Art's a funny thing isn't it? I don't think I understand modern art.
I've done the culture bit today. It looked like another negative day for the garden (severe weather warning) so rather than twiddling my thumbs I headed out for a city jaunt, to trawl through bookshops etc.
Headed up to Newcastle for the day. I picked up one book, on celtic tales, but was very disappointed by the shortage of books on Northumbrian folktales. There was the tale of Lambton Worm (don't need that - I already know it), and that was about it. There were a scattering of Learn Yourself Geordie, but not what I was looking for. Eventually I headed off to a shopping mall and had some lunch.
Fared better in the afternoon. Walked over the Millennium Bridge to Gateshead and had a look round the Sage:
http://www.thesagegateshead.org/index.aspx
A very interesting music centre, even though the building does look like an enormous glass carbuncle. Seriously, it's a real asset for Gateshead to have such a centre of excellent. It caters for all types of music. Sadly I didn't see inside any of the music halls - I'd have to have a ticket to an event for that. I contented myself with a cup of tea and slice of cake in their cafe. It's a fabulous building though. It was only opened a few months ago. Though I did look at all that glass and the thought occurred to me that I wouldn't want to be their window cleaner!
I picked up some small percussion instruments while I was there. Something called a monkey drum, a type of gourd and a rainstick. Maybe I can use them with my folk activities some day?
I popped along to see the Gateshead Visitor Centre. Heard about another storyteller, so made a note in my diary to return to Gateshead in the middle of May.
Then I popped into the Baltic. A fancy shmancy art gallery. What is it about modern art? I looked at one gallery. It appeared to consist of rubbish strewn round a building site. You call this art? Then I looked at the gallery below. The artist had slapped some old pieces of bicycle tyres onto a canvas. Come on, who are you kidding? Art my foot. I'm sure Michele's art is a million times better than this!
So, that was my day.
Trip to Newcastle
