Museums
Went to see the Hogarth exhibition at Tate Britain. Disappointed by it, mostly due to the crowds. Was fetid, hot, and jammed. Only a few kids, lots of elderly people. Now that's not normally much of a problem as I tend to zap back and forth through gaps in the crowd, but the big draws here are the sequences like "A Rake's Progress" which you need to see in order. Shambling through the press of flesh felt horribly like being roped into an orgy organized by Saga Holidays.

Also annoying: a lot of these works are usually on display for free in the London museums anyway. If I'd paid for entry, I'd have been pretty pissed off to pay good money to see glimpses of normally-free stuff in a unpleasant crowd.

On the plus side, was interesting to see all the things together. Hogarth's straight portraits are pretty bland though: Hogarth was no Reynolds or Gainsborough.

That said, might zoom in a bit later to see if the crowds have died down.

Watching
Saw the first episode of Primeval, ITV's attempt to clone the Dr Who phenomenon. Dinosaurs start appearing through a temporary wormhole, professor, associates, comic-sinister civil servants investigate. Not bad, seems to be quite neatly done, nice to see dinosaurs rampaging through suburbia. Not sure it'll keep my interest though. Not as good as Dr Who, better than Torchwood.

What I'm Reading
Finished the third Rabbit book: Rabbit is Rich by John Updike. It's the late Seventies, the oil crisis is in full swing, and Rabbit's part-ownership of a Toyota dealership has propelled him into the upper middle class. The only fly in the ointment is his son Nelson, home from college with a pregnant girlfriend.

Book's as good as ever: though Rabbit's rebelliousness has now worn away into middle aged complacency. Brilliantly observed and written. This one's more cheerful than the others without the climactic tragedies of the first two novels.

I think they appeal to me more than the average kitchen sink novel because they're intended to reflect the times as well: the books are written at ten year intervals. This one even has a wife-swapping party. So, you get an anthropological study of the age as well as acute character and social observation.

Well worth reading but you really need to start at the beginning. I'll be looking out for the fourth one, but need a break first.