Spent the weekend in Edinburgh and caught this piper on High Street in Old Town. At least on the weekend, from almost anywhere in the heart of the city you can hear bagpipes somewhere in the distance. Personally, being a Philip Glass and Steve Reich fan, I like the music a lot. The background drone feels to me like Tibetan throat singing and the repetitive nature is (for me) like a traditional version of Philip Glass.
Seeing this Freud at the Modern Gallery was an emotional experience for Penelope. She (and I) have been studying Freud's work for years and (is it possible) have never seen a painting of his in person. The embarrassing thing for me is that I looked at this painting my first time through the gallery some weeks before and did not recognize it as a Freud!While we were in town, we spent time in the National Gallery and in the Portrait Gallery both of which have wonderful collections. The famous Sargent Lady Agnew of Lochnaw is in the National Gallery. This is another painting Penelope has studied from reproductions for years. Aside from the permanent collection which is extensive, the portrait gallery was showing the BP sponsored portrait award which included 60 works chosen from over 1800 entrants. This show was both inspiring and frustrating. There seemed to be a rather too strong emphasis on photorealism with the more abstract work selected for the show being somewhat weak.
We had some very good meals, including lunch in the Dome on George Street where I had Haggis wrapped in Filo dough with a whiskey, mustard and cream sauce. This is the old bank of Scotland building. We had a good (but in no way exceptional) meal at the Barioja Tapas Bar on Jeffrey St. The best part was the nice Rioja we drank. Lunch the next day in an anonymous pub on High Street where I had a very good Steak and Ale pie.Edinburgh is a beautiful city and we plan to spend more time there soon.
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