Exhibition: The Magnificent Mr. Mole

Yesterday, second Meetup in a run of six, I was back with Museum, Art & Culture Socials at the Museum of Soho for an exhibition, The Magnificent Mr. Mole, about a local artist. We were to meet at Cafe Boheme beforehand.

I made it roughly on time.. went to the cafe, but couldn't see anyone. I walked right through, then out again, and spotted Jules! sat in a corner. So I grabbed a drink, and we chatted for a while.. 

..then wondered where everyone else was! Turned out the organiser, Camilla, had gotten sidetracked chatting to the museum curator. She was with us shortly after that, and grabbed a waiter to get us a bigger table - they ended up pushing two together, and we all ultimately congregated there. Well, except David, who wasn't feeling the best, and said he'd join us at the pub.

A nice, cosy corner. And Camilla joined me in a glass of wine - the house wine is very decent!

A wander through the streets of Soho brought us to.. a building you'd never peg as a museum!

Just inside the door, we were greeted by an Underground film map:

We were lucky enough to be given a talk by the artist's widow! We were free to ask her whatever we wanted.. her husband was, among other things, a talented painter - some of his paintings adorned the walls of the reception area:

And he evidently had a thing for rabbits:

Note the Jessica Rabbit tie! ;-) In a reversal of the norm, the artist also depicted a rabbit wearing a lucky human foot.. I didn't see that on display, but there was a video that showed it - I wasn't in time to grab a snapshot, though!

Most of the exhibition is in a small room off reception - where there's also a bit about the artist:

It really is the quirkiest collection - and many of the pieces move! Like this one of Alice in Wonderland, whose neck extends.. characters from those stories feature heavily:

He also had a thing for dodos:

I love these mini theatre boxes - as with everything else, the detail is incredible:

And he made a dolls' house!

This guy's head rotates, very slowly - and as someone said, only when you're not looking at him! Freaky..

There's jewellery for sale:

Someone wrote an elegy for him - and nobody knows who! We agreed that that was a lovely idea:

What a wonderfully quirky collection, from a truly unique individual.. and what a delightful little museum! (Of course, song of the day has to be White Rabbit..) Sadly, yesterday was the last day of the exhibition.

Oh, and Karl Marx once lived across the road:

Thereafter to The Crown, where we had a table booked upstairs - we were a bit early, but it wasn't a major issue. I had a lovely schnitzel, and a couple of people seemed happy with their steak sandwiches. And we passed a lovely evening chatting, eating.. and drinking. So I was too tired to blog when I got home.

Today, hosting my first ever Meetup event, woo! It's with London Museums A-Z (LoMAZ), and hey, it's where I've finally found an outlet to advertise storytelling, which regular readers will know that I love. So, this is a Crick Crack Club event, which I was going to anyway - it's Agni & Amor: Tales of Love & Fire, and happening in The Master Shipwright's House. Ben Haggarty and Steph Brittain will be performing, but there'll also be music and food - a real end-of-summer festival. Pity rain is promised. Part of the Thames Festival Trust. We're meeting in the Dog and Bell beforehand, and optionally afterwards as well. A lot of newbies coming to this one - hopefully they remembered to buy tickets, which are now sold out.

Tomorrow is a bank holiday, so I managed to slot in my friend Helen, who wanted to come visit. We're having a long lunch at Bella Italia Cranbourn Street.

And that evening, and indeed on Tuesday as well, I'm with Up in the Cheap Seats. On Monday, we're at Holy Fool at the Park Theatre. It's the story of Shostakovich, who trod a tricky line living under Stalin.

And on Tuesday, we're seeing How the Other Half Loves, a romcom at the Old Vic. Eating beforehand at Bar + Block Southwark - which looks like to be my last time there, or in any Bar + Block, as the chain is closing down on Thursday!

On Wednesday - I'm hosting another LoMAZ event! This one is part of our Dracula series.. The Nickel is showing Dracula in Istanbul, and I said I'd run an event. Made in 1952, it's apparently the first film to depict Dracula with fangs.. and has Mina as a showgirl! Should be fun. We're headed to The Wilmington afterwards. Some of the Whitby crowd are coming, which will be a nice reunion!

On Thursday, I'm back with CT for Never Let Go, part of the Fringe Fix at Underbelly Boulevard. It's a comedy, one-man, gay retelling of the film Titanic.

And then - with a last-minute reschedule of what I was supposed to be doing - I finally have a weekend free to get back to Ireland, phew! Took me ages to get the flight booked, mind - the Ryanair app was down, I had to use the browser. And both Ryanair and Stansted Express have forgotten my account, I book so seldom any more.. hopefully meeting the friend I usually lunch with when I go back.