Just a Few Weeks Left to See King Tut in London
Tutankhamum and the Golden Age of the Pharoahs, the knock out exhibition of Egyptian treasures at London's O2 Bubble has a few more weeks to run and tickets are still available for selected, time-specific admissions. The show which puts in the Boy King in a family context features many very human and touchingly domestic objects, like this unguent spoon handle, shaped like a naked swimmer, for use on a queen's dressing table. It closes on August 31.
©Ferne Arfin
Cowes Week - 775 Racing Yachts Finish First Day's Races on the Solent
Of the 929 boats racing yesterday, 775 finished and 24 retired. For another year, the Cowes Week opening day turned the Solent white with sails.
Whether you are a sailor or a wannabe, Cowes Week on the Isle of Wight is a must for lovers of international yacht sailing and yacht regattas. Amateurs and professionals sail craft of every class - from humble day boats to multi-million dollar, state-of-the-art yachts. The scene on the Solent - the channel between English South Coast and the Isle of Wight, is a spectacular flurry of flashing sails. It's brilliant for spectators, the shore scene is fun too and its on all week. Punters are saying that Katie Miller is the one to watch. The 21-year-old up and coming British sailor has joined the Henri Lloyd Cutting Edge TP52 team.
Find out more about Cowes Week on the Isle of Wight.
Stephen Munday/Getty Images
Edinburgh Buzz: Comedians Say, "We'll Miss You, George"
As the Edinburgh Comedy Festival kicked off today, the word circulating among the comic fraternity is that they'll miss President Bush when he goes. Several comedians interviewed on this morning's BBC Breakfast program acknowledged that our George has been a gift to satirists. And the up-comers? The consensus is that- at least from a comic standpoint - McCain is boring and the funniest thing about Obama is his adoring fan base.
The comedy festival, the brainchild of four of the biggest Fringe venues, features 250 shows on 55 different stages in a kind of festival within the festival. Among the favorites who will be performing are Mark Watson, Paul Merton, Ed Byrne, Bill Bailey, Barry Cryer and Clive James.
Loads of newcomers will be taking part as well, at The Assembly, The Gilded Balloon, The Pleasance and the Underbelly.
Meanwhile, after you've had a laugh, if you're planning to be over here just when you wished you could be home to help George on his way...
- ...find out about Absentee Ballots - Whether you are eligible to vote and how to get a ballot
- Do you know someone who could - or should - vote from abroad?
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Edinburgh Buzz: Despite Ticket Troubles, Fringe Gets Ready to Go
It was a natural recipe for disaster and chaos -
- a huge festival with more than 30,000 performances at hundreds of different venues
- gazillions of people, arriving from all over the world for a big party
- A centralized ticketing operation selling a majority of the tickets available and...
- ...a new computer system.
Not to worry - if it was all neat and tidy and running like clockwork, it wouldn't be Edinburgh, would it?
Meanwhile, all the major media critics have been producing their lists of "must sees" and "don't misses". Here are a few worth checking out:
- Fringe Focuses on the Harsh Realities from the BBC
- Why the Fringe is Rocking in the Independent
- Pornography: the most shocking play of the Edinburgh Festival in the Telegraph
- Edinburgh Festival: Bloated, Overpriced and Unmissable in The Times
Seattle-based Jim Rose Circus at Edinburgh. Photo by Jeff Mitchell/Getty Images
Tracey Emin - 20 Years To Edinburgh
It seems hard to believe that controversial British artist Tracey Emin has been around long enough to have a retrospective. But the international splash created by her Unmade Bed was 10 years ago and she has been turning her own life into art for at least 20 years.
What better environment for her first major retrospective, then, than in the anarchic circus of Edinburgh in August. Tracey Emin 20 Years, the headline show of Scotland's National Gallery of Modern Art, is part of the Edinburgh Art Festival, running side by side with the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this month. The show includes some of Emin's rarely seen early work, her room-sized installation, Exorcism of the Last Painting I Ever Made, as well as film and recent installations.(And yes, it does include that bed).
The show opens Saturday and runs until November 9. Admission is £6. Because it includes explicit materials and imagery, under 16s must be accompanied by an adult.
Chris Jackson/Getty Images
Edinburgh's Art Festival Can Hold Its Own
August is festival month in Edinburgh and, while the big noise is the Edinburgh Fringe Festival you can still take a time out now and then to contemplate other art forms while you are there. People thought, for example, that the Edinburgh Art Festival would get lost in the Fringe stampede when it was established a few years ago.
Not so. In fact, it just gets better and better as museums, galleries and dozens of private art spaces across Edinburgh join in with special events and blockbuster shows - some on just for the month of August, others running through October and November.
Rachel Devine, an art critic for The Times, is recommending Impressionism & Scotland, at the National Galleries of Scotland (£8, until October 12). The show brings together 100 masterpieces from from some of the greatest names in Western Art - Manet, Monet, Renoir, Sisley, Pissarro, Degas, Whistler, Van Gogh, Cézanne, Gauguin, Toulouse-Lautrec, Matisse - and demonstrates their influence on contemporary movements in Scottish art, notably the Glasgow Boys and the Scottish Colourists.
Among the highlights:
- The Bay of Naples, by Renoir, on loan from New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Whistler's wonderfully moody Nocturne: Blue and Gold - Old Battersea Bridge, on loan from London's Tate Gallery
- Van Gogh's Olive Trees, from the NG Scotland's own collection. The ancient, twisted olive trees, pictured here, that I photographed near the asylum of St. Remy de Provence, are the very ones Van Gogh painted.
- Degas' L’Absinthe, a picture of addiction which caused an outrage in its day and which has traveled to Edinburgh from the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.
©Ferne Arfin
Bestival Not Quite Sold Out After All
Bestival, the self-billed "boutique" music festival, September 5-7 on the Isle of Wight, has been sold out for months.
Not surprising with Amy Winehouse as the scheduled headliner, along with top indie and commercial acts, past and present.
Now comes word that a few campervan tickets are left at £50 each. This being the Isle of Wight, your camper van has to be specially adapted for people to stay in - so no mini transit vans with a mattress on the back or SUVs with drop down seats. And, since to cars are allowed on the campervan site, no caravans or trailer tents either. Vehicles longer than 7 meters must buy two campervan tickets.
If you can meet the strict criteria, head to www.ticketline.co.uk to nab one of the few tickets left.
Or, read about Bestival and start planning for next year.
Lily Allen at Bestival/britainonview/Liz Gander
And You Thought Football Was Only a Game
Call it football or soccer, Europe’s love affair with the beautiful game is undeniable and passionate. And that passion will be explored in an entertaining new UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) exhibition at World Museum Liverpool.
Between October 11 and March 1, Only a Game? will look at the human face of football in Europe - from the classic era of the 1950’s to the modern age of global superstars. Included will be rare objects from legendary matches, top European trophies and memorabilia from star players.
It's all part of Liverpool's year as European Capital of Culture 2008 and another example of what a broad spectrum of culture is being celebrated. Highlights of the exhibition, UEFA's contribution to Liverpool '08, include:
- Player memorabilia - shirts, medals and trophies of great European players
- UEFA trophies, including the Champions League trophy and UEFA Cup
- A Memory Zone where visitors can mix their own football highlights into a video clip and set it to a soundtrack
- An interactive multimedia football quiz
Find out what else is happening in Liverpool
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Family Shows Under the Stars at England's Stately Homes
The manicured lawns and grounds of many of the UK's stately homes and castles make perfect natural amphitheaters for outdoor performances and events. If you are touring the UK, especially if you've taken advantage of the Great British Heritage Pass, you've probably scheduled visits to a few of these historic places. Check out their individual websites before you travel to see what's going on along your route. You'll likely find concerts, drama, folklore and dance festivals taking place under the stars somewhere along the way.
Just remember to bring (because we are having that kind of summer):
- something waterproof to sit on
- a nice warm sweater
- an umbrella
- Treasure Island at Lulworth Castle in Dorset, July 29. Quantum Theatre presents an adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's swashbuckling pirate tale - complete with Long John Silver's parrot Cap'n Flint. Admission is £10 for adults, £5 for kids and under 5s go free. Telephone +44 (0)845 450 1054
- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland at Dudmaston Hall's Lakeside Gardens, in Shropshire, August 2. Intermission will feature an opportunity to dress up as a favorite character (bring your own costume) and take part in an Alice Parade. Dudmaston Hall's tea shop will be open during the evening, serving traditional English summer treats - including strawberries and cream. The organizers suggest you come prepared for all weathers.
Dudmaston Hall is a National Trust property. Tickets (£15 for adults, £10 for children and £40 families of two adults and two children) are available on the door or online from the National Trust's events page, where you can find loads of other summer happenings.
Treasure Island, courtesy of the Lulworth Estate
Back to School - August Vacation Rentals With a Twist
The charm of tiny, country schoolhouses may not readily come to mind when you think of a vacation in England. Think again. The Little House on the Prairie did not have a monopoly on quaint, one-room schools.
Cottages4you, a vacation rental company I recommend, has late availability in August on three nostalgic, converted schoolhouses with bags of character plus "all mod cons", in beautiful locations, suitable for families or groups of friends. All are available for at least 7 days, starting August 23:
- Old School House Cottage on the North Yorkshire Moors is 200 yards from a country pub and just a few miles from Rievaulx Abbey and the village of Helmsley, with its inns, castles and dining at The Black Swan. It sleeps 4 and is Ref: 11258 on the Cottages4you website.
- Old School Cottage in Norfolk is a mid 19th century flint cottage near Norwich and the Norfold Broads. It sleeps six, it's pet friendly and it's not far from the village shop. Find Ref: 23775 on the website.
- My favorite is The Old Boys School near Hexham in the North Pennines. It's a Victorian schoolhouse near the Cumbrian borders that's equally well located for explorations of Hadrian's Wall or the Lake District. The owners describe the area as having "the lowest light pollution in the UK". How's that for saying It's bloody dark out there 21st century style? There are loads of stars though. And room enough for six. Ref: MNM on the website.
Picture of Rievaulx Abbey in North York Moors courtesy of britainonview