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.