Museums & Galleries
Pergamonmuseum
You’re a world away from rote learning by candlelight, severe teachers, inky papers and dreary prose and yet here on some wild, herb-scented hill, everything you read comes to life before your …
- Originally published: 30 Mar 2009 in Museums & Galleries
Stasimuseum Normannenstraße
Though the fledgling East German state was tied to a democratic process by wartime Allied agreements, in practice democracy was nominal since all parties were members of a coalition controlled by the …
- Originally published: 30 Mar 2009 in Museums & Galleries
Gemäldegalerie, Berlin
Berlin’s art collections have been through the mill. Over four hundred larger works were lost during the Second World War. Then, when the Wall was erected, the Museumsinsel disappeared along with everything else …
- Originally published: 28 Mar 2009 in Museums & Galleries
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
Bruegel’s Tower of Babel (source: Wikimedia Commons) The Museum Boijmans-van Beuningen is one of the better reasons to visit Rotterdam. The city was endowed with Boijmans’ considerable collection in 1841 – the year of …
- Originally published: 11 Mar 2009 in Museums & Galleries
Body Worlds in Brussels
The art of the Ancient Greeks and of the Renaissance shares a common concern for anatomical accuracy. It comes as no surprise, then, that these were also periods in which anatomy itself …
- Originally published: 5 Oct 2008 in Museums & Galleries
Virgin and Child Surrounded by Angels
I have waited several years to see this painting, on display at the Royal Fine Arts Museum in Antwerp. It depicts a resplendent, charged image that somehow escaped the censure of conservative …
- Originally published: 28 Jul 2008 in Museums & Galleries
At the National Gallery
J and I have threatened to visit the National Gallery (and London galleries in general) for some time now, missing out on Hopper and Lempicka into the unfortunate bargain. Finally, after such an …
- Originally published: 31 Oct 2005 in Museums & Galleries
Elsewhere on MikePadgett.com …
Society’s nutters
J’s sister reports on her blog that she was recently attacked by a drab, repressed-looking, extremely neurotic character in a tube station over allegedly skipping a fare (J’s sister has a season …
- Originally published: 25 Aug 2005 in Personalia
Girona and the 3rd Caixa Sabadell Etnival
Now let’s get one thing straight: Girona is a city in Catalonia. It is not in Italy – if you think that, you’re crossing Genoa and Verona and you’re getting Gerona (sic). J …
- Originally published: 29 Jun 2007 in Europe
A walk in Longdendale
J and I recently took off for a day and went walking in Longdendale, a valley descending from Dark Peak in a westerly direction down into Greater Manchester. As one might expect in …
- Originally published: 21 Feb 2007 in UK
Law of Desire (La Ley del Deseo)
Director: Pedro Almodóvar Spain, 1987 There’s much to like about the performances in Law of Desire. Eusebio Poncela plays a marvellously ambivalent, sexually ambiguous film director as his insouciance gives way to raw emotion …
- Originally published: 27 Sep 2007 in Film
At home with Papa: from Key West to Key Largo
Great War ambulance driver, the Lost Generation’s leading light, hunter in the Serengeti, radicalist sympathiser in the Spanish Civil War, Q-Boat captain Cuba, D-Day correspondent, Nobel Prize winner, friend then enemy of …
- Originally published: 16 Jan 2008 in North America
Who is that guy?
Hello you. I'm Mike Padgett and I work in the technology sector as an Information Designer.
I also enjoy travel, concerts, films and walking.
I'm based in Brussels, Belgium. My current favourite Belgian beer is St Feuillien Brune.