mr churchill says...

national portrait gallery (again). british library (again). tate britain (again) for the turner exhibition. house of lords.

went back to the national portrait gallery to get a better look. saw the only authenticated portraits of william shakespeare and jane austen (though her family claimed it didn't look like her). also, the brontes, many many monarchs, james joyce, and lots of other people. very interesting.
the british library is my new favorite thing. the special collections included the magna carta, some of jane austen's writing, charles darwin's writing, a few beatles lyrics written on the backs of birthday cards and such, freud's notebook, the gutenberg bible, one of beethoven's handwritten scores, leonardo da vinci's notebook, and many others i can't think of. i especially liked examining people's handwriting: john lennon's lettering was pretty large and he crossed out things a lot; mccartney seemed to write letters in the same way but tended to keep it neater and i didn't see any cross-outs. freud's lettering was extraordinarily concise, very circular, and difficult to read, with words blending into one another; darwin's was just the opposite: letters within a word were small and compact, but he put so much space between each word it was ridiculous. da vinci's handwriting, of course, was backwards, and it was very neat and beautiful.
a really old peer from the labour party led us around the house of lords and the house of commons (after we went through airport security to get into the building). he was hilarious; he had two assistants with him at all times to feed him names and dates that he forgot as he spoke, and to answer his phone. he kept doing magic tricks, saying 'hurry up, you lot! americans are so slow!' and introducing us to everyone that worked there with 'they're americans, but it's not their fault!' he told us about what it was like visiting the concentration camps after the war and his involvement in the war crimes act before he became a lord. he led us through the house of lords, where the setup from the queen's opening of parliament was being taken apart, then the less ostentaciously decorated house of commons. there's an imposing statue of churchill right outside the house of commons, and you're supposed to rub his foot before you walk in, and you can see where the varnish on the statue is completely worn off on his foot.

well mr churchill says
we gotta hold up our chins
we gotta show some courage and some discipline
we gotta black up the windows and nail up the doors
and keep right on till the end of the war

the kinks