The Voice Box

THE LOS ANGELES COUNTY MUSEUM In spite of my many visits to Los Angeles, this was my first visit to the Los Angeles County Museum. With a collection of over 100,000 art objects, it was much larger than I imagined. Another surprise was that it covered the full gamut of art history; it included European Art and Sculpture, Japanese Art, Middle Eastern Art to all that is Modern and Contemporary, and all elements of Photography. I shall be featuring some of the artwork in future postings. Today, I want to salute one of the largest sculpture I had ever seen. It was so large that it was difficult to take a photo encompassing the total object. Smoke was conceived by Tony Smith, and its structure reflects his explorations of patterns found in organic life. It is composed of hexagons, each supported by a triad of columns. Despite its geometric structure and logic, it is meant to capture a sense of openness, and expansive growth. We are told that the structure was only erected once before, and be

The Election is Over It is two weeks since the UK election. And after the consultation and and somewhat contrary negotions between the political parties caused by 'a hung election' , we have a new Prime Minister. The idea of a coalition government is not so radical even for the UK. But what is different is the form which the coalition takes. For a start, we now have the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister from two separate parties. Already, there are dire predictions about its survival. But I am prepared to wait and see; I have this strange predilection that it will probably last much longer than many assume. With the resignation of Gordon Brown, and the upcoming contest to elect the new Labour leader, the new coalition will have months to organise themselves and get their programme running. The electorate has spoken; and although the results are somewhat indecisive, the collated numbers do offer a mandate to govern the country for the moment. It will be truly interes

LOS ANGELES 22 APRIL 2010 'I should be getting ready to fly to Los Angeles on Thursday. But I am not. That does not mean I am not going. It will depend on how much ash is spewing from that volcano in Iceland. The eruption of Eyjafjallajökull has thought us all a lesson, and we will take a long time to recover from it.' Let the truth be known. I did fly. I was on the first American Airline flight to leave Heathrow airport, and heading to Los Angeles. I was extremely lucky, as AA chose to exercise its regular schedules starting April 22nd. The backlog was put on hold temporarily. Not only was the journey across successful, but the fallout of the ash was quite noticeable on my arrival at LA airport. Most of the international carriers were missing. The usual overlong queues were conspicuouly absent. Even the immigration experience, for once, was notably brief. I was able to clear immigration in five minutes, unheard of in years gone by. A walk through customs, and bravo I was on