Tate'alating

The past couple of days have been fairly relaxed after two weeks of constant movement. Having a flat to chill out in has meant there is not as much pressure to go and see things when its 1 degree outside and snowing. I have been catching up with work whilst Emma is reading up on a number of countries we are soon to visit. Yesterday afternoon we braved the rain and icy wind to checkout the  Tate Modern gallery. Whilst we had both been there previously it is still a really great place to visit and has an awe inspiring approach along the Thames.

London's Millenium Bridge

We timed our visit just right and tagged along with a guided tour through a landscape display. It was interesting to hear the background behind the works which spanned from the 19th Century through to the present day. It is sometimes a let down when a famous work you have spent years looking at in books turns out to be not as impressive in real life. Fortunately this slight disappointment is balanced by the discovery of two or three unknown works that blow your mind.

The Tate Modern Gallery

The vast generator room outside the smaller galleries had a great sound installation that used directional speakers to fill the space with varying voices and noises as you walked through it. It was really spooky and you felt part of a gothic movie as you walked through the vast space with spooky music and voices saying things in the back of your head. I tried to record what it was like but it did not really come out too well.

The Tate's Generator Room (Click to see video)

We returned home very cold to see on the news Bill Gates had been awarded a knighthood by the Queen which has to be the worst move by anyone in the monarchy. Exactly what good he has done for anyone in this world is hard to say (unless inventing a universal computer tax for software that does not work deserves an award). What followed was a very patronizing interview with Bill where he got on his high horse and said how easy it was for everyone to donate money to charity. In the last few years he has donated $4 billion to his own charity (aka. whopping tax-break), but when someone is worth $29.5 billion dollars it just seemed a bit off of him to tell everyone to donate as it is  so easy. When you have practically more money than everyone else combined  it is a bit off to start telling people to donate their hard earned cash. What the reporter should have asked is why Bill has not donated more of the money he has sapped and stolen from computer users over the years. With silly knighthoods like this it is nice to know New Zealand and Australia are moving away from the decrepit institution the monarchy has become.