Last week I was on the other side of the pond, spending 3 days in London, then traveling to Bath for a day (went to Stonehenge and Laycock on a tour), then off to Torquey and Exeter last weekend (with a visit to Cockington Manner in Torquey, along with a lot of local color that I took videos and photos of).

Figured I post some of what I saw – was sorry to miss John Evens, who actually publishes this New York City Art Blog (in Exeter, no less!) but we can only play with the cards we have – and I happened to be in Exeter on Easter Weekend, which included a  bank holiday – getting together with people you don’t often see (or not ever met) is often harder on bank holidays than other times.

Still I wanted to capture some of the local flavor of my very successful trip last week here.

The first two videos are the last I took – me and a few friends in a balloon above the bay of Torquay exactly a week ago.

The next video is the River Avon in Bath, UK, as I was passing over it – I got something in my eye that stopped me from filming more of it but like what I captured anyway.

I found Bath to be a nice place to stay and I wish I had more time there – well, maybe next trip – who knows.

The next 3 videos are  of  my trip to Stonehenge – which was quite special- see for yourself – but the sound is choppy as the wind was hitting my iphone and making it hard to hear what I was saying – it was special visiting this sacred place.

I will have more videos to put up shortly and I haven’t yet seen the footage from my conference sessions at Monitoring Social Media Bootcamp in London earlier last week – plus videos and pictures of Big Ben, the Tate, various other places I visited and things I was doing in Exeter and Torquay – I’ll get to that in a few days at time permits.

I’m still in London till Sunday and on this Friday evening – decided what was most interesting to attend (since I had no plans for the evening) was the Harmony of the Spheres at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, UK.  Here’s the marketing notes:

Join us on a unique, after-hours journey through the historic home of the Astronomers Royal and the impressive 21st-century astronomy centre, brought to life in a site-specific performance.

Directed by multi-award-winning composer Stephen Montague, Harmony of the Spheres is inspired by the Pleiades constellation, a cluster of sister stars immortalized in mythology. Explore the site to encounter ‘scenes’ created and performed by Trinity Laban students, and (weather permitting) perhaps even catch sight of the annual appearance of the Leonid Meteor Shower.

Part of the Festival of Time & Space

Harmony of the Spheres

The vast sky that surrounds us has fired our imagination from the beginning of Time. The heavens above with the earth below have inspired terror and tranquillity, mythology and religion, and humbled us with infinity.

The 17th-century astronomer Johannes Kepler postulated a grand ‘harmony of the spheres’ for the universe, but on this night we look to more earthbound harmonies. For two hours this historic site will resonate with Harmonia mundi as 70 earthlings animate a small corner of the planet on both sides of the Prime Meridian.

Location:

Royal Observatory Greenwich; Planetarium

I found visiting Greenwich an invigorating experience – it’s a collage town, actually – and reminded me of Berkeley, California, where I lived one, for a year, back in 1978.

The Greenwich Observatory is a trip, the original telescope used by Herschel to discover Uranus was right in front of me, along with many others.   There was several music works being preformed in different parts of the observatory, and while I might have preferred something more classical, what I got was an evening of fun and mystery, right at the time there was an asteroid shower in the sky.

I’ll post several photos and movies I took at the Greenwich Conservatory tonight, later – they’re uploading now.

I just want to say that I got a kick being in the exact center of time, in Greenwich, tonight.

My first day in London was spent mostly, walking around, by myself, and mostly in Hyde Park – plus I met Antoine Tesquier and saw an “exhibition” in the Serpertine that supports Polar Bears, or a particular Polar Bear.

First impressions – and I know this will change – but getting used to the food here is more challenging than I thought.   I’ll let you know as the week progresses -

Anyway, here’s a few playlists I made (videos set up to run in a queue of YouTube) today – some, like my walk around the Serpentine in Hyde Park are made up of several videos – so you may want to go through them at your own speed and leisure.

I didn’t take any videos tonight but plan on taking several Monday and Tuesday – and I’ll be speaking at Monitoring Social Media 09 on Tuesday late afternoon.

Here’s the first playlist with Antoine Tesquier dressed up as a polar bear and setting himself adrift on some white Styrofoam into the Serpentine at Hype Park.   I never quite got why he was doing this – maybe it’s to promote a particular polar bear – not sure which one.

Antoine Tesquier in the Serpentine at Hyde Park.

Also, here’s some footage from the rest of my walk in Hyde Park today

And when I first arrived in London, I was looking for my hotel, The Shaftsesbury Premier London Hyde Park – which so far, is working out very nicely and has good internet connectivity – so I can post to my blogs and keep in touch with friends.

I haven’t taken any video from within the Shaftesbury Premier London Hyde Park, but I probably will before the week is up.

Also bought an OffBeat Guide to London for my trip – though I did not realize till now I could have interacted with the initial PDF and customized it further.  In fact, I could have added a custom chapter and left out some of the one’s that come by default – next time I’ll do it.