An unexpected memorial

Perhaps I should re-title this blog to reflect its recent emphasis on war memorials. But these fascinating pieces of public art do always remind me of my time in London, and, in fact, in the U.K. Where they seem to be omni-present.

On a recent trip I encountered a memorial that surprised me. It commemorates a war that became overshadowed by the much larger conflicts that followed it, but which contained some hints of what was to come.

"to commemorate the heroic devotion of the Canadians
who fell in the South African War..."

In the middle of downtown Montréal is this handsome memorial to Canadians who fought with Britain in the Boer War, which happened around the turn of the 20th century. The memorial was erected in 1907.

Given all the many memorials I visited and photographed in the U.K., I don't remember a single one commemorating this conflict! I wonder what impulse led to its appearance here? Granted, I know very little about this war. Some of the battles listed on the memorial sounded vaguely familiar...

face of the memorial listing Boer War battles

What I primarily know is that Churchill made a name for himself as a war correspondent during it, and that it introduced concentration camps to the world.

But if I had to name a Dominion country who participated in the war, it would be the Aussies. Admittedly, this knowledge comes from seeing Breaker Morant at an impressionable age, not from any military history knowledge.

However, even an unpopular and somewhat obscure war has a human cost that should be remembered. And I found this unexpected memorial well executed and a moving sight in the early dusk of our stroll around a small part of this lovely city.

War Memorial Central--west

Living, as I do, in a city that has its own Cenotaph, war memorials that remind me of London aren't exactly scarce in my experience. But I recently got a mega-dose by visiting a series of these structures in connection with an evening at the Symphony.

The large center in the background of this photo is our newly renovated Tobin Center, which I've blogged about over on Hometown Tourist. But the small stone-and-statuary edifice in the foreground is our local Korean War Memorial. Here's a closer view:

Then, at the other end of this plaza that faces the Center, is our Vietnam Memorial, a very dramatic sculpture:

It's large enough, with enough busy city in the background, that it's hard to get a picture of the whole thing. This is just part of it. You can see the multitude of flowery offerings left there, though, probably because of the recent anniversary of the end of the war. I imagine that there are usually not so many wreaths there, but I suspect there's always one or two at least.

I had seen the Korean and Vietnam memorials before, but new for me on this visit was the Veterans' Plaza on the backside of the Center. This space, which leads up from the River Walk, is marked by this series of handsome plaques. They not only name, but describe the heroic actions of Congressional Medial of Honor recipients from the San Antonio area. On this visit I didn't have time to read them all, but I plan to make a stop in this plaza a normal part of my pre-Symphony routine in the future, so I hope to read them all someday.

(Look for more views of the plaza in general at Hometown Tourist soon.)

Bike reminder

Walking across the University of Texas at Austin campus the other day, I happened to see a series of signs that reminded me of the various cycle-related signs I saw in the UK:

For some reason, whenever there are a lot of bikes around, they get especially touchy about where you park them!

Note the text on the sign is in burnt orange...of course!

Remembrance

I think I will always remember It comes to mind especially easily this year, since there is so much commemoration of the Great War's centenary.

This amazing memorial at the Tower of London surely made me wish I was back there more than anything I can remember.

What a wonderful, poignant, and moving tribute! I so wish I could have seen this in person.

We are doing a lot of World War I remembrance on our campus, too, though. Last week there was an interesting series of panel discussions on the War and literature, and students are being encouraged to read about the war through our community reading project. 

Plus, we now have a collection of patriotic posters on display in the Library, borrowed from our local public library's special collections:

Stop for a moment at 11:11 today and remember not only this horrible conflict (from which there are now no surviving veterans) but of the much too many that came after it, and those who fought for us in them. 

Our capital has good museums, too!

Last week I was in Washington, D.C. for a librarians' meeting and was able to take a couple of extra days to sightsee when it was over.

Since it had been a while since I had been to a really big, wear-yourself-out museum, that's what I opted for on my free Saturday. Two, in fact: our National Gallery of Art (we seem to feel the need to add the prepositional phrase, whereas the British don't) and our National Museum of Natural History.

view from the porch of the Natl. Gallery, resting up for the Natural History Museum

Yes, they wore me out, and in just a few hours. I was only able to see a few galleries of each (I know my limitations). But it was very worthwhile, both in the neat things I was able to see, and in the memories of similar London museum-ing that were brought back to me.

Natural History's central dome

I first picked the National Gallery since it has been a really long time since I was there. And, as I recall, that last visit was a whirlwind dash just before closing. This time I had a little more time to savor the sights.

Of course, the building is spectacular in itself, as you can gather from the photo of the gorgeous (and enormous) pillars in the main rotunda.

Not to mention the fine details, such as this completely over-the-top water fountain!

why not make a functional device pretty, too?

But the museum also has some really spectacular art. Since I knew I couldn't cover the whole place, I concentrated on some of my favorite periods and schools. And was rewarded by seeing some of my favorite artists, as you can see below. Note: in addition to the prepositional phrase, another big difference between this National Gallery and the one in London is that our allows photos!

Canaletto painting Venice: a favorite artist with a favorite subject matter

El Greco is always interesting

if I had to pick a single favorite artist, it would probably be Vermeer

this tiny Da Vinci is one of the jewels of the collection...

...and it's a two-fer! this is on the reverse

I'm also a fan of these ceramics

I was reminded of what became my favorite London museum, the V&A, by a special exhibit of colonial furniture. What I loved about the V&A was the way it made everyday objects into works of art, like the teapots and dinnerware you can see in this post.

The furniture exhibit accomplished a similar task. Here are some highlights:

panorama of one of the exhibit's rooms

chess, anyone?

sewing table, with a lovely hanging "basket" for supplies

this pickle dish display was almost V&A-worthy!

Another very interesting little exhibit that I saw on my way out highlighted the real "Monuments Men," some of whom were National Gallery employees in civilian life, who were taken away from duties elsewhere to help find and conserve the art treasures that had been hoarded by the Nazis. I didn't take any good pictures there, but you can learn more about this fascinating World War II side-bar story here. It made me want to see the movie!

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Next up was science. (Actually, I had planned to go to the National Archives Museum, but the line was almost around the block! I knew I wouldn't last that long.)

Since I could feel my strength already starting to flag (in spite of the infusion of a scrumptious falafel wrap from a food truck in the mall—another England flashback!), I decided to focus on just one section of the Natural History Museum. However, I did stop to snap a shot of the iconic main rotunda:

The subject I chose to tour was geology, gems, and minerals, which is always one of my favorites. Here are some highlights of this extensive gallery:

fuzzy crystals

just one of MANY displays

more gorgeous crystals

and more (does the one in the foreground remind anyone else of a Horta?)

I wish I'd gotten someone to stand in front of this one for scale. It is HUGE! Probably about as tall as I am!

Very footsore and completely museumed-out, I was able to make my way back to the metro station—just barely! It was a great day of museum-ing and London-remembering, two activities that always go hand in hand for me.

Feed the birds

More London memories! A little convoluted this time, but, bear with me.

When I leave work on my early days, I often see this flock of pigeons gathering across the street from St. Mary's. They sometimes take off in an impressive mass flight, probably frightened by a wandering cat, which is how I first noticed them. I wish I could get a photo of that, but the camera will never be out and ready when it happens, so I settled for this shot of them feeding. And today I did happen to see someone in the yard of this house, a lady who must have just set the table for them.

Probably only a few of my readers will remember the song referenced in my title. (But it's really quite lovely; you can hear it here, straight from the movie.) And this little house on the west side of San Antonio is a far cry from St. Paul's. But the sentiments seem the same, don't they?

So when the song starts up on my mental record player, you can see where the London connection comes in.

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I can't, in all practicality, get a photo of the birds in flight. But I did see them waiting for their meal this morning on a wire over the lady's house. I wonder how many times a day she puts food out for them?

Go! Spurs! Go! [and a book recommendation]

How could I not be reminded of London when I saw this football supporters' flag on the wall in my daughter's Austin home?! She and her boyfriend are big fans of Tottenham Hotspur, the north London club usually referred to by a nickname familiar in another sport to folks here in South Texas. I mean, when you root for the Spurs around here, you're usually talking about basketball. But if you can be fans of both types of Spurs, that makes you a real citizen of the world, imho.

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I'd been thinking more than usual about London anyway, before last weekend's visit to Austin. I just finished a really nifty little book by Neil Gaiman entitled Neverwhere. It's a dark and disturbing, yet wonderfully-written urban fantasy set—surprise!—in London. In particular, a subterranean London reached by way of tube stations that are like, but also unlike, their real-world counterparts.

What really makes the story fun is the author's seizing upon the linguistic peculiarities that make up so many of London's place names, especially those of the tube stations. For example, there really is an Earl holding Court (Earl's Court was my local tube stop), a Smith that Hammers out metalwork to order (Hammersmith), a bridge over literal night (Knightsbridge), a group of Black Friars that guard an important secret (obvious, right?), and many more.

Plus some fantastic scenes are set in Harrods and on board the HMS Belfast ... it's just a great— if rather twisted— tour of London.

There is a lot of violence, some rather gruesome, so I can't recommend it for everyone. But I loved it.

Having all those wonderful tube station names brought back to mind made me work my London Underground puzzle again. It was a self-souvenir I bought at the fabulous London Transport Museum. Here's its current iteration, just beginning to be solved, on my puzzle table:

I'm not finished with the London connections, though! There's a BBC mini-series (apparently the first version of Neverwhere, actually) that's sitting in my Netflix queue. I can hardly wait to see all those wonderful, memorable, locations sent up in the service of Gaiman's fertile imagination.

And how did I find out about this book? A couple of months ago I attended a World Science Fiction Convention held here in San Antonio (see my blog posts about it here) and one of the panels was "Fantastic London." I got a lot of great book recommendations for sci-fi and fantasy stories set in my favorite city. Neverwhere was just one of them.

Finally, guess where next year's WorldCon is going to be? I don't need to tell you, do I?