Tag Archives: museum

At Discovery Point

Sunday 7th May 2023, 12.40pm (day 4,273)

Discovery Point, 7/5/23

I am still finding the light input of my new camera somewhat difficult to set accurately. Most of the time I get it to acceptable levels that reflect the environment but other times it’s way up or down, with unpredictable results. But ‘unpredictable’ can also mean ‘interesting’ and ‘not what was expected’ — as with here. This room, showing the introductory movie at the Discovery Point centre in Dundee, was quite dark when I took this one. It worked, though.

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Tea outside the museum

Wednesday 16th November 2022, 9.20am (day 4,101)

Tea at the museum, 16/11/22

Bolstered myself for a heavy day’s work in the library (yes, it was) with a necessary cup of tea on a sunny morning in Oxford. Behind, the Natural History Museum, which has not resisted the current trend for public buildings to be engaged in some major renovation project or other. [NOTE: thanks to follower John, who pointed out I had misidentified the building first time round.]

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In the Museum of Free Derry

Thursday 11th August 2022, 11.20am (day 4,004)

On 30th January 1972, not more than a hundred yards from the Bed & Breakfast where we are staying in Derry, the British Army killed 14 citizens of its own country, and wounded 14 more. It took decades, but in 2010 it finally came out how the Estalishment massacred these innocent people, as this quote from a radio conversation between a soldier and his officer reveals: “This chap is clearly unarmed, but can I shoot him anyway?” (The answer was yes.)

The Museum of Free Derry now stands more-or-less on the spot where this atrocity took place, and I’m glad it’s there, and doesn’t depend on state funding. The present bunch of ruling morons are as likely to encourage moves towards a united Ireland as they are anything else. Sadly, I’m English, and can’t secede with them.

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In death, still reading

Friday 24th June 2022, 10.05am (day 3,956)

Sarcophagi, V & A, 24/6/22

A working week in London, and this becomes the third time that city has been the setting for five pictures in a row. Friday morning was spent at the Victoria & Albert museum, where this collection of sarcophagi reside. Whomever was the subject for the one second from bottom, they clearly wanted to be portrayed as studious, even in death.

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God’s Own Junkyard

Saturday 29th January 2022, 11.20am (day 3,810)

God's Own Junkyard, 29/1/22

“God’s Own Junkyard” — and that’s its official name — is a bar/cafĂ© in Walthamstow, London, but that doesn’t even begin to describe it. In fact it’s a museum of neon; what you see here is barely 1% of the whole stock. I wonder what their electricity bill is like.

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Keeper of the Crannog

Sunday 15th August 2021, 2.10pm (day 3,643)

Crannog keeper, 15/8/21

A day spent between walks. Did another dose of museum instead, specifically the ‘Scottish Crannog Centre‘ on Loch Tay. A crannog, it seems, is an Iron Age dwelling built on an artificial island in the loch; there are reckoned to be many of these throughout Scotland and Ireland. This centre had a reproduction of one, until it burnt down last year — the impressive thing is that the place was still interesting and good value without it. That had a huge amount to do with the staff, including this guy, clearly the boss, but his minions earned their wages too.

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The ghost of New Lanark

Friday 13th August 2021, 12.35pm (day 3,641)

New Lanark ghost, 13/8/21

On Friday 13th, let’s go ghost-spotting. This spectral figure appeared from round some old cotton-spinning equipment in a former mill at New Lanark, Robert Owen’s planned industrial settlement in the gorge of the River Clyde. Or maybe it’s just a projection in one corner of the museum, visited as we made our way to Scotland to begin (finally) a summer holiday. But whether put on for the tourists or not, it’s still a ghost, in some form.

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Under the locomotive

Saturday 12th June 2021, 12.05pm (day 3,579)

In the National Railway Museum, York. Joe used to be taken here frequently when he was little, but with around two-thirds of his life having passed since the last time, he now claims no memory of the place, so as we had a couple of hours to kill in York this afternoon, it was worth the revisit. Thus, York becomes the latest location to hit double figures on the blog: 10 shots taken there now, in what is nearly 10 years.

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In the Ulster Museum

Saturday 25th January 2020, 10.30am (day 3,075)

Ulster museum. 25/1/20

One of those shots which is a nice arrangement but the OCD in all of us goes, couldn’t you have straightened up the goddamn chairs. Really.

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Slavery Museum, Liverpool

Saturday 11th January 2020, 11.00am (day 3,061)

Slavery Museum, 12/1/20

A day out in Liverpool with Joe. The day as a whole was a good one, but let’s not talk about the football match later on. More agreeable was the Slavery Museum on Albert Dock, which while rather (understandably) depressing in places was certainly interesting — if not very big. These are Igbo carvings, I believe. The message in the back is pertinent. But yes, the black line, separating the panes of glass in the display cabinet, does bother me.

This pic was taken on my phone, as something happened today which has always been a possibility — I didn’t charge the camera battery properly and after the first picture of the day, when we were already on our journey, it died. Phone cameras these days do just as good a job of course, so act well as a backup. But one of these days a technical fail may well lead to a day with no photo: the most likely one I can think of being that my SD card breaks when I try to upload pictures the morning after, and thus too late to grab any emergency replacement. I hope that never happens of course, but I do wonder what my reaction would be. After (so far) 3,061 consecutive days of photography it would be something of a blow, to be sure.

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