David Gulbransen

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The Tate Modern

August 10, 2005 by Dave!

The last time I was in London, several years ago, the Tate Modern was only days away from opening. I was very disappointed not to be able to see it, so this time around, there was no way I was going to miss it. Overall, I’m very glad I went–everyone visiting London should go. But have to say that I was pretty disappointed with the collection.
Let me preface this by saying that I love art museums. I’m spoiled in that I’ve had a chance to visit: The National Gallery, the Hirshhorn, the Guggenheim, the Met, MoMA, the British National Gallery, the Dali Museum, the Van Gogh Museum, the Louvre and I happen to live in a city with it’s own great museum, The Art Institute of Chicago. So I have high museum expectations.

That said, the Tate Modern is the coolest space for an art museum. Ever. It’s an old hydro-electrical generator station along the banks of the Thames, and wow, it is an amazingly impressive space. So impressive, in fact, that it completely dwarfs and diminishes the collection inside.

The collection at the Tate isn’t laid out by artist or period, but rather by subject matter, for example, “Nude/Action/Body” or “Still Life/Object/Real Life.” I actually really like that organizational structure. It allows you to see how different artists from different periods approached similar subjects, which is very cool.
The collection has some “star” artists, there are some pieces by Picasso and Matisse, some Duchamp (yawn) and Koons. There’s a few Monet’s and a Kandinsky, but all of them are just kind of blah… with only a few exceptions, they seem to be lesser pieces from lesser periods. Not that it all has to be wildly popular to be a good museum, but the Tate just left me feeling, well, underwhelmed–at least the collection.

There were some good photographic pieces, some so-so Cindy Sherman work (stuff at MoMA is much better). There are some great Stieglitz and Weston nudes, which were almost canceled out but the awful, awful, awful Gilbert & George work. Oh, man, awful.

My two favorite things were the “Thames River Dig” and the Rothko room. The Thames Dig is a room that features found objects from a project that involved an archaeological dig along the Thames with a bunch of school children–slightly out of place for an art museum, but totally cool nonetheless.

I liked the Rothko room because it featured these massive red/mauve/grey pieces that were very abstract and atmospheric… moody. They were among the only pieces that fit the scale of the space–which I think is the major problem with the Tate. It’s this really amazing space on an immense scale which just tends to dwarf the exhibits and make the artwork fade into the background. It’s such a cool an exciting space that it really works against the collection.

Who knows, maybe the collection wouldn’t seem so dull if it were in a more traditional museum building. Maybe it would. On the whole, I’m very glad I got a chance to see it, and if you’re in London, you might as well stop by. The area has a lot going on (it’s not far from St. Paul, the Millennium Bridge, Parliament, Westminster, etc.) and the building itself is pretty damn impressive. Just don’t expect to be blown away by the art.

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Filed Under: Arts, Personal, Travel Tagged With: arts england london personal travel

Bath

August 8, 2005 by Dave!

Today was the day of Bath.

First, because the B&B has no shower. I like soaking as much as the next guy… in fact, one of my favorite things about traveling in Japan was the Japanese baths. However, I am a large man. A large American man. When I want to be clean, I want a shower. No such luck. So I started the day with a bath.

Then it was a delicious sausage and egg breakfast (no hot tomato for me–I’m sorry, English tomatoes bite. Why are the British such good gardeners, and yet, can’t seem to manage a decent tomato? But I digress) and then we were back out on the country roads to Bath.

Bath, home of the only hot springs in England and the ruins of ancient Roman Baths is very picturesque town. The architecture is interesting and the baths are pretty cool. There’s also a great bridge by the river. It’s a great town to spend the day in relaxing, taking in some tourist sites and shopping, just ambling about, seeing some interesting things and accomplishing nothing. It was a very welcome and needed break after the last weeks of work. I feel so recharged. And tonight it’s dinner back at the B&B!!

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Filed Under: Personal, Travel Tagged With: bath england personal travel

Talbot Inn, Mells

August 8, 2005 by Dave!

We arrived at the B&B where we are staying and it’s a very charming little coaching inn located in the medieval village of Mells. It’s called the Talbot Inn.Mells, in case you were wondering, is somewhere between Radstock and Frome, not too far from Bath. Okay, so you can picture it, right? It was recommended to me at the office party when I was really drunk, but I recall the gentleman who recommended it saying they had a fantastic restaurant.

Anyway, Mells is very quaint, as in, there’s a Post Office/Store here and not much else. My wife and I are traveling out this way with a friend, and we all remarked that if this were a similar sized town in America, we’d all be thinking “Deliverance,” but instead, it’s cute. Very cute. Darling, in fact. There’s a church (St. Andrews) down the road from the inn, so we walked down and had a look around the courtyard. It was a very old church, let me tell you, and very pretty. In fact, it’s pretty all over around here… and quiet. A person could really get used to this.

Now, I did mention that this place had a good restaurant, right? Because this place has a good restaurant. It is really amazing… forget everything I’ve said about British food. Well, not everything. But this place is outstanding. We split a bunch of appetizers, which included a carmalized apple and blue cheese tatin, some mussels in cream and white wine sauce, and some Scottish smoked salmon. All were out of this world. The we had our main courses… I had a fillet with wild mushroom ragou in a Madeira sauce, with garlic roasted potatoes. Did I say out of this world??! My wife had the lamb though, and–oh my god–I’m getting the lamb tonight!! It was the most tender, succulent lamb… with none of that “lamb” smell/flavor/aftertaste. It was simply out of this world food.

If you’re ever traveling out this way, I’d have to recommend this place as a B&B. The rooms have all the quirks–like low ceilings in the bathrooms and weird stairways–that you associate with country B&Bs, with a staff who are friendly and outgoing and a restaurant that is simply amazing.

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Filed Under: Food, Personal, Restaurants, Travel Tagged With: bath england food personal restaurants travel

Stonehenge

August 7, 2005 by Dave!

We stopped at Stonehenge on our way to Bath and I was just as awed as the last time I saw it. One of the people in our group wasn’t that impressed–or so it seemed–but my wife and I were pretty amazed. I hadn’t been since I was a kid, and although it seems silly to say so, a lot has changed.

The biggest change was that when I was a kid, you could walk right up to the stones and touch them. You can’t do that anymore, it’s now roped off. Which is kind of a shame. You still can appreciate what an amazing thing Stonehenge is by looking at it. Those rocks are big. But it really instills a sense of just how massive they are when you can stand at their base and reach out to touch them.

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Filed Under: Personal, Travel Tagged With: england personal travel

Driving in England

August 7, 2005 by Dave!

Today, we began an English countryside adventure. We’re going over to Bath for a few days, in a rental car. Ordinarily, this in itself would not be newsworthy. However, seeing that we drive on the opposite side of the road in America, it was.

Actually, I discovered several things about driving in England today. First, as long as things are going well, driving on the opposite (in this case, left) side of the road isn’t horrible. Most of the time, you are in traffic, so just follow the guy ahead of you and you’re okay. Second, roundabouts may be great fun as a passenger and they might improve the flow of traffic, but they are just plain dangerous–especially if you are an American, concentrating on staying on the proper side of the road. Third, English country roads are narrow. I’ve been on them before and I don’t remember them being this narrow, although, I was never driving.

And fourth, coming back to point one… when you’re tooling along and not having any problems, this other side of the road business is dandy. But what happens when you are on a single-lane country road, and a van from some florist is coming at you at a high rate of speed? “No problem, I’ll just pull over,” you might think to yourself. This presents two problems. The trees/hedges are cropped very close to the road, so there isn’t really anywhere to pull over. The bigger problem, however, is 16+ years of experience driving on the other side of the road. When faced with an imminent collision, your instinct takes over. And if you are an American, as I am, your instinct says, “Pull over! Now! To the right“. But, uh, your right is the other driver’s left, so you both pull over… and end up looking at the driver opposite you thinking, “What an idiot!” until you realize you are sitting on the opposite side of the road from where you should be–the opposite being the opposite of what you are used to–and you have to sheepishly wave and realize that you are, indeed, the idiot.

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Filed Under: Personal, Travel Tagged With: england london personal travel

Done!

August 7, 2005 by Dave!

Sorry for the infrequent updates (to all three of you reading) but I got side-tracked, oh, I dunno, working…
This week was the first full week the new London office was up and running, so things were very chaotic. We were finishing up installation and testing on so many systems right up to the wire on Monday morning and we’ve been updating, de-bugging and troubleshooting all week.

All in all, it was a very successful opening week. Everyone seemed to really like the new space and really take advantage of all that it has to offer. And in spite of the fact that the space was now full of people working and going to class, we still managed to get an incredible amount of work done this week.

I pronounce it a success! Now, let’s hope my boss does.

They had a party for the contractors and specialists from the States on Thursday as a show of thanks. It was quite nice. The contractor was there, people from the architect, etc. Of course, I was seriously under-dressed, as I’d just come from punch listing a room with one of the systems contractors. However, much wine was had–and I mean much wine–and a good time was had by all. I really do love the British, and I like them even more when we are all drunk.

I also got some tips on places to stay and things to see when I’m “on vacation” with my wife next week. We’re going to go to Bath for a few days and then spend a few more days in London before returning to the states.
So, as I head out of work land and into actually traveling land, the updates may get more sporadic (as if that is possible). I’m still going to write them, though, and just post them all as a batch when I return.
As my British counterparts all seem so fond of saying, cheers!

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Filed Under: Personal, Travel Tagged With: england london personal travel

Kulu Kulu Sushi

August 6, 2005 by Dave!

Sushi Night!

Anyone who knows me knows that I loves me some raw fish on rice! So with the help of some recommendations, I found Kulu Kulu Sushi near Soho/Covent Garden and decided to give sushi in London a shot. I was not disappointed.

For some reason Kaiten sushi places seem to be more rare in the States than in Japan, or in Britain for some reason. In fact, all of the places in Chicago are Sushi-ya or Izakaya (as far as I know). If you’ve never been Kaiten are “conveyor belt” sushi restaurants, where instead of ordering from an Itamae, you grab what you want off a giant conveyor belt that keeps new and tempting pieces rolling past you all evening long. If you haven’t been to one, go.
Kulu Kulu was quite tasty and as far as sushi is concerned, quite affordable. There was a good mix of nigiri and I had a really excellent soft-shell crab temaki that was out of this world.

I won’t compare sushi in London (or the U.S. for that matter) to eating Sushi in Japan–it’s just not fair. However, I will say that Kulu Kulu was as good as many of the places I’ve had sushi in the States, although not quite as good as the best sushi I’ve had in the states. Since my experience with sushi in London was limited, I can’t say how good Kulu Kulu is in relation to other London offerings, but I will say that it was good quality, tasty and affordable, which means I wouldn’t hesitate to go back again.

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Filed Under: Food, Personal, Restaurants, Travel Tagged With: england food london personal restaurants travel

Ringtones

August 6, 2005 by Dave!

Okay, are the British as obsessed with ringtones as the telly would have me believe? When I come back to the hotel from work and flip on the news (granted, this is usually later at night) I see dozens of ads for “ringtones” and “wallpaper” for cell (sorry, mobile) phones. They are all really, really silly and/or annoying.
I’m sorry, the “Crazy Frog” is not cute nor clever, it’s just goddamn annoying.

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Filed Under: Personal, Travel Tagged With: england london personal travel

Refettorio

August 4, 2005 by Dave!

Do you normally associate great restaurants with hotels? I don’t. Maybe you do, but I don’t. Tonight we hit Refettorio though, which is located in the Crowne Plaza hotel, not far from our hotel in London (The City). The place came recommended for its cheese and salami selections, and I’m a cheese fiend. So we gave it a shot…

We weren’t disappointed. The cheese was outstanding–especially this creamy Gorgonzola that was the most amazing Gorgonzola I have ever had. It was phenomenal. The pasta was out of this world too, all hand made. I had a linguine with pesto and some Sangiovese and ended up going back to the hotel a well fed man.

It wasn’t the best restaurant I’ve been to on this trip, but it was a solid restaurant that I would go to again, hotel or not.

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Filed Under: Food, Personal, Restaurants, Travel Tagged With: england food london personal restaurants travel

Barcelona

August 3, 2005 by Dave!

Tapas tonight! And I mentioned to one of the Brits at work and they said, “You’re going to a topless bar with your wife??” Nice to know that the English use the same stale jokes we do.

Anyway, we went to a tapas place called Barcelona, which apparently has multiple locations, but we didn’t know that at the time. We went to the original, which is on Bell Lane not terribly far from Brick Lane (Indian central). From the outside, you would think it was a total dive. And from the inside it has the most uncomfortable bar stools ever. But the decor is still very bright and lively. And for what it lacked in decor, it made up for in quality. On the whole, some of the best tapas I’ve ever had. Everything we sampled was delicious… the Mejillones con Sofrito (mussels) were absolutely fantastic and the patatas bravas were just the right balance of flavor and spice. I could go on-and-on about the menu, but since we had so many dishes, it would take forever. Just go check out the menu on their website.

I was speaking with another co-worker about Spain–I’ve never been. He was saying how great it was to walk out of work at 9:30-10:00PM into the warm night air as restaurants are just beginning their first seatings and to feel the cool Mediterranean breeze. He did a great sales job; Spain has moved way up on my “must visit” lists. Any place that believes that dinner shouldn’t start until 10pm and that thinks mid-day naps are an important part of life gets a huge thumbs up from me.

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Filed Under: Food, Personal, Restaurants, Travel Tagged With: england food london personal restaurants travel
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