Batteries, Dinosars, and the Proms

Well, I can say that I know what a battery looks like when it explodes. Robin had tried to use her battery charger on Sunday night, when after about five minutes two over the batteries exploded, leaking battery acid everywhere. Fun. Let this be a lesson: when in Europe, it's easier to just buy batteries. Needless to say, after that I didn't test out my battery charger and just bought some the next day.

Normally on Mondays and Wednesdays, I'll be teaching, but since the British school year hasn't started yet, I have these days free. So I took advantage of that and went to the Natural History Museum with Omar, Andrew, Mike, and their roommate Eric. We spent about three hours there all total between the dinosaur exhibit and the human body exhibit. The museum is housed in this beautiful semi-Romanesque building that looks from the outside like a palace, and from the inside like it could be a church if it weren't for the giant dinosaur skeleton in the middle of the entry hall. American museums can be beautiful from the outside (the Met, for instance) but every one that I've been to doesn't even come close to the Natural History Museum.

The easiest way, however, to tell a British Museum from an American is:

The boys and I also decided to go to our first Proms concert. The Proms (short for Promenade) are a series of concerts every year from July to September. Tickets range in price, but the main draw of the Proms are the standing room only tickets for £5, sold about a half and hour before curtain. Last night the Royal Philharmonic was performing Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet and Tchaikovsky 5. It was brilliant. The whole brass section, but the trombones and horns in particular, were stellar. The horn section sounded like one instrument in every single tutti and the horn solo in the Tchaikovsky was absolutely beautiful. The principal clarinetist was impressive in every solo- beautiful tone and absolutely beautiful phrasing. I've never clapped for that long after a concert.

There are many more Proms concerts I'm looking forward to attending. The New York Phil. will be in town this Thursday and Friday. They're playing a Steve Stucky premiere, the Gershwin Piano Concerto in F, and Rite of Spring on Thursday, and on Friday will be the Ravel Mother Goose Suite, Bartok's Miraculous Mandarin, and Tchaikovsky's 4th. We're going to try and have a picnic in Hyde Park (weather permitting), which is right across the street from Royal Albert Hall.

Also coming up is Verdi's Requiem, the Nash Ensemble doing a clarinet quintet, the Berlin Phil., and the Quartet for the End of Time with Martin Frost.

Cheers!