Friday, November 21, 2014

Rhinoceros charging in Great Russell Street

The other day I went so see the Germany: Memories of a Nation exhibition at the British Museum. Somehow I wasn't entirely convinced by it, with doubts similar to those expressed by translator colleague Margaret Marks in a review on her blog. Still, it was interesting, and I hadn't been to the British Museum for ages – the roof is stunning!


I'm also quite impressed (even if I say so myself) by the semi-artistic exhibition poster "mirror selfie" I took outside – hence the title of this blog post, with thanks to translator colleague Judith Hayward, who wrote this comment when she saw the photo: "The photograph should inspire a song – not sure a rhinoceros charging in Russell Street is quite as poetic as a nightingale singing in Berkeley Square, but it certainly shows the British Museum hasn’t lost its charm…".


Anyway, I'm going to catch up with the 30-part BBC Radio 4 podcast that accompanies the series (have only listened to a few episodes so far), and I bought the exhibition book, which should make an interesting read.

Update January 2015:
Reading the very interesting/excellent Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung article by Gina Thomas under the heading "Und plötzlich ist Deutschland ganz anders" made me realise (even more so than I had already realised before I read the article) that I didn't really 'digest' the exhibition properly during my visit and would no doubt benefit from a second visit, but I'm not going to make it before it closes. But anyway, I find the BBC Radio 4 series very illuminating (still haven't listened to all the episodes), and I still have the book to delve into.

Saturday, November 15, 2014

Campaigning can feel so bleak when it’s all about "No"

Attended the "space for cycling" demo in Leicester the other day.


See superb blog post by Elizabeth Barner under the heading "What a difference a mayor makes". Note in particular: 'Campaigning can feel so bleak when it’s all about "No"'. On that note, although in a different context, this is one of the main reasons why I'm still so enthusiastic about my pro-renewables and in particular pro-wind campaigning activities after more than 20 years. See 'blast from the past' here and more recent Pro Wind Alliance website.

Coming back to the mayor theme, based on my experience from Germany I'm very much in favour of the concept of elected mayors, and I fully agreed with the editorial on the subject that was published in the Leicester Mercury opinion piece back in November 2010 under the heading "Election for mayor will beat apathy" [article no longer available, unfortunately].



Thursday, November 13, 2014

From eggcorns to Lady Mondegreen and Monty Python

An updated version of this blog post can now be found on the HE Translations blog at https://hetranslations.uk/blog/from-eggcorns-to-lady-mondegreen-and-monty-python

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Rosetta space triumph shows what EU cooperation can achieve

The infographic below, taken from the British Influence website, says it all.
One in the eye for UKIP et al, methinks.