I'm going to England on Thursday. Anyone want anything?

[El Dingo]

Vacation and stuff. Newcastle.

[Drunk Monk]

Have a great trip.

I'm so envious of all the travel DOOM is doing lately.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

I want that you and DeeDee should have a good time! I am also wanting some travelogue so I can live vicariously through your Northern English adventures.

Have fun!

-Y

[cranefly]

I've always kind of wanted an English Mastiff....

No. That was a joke. Okay? Not that I don't like dogs, but DO NOT BRING BACK AN ENGLISH MASTIFF TO ONE-UP MY LAME ATTEMPT AT HUMOR!

You and DeeDee have fun. Be sure to visit Bruce Lee's gravesite at Westminster Abbey.

[El Dingo]

I'm back.

[The Queen]

I'm back.

And...? Tell us what you saw and how it was!

[cranefly]

I hope you at least brought back an English accent.
That would be so Monty Pythonesque cool.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

Regale us with tales! Ply us with pics!

[El Dingo]

It was kind of a bust.

Our original plan was to travel with another couple (Aln and Jen). They were neighbors and long-time friends who we'd been to the UK with previously. They were bringing their (almost) 2 year old daughter to meet her grandparents before the costly 2-year old must-have-a-plane-ticket deadline. We were to stay a week at the grandparent's place in Amble (a tiny seaside village near Newcastle) for a week then Dee Dee and I would do our own thing for a week.

Unfortunately, right before the trip Jen was informed her vacation request had not been formally approved and was now cut short a week. She went home early and we elected to stay with Alan and the baby. We did a few day-trips (Newcastle, Alnwick Gardens, Edinburgh and some Northumbrian towns) but I was really going for that second, toddler-less trip to Blackpool or Wales.

We couldn't even do our planned Speyside whisky tour since ther was no one to mind the bairn.

We did see the British Railway Museum which is incredibly cool if you like trains.

Oh well, sometimes you et the bar....

Did I mention 3 days after returning I caught the flu which laid me out for 4 days.

[Drunk Monk]

Nevertheless, this makes how many crossing the pond to UK trips for ED now? I have yet to make it there once.

[Drunk Monk]

This is worth a trip back, yes?

Pink Floyd exhibition announced for Victoria and Albert Museum

• 31 August 2016
   
  
  
• From the sectionEntertainment & Arts
  

Share
Image copyrightPAImage captionDrummer Nick Mason attended the launch at the central London museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) is hoping to replicate the success of its David Bowie exhibition with a major retrospective of Pink Floyd.
The Pink Floyd Exhibition: Their Mortal Remains, marking 50 years since the release of the band's first single, will include a laser light show and previously unseen concert footage.
The "immersive" show will feature 350 objects and artefacts, including instruments and original artworks.
It will run from May to October 2017.
The V&A promised "an immersive, multi-sensory and theatrical journey through Pink Floyd's extraordinary world" which will "chronicle the music, iconic visuals and staging of the band, from the underground psychedelic scene in 1960s London to the present day".
'Uniting sound and vision'
Pink Floyd were formed in 1965 by four students - Syd Barrett, Roger Waters, Rick Wright and Nick Mason. Waters, Wright and Mason had met while studying at the Regent Street Polytechnic.
Barrett left three years later after one album and was replaced by guitarist David Gilmour.
The band has sold more than 200 million albums worldwide - including 1973's The Dark Side Of The Moon, which stayed in the US album chart for more than a decade.
Drummer Mason attended the launch at the London museum, which flew a giant inflatable pig over its roof for the occasion - like the one pictured above Battersea Power Station on the cover of the 1977 album Animals.
Image copyrightKEYSTONE FEATURES/GETTY IMAGESImage captionIn March 2017, it will be 50 years since the release of the band's debut single Arnold Layne
Mason said the other remaining members of the band are collaborating with the show - despite the fact he was the only one present at the launch.
"There was a school of thought that I'd been not enormously excited about it but that's not quite true," he said. "Maybe it was one of the others. I'd always seen it as possible.
"I did think we'd be short of material. That's turned out to be entirely incorrect. I can't tell you how much stuff won't fit in.
"We seem to have a bit of everything. My favourite drumkits. Quite a lot of the old machinery that we used for recording - that's now completely obsolete with all the digital technology."
Hipgnosis, Pink Floyd's creative director which designed the cover for The Dark Side of the Moon, and Stufish, which created the band's sets, are working on the show.
V&A director Martin Roth said: "The V&A is perfectly placed to exhibit the work of a band that is as recognisable for its unique visual imagery as for its music.
"Pink Floyd is an impressive and enduring British design story of creative success. Alongside creating extraordinary music, they have for over five decades been pioneers in uniting sound and vision, from their earliest 1960s performances with experimental light shows, through their spectacular stadium rock shows, to their consistently iconic album covers."
The exhibition will also include items from stage performances, as well as instruments, handwritten lyrics, architectural drawings and psychedelic posters.
After it was announced in 2012, the V&A's David Bowie exhibition became the fastest-selling in the museum's history.
The Pink Floyd Exhibition: Their Mortal Remains runs from May 13 to October 1 next year. Tickets are on sale now.

[Greg]

Elton John also is doing a huge exhibition of photographs. I was hoping it was going to be open while I was there, but it wasn't.

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

I'll drive!

[El Dingo]

As a HUGE Pink Floyd fan I'll pass. We're talking music here, not movie costumes and props. Photographs and physical memorobilia cannot represent audio experiences, especially headphone-only bands like Pink Floyd. Only visual stimuli like a concert, or laserium can visually contribute to the audio experience. An Elton John exhibit might work though.

[thatguy]

And in other Pink Floyd news...

https://9to5mac.com/2016/09/28/apple-uk-...r-station/

Apple opening major new UK campus in iconic Battersea Power Station building
Ben Lovejoy

London’s Evening Standard reports that Apple is to create a spectacular new UK campus in the iconic Battersea Power Station building alongside the Thames.

The iPhone and iPad maker will move 1,400 staff from eight sites around the capital into what it calls “a new Apple campus” at the Grade II listed former electricity generator.

Its employees will occupy all six floors of office space in the brick “cathedral of power”, which is being painstakingly restored after 33 years standing derelict on the banks of the Thames … 


The former coal-fired power station is one of the most recognizable buildings on the London skyline. Built in two stages in the 1930s and 1950s, it ceased operation in 1983 and has since been the subject of many different plans, proposals and rumors.

Although the power-generating equipment was removed many years ago, the famous facade is a protected building and must be left intact, with any new building work taking place inside the brick walls, with lower buildings permitted externally so as not to spoil the view. Concern has been expressed that the building was being left to rot as successive development plans came to nothing.

The fact that the richest company in the world has confirmed that it will be taking ownership should provide reassurance that the building will now remain safe.

Apple told the Standard that construction work is expected to take five years.

Apple said it was looking forward to the 2021 opening of “our new London campus” as staff relocate to “this magnificent new development at one of the city’s best-known landmarks”. It added: “This is a great opportunity to have our entire team working and collaborating in one location while supporting the renovation of a neighbourhood rich with history.”

Apple’s main European headquarters – the subject of a huge tax-avoidance controversy – will remain in Ireland.

Apple won’t have exclusive use of the building, with homes, offices, shops and leisure facilities sharing the space – but the company will be the largest tenant, leasing half a million square feet. This makes it one of the largest single office deals signed in central London in the past 20 years. The total floor space will provide Apple with breathing space, with room to expand to a total of 3,000 staff if required.

A new Northern Line tube station is under construction, expected to be completed a year before Apple moves in, providing easy access to the campus. The new station was a planning requirement, with the developers shouldering much of the cost. The British government’s chancellor, Philip Hammond, described the deal as a vote of confidence for the UK at a time when Brexit is creating a great deal of uncertainty.

Apple’s decision further strengthens London’s position as a global technology hub and demonstrates how the UK is at the forefront of the next steps in the tech revolution. It’s another vote of confidence in the UK economy.

We’ll be following construction progress with interest.

I was there in spring and they had taken down the smoke stacks...I guess they're going to put them back up.

Here's artist renderings of the office space:

http://video.dailymail.co.uk/video/mol/2...774071.mp4

...but I'm thinking it will be more like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEvRk2tL82U&t=0m54s

--tg