Sylvia Plath, David Bowie, and a caveman walk into a bar...

"Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford."
— Samuel Johnson


I first read this quote right before I left for London and I can now attest that I agree with it entirely. I thought of it again over the past few weeks as I enjoyed a number of the many perks one enjoys living here. Over the past three weeks or so I've gone to a number of museum exhibitions and a show which I think provides excellent evidence of the diversity of awesomeness this city has to offer.

First off, I went to a show at the Southbank Centre which, coincidentally, has an amazing location right on the Thames with a view of Big Ben and a great little outdoor patio with a bar (what more could you ask for than a Pimm's cup in the sunshine). Anyway, the show was somewhat less optimistic than the views, but it was still great. It was a reading of the original version of Sylvia Plath's last collection of poems by a group of female actors, poets, writers, etc. Pretty intense, but really impressive.

Now this may not be everyone's cup of tea but, again, London has pretty much anything anyone could ever be interested in. A week or so after that show, I took a trip over to the British Museum for a temporary exhibit of Ice Age art. This may sound boring to some people, but it's kind of incredible to see pieces of art 20-40,000 years old.

And if this still doesn't sound like your cup of tea (or whisky as the case may be), you could always take a trip over to the Victoria and Albert Museum (my personal favourite museum in the city) and see the David Bowie exhibit. I spent two hours there this past Friday and could have been there longer. It's an incredibly cool collection of costumes, handwritten lyrics, videos, and show memorabilia that is mind-blowing if you're a Bowie fan. I think my favourite part was the room at the end with a huge three-story screen showing unreleased footage of one of his shows. The exhibit pretty much solidified my belief that Bowie is one of the coolest people ever.

Clearly, if you get tired of London, you've missed something. If you look around just a little, you're guaranteed to find whatever it is that floats your boat.