7 posts tagged “scotland”
I missed it! Monday was the one-year anniversary of starting my blog. I was in Paris, focused on that city and my research projects and my writing.
My first entries were about my time in Oxford, my trips to Tolbiac, two delightful museum exhibits I saw that featured red as a power color, my trip to Scotland, and Paris's bird market.
Since then, it has been great fun to write about that grand adventure. Thanks to all my readers for your comments and support. We'll see what the next year brings.
After one year (and a couple of days!), Happy Anniversary to me and my blog and my readers!
Pearl
Today is St. Andrew's Day, commemorating the patron saint of Scotland. Last summer I was lucky enough to present a paper in Scotland, at University of St. Andrew. Unfortunately, I wasn't blogging or taking pictures then, but I found both the university and the island to be one of the most beautiful places on earth.
St. Andrew himself is in fact one of the more fascinating early saints. The younger brother of Peter, he was one of the original apostles and one of the "fishers of men." He has been the patron saint of Scotland since the 9th century or so, when his relics (little finger, partial cranium, and pieces of the cross on which he was crucified "mysteriously" transported from Constantinople to Scotland in the spot where St. Andrews stands today, where they became the property of one of the Pict kings during the mid-8th century. The Scottish flag represents an X-shaped white cross on a blue field, commemorating the crucifixion of St. Andrew.
The University of St. Andrews dates from the 15th century, not as old as some European universities (Oxford, Paris, and Bologna, for example, all dating from the 11th or 12th centuries) but not new by any standards. But it is stunning, as is the town, which is known for the university and the world-class golf course there as well.
The North Sea surrounds St. Andrews on three sides, and it is rocky and hilly and marvelously picturesque. I stayed in campus housing, in the visitors center which rents out rooms and serves meals for reasonable rates. It is a short uphill walk to the town and campus, but very close to the golf course. So avid golfers not wanting to pay the high prices for the luxury golf hotel stayed in the same place as I did... giving me a chance to study golf clothing in detail. A whole different fashion statement.
Prince William graduated from St. Andrews with a degree in geography.
Since St. Andrews is a short train trip from Edinburgh, I recommend that while visiting Scotland, you take a day away from Edinburgh and Glasgow and Scotch distilleries to go to the little town and stay overnight. The university visitors center is very clean and the food (especially breakfast) is decent. You should save your money for eating in some of the restaurants in town, which are both pricey and delicious. The sights include the university itself, the ruined church of St. Andrews, the castle, and the seaside itself, which is completely walkable and beautiful. Benches along the sea wall enable one to sit and watch the sea, read, or chat with residents.
I loved visiting St. Andrews. The conference was one of the best I have ever attended, but besides that the town itself is delightful. And I don't play golf at all.
Happy St. Andrew's Day!
Pearl
I stayed at the Mactalla B&B, which is owned by friends of friends. This is a delightful location, and I was so glad that my old friends put me in touch with Lloyd and Ruth, my new friends. Their B&B is so comfortable and perfectly located for guests: a pub-restaurant just a step up the street, a bistro only a short drive away, Oban is a five-minute drive, and this is the view out the front sitting room and breakfast room.
Mactalla has eight rooms. This was mine, for the overnight. Their complete breakfast was the best one I had all summer, including Oxford and Glasgow: cooked perfectly.
The next morning, Lloyd kindly took me into Oban and we attended the Argyllshire Gathering '08--the local Scottish Games. Since I hadn't been to any games like this since I was a pre-school tot in upstate New York, it was brilliant to see "real" Scots at play. We watched the little kids playing shinty, a version of hockey; the Highland dancing by both girls and boys; the piping competition for individuals; track-and-field events, here called "light athletics"; and the "heavy" events, that include caber toss (throwing a telephone pole, in essence), stone throw, and light and heavy hammer toss. Additionally, there are food and drink stands, play tents for little kids, the heritage tent (where I had a taste of the local Scotch, Oban), and livestock.
Here are some of the dancers in their very colorful but not traditional kilts. But they were perfect for these light-footed young girls. According to the program, they compete with four traditional Highland dances, including the sword dance and the Highland fling. A couple of boys competed among the crowd of girls. The dancing takes a lot of endurance and skill, and I was fascinated by how beautifully these teenage girls presented themselves. After, I was able to catch this more casual group.
The colors of their outfits ranged from balck to blue and deep green, to fuschia--which was a little startling. Some, like the girl second from the right, had a more traditional ensemble of black velvery jacket or vest, white blouse, and tartan-plaid kilt.
And then there were the bagpipers. Everywhere you looked you could see them practicing, like this one. All of them were fully kitted out, from head to toe, in Highland tartan.
Like the girls, they were fierce competitors. It was easy to understand why the English troops who encountered the Scots in battle were unnerved by the shrill blasts from clan pipers.
We also watched a few of the sporting events, including pre-teens and teenage boys on the light hammer. However, it was the grown men who tossed the heavy hammer who caught my eye.
The heavy hammer weighs 22 pounds, and is a weight at the end of what looked like a three-foot stick. The competitors dug themselves into the ground, held one end of the stick, swung the hammer three or four times around and let it fly... each competitor's throw is marked, keeping the longest and discarding the others. I found it amazing to watch these men, some of whom were really tall and broad and all wearing kilts, compete in this event. This man--number 6--had the longest toss in the first two rounds (there are three total).
His first toss was so much farther than everyone else's, it wasn't until the end of the second round anyone caught him. Watching him, it as clear he was a first-class competitor in this event. He wasn't the tallest guy, nor the broadest, but he was simply a pleasure to watch in his preparation, wind-up, and delivery.
I think I've got a little crush on him, if you hadn't noticed--in part too because he didn't act like a star or a big-ego'd athlete, but like someone who knew his business and did it. I like that in my sportsmen.
And I realized that these games were very similar to rodeo back home: the competitions, including the dances and the pipes, were intended to develop and reward skills necessary to Highland life. Some of it was pure entertainment, but so much of the light and heavy athletics, the individual and band piping competitions, and, as I said, even the dancing for its stamina and quickness, were based on survival skills in the difficult climate of the Scottish countryside.
And like to rodeo at home, competitors ranged in age from pre-school to adult, with the pipe-and-drum corps including some very experienced members.
It was a delightful way to spend a morning, and to spend two days, in fact, in the vicinity of Oban.
Pearl
Links: Mactalla
While in Glasgow, I was lucky enough to be able to travel to Oban, north on the West Coast, for about 36 hours to visit friends of friends. I took the train from Glasgow to Connel Ferry, where these new friends have their B&B.
The train took over two hours, but was an excellent choice. I was able to see the country side all along the route, despite the fog and cloudy skies. I took these photos from the train. You'll notice that the landscape is incredibly green: that attests to the huge amounts of rain Scotland has received this summer.
Sorry about the quality of these, but my point-and-shoot camera struggled with the challenge of dirty train windows and weather pretty ably. I wasn't able to catch the mountainsides of towering Douglass firs, or the Highland cattle, sheep, or goats because the trees alogn the track needed some serious trimming for those pictures. But the trip was incredibly evocative: I wouldn't have been surprised to see a crowd of people in plaids and kilts coming through the glen... Oh, wait a minute---
More about Oban, Connel Ferry, and this guy...to come.
Pearl
The conference was incredibly informative for me. This was my first experience at a SIBMAS conference, which is an international organization primarily focused on libraries and museums of performing arts archives and sites, like the Shakespeare Library in Stratford-on-Avon and the Opéra archives of the Bibliothéque nationale de France. A good number of the papers were about websites, archives, and exhibitions coming up, including those for the centenary of the Ballets Russes through the end of 2010. As a scholar, this has been exciting: I’ve discovered a new set of on-line sites with wonderful resources I can use for teaching as well as my research.
The conference was held at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow's center.
Unlike my usual fate, I gave my paper on the first day, in the second group of plenary papers. For each paper, there were both simultaneous translation (into either French or English) and copies handed out—two superb ideas for an international conference. Since the participants include speakers from Russia, Japan, Belgium, France, Germany, and the U.S., as well as throughout Great Britain, these options allowed each participant to stay connected with the discussions.
I am happy to say that my presentation went very smoothly. The engravings I wanted to include of 1661 Vaux-le-Vicomte and Torelli's (attributed) set were effective, as was the short video clip from the 2007 Fouquet re-enactment.
Giving a paper at an academic conference is a combination of a conversation and a monologue. In terms of the former, you initiate a conversation on a topic you are passionate about and hope the other people in the room, who are supposed to be interested in the same thing, will respond. You want to get feedback, because then it becomes like a chat. But your presentation also must be a bit of a performance, because all too often you speak right before lunch (everyone’s hungry) or right after lunch (everyone’s sleepy) or after three days of papers (everyone’s brain is tired). You want people to listen, because how else can you have a conversation? You must be animated, speak clearly in a carrying tone, make eye contact, and have a few well-placed ad libs--just like giving a presentation in any business. It surprises me how many academics think that because their topic interests them or they are decent writers, that a boring presentation will not matter. But it always does.
You must also have excellent pictorial sources for illustration and a bit of relief. Luckily, I did. These engravings from 1661 by the artist Israël Silvestre of Vaux-le-Vicomte give a very clear sense of the garden, even as it is today--which was sort of my point, in fact.
I also included a short video. The video clip is a tease for the 2008 re-enactment of the 1661 events at Fouquet's home that more or less got him arrested and imprisoned for life... they look a lot more cheerful than that. The clip is in fact hilarious to me: far from anything more than a passing nod to historical accuracy (let me count the ways!), I love it because it shows how far the producers have entered into the spirit of Fouquet's great folly. Obviously, this is intended to bring crowds of tourists to this little-known site. A decade ago when I started visiting Vaux, there were small (if any) packs of visitors--compared to chronologically simultaneous but better-known sites like Versailles, Blois, and other Loire castles. Now, at least in part due to this spectacule, it is obvious that Vaux is suddenly on tourists' radar.
My favorite part of the video is a toss-up between the figure of Louis XIV in the Sun-King mask and the choreographed musketeers... Both are so incredibly wrong, but in their own way. Louis would never have dressed like that for Fouquet's party, but the musketeers are something completely out of 19th-century Dumas!
This is theatre, with a taste of history... in fact it deserves its own conference paper. I'll have to think about that.
Pearl
Links: SIBMAS; RSAMD; Fouquet's fete at Vaux-le-Vicomte (click under the first image to see the video).
Glasgow has been a delight. The conference was incredibly informative, and my paper seemed to go well (more about that later). Beyond that, Glasgow itself is a charming city--very different from Edinburgh. I am staying at a B&B away from City Central out the Great Western Road: the Clifton Hotel on Buckingham Terrace. Not only is it clean and comfortable, but the right price. The hotel is a few steps from the bus line, a little farther from the subway, and a taxi ride is under £5--all going to downtown Glasgow. The hotel is also the near the University of Glasgow—which means there is a number of excellent restaurants, like Cul de Sac, where I ate last night. It is one of a series of restaurants along Ashton Lane, where there are a multitude of pubs and restaurants, providing whatever you're looking for in terms of eats and drinks.
The hotel is also near the Botanical Gardens and several of the Charles Rennie MacIntosh sites, like the Macintosh House and the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. Macintosh and his wife Margaret MacDonald were leaders in art, architecture, and design during the early 20th century. Their influence waa global. Glasgow was their home city, and still shows much of the couple's influence on the Art Nouveau style. Places like the Willow Tea Rooms and Ruchill Church Hall, still in use, demonstrate the influence of these two artists.
The weather has been rainy and cool, but it doesn’t matter. Glaswegians (I just love saying that!) have been delightfully welcoming. The taxi drivers, the hotel manager, everyone connected to the conference, and even strangers have been friendly and helpful. At the restaurant last night, I had a very funny conversation with the woman at the next table. Velma talked about things to see in Glasgow, about sights on the West Coast of Scotland, my family (who have roots in Scotland, near Aberdeen), and about the difference in weather between Glasgow and Dallas. She was smart, comic, and spoke with the most beautiful accent.
Tomorrow, to Oban! Hopefully, I’ll get some good pictures on the train, which goes by Loch Lomand and Loch Auw on the way. I also plan to visit a distillery…just for research purposes, of course.
Pearl
