Tate Britan

This morning before church I went to the Tate Britain. Here are a few of my favorite paintings.

This painting is by John Everett Millais. Here he depicts Marianna, the main character from William Shakespeare's "Measure for Measure" I love the deep and dramatic color he uses.

This is called Mourning for Icarus by Herbert James Draper. His story comes from Greek mythology. Icarus' father made him wings of wax and advised him not to fly too close to the sun. He forgot his fathers advice and as his wings melted he fell to his death. Very tragic painting.

Classic! This is a painting from John Singer-Sargent called Carnation Lily - Lily Rose. It was painted in the Cotswold of southern England and is a few neighbor girls. We have this one hanging in our living room. I found a little piece of home all the way over here.

From the Tate Britain I took a bus over to the church. It stopped just outside of Hyde park. I took this picture for two reasons. First of all, it's sunny! And the grass is green. It was such a beautiful day! Secondly, because as I was walking by I overheard a group of British people saying, "Look, American football" hehe.

This is also in Hyde Park. It is a memorial to Prince Albert, erected by his wife Queen Victoria after his death. It sits directly across from Royal Albert Hall.

This is Royal Albert Hall where I went to see Cirque de Soleil tonight. It was hard to leave the beautiful day to go in to church, but as always I was glad I did. It was only the second time I had been to my ward, but it is nice to go and feel the spirit and be rejuvenated.

After church I headed back to the hall to see Varekai, which is one variation of cirque de soleil.

The hall itself is really stunning. It is built after the fashion of the ancient roman coliseum, so it is massive inside with a huge round stage in the center.

The show of course was really amazing. It was like a circus on crack. There was apparently some kind of story line going on but I think you must have to be on crack to understand that. Luckily all the acts were so incredible that it didn't really matter. There were incredible acrobatics, jugglers, tumblers and extortionists. It was one of those shows where I kept saying "wow" all the time without even thinking about it. It really is amazing what the human body can do.