October travels

I recently met up with my sister, who shares my predilection for things odd and uncanny, for a road trip to Philadelphia to watch the leaves change and visit some unusual museums.

Eastern State Penitentiary was built in 1829 and abandoned in 1971. Designed to enforce solitude and inspire penitence, it is now preserved in an eerie state of decay.

The space is much more affecting and evocative as a ruin than it would be restored and pristine. It is also said to be haunted.

Some of the cells hold pieces commissioned by local artists, such as an collection of entomological specimens by Greg Cowper and a beautiful stained glass series by Judith Schaechter entitled The Battle of Carnival and Lent.

I have been enamored of Schaechter's work since coming across an image of Jazz Funeral for Didi several years ago, and it was fantastic to see her windows in person.

After the penitentiary we walked down to the Mütter Museum at the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, which houses a collection of medical and anatomical specimens. The Soap Lady (depicted here in a truly lovely sketch by John G. Mundie) and the death cast (and shared liver) of Chang and Eng are housed there, as well as Einstein's brain. Sadly, they do not allow photography. Currently on display is a small but interesting exhibition entitled "Grimms' Anatomy" pairing excerpts from Grimms' fairy tales and rare illustrated volumes with corresponding anatomical specimens.

Also on display is a room curated by the Brothers Quay, and an accompanying film, Through the Weeping Glass: On the Consolations of Life Everlasting (Limbos and Afterbreezes in the Mutter Museum). Not as striking as their collaboration with the Wellcome Collection in London (The Phantom Museum, available to watch here), but still worth seeing. NPR did a piece on their creation of the film, which can be heard here... possibly more interesting than the finished product.

All in all a satisfyingly odd and Autumnal October outing.


Happy Halloween!

Banned Books Week Turns 30

 

In honor of the 30th annual Banned Books Week, here are short films based on two of my favorite stories by two of my favorite banned authors.

All Summer in a Day (1982) is based on a short story by Ray Bradbury and aired as part of PBS's phenomenal (and sadly defunct) children's series 'Wonderworks':



...and The Lottery (1969), based on Shirley Jackson's story of the same name and adapted for Encyclopædia Britannica's 'Short Story Showcase':

Part One

Part Two


I recommend reading (or re-reading) both, or choose a favorite from the American Library Association's lists of frequently challenged books or the London Libraries' list of banned books. Happy reading!

What I did on my summer vacation...

Autumn is my favorite time of year. I love, love, love when the seasons start to change, but this year, for the first time in several years, I have a proper summer holiday to look back on. It was full of celestial events, sunny weather, family reunions, lovely food, county fairs and road trips. I watched fireworks and piglet races, built the Frankenstein's monster of backyard slip-n-slides, swam, soaked up the sun and caught fireflies.

the transit of Venus in June, seen through my homemade optical projector (note the sunspots!)

Saugatuck beach on Michigan's eastern shore

the waves at Saugatuck

Saugatuck dunes

blueberry picking

the spoils of over-enthusiastic berry picking

walking in the woods

my brother-in-law and Pajamas Johnson enjoying the sprinklers

up in a swing

my sister's perfect mojitos

sparklers on the 4th of July

Hope you had a lovely summer, too!

days off from Narnia

After my earlier post catching up on The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe puppet making, I wanted to share some pictures from my (very few and far between) days off from the Narnia workshop:

tea and homemade Battenburg cake at the Farnham Maltings Vintage Fair

a black sheep at the Coram's Fields City Farm in London, round the corner
from our rehearsal hall at the London Welsh Centre

Solo the chicken asking to be let in to my friends' Wiltshire cottage

when a problem comes along, you must whippet!

Salisbury Plain, taken on a day trip to Stonehenge  and Bath with my aunt and
uncle and a coach full of high school students visiting from the States

despite living in relative proximity for years, this was my first trip
to Stonehenge since I was fifteen

view of Bath Abbey from inside the Roman Baths

Bath architecture

angels climbing Jacob's Ladder on Bath Abbey

the Royal Crescent in Bath

toy model double-decker bus at the Science Museum in London

grinning wooden sign at the "Dickens and London" exhibition, Museum of London

James Watt's workshop at the Science Museum, London

a cyanotype at the Victoria and Albert museum

England, green and pleasant

despite what one might think, Easter was not a day off in Narnia...
the Easter Bunny did show up to bring us chocolate though!

through the wardrobe

Earlier this year I spent a couple of months with a crack team of artists and makers creating a new stage version of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, held in a purpose-built tent theatre in London's Kensington Gardens. Led by the illustrious Max Humphries, we were tasked with building puppets for the production.



We had a very short time in which to create a small army of giants, centaurs, minotaurs, woodland creatures, dryads, beavers and lions.

Here are some of the dryad (tree spirit) masks in progress:

...and the dryads in action on stage:

These are the Beavers' gloves before the fur has been applied:

Don't they look a bit like pangolins?

Mr. and Mrs. Beaver (Paul Barnhill and Sophie Louise Dann) on stage wearing their furry beaver gloves:

Aslan the lion was our most important and most difficult creation. Several versions of Aslan were built before we constructed the final puppet. A few early attempts may may be seen here, along with early puppet versions of the beavers and yours truly in giant beaver feet:



The final version of Aslan was built in less that five days, literally with blood, sweat, tears and very, very little sleep. Here are views of our final Aslan under construction in the workshop:

This is what Easter looked like in Narnia:

...and why exhaustion and butane heat tools should not mix:

This video shows Aslan, operated beautifully by Jane Leaney, Christian From and Will Lucas, in action:



Finally, two views of the threesixty° Theatre tents in Kensington Gardens.

The show, designed by Tom Scutt and directed by Rupert Goold, ends its run on September 9th, so if you haven't seen it you still have a little bit of time to get tickets!

Tiptoes

I found some very old watercolor drawings while transferring files...

Costume sketch details for The Nutcracker ballet; dancing Sugarplum Attendants, the Prince's slippers, and the Rat King respectively.

swept away

Nerd chic? Check. Nods to Esther Williams/Busby Berkeley style choreography? Check. Swedish all-girl choral covers of pop songs, folk ballads and a Kate Bush classic? Check.

Yep. There was never any way I wouldn't like The Sweptaways: