August 06 Birmingham

First destination was the open market:

 

where similar looking vendors were hawking similar fruits and vegetables in similar plastic containers and shouting our similar shouts that may have had to do with price.  The similarity all the way through was so striking, that I wondered whether this market was really the enterprise of one family or clan or some such.  The purchaser has one choice: buy by the tub, although, of a truth, some of the large vegetables were sold by the piece.

After the market, I scouted out the whereabouts ot the train station whence my train  departs tomorrow in case I decide to walk to the station.  It turns out that because of the huge pedestrian shopping area, called Bull Ring, it takes a minute longer to get to the station by taxi than on foot!

Selfridges, a department store with an interesting  history

But this aluminum ultra modern structure is not the original store, which was not even in Birmingham, but, as you would guess, in London.

I love that the church is framed by two major retail outlets...well, one and one-soon-to-be:

Next stop was the Birmingham Museum of Art.  When you saw this:

you knew you were close.

I had about an hour to spend there before my ticketed tour of the Back To Backs, thinking that if there was lots more to see, I could return after the tour.  There wasn't and I didn't.

In the museum:

Yup!! Super tolerant!

OK, folks, you can look at the art but you have to feel VERY GUILTY:

(Remember to click on photos to enlarge)

Yes, all the diverse communities of whom we are tolerant.  

But se still get to see some looted and otherwise ill gotten treasure acquired throughout the Empire.  It used to be called the spoils of war.

Apparently,  some butterflies were collected almost to extinction.  This is just a tiny part of the display:

How do people catch butterflies without breaking their wings?

You are not going to believe what this is and/or to whom it belonged!

Ready for the reveal?   It is the staff of Moses's according to....

Coventry writer Graham Phillips believes the staff, on display at Birmingham Museum, belonged to the historical Egyptian official Tuthmosis, whose life had strong parallels with the Moses of the Bible.

"I am certain that this is the actual staff that the Bible asserts Moses used to perform the miracles of the Exodus," he told BBC News Online.

But his claims are disputed by the curator of Birmingham Museum, Phil Watson.

So, it either is or it isn't!   Now, here is the big question.  Let's say the board of the museum decides to return the staff to its rightful place of origin.  Who gets it?  (Me!  I want it!) 

Oh, there is another view (maybe many for all I know) that the staff is in Turkey (with Noah's ark?) or that it is buried in Moses's tomb only since there is no tomb of Moses, that theory has an obvious defect.

Yet Another lecture:

I understand that now we are nice people even though we were not before we became nice people,  but I respectfully decline the invitation to reflect.  And I have plenty to say—lucky for you, dear reader, not here—about usurping and devaluing another people's treasures. 

There was a small exhibit of photos telling about Birmingham during WWll, part of which were first person narratives of a couple of children who had come on the kindertransport, one Austrian and one German, because God forbid they should be identified as Jews, which they were. 

Enough!  A beautiful wedding dress:

Buttons were Birmingham item of manufacture:

Back to the street:  This is Central Station, (New Street)  a stunning building with a stainless steel facade upon which is reflected everything around it!

It was time to head over to the  back to backs for a tour, which was excellent, very much like the tenement tour in New York.  We saw three houses from different periods: from mid 1800's to mid 1900's.  The first house was owned by a family named Levy.  There was a mezuzah, not only outside, but on the door post to every room.

You might interject that there should not be one on the door to the bathroom and you would be correct except this was pre-bathroom times.  There were two privies in the courtyard for 80 people.  

This is the Levys' dining table set for Shabbat. I guess the curators could not decide whether to cover of not cover the challah:

Mr. Levy made clock hands.  The pair on the bottom are stamped out by machine. The brass pair on top, hand made and fine.

Moving on to the second house, we find evidence of a different occupation:

No, not bottons, EYES!  For taxidermy and for prostheses.  Now that is a niche craft, except that taxidermy was all the rage in the century so maybe not so niche.

In the third house, lived a man in the tailoring business  Here is a pattern:

Our tour guide told us that an dight year old boy on a tour last week did not know what this was:

He had never seen one!

There was so much of interest to hear just about dealing with human waste.  In short, it was so disgusting!  About bugs, rats, dirt, smells from tallow candles and later gas, about hauling water, about sleeping arrangements, about borders who often slept behind a curtain in the children's room....the boys' room (the girls tended to sleep with their parents), all that day to day stuff that makes you wonder how people were not stark raving mad if they even made it to adulthood.

Next stop, the Ikon Gallery, which I expected to be weird (ultra modern) and it so was!  There were 2 exhibits and about ten guards guarding.  One was of a woman weaving.  She had the whole floor of the museum to herself.  The interesting bit there was that her loom was hooked up to a computer so that she knew exactly which row she was on in the patten.

The other exhibit was of some pieces of wood arranged vertically and some quilts all of which were supposed ot be deeply meaningful and spiritual, and maybe for some people they are.

Oh!  I almost forgot this singular string lady:

Heading back to the hotel, I took the canal route:

Where for a minute you might feel you were not in a city:

What do I think of Birmingham?  Ehhh.  Big, lots of people, lots of buildings, some interesting architecture, but it lacks that je ne sais quoi.  It feels bland.  Not sorry I stopped off here.  No desire to return. 

¡Adios, toro!