A little bit of magic in Covent Garden.
A couple of Polish jugglers entertaining traffic stuck at a red light. So much better than blackmailed wind screen washing. None of the drivers were giving them any money, though. But they made me smile on a rainy lunchtime, and that was well worth a quid.
Kate and I saw this on the way back from dinner at Chez Piggy on a beautiful moonlit night. It made us smile.
I was on a late Easyjet flight from Paris again tonight, so was able to nip into the Louvre for late night opening.
I wandered around, but soon found myself back at the statue of Winged Victory. It's still the most stunning piece.
This mobile phone photo doesn't do it justice. But this is sculpture from 200 BC. The movement captured in the flow of material on her legs is brilliant. And if you can see it, her belly button is superb: perfectly shaped and set in a tummy that has just the right balance of curvy-ness and atheleticism. And it looks as though it's got gauzy material flowing over it, but it's carved out of stone. I hadn't noticed it before, but it's astonishing.
If the belly button had this much attention, what would the face have been like. Perhaps it's good we'll probably never know, so that it remains enigmatic.
And finally, it's a fascinating fragment from a culture we know so little about. It's believed to be a statue from a temple dedicated to protecting sailors. Maybe it was a huge investment, the equivalent of a major infrastructure project today. Or maybe it was unremarkable in a civilisation rich in such stuff. Either way, it's an intriguing way of filling in a few minutes between a hurried steak-frites and a taxi to Charles de Gaulle.
This is on a blackboard outside Suburb in Neals Yard.
The Martin Luther King quote is a bit worthy. But its worth remembering if you're trapped in an anodyne conversation about Big Brother or the refit at Sainsburys.
Where (and why) does the passion go?
This was at Henley too.
I like the photo, but didn't get the performance. Something to do with Marie Antoinette, bees, and a naked guy with a canarie.
This one could have done with a bit more "why?" and a bit less "because!"
