An online home where I write, teach, publish, and explore
By Michael Downing Tate Modern Tate Modern is beautiful. Located on London's South Bank, it houses "the United Kingdom's national collection of international modern and contemporary art, and forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It is one of the largest modern and contemporary museums in the world. During our visit, the works of two artists were... Continue Reading →
By Michael Downing Shakespeare's Globe The original Globe Theatre is where William Shakespeare staged his plays back in the late 1500s; Shakespeare's Globe is the contemporary reconstruction of the theatee that is located near the original site. As always, Wikipedia gives us verified facts quickly: "The modern Shakespeare's Globe was founded by the actor and director Sam Wanamaker,... Continue Reading →
By Michael Downing My World of Shakespeare Back in the 1990s when I lived in Pittsburgh, I put together a full-time teaching schedule by teaching courses at various community colleges, including Butler County Community College, the Community College of Beaver County, and Community College of Allegheny County (Boyce Campus). My schedule was spread out between... Continue Reading →
By Michael Downing JRR Tolkien In the last post, I wrote about Poets' Corner at Westminster. At the end of that essay, I mentioned how I was disappointed by the fact that JRR Tolkien's name had not yet been included at the Abbey. So let me say it: JRR Tolkien (1892-1973) is a giant of... Continue Reading →
By Michael Downing A Mausoleum that Doubles as a Church Westminster Abbey is a full-blown mausoleum that doubles as an active Anglican church. It's insanely beautiful and holds a place of massive importance in the history and tradition of the British Empire. I actually knew very little about the Abbey before we went. I knew... Continue Reading →
By Michael Downing Carnaby Street Located in London's West End, Carnaby Street features more than 100 shops and more than 60 bars and restaurants. The fashion side includes Birkenstock, Cole Buxton, Izipizi, Paul Smith, and Scotch and Soda. Restaurants include Dehesa, Inko Nito, Polpo, and Tapas Brindisa. Click here for Carnaby Magazine 2023. Shopper's heaven.... Continue Reading →
By Michael Downing Covent Garden Covent Garden: So nice we went twice. Located southeast of Soho, Covent Garden is famous for its central square, shopping, souvenirs, food, and the Royal Opera House (plus about half-a-million people, or so it seemed). We initially wandered over on Wednesday afternoon (it was reasonably crowded) and then again on... Continue Reading →
By Michael Downing The Red-Eye to Heathrow We took the red eye out of Newark and landed at Heathrow at 7 am, disoriented and quite a bit depersonalized. A friendly woman on the people-mover noticed our Hokas and modeled hers. "Those are cool," Jackie said. Hers are purple; Jackie’s are pink; mine are black. “I... Continue Reading →
Katherine North created this artwork for The Keystone Newspaper. It is published here with her permission under Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0).
By Michael Downing Chat GPT Logo. Source: ChatGPT, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons I used to travel to San Jose regularly to cover the tech sector. One day a software engineer told me over a doughnut that there was a growing recognition that silicon (aka “silicate materials”)—the second-most frequently occurring element on Earth (after oxygen)—was... Continue Reading →
My Writing Wanderland 