January 2011
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The Ultimate Museum Playlist (on Spotify) →
And here is a link to The Ultimate Museum Playlist on Spotify* (you need to be a Spotify member to access and play it, but basic accounts are free). The songs are in chronological order by release date. Wheat Kings by The Tragically Hip, and Eric Idle’s The Getty Song are missing as they are not on Spotify, and I had to substitute Bob Dylan’s Visions of Johanna for a cover version by...
Jan 26th
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The Ultimate Museum Playlist - Part 2 26 January 2011 Here is the second part of my museum songs collection, to coincide with the run up to February’s Let’s Get Lyrical, a month long programme by Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature and Glasgow UNESCO City of Music to celebrate song lyrics. Part 2 features: Songs about museums (title only), Songs about museums (lyrics only),...
Jan 26th
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Jan 25th
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The Ultimate Museum Playlist - Part 1 23 January 2011 I’m a maker of lists and a collector. When I was younger, I was obsessed with songs about the rain. So I made a list of relevant songs and started collecting them. This was in the days before mp3 players and iTunes downloads (and in my case, before CDs!), so it really was a labour of love. It therefore stands to reason that when I first...
Jan 23rd
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“If you want to subdue the children you only have to take them on a visit to the...”
– from Darcy’s Utopia by Fay Weldon
Jan 19th
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Shining Lights When I first heard about Shining Lights, I wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about it. How interesting could an exhibition about lighthouses be? Very, as it turns out! The exhibition opened at the National Museum of Scotland the day after I went on maternity leave, back in October, so I hadn’t seen it yet as this was my first visit back since then. With my sister and...
Jan 19th
Jan 17th
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National Postal Museum 6 June 2010 As promised, here is a more detailed review of the National Postal Museum. The Postal Museum is one of the lesser known of the Smithsonian family, and undeservedly so. I’ve been a fan of it ever since my first visit in 2001, and have made a point of going back to see it every time I’ve since been to D.C. (and I’m not a stamp collector, in case...
Jan 15th
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Jan 11th
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Jan 10th
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WatchWatch
Flower of Scotland Just discovered this video I took whilst tidying up some folders on my computer. It’s the Red Hot Chilli Pipers playing ‘Flower of Scotland’ in the main hall at the National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, in April 2008. ————— (please note that although I work for the National Museum of Scotland, this video was taken on a day off...
Jan 10th
“If you want to subdue the children you only have to take them on a visit to the...”
– from Darcy’s Utopia, by Fay Weldon
Jan 10th
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Jan 8th
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Jan 8th
“Well, what’s a retired teacher to do but open a museum about phalluses? Times...”
– Sigurður Hjartarson Curator, Icelandic Phallological Museum
Jan 6th
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Icelanders are doing it for themselves 13 October 2009 One thing that stood out for us in Iceland, was the number of museums that had been created and were in some cases still being run by the same person. I’ve already written about the Phallological Museum, which started out as a personal collection and is still owned and run by its founder and curator. In fact, the reason it moved from...
Jan 6th
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Reykjavík Museum of Photography 12 October 2009 Despite having managed to cover a lot of Reykjavík’s museums during the conference last week, we still managed to find some more we hadn’t visited. The Reykjavík Museum of Photography is an independent museum with an annual programme of changing exhibitions. It’s small but admission is free, and with around ten exhibitions each year...
Jan 6th
A Blog Is Born We’re off to Iceland for our honeymoon this coming week, in the middle of which I’ll be taking a break to attend the annual ICOM-CECA conference, which this year takes place in Reykjavík. My colleagues are of divided opinion whether I am just extremely dedicated to my job, or simply out of my mind. On the plus side, we get to spend an extra week in Iceland, and my...
Jan 5th
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Wildlife Photographer of the Year 31 January 2010 The Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, now in its 46th year, is jointly owned and run by the BBC Wildlife Magazine and the Natural History Museum in London. The winning and commended entries from the 2009 competition are currently on show at the museum until 11 April and the exhibition is well worth a visit. Sadly the entry from the...
Jan 5th
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Recognizing Our Common Humanity 6 March 2010 This past week saw the pilot for the Middle East Youth Festival in Edinburgh, inspired by the Global Citizen Corps youth programme. Aim of the Festival was to bring together young people from the UK, USA and Middle East. One of the events was a photography exhibition, Recognizing Our Common Humanity, which was on display throughout the Festival at...
Jan 5th
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Jan 3rd
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