Birthday Social & Exhibition: Marilyn Monroe - A Portrait
Now in the midst of three days in a row of Meetup, it's been a London Museums from A-Z (LoMAZ) weekend - yesterday was their bimonthly birthday bash, starting in Benugo Waterloo.
The buses were playing with me, first not coming, then on their way.. as I told the group, I'd be fashionably late. And so it proved, with me arriving about 10 minutes after the scheduled time. Still ahead of most of the group though, who dribbled in gradually.. well done to the day's principal organiser for getting there first and securing a table! As we chatted, we unanimously decided that if there were to be a walk at all, as planned, it'd be within the station where we then were, due to the rain.
And then our uber-organiser (Jonny) spotted the Well & Boot at the end of the concourse and decided to give that a try. So over there we schlepped, got a round in - I asked the barman whether he had Sauvignon Blanc and he said, "yes, would you like some?" - and spent a convivial time chatting (rather insulated, there, from the constant station announcements) until it was time for our booking at the Union Jack. And I got to talk U2. So I was happy.
And then we had to walk to the Union Jack - in the rain - and me with the shoes with the slippy soles. Oh dear.. and so naturally, I was last there, as I tried to hurry without increasing my risk of slipping.. I was slipping quite a lot as it was. (Damn rain was supposed to be finished by then.) And it is a constant source of vexation and wonderment to me why the streets of London are paved with smooth, slippy paving stones. I was fine crossing roads - tarmac ain't slippy - but not on the smooth pavement. Then they taunted me by mixing it up, some bits smooth and some rough.. I was glad to get to the pub safely..
Where I got a beef lasagne as usual (great comfort food for that weather, as someone remarked), and some wine - which I took care to keep separate from Jonny's wine.. nothing wrong with Chardonnay, except that it isn't Sauvignon Blanc. And as ever, we had a lovely time - long may these continue, they're a great idea. I was too tired to blog afterwards though.
And today, I headed with the same group to see an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, of Marilyn Monroe's life in pictures. The second bus I took might have been diverted, but I still made it early.. and yes, some people from last night surfaced as well - indeed, one of the birthday people was today's main organiser! We met in the cafe beforehand, where they even had Marilyn Monroe cookies:
I got a banana (good idea), croissant (not so much, I found it a bit bland), and iced chocolate (not a good idea at all, I should have got a spoon to stir it, it all pooled at the bottom and mainly what I was drinking was milk. Even when I got to the chocolate, it wasn't chocolatey enough.. never is..).
Anyway, we all congregated at a big table in the middle, where one of the organisers - who'd been with us the night before too - remarked that I had the "recovery breakfast of champions". And we chatted away - and got to try out Meetup's new QR code feature, where everyone who signs up to an event gets a QR code, which the organisers can use to scan them in, and keep track of who's come! Very handy for large groups. And we noticed our first Marilyn picture, right there in the cafe:
They were being quite strict with timings, not letting people in too early because it was quite crowded - so we ended up going in in two batches.
And I tell you this, it's quite a large exhibition! Of course, she pretty much lived her life in front of the lens..
And we all agreed that we wouldn't have recognised her from the early shot included of her, taken in a photo booth before she even thought of being famous:
There were some lovely pictures of her when she started modelling, before she became a blonde:
Ah, but then someone suggested she go blonde - and the rest is history:
There's so much in the exhibition, I tried to focus on pictures I personally found interesting. One of the most interesting rooms has a repeating set of clips from her iconic films:
..complete with costumes on display at the back!
There's a big display about The Seven Year Itch, which, of course, features the subway grating scene:
But there are some unexpected twists and turns here - for instance, I never realised she worked out! in an age when that would have been considered unladylike:
The exhibition makes a point of her love of reading.. this bombshell had a brain; here, she's reading a copy of Ulysses (not something most of us would be keen on):
And the only one of her three husbands to be pictured here is Arthur Miller:
There are other people's interpretations of her, paintings made from photographs, edited images.. arguably the most photographed woman of the 20th century, this exhibition is quite sympathetic to her. QR codes scattered around the exhibition offer access to audio information, including interviews.
I was never a fan, as some who went today were. But what I took away from this was a poignant sense of a woman who was damaged, who did what she could with what she had.. but it was never enough. Hey-ho, her legacy lives on..
Off to the Brewmaster afterwards. It's a Greene King, so I knew I'd get fed.. and we had a large table upstairs, where there's a separate bar, which we had to ourselves for almost the entire time we were there! Some of us got food.. I was delighted to see katsu on the menu, which I hadn't had for a while - so I ordered that, when I could get the app to work; I think the internet is a bit patchy there. It comes with both rice - not the kind I like - and chips, which were excellent. The chicken was lovely too, and the sauce satisfyingly rich. Unfortunately, it did turn out to be a bit salty, and I was a bit over-salted by the end.
Another lovely chat, with some focus on theatre, what with a few theatre fans down the end.. always great to hang out with this group! Knowing my local supermarkets would be closed, I shopped on the way home.. and was delighted to have a long evening to do things.
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