Ionarts in Manchester: Holy Cow!

So I arrived in Manchester for the Baroque conference (lots more about that later this week) on Wednesday, although I've still been publishing Paris posts. I haven't exactly seen a lot of this city, but I have noticed that, while Washington has its damnable pandas, Manchester has a similar manifestation of what Marja-Leena Rathje has so aptly called Public Art Fauna (as noted by Marja-Leena, Anna Conti wonders Is It Art?), called the Manchester Cow Parade. Apparently, it has already befouled other cities around the world. There are cows on some of the buildings of the campus of the Royal Northern College of Music, where the conference is taking place, and a cow smoking a cigarette, displayed on a revolving dais, over the entrance to the place where I am blogging right now.

A colleague walked over to the Manchester Museum this morning, which I may do tomorrow before heading to Wales for a couple days and then the trip back to the United States. I had quite an adventure on the never predictable trains of British Rail, getting from the airport to the conference site. However, if I can just remember to look to the right first before crossing the street (not to the left, which won't help you here, obviously), I will not end my days crushed under a British vehicle.