Creativity | A Zestful Quest

I’ve been hanging out with Stuart Friday last week and yesterday which was fun. Yesterday we spent half the day walking around Oxford Street, Regent Street, Covent Garden and China Town. We went to Turnkey a cool music shop where I bought a USB studio condenser microphone so I can start recording/singing again. My voice is in need of some serious practice. I also had to look for a headset and since I did my research online I found out that some of the cheap ones don’t seem to like my G5 or any Mac in particular which made me decide to check out the ones at the Apple Store in Regent Street.

Boy that place is crowded! and less interesting than the one near Central Station in Amsterdam which might be a small place but at least they have slightly better service. I heard all the bad stories about Regent Street but when we got there I instantly felt like leaving again. This place is so chaotic and the staff really seems to be busy doing nothing all the time, showing more interest in the fact that they can wear their Apple t-shirt and badge than providing great service to customers. Yes the service sucks, but no wonder, the place is more like a huge glass display than an actual store. I knew it was bad but I didn’t realise it was this bad and I decided to get my stuff online instead of going back there to place an order. Of course Stuart and I ended up having the same old Apple-PC battle of wits.

I’m a Mac user -ever since the Classic was released- and I will continue to buy Mac products no matter how bad their service is: it’s not about the store, it’s about the product and the operating system. I love these machines and I would never ever change to PC since I always end up having to help out PC users fixing their problems: it really put me off. Things that are simple on a Mac become a burden on a PC and those PC users that I had to deal with didn’t have a clue what they’re doing: getting themselves into trouble because of a lack of knowledge or plain ignorance. A Mac could be somewhat restricted but offers tons of options to those who know what they’re doing. I have been a system operator for both so I believe I can make this assumption based on some of my experience.

Each to their own; I won’t try to convince people to change their ways but I have converted a few to Mac and they do agree with me after giving it a try for some time. Stuart if you read this don’t worry I’m not gonna try to convince you nor convert you and I know I threatened to put your picture on here, but I’ve decided to spare you the humiliation *hehe*

Edit: I might change my mind since you seem to be begging for it… :p

The Store

We went to the Dutch pub for a drink… looking for Dutch and extremely expensive bitterballen

I went to an amazing place last Sunday: the British Library, near St Pancras tube station. I wanted to see a temporary exhibition called ‘The Printed Face of the European Avant Garde 1900-1937’. It was nice but I guess I have seen most of the printed books, posters, record covers and brochures at exhibitions in the Lowlands already. One thing was quite funny: ‘de Stijl’ was one of the subjects of the exhibition as part of the Avant Garde. Each subject was linked to the city of origin. So the first thing I noticed when I walked in was my own place of birth ‘Leiden’ printed in huge block capitals followed by ‘Amsterdam’. I have to admit I had this funny feeling all of a sudden. It’s just weird to see such a familiar name in such an unfamiliar place.

The other section is a permanent exhibition where you can find books, manuscripts, maps, sound recordings, photographs and stamps. Examples are the Magna Carta, Alice’s Adventures Under Ground by Lewis Carroll, Shakespeare’s First Folio of works, the Gutenberg Bible and Mozart’s music scores along with some other scores of great composers. I was sneaking a few pictures when I was told off by the security guard so my camera ended up in my handbag. I think this part of the British Library was the most interesting part to be honest. I love to see all the old handwritten books, the thick paper, the beautiful bright colour illustrations in the bibles and manuscripts. It’s a shame that I wasn’t allowed to take pictures because these really are wonderful treasures.

Another part that caught my eye was the King’s Library: a glass tower of books at the heart of the British Library. The private collection of George III, King of Great Britain and Ireland from 1760 to 1820. The Tower is designed by Colin St John Wilson, architect of the St Pancras building. Possibly inspired by a similar tower at Yale University in the United States. It has six levels all linked by one internal staircase and two lifts. All book cases are on rollers so they can easily be pulled back to allow access. The books are kept in a controlled environment with a temperature of 16º C [61º F] and 50% relative humidity. The Tower houses the King’s Library and the private library of the politician Thomas Grenville, about 105000 volumes in total.

The King’s Library Collection compromises around 85000 volumes, mostly books and pamphlets with smaller numbers of periodicals, maps and atlases some of which are manuscript dated from the 1450s to the 1830s. Almost all printed in Europe or America. Much of the material is in English or Latin, but many other languages are well represented especially Greek, Dutch, French, German, Italian and Spanish.