Dan ([info]oedipamaas49) wrote,
  • Mood: sleepy
Since none of you lousy people told me where to go in Oxford at the weekend, I spent a pleasant afternoon in the Ashmolean and Pitt Rivers museums. The second of these is bizarre and hilarious, hovering between self-parody and taking a cross-cultural anthropological approach far too seriously. So it has something labelled as "Stone bearing an accidental, though remarkable, resemblance to a pigeon's head". Yes, the curator found an amusingly-shaped stone on holiday, and put it on display for the world. Then there's "Oxford, England, Europe, 1999. A water-pipe for smoking marijuana". Which is a modified coca-cola bottle.

The Ashmolean infuriated me by having two rooms of interesting Indian religious sculpture, with the two-line labels that don't tell you anything you'd want to know about them. This is one reason why I generally loathe museums - unless you already know about the items on display, you aren't going to learn anything about them without some background information. So people dutifully look at them and get bored, although they would probably find the exhibits interesting if they were told something about them. Grrr!

On the bright side, looking at inadequately-explained tantric sculpures gave me a few moments of thinking my degree non-useless. On which more in a moment, maybe.

Also, my friends list this morning is full of people saying how good the Calling was last night. It was - but I think mostly because none of us have been dancing enough recently. Damn Kambar holidays!

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  • 10 comments

[info]nairoz

September 28 2005, 04:29:45 UTC 6 years ago

The whole point of museums from my point of view is to expand your knowledge, meaning that the things on display should have just enough information for you to find out more about them if you so wish.

But at the end of the day, you did have a pleasant afternoon, so it couldn't have been that bad.

[info]oedipamaas49

September 28 2005, 04:38:26 UTC 6 years ago

I did have a pleasant afternoon, that's true. Mainly because I happened to know a lot about what was on display beforehand, but never mind. Anyway, I enjoy grumbling :p

[info]nairoz

September 28 2005, 04:39:05 UTC 6 years ago

Of course you do, it's a staple British pastime... along with tea, cricket, and politics.

[info]innocent_irony

September 28 2005, 15:30:44 UTC 6 years ago

Very true.
I was actually reduced to crawling out of my shell and venturing to London to dance.

[info]oedipamaas49

September 29 2005, 04:24:58 UTC 6 years ago

yay! for crawling out of shells :)

and now I'm trying to work out who you are. We obviously have enough mutual friends that we should know each other. But...give me a hint?

[info]innocent_irony

September 29 2005, 09:45:15 UTC 6 years ago

Hm.
I have brown hair.
And i think i played the hedonist last calling

[info]oedipamaas49

September 29 2005, 11:06:39 UTC 6 years ago

ah, ok. Hello!

As always happens, I didn't realise you had a livejournal, although I probably should have done.

[info]innocent_irony

September 29 2005, 15:17:55 UTC 6 years ago

So..Who are you??

[info]oedipamaas49

September 30 2005, 04:04:21 UTC 6 years ago

My name's Dan, I look like my icon, and I first met you through camsaw a couple of years ago. That help?

[info]innocent_irony

September 30 2005, 06:11:00 UTC 6 years ago

*blinks*
Not atall... you have, however, successfully eliminated from my mine precisely who i intitially thought you might be... D'oh.
And I cannot identify you from the icon - as any logical being might - because i believe your hair is tied back- and thus, for some reason, i have a mental block.
There is one solution, however, simply harass me at the next Calling, by coming up to me every 30seconds stating 'Hi, I'm Dan' and then wandering off.....
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