and this rather marvelous room

The trees on the wall had tea time in all different places marked. This was my favourite tree as it had Oxford on it

Anna rather fancied one of the hats with ears

while I stayed true to form

Once a mad hatter always a mad hatter... In the end Anna also gave into the charms of the flowery number

Suits you madam. So there you have it, to extraordinary exhibits.

The hightlight for me was the attention to detail of both exhibits, the way the staff had pulled out strands of the story behind the beautifully constructed loom made it believable. Equally in the Alice exhibit the sympathic surroundings (cups of tea on the wall and the illustrations being displayed in table tops, plus the actual mad tea party (with excellent hats)) helped distinguish this exhibition and stopped it from becoming 'just another lot of Alice stuff' (something Oxford is want to do very well).

The detail was everywhere and we spotted this little gem on the way out

    Brilliant! After all that, ahem, hard work we headed off to a cafe for refreshment...

...carrot cake, it had to be done!
Sadly this weekend was the last for these two exhibits but there are plans for other exhibits and activities such as printmaking to follow. Keep a wary eye on the website and get yourself down there as soon as you can. The Story museum is a wonderful place to visit whatever your age and deserves its place amongst the true gems of Oxford 

Birthday Bats

So this year to celebrate my birthday (well I should say to start my birthday celebrations as I still have Harry Potter studios and a maybe visit to Cirencester to come) we went on a bat watch organised by the earth trust.

 
The walk took place at local area of natural beauty wittenham clumps, where I had previously completed a whittling, which then lead to me being approached by some very dodgy types...

(Brian of wood school fame, who signed me up as I was whittling a spoon on that fateful day...).
Anyway the walk met at 8pm and we got he chance to have a look at some rescued bats and hear a little about the different species before heading out with our bat detectors to see what we could find

 This is the chap who was doing the talk (David Endacott) was from the Oxford Bat group, I believe he has a fairly big noctule bat in his hands...

close up!
He also had some very sweet little Pipistrelle's

Wing out! But sadly none of my faves the awesome long eared bat

(thanks to Marc the vet for that image)On our walk we found lots of Pips and Daubenton's which were feeding over a weir. What an awesome evening!

Vikram Seth comes to Oxford

Every year as part of the Literature festival a 'chancellors' Lecture takes place, someone is invited by the chancellor of the univesity to sit and chat with him. This year it was the turn of Vikram Seth. It is no secret in our house that I think Vikram Seth a VERY fine writer (An Equal Music being one of my favourite books ever, if you haven't read it and you are a musician put down your computer/laptop and track it down now, in fact even if you aren't a musician, it is brilliant what are you waiting for!!), So without delay Maddie and myself booked our tickets to see him speak.

We headed off to the beautiful Sheldonian and before too long the man of the moment came out. We thought he would mostly be talking about his new book, This Rivered Earth, a collection of  four libretti written to accompany music by Alec Roth. But actually the chancellor seemed to be a long time fan and questions about A Suitable Boy (and the hotly anticipated follow up A Suitable Girl), An Equal Music and Two Lives were mixed in with enquiries about the latest work. At the end of the session there was a chance to ask questions, Maddie already had a copy of the book and wondered how to read it, whether to read the verse first, listen to the music or try and do both together so she asked. Vikram said he would be tempted to read the verse and let it create its own rhythm with you and then listen to the music. So now we know! There was also the opportunity to get books signed. Sadly I had forgotten to pick up my copy of An Equal Music (sob) but Maddie had brought along her copy of This Rivered Earth so we got to meet the man himself.

Whilst waiting in the queue (mostly made up of excitable, slightly older woman) a lady came round asking us to put on a post it what we wanted written in our books. I think we were a little disappointed as you know being a writer you would have thought some suitable gems to write in books was kind of part of the job description. At first we hit a blank but then came up with 'To music, love and wine' (there were quite a few references in the talk about how the grapes of wrath, and red wine in particular had inspired many great Seth moments, and to be fair it probably helped quite substantially with our respective degrees). Suddenly we were at the front of the queue, all witticism evaded us as we stood there grinning like Cheshire cats.

Vikram remembered Maddie had asked a question about the poetry and had a few follow up words about that, then read the post it (which got a wry smile) and started signing. At which point Maddie said, we both loved An Equal Music, and he thanked us and asked if we were musicians, Maddie said I was but her parents are really musical, he smilled and it was over. We walked out into the Oxfordshire sunshine in a kind of daze. They say you should never meet your idols, but Vikram Seth was amazing, I could have listened to him talk about his work all night. What a guy! I have photos and Maddie her signed copy to remeber this perfect moment by!

X in Ox

I have been waiting patiently for the new x-men film to come out for a while. When I was little I was a HUGE fan of the cartoons (& while I will acknowledge the films aren't quite as good) they tap in to fond memories of childhood of drawing a lot of characters and hoping to develop some superpower as I grew up. I REALLY wanted to go and see the new x-men: First Class film as it features quite heavily the beautiful James McAvoy. What I wasn't aware of however was that it also features my home, my one, my true, my Oxford (UK). Thanks to the roaming Paparrazi of the Daily Mail whose images are 'borrowed' here (thanks guys) we can see exactly what went down. Here is the aforementioned lovely JM standing beneath the bearded heads of the sheldonian with perfectly haired female companions (I'm not bitter it's just my hair would never do that, especially not in the rain...). Thanks to the equally awesome bleeding cool we can also see what the sheldonian set actually looked like). Unfortunately only the first part of the film is set in Oxford (I think the large country house which later becomes the home for the gifted is also supposed to be somewhere in the Oxfordshire countryside, in the later films it's def stateside). The main Oxford scene (which is rather awesome) is set in a (sadly fictional) pub called the Eagle (did the set people get confused with the Eagle and child one wonders?) JM is trying out a genetic chat up line on his fellow Oxford Students. Here is the pub in another bleeding cool photo (it should be on the corner of New bridge street by the copy of the bridge of sighs, alas it hath been CGI'd or it would have definitely had another regular (having said that my favourite Oxford pub is just around the corner). The film itself was very enjoyable, one of the 'new' x-men/woman I found really really cool (although Rogue remains top of my affections in those stakes). Charles Xaivier and Magneto were both played superbly my JM and the awesomely named Michael Fassbender (who is rumoured to be the new bond and is quite easy on the eye). Definitely a great addition to the fantasy cannon and well worth a watch.

May Day comes again

Most excellently this year May Day was on a Sunday, so Jam and I got up really early and drove into Oxford (after last years shennanigans with my bike getting a puncture and me getting stuck in the rain half way home in full Morris kit, I think this driving plan may well be the way forward. Jam is not a native Oxfordian (hailing as he does from Newbury via Wales) so was not aware of the many awesome local traditions we have. Once we had listened to the choir sing the traditional Magdalane hymn we headed for local pub the chequers (famed for it's terrible fake heraldry, but awesome cooked breakfasts) waiting there for us with cup of tea in hand was my partner in musical crime Chris Sreeves. The good Sreeves had saved us a table so we sat down to refresh and revive ourselves before heading out once more into the fray. Once more the hurly burly band (featuring the right hon Andy Letcher amongst others) were on the steps of the sheldonian, the jack of the green was wondering about, and for the first time Cry Havoc (my morris side) were to be seen in town having landed a paying gig at the botanical gardens. By about 10am the lack of sleep was beginning to become apprent so we headed home for sleep. Another great may day had by all!

Alice!

I have been wanting to watch Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland for a while now, I completely meant to see it at the cinema but alas life got in the way... Also there is that strange thing that when you live in Oxford with the Alice glass window in Christchurch and the Alice shop you tend to find yourself quite involved with the whole tale. So although 95.99 percent of me wanted to see it (Tim Burton's films being quite wonderful) a tiny bit of me felt protective of the original/story charcters. This obstacle was however removed by Jam who rented the DVD for us to watch while house/cat sitting for his dad. Marvolous! The whole thing was a beautiful conjouring, the world, the characters and the costumes being completely Burton while still retaining their essence from the original tale. Personal favourites were as ever the cheshire cat with the ever present smile, the mad hatter (what's not to love), Helen Bonham-Carter was magnificent as the red queen (before watching it I was unsure about her being computer generated, but her character is so strong you don't notice it after a while, and she gets all the best lines ('nothing like a nice warm pig' fabulous)) and bizarrely for the first time Alice. In previous versions I've always found her slightly annoying but I really liked the character in this version (possibly the fact that she gets mucky and turns down suitors rather than remaining pristine, not too keen on the ending, but I suppose you can't have everything). The rest of it absolutely worth a watch, so good in fact I may have to buy the dvd. Another Burton classic (and if you still don't believe me here is the trailer to convince you http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9POCgSRVvf0)!