At the Museum of Liverpool we didn’t get to explore much beyond the John and Yoko exhibit curated (very obviously) by Yoko Ono. It is probably a must for deep Beetles or Lennon fans. We saw many a person obviously and deeply moved.
We like the Beetles but are not avid fans. Even so we found the exhibit to be informative and entertaining. At least SM and I did. I had no idea that the US government targeted Lennon and persecuted him on immigration issues to the extent it did. And finding out more about Yoko Ono was, um, interesting.
I am not a fan of Ms. Ono. While, unlike many, I do not hold her to blame for breaking up the Beetles. By the time she came along they were a bunch of grown ass men. Perfectly capable of making decisions and seemed to be already moving towards independence. But the little I know of her has left me thinking of her as self-aggrandizing and fake woke. The exhibit did not change my mind about the fake woke but I freely admit that the woman is talented in her own right. Already an established artist by the time they met it must have been frustrating at times to live in Lennon’s shadow.
LB, did not find the exhibit to be entertaining. The one exception was the singing room where museum goers could belt out Beetles tunes. Despite having had minimal exposure and not knowing any of the lyrics, LB had a ball.
The next morning we grubbed up at a place called Cosy Club .We ordered the American pancakes with a side of streaky (American style) bacon and the Ham Hock Hash.
The good
Streaky bacon. British bacon is amazing. Meaty, salty, and absolutely scrumptious. But there is something about the crunch of American style bacon, especially when you haven’t had it in a while. The Ham Hock Hash came topped with a poached egg and was quite delicious, if a bit on the salty side.
We also liked the fake Victorian atmosphere of the place.
The bad
The pancakes suffered a flaw we were to find shared by all of the American style pancakes we ordered in the UK. (Pancakes are LB’s favorite breakfast so we ended up ordering them at least three times over the almost two weeks of our travels.) They were chewy. These were so chewy they were difficult to cut with a fork. I generally make my pancakes from scratch* and aim for, and occasionally attain, fluffy and airy with a crisp outer coating. These were not that.
Also, another poached egg on the Ham Hock Hash would have balanced out the salt and added just the right amount of sauciness to the dish.
The Walker Gallery was far bigger and more impressive than I expected the collection reaches deep into the building and stretches from the Middle Ages to the very Modern. Home to several famous works and more not so famous works by famous artists it’s definitely worth the time of anyone with the least bit of interest in art. The museum is also participating in the ‘Pride & Prejudice’ project. Along with other members of the NML it has been researching its collections to identify items with an LGBT+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans) connection.
One of the pieces that I found particularly compelling was one by Bill Viola. It was powerful, intimate, voyeuristic, yet comforting. Titled Observance it is part of a series called the Passions. Passion in this instance is used in the ancient way to refer to all strong emotion. Silent and uncomfortable the work is inspired by the artist’s personal life and his interest in the more evocative art of the Middle Ages, among other things. Find out more about the work and the artist here.
There are little interactive touches throughout the museum. A dress up station here, things to touch over there, but LB never made it out of the room of Big Art for Little Artists. A completely interactive experience with books, puppets, puzzles, storytelling, and a variety of ways to create their own unique pieces it is designed to introduce children eight and younger to art. To say LB loved it is an understatement.
You’ve probably come to the conclusion that Liverpool is great for kids. It is! Almost every museum is not only free but has a concentrated space particularly for littles. The one place in which Liverpool failed us, or, more to the point, LB, is in a lack of playgrounds. Googling revealed only one in walking distance to our downtown digs. It was by the university in an area that was dodgy and stinking of the reefer (legalize it!). The playground itself was minuscule and the equipment looked like it had been there long enough that I could have played on it at her age. Compared to Malmo and Copenhagen it was lame. LB did.not.care. It was a place where she could run, jump, slide, swing, and shout. That’s all she needed.
By the time we schlepped out there and finished letting LB run around for a bit I had to pee. Which is how we stumbled into the Ship & Mitre pub. It was actually the second pub we tried but the first was showing the game on its multiple screens to a raucous crowd of blokes. Fortunately, a helpful barkeep pointed us to the screenless, and therefore blissfully quiet, pub next door. We only had an order of fries (chips, if you must) and a couple of few beers so I cannot attest to the quality of the food. But it was atmospheric as fuck up in there. If you’ve ever seen a film in which the lads and lasses are hanging out in a working class/student pub, this was that pub.
It being the UK we ended up in Wetherspoon’s. I went with the fish and chips, what? I like them! And we got the Southern fried chicken hoping LB would eat some. She didn’t. The chicken is mildly spicy which proved to be too much for LB’s delicate taste buds. We are definitely going to have to work on that. We also went to the one in the train station for breakfast before heading to Glasgow. Ordered the (chewy) pancakes for LB while I had the porridge with fresh blueberries and SM went Full English. It’s Wetherspoon’s. They’re like the British McDonalds, ubiquitous and stolid. The food was neither disappointing nor inspiring. Then it was on to Glasgow.
*I like *my* pancakes. They are not chewy. I especially like knowing exactly what went into my pancakes. But the best pancakes I have ever made and ever had were made using Jiffy’s baking mix. The standard one not the cornbread. They were light, fluffy, airy, and tender. I can make a cornbread as good as Jiffy’s but I am still working on those pancakes.