Sunday started with my alarm going of and me thinking “no, NO, I don’t want to wake up, I want to SLEEP,” of course feeling this way did not co-inside with my plans to go to Brick Lane’s many markets, so I woke up. I have been to Brick Lane a few times, but never on a Sunday which is when they have a TON of little markets kind of like Portobello Road does. When I arrived at Brick Lane an hour later, I quickly found there were very different markets within the area. Some were like flea markets where there were some very odd looking people selling some very odd things. Most of it looked like junk to me, but as they say, one mans junk is another mans treasure, because there were people buying up all these odd things that aren't rare, but when you see like 100 phone cords being sold by one person, the normal crosses into odd very quickly. 
I walked back and forth, in and out of different warehouses, alleys, parking lots, and side streets all full of different markets until I felt like I was satisfied with seeing all there was to see. I then headed to my second destination, the Barbican Museum. The discovery of this museum was made at a Saturday nights party when talking with a guy who is doing a PR project for the new James Bond film. His current project requires him to know everything about all the old James Bond movies. Anyway when talking to him he mentioned there was an exhibit at the Barbican Museum called Designing 007. All I can say it JACK POT! This is why I like meeting new people, they tell you about something cool, you go do it, and its something you would have never found out about on your own.
So on Sunday, I went to the Barbican to check it out. Unfortunately, there were no pictures allowed, but I CAN describe it in detail. Walking into the first room, there is a round bed with gold sheets that is rotating. On the bed lies a women in her panties lying face down, dead. The scene is a recreation from Goldfinger when they kill Bonds lover and paint her gold leaving her on the bed for 007 to find. Lining the walls there are story boards, awards, props, original sketches and jackets from Goldfinger.
Walk on into room number two and there is information about the director, original scrips, and the vintage books that started the Bond series. There are also TV’s in every room showing footage relevant to what your looking at.
Room number three is geared towards the spy gadgets used in the films. The information card tells you what was real, what didn’t work, how they made it, what film it was from, and if there is a story behind the object, that is there too. Sketches of the: car, film set, and story board of the scene thats relevant to the other objects can be found in every room as well. All of these sketches continue throughout the entire exhibit.
The 4th room is all the costumes with fashion sketches and some items from any parts of the Bond movies that were set is casinos. Most of the older movies have recreated costumes because in the olden days they simply threw out the costumes when they were done. Now most actors have a contract allowing them to own the costumes once the film is done.
The rest of the rooms in this part of the exhibit address different locations the Bond series was filmed in and how they came to be. After you pass through that, it is time to go to part 2 of the exhibit where you walk into a different part of the museum and have your ticket restamped.
Part two was called “Villains.” It was set up with two combining rooms that each had a TV with different memorable villain clips from the movies. Then there are enclosed cases dispersed throughout the rooms with different villains costumes, weapons, fashion sketches or photographs.
After you see both of those rooms you go to the last leg of the exhibit which is all the way down stairs called “Ice Palace.” This has all of the film costumes, props, sketches ext of any bond film that took place in snowy, or ice areas.
Now grant it this was a brief explanation of what the exhibit held, there was more stuff like architectural layouts and such that was also on display, but it would be impossible for me to name every detail. When the Bond exhibit was done (it took at least an hour) I walked around the outside of the building. The area the Barbican is in is really unique. It's all concrete structures with this canal running through the back. It's really quite a site!
Finally, it was time to go home. I tried to take the bus back, but again got lost so I figured out where I was and walked home (it took about 40 minutes.) I apparently LOVE to walk. The rest of my day I relaxed and recovered for tomorrow when Zandra comes back and I will need my energy. Oh, and on a side note I did do my weekend Karate Kid clean up work for Zandra with coworkers Kitty and Ruth, I call it Karate Kid work because I feel like I am doing a zen exercise while doing the odds and ends jobs in such an amazing place.  |
| This is a piece of graffiti art from Brick Lane I discovered, its concrete backing thats been painted white, where you see the tan it where the artist has chipped away the concreat. The entire face has been rendered by chipping away the concrete at various levels. |
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| This is a piece of art to the right of the face, I just thought it was funny and worth posting :) |
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