Starting out

I've been wanting to start a blog about my experiences in the UK for some time and thought I'd like to post reviews of exhibitions I've seen while I've been here. So here is my attempt at "open" blogging. I do keep a livejournal account for private journaling, but never in a forum where "everyone" can read this.

For this blog, I'd like to post reviews of not only museum/gallery exhibitions, but also perhaps films I've seen, books/comics I've read, video games I've played, and general musings that might include a feminist critique of whatever tube ads I've seen that day.

For my first "real" post, I will be reviewing Sarah Maple's exhibition, "It's a Girl!", at the Aubin Gallery in Shoreditch. I'm actually reviewing this exhibition for a course assignment, so in a way...I'm sort of cheating. However, my "spring exhibition season" hasn't officially started yet so I think it's fair to start out this way. My season will hopefully include Yayoi Kusama's retrospective at the Tate Modern, Hajj at the British Museum, Migrations and Picasso and Modern British Art at the Tate Britain, Lucian Freud at the National Portrait Gallery, and the Damien Hirst retrospective at the Tate Modern.

"Menstruate with pride' - Oil on canvas - 215 x 275 cm - 2010-11

I'm also planning on reading a variety of books this year, including Sophie Kinsella's I've Got Your Number, George R. R. Martin's A Dance with Dragons, Ron Chernow's Alexander Hamilton, and Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games trilogy. I just got a Kindle, which I'm pretty excited about, and that's where I have Kinsella and Collins. I might also include comics, but the only ones I'm reading at the moment are Morning Glories by Nick Spencer and the recent Mystic mini-series by G. Willow Wilson.

The only video games I am playing right now (and the only ones I've obsessively played) are BioWare games. I'm currently playing Star Wars: The Old Republic as a blue-skinned Twi'lek named Alari, who's a Jedi Knight Sentinel specializing in Combat. I'm level 24 and am attempting to get through Nar Shaddaa. Very soon I'll be playing Mass Effect 3 (I already have some thoughts on the Mass Effect 3 demo). Sometimes, I also quite enjoy living vicariously through virtual people in Sims 3.

As for films, I am looking forward to seeing The Muppets, The Woman in Black, and The Vow. Not the most "high-brow" assortment, but Oscar season is already upon us and most of those films I've already seen.


Anyway, I am off to actually do some coursework and write that review!

-Jenn