Fourth Plinth

Some backstory here. Of course there's Anothony Gormley's project One & Other for Trafalgar Square's fourth plinth. The gist of it for those of you who don't know is that participants get an hour to do whatever they want up there. And anything they do, from just standing there enjoying the moment, to getting naked, to promoting political causes, making art, throwing things out out to the crowds below... anything really.

Then there's Brenda Dayne of one of my favourite podcasts, Cast On. I've been listening to this podcasts since close to when it began, and knew I'd found something special when she played some (of the most crass) Da Vinci's Notebook. (Other favourite musical notables include Peter Mulvey and Josh Woodward.)

And even though I couldn't convince anyone to come along with me, I went along to see Brenda on the plinth on Saturday. I quickly found the knitters in the shadow of the plinth, and happily knit and spun the hour away (had to help promote International Spin In Public while Talking Like A Pirate Day, eh?) while Brenda knit on gigantic needles up on the plinth. (You can see the video here.)

Here she is:



And this is for Jaci, who asked how much you can see:



That's from maybe 20 metres away. The tour guide was saying something like "Here we've got a woman knitting. Yesterday's tour had a woman naked but for a g-string."

There was also an enormous chess game in the square put on by the London Design Festival. There were two women competing during this match, and they got to sit on thrones above the game. The peons helpers escorted the pieces around.



Some of the pieces were very striking.



After the hour on the plinth, many the knitters decamped to a pub. I had this fabulous beer, and had to get a pic of it for my friend Kat, who's a big Lemony Snicket fan.



There were very cool beer mats:



and fun conversation, where I met some people who are friends-of-friends here in Oxford. It's a small little town!

Close to the pub I found a place which sells onigiri OM NOM NOM.



And before I caught the bus back to Oxford, I stopped by the Selfridges food halls (ostensibly to have a look around at which American foods they carry) and got this amazing Oreo cupcake).



Which was a delicious end to a fun day. And I'm so glad it stayed dry and warm, as I wouldn't have bothered to go out otherwise!