London sans Sun

I went to London for about five days. It was great to see old friends, but I believe that I did not see the sun the entire time I was there. I led a session on research replication at Mozilla's open web/open science MozFest event and met some new folks for work.

Art

Kenya Friends

River Thames

World Press Photo Exhibit

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Tate Modern--one of the few that I really liked

Corner Poop
Honestly, I was pretty disappointed by the Tate Modern. I love the Hirshhorn, and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis was rad, but very few pieces in the Tate really did it for me, including the Rothko Seagram murals. London's already dreary enough, I don't need art to drag me further down.


Gf insisted I see a play. Judi Dench is in a Kenneth Branagh production of Winter's Tale, but it only runs a few nights a week, so I saw Billy Elliot instead. Although I generally dislike the glut of sequels/reboots/remakes in movies, and think that musicals based on movies can be a similar strain of hack, I really enjoyed it. Obviously, I cried, because I am a sucker for pro-union storytelling.




Went to Cambridge for a day to look into setting up a summer training workshop there. I would likely not enjoy living there, because cars are allowed on all the narrow pedestrian and bike-filled streets when they shouldn't be. All the gardens and yards on campus are small, private, and gated, instead of a big public quad like some US schools. There's no easy way to follow the Cam river like there clearly should be, so running would be a nightmare. That's said, it's pretty adorable, so a few days of a Harry Potter/BITSS Summer Institute would be cool, even though I don't really care for Harry Potter, and even though Hogwarts sets were inspired by Oxford, not Cambridge.

Jon Snow Pub

Kenya Friends




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