The final frontier
(Organist taking a bow in Kelvingrove museum: Glasgow, Scotland)
Last week, a friend came to visit and I accompanied him to the Kelvingrove museum in Glasgow. He had never been there before so there was much to stagger through in a couple of hours. We began in the paintings gallery, worked through the stuffed animals, through the fossils, watched the bees busying about in their beehive and had a brief sit down to watch a video. It concerned arguably the most recognised artwork n Glasgow, Salvador Dali’s Christ of St John of the Cross. A massive budget was blown in purchasing it several decades ago, only for it to be defaced and torn a few years into that time. The short film covered the restoration which was fascinatingly extensive – if you ever have a chance to visit and see the painting, it’s well worth a look ( though I must admit that despite it’s fame, I love many other museum pieces much more).
We trawled through the picture galleries on the upper floors, peered down through the collection of expressive heads hanging in one wing and peered at animals in jars. I love Kelvingrove museum as it is, however there is a general lack of information about practically anything. Some stuffed animals are accompanied by a distinct lack of commentary, labeling or any kind of acknowledgement at all. The new Riverside museum far outstrips this one for sparseness of information. What I like about it most is the disparity of the collection – in the same building there are recognised masterpieces, live bees and a stuffed ‘haggis’ consisting of leftover pieces of other animals from the taxidermy workshop; it looks part rabbit, part pheasant and part platypus.
During our visit, one of the visiting organists was playing a varied selection of classical music, mixed with some more contemporary crowd pleasers. I took the liberty of doing some very amateur filming, so enjoy this rendition of the Star Trek theme (and apologies for the queasy nature of the first few seconds). He also played the theme to Doctor Who which although recognisable was much more epic and impressive than the original.
– Today Rosie is training at the university for her new part time job in Glasgow–
hehe… goodtimes!