On Thursday my friend from high school came into town from Galway with some of her friends to stay with me. Of course, only she stayed with me and the rest stayed at a hotel nearby. Anyway, on Thursday when she hadn't called by about 10pm I began to get worried and checked Facebook to make sure that I had given her the correct phone number to reach me. NOPE! I had given her the wrong cell number twice. Two different wrong numbers. So, I decided to wait at the train station for a bit just randomly hoping that she would just magically turn up. Of course, she didn't. Since I wouldn't randomly turn up at a London train station hoping that the person I hadn't spoken to would be waiting there either. As I realized this, I took the escalator downstairs and ran into Adam on his way back from badminton. So we walked back together. I wrote on Allison's sister's wall hoping to get the correct number and also posted on Allison's wall, and we managed to meet up the next day after my American Underground Cinema class.
I'm sure you all love to see samples of what I watch in my classes, but I really can't justify a sample from my American Underground class. The most memorable film was 36 minutes of flashing lights. It really hurt my eyes when it would flash black, which is strange because usually it hurts to be subjected to bright lights, but this was the opposite. Anyway, no one in the class really enjoyed them. We also watched some Ken Jacobs, but on small screens they don't work very well. Those were more interesting. I can liken the effect onscreen to looking at a snowglobe in close up while moving around. Shapes would begin to take form as things moved, but they were all transient. Really, quite interesting but somehow eerie. If you want to know what Ken Jacobs is all about, check out the online collection of his films 'til the end of the month here. That website's always got underground shizz on if that's your thang. (Perfect Film is the most famous. And DON'T WORRY!! Ken Jacobs is pretty important, so it's not time ill spent.)
After I got out of that class, I was free as a weekender! Since Allison was still with her travel buddies, Jen and I went to Borough Market down the road and stocked up on deliciousness. Jen got some fudge while I got a chorizo sandwich for lunch and then bought some peaches (not as good as the ones from my backyard), apples (really crisp), a cheese between Camembert and Brie, tomato bread, as well as some razcherries from this stand that has an array of fruits, nuts, and yogurt covered things. On the way back from Borough, Jen and I stopped at Patisserie Lila where we picked up some cupcakes as part of my neverending quest to find delicious cake. When we got back, Allison and I took a walk down the South Bank and crossed the Millennium Bridge to stroll around St. Paul's and guess what we saw!? They were filming the upcoming Sherlock Holmes movie. Niice. So, we rubbernecked for a bit while Allison took pictures of Robert Downey Jr. and we tried to figure out which one Guy Ritchie was. It was impossible until we saw him and Robert play punching. Quaint. We came back to the halls and looked through the seven guidebooks I have and found a place to go to dinner called As Greek As It Gets and made our way over to South Kensington for it. We ended up getting the plate for two, and while the food was good, it really was just a huge pile of meat. We thought it would be more like a plate to make your own gyros. False. But the chicken was AMAZING. After we got back, Allison and I went to pick up the cupcakes and then met up with some of my flatmates at Guy's bar. The cupcakes were dry. The search continues.
Saturday was lovely weather and so Allison and I set out to Portobello Road. (Portobello Road. Street where the riches of of ages are sold. Anything and everything a chap can unload is sold by the barrel in Portobello Road. You'll find what you want in the Po-ortobe-ello Road.--Bedknobs and Broomsticks) That clip gave me false ideas about what to expect. But I wasn't disappointed. It was crazy crowded there. Sooo many antique dealers and tourist crap peddlers. It's not a street market, really. A lot of the shops are actual stores in buildings. On the other side of the street, however, there are stands. But it's not your typical winding marketplace. It's just one, long, somewhat overwhelming street. Anyway, for lunch Allison got Ghanian food for lunch and I had a butternut squash tart. Both were so good. As we wound our way back up, this woman was selling her jewelry for £5 each, so
Allison got a 1950s necklace and a set of earrings. Best part, though, was when we stopped at Hummingbird Bakery and got cupcakes. FINALLY!!! Moist, delicious cake. It was really awe-inspiring after so many strikeouts. Allison and I couldn't stop talking about it the whole way back. She got red velvet (only red because of a whole bottle of food dye, didn't you know?) and I got a Nutella cupcake. So you know I was in seventh heaven. Also, FACT: Magnolia cupcakes in NYC are overrated. But Portobello Road was really fun. The buildings there are so lovely. All are painted these really fun colors: pinks, turquoises, lavenders! All my faves! Afterwards we took the tube to go to Spitalfield's Market in East London, but were dismayed to find that it was closed and planned to go on Sunday. We popped into some vintage shops that were full of selection but tremendously overpriced. We walked back to the halls and then went over to Borough Market, which is a completely different scene than on Fridays. Basically we could hardly move and it was ridiculous. We ended up getting some fudge though. Allison got all the different types, but I only got chocolate covered honeycomb (marvelous), chili chocolate, and sea salt caramel. After we came back, Allison's friends phoned and we decided to all meet up for some dinner. We ended up going to the Anchor (the historical pub from my first post) and eating there.
The next day, Allison and I got an extremely late
start to the day. We ended up meeting with Cristina after she got off work and going for a walk in the park because it was so beautiful outside. You probably don't understand how luscious it was outside. We were literally walking around coatless. I got home and checked the weather: 73º!! (I still don't know how to do Celsius..) Everyone was outside just basking in the marvelous sun. Cristina said it was the best day she could remember in a long time. And she felt ALMOST like she was in L.A.
In my Fathers in Film course, last week
we watched 8 Femmes, which was really enjoyable and completely ridiculous. It's essentially a whodunit musical set in 1940s France. Bonus: It was partially inspired by George Cukor's 1939 The Women, which is absolutely not to be confused with the 2008 The Women. Apparently there's also some play that it's based on, but I can't quite remember what it's called at this moment. There was one moment when I was absolutely reminded of everyone's beloved Bride and Prejudice when
they burst into the first song. "No Life Without Wife" is so much like
"Papa T'es plus dans l'coup," how could you not love it? This is the same class for which we watched The Silence of the Lambs this past week. Nearly all the reading we do for this course is Freud. All I can say about Freud without hesitation is that he's quite eager to fit everything into the Oedipal Complex. It's quite obnoxious. (I'm sorry, but I can't talk about Bride and Prejudice without inserting everyone's favorite number here. You can thank me later. It's also come on my itunes shuffle three times in the past week. So, that's significant.)
With all the discussion of films, you might think that I'm not getting in my share of live entertainment. Fear not, readers! In the past week I've gone to not one, but THREE, live things. Whoa! Dream big. Last Tuesday, Adam and I went to a debate at St. Paul's Cathedral called "The Battle for Truth?" that was described in the leaflet as: "DOes science lead inexorably to atheism? Is religious faith irrational? In this opening discussion, four leading philosophers and theologians consider the nature of science and religion, and how they can clash in the search for understanding." (That link has the broadcast if you want to listen. It was played on London's Christian radio station.) I'm not gonna lie to you. I didn't really listen to the debate at all. I thought it would be really interesting, but not so much. I basically just sat in the cathedral and looked around at the surroundings and kept thinking to myself, "What a beautiful venue. But the acoustics are terrible." They really were. Basically, there was a slight echo so that whenever one of the debaters spoke, it was muffled by what they had said about 3 seconds before. Sad. But, I feel pretty good about tuning out because Adam said it wasn't very good and that they all seemed to be coming from the same place. He knows a lot about this stuff aka he's read some of the materials the debaters were discussing. (And it's not like I wasn't listening at all. Even I could gather that what they were saying wasn't terribly varied. I feel justified.)
Last night I went to Oedipus starring Ralph Fiennes at the Olivier Theatre.
Many of you may remember Ralph Fiennes from his stellar work in Maid in Manhattan (A.K.A. J-Lo's greatest movie after The Wedding Planner.). I've never seen Oedipus in real life and it was pretty good. It's weird, but whenever I read the play I always imagine that when he comes out after having pierced his eyes that he comes out blind. False. This production brought him back out in his bloodied glory. OOC (Out of Control for those who don't know me..). Apparently the show is sold out, but we had gotten tickets through the agency Wash U hired. Well, too bad when this other girl and I arrived, our seats had been given away. So we went to the box office where they said that the company had returned the tickets a few weeks before. (I guess they only returned our two tickets? Strange and wondrous.) In the end, we managed to get better seats that we had originally been given. And we got reimbursed too. Baller.
Last Wednesday the same agency had also bought us tickets to go to the Comedy Store, which is basically improv. It was pretty good. I thought they sometimes did sketches a bit too long and I don't particularly care for musical improv, but overall, you could tell that the performers were quite talented and it was enjoyable. One of my favorites was when they did this bit about a tiger javelin thrower and each performer had to say one word as they answered the questions (so it was like 3 people being one, yeah?) and the interviewer asked about the tigers, and they said it worked best with tigers that spoke French. Well, the interviewer proceeded to ask what kinds of things the tiger says most while running around the living room during training: "Ouvrez la porte." and "Où est ma soeur?" Comedy!
"Music Has the charms to soothe the savage beast."--William Congreve
but here it can be a nuisance to our neighbors.
It's a sign for noise pollution. Awesome, right? Their cigarette boxes also have warning labels, but they are not like the Surgeon General's Warning required on American ones. These are far more explicit. Two of my favorites: "Smoking can cause a slow and painful death." and "Smoking can reduce blood flow and cause impotence." Pwahahahahahaha. I love them. There really are far too many people who smoke in London. It's quite awful, especially in many of the areas around my halls where they're completing construction and they're essentially funneled all the foot traffic into one aisle so that it is nearly impossible to free oneself from the clouds of smoke. It's abhorrent so early in the morning. And in the afternoon. And at night....
Speaking of smoke, my building keeps having fire drills. There was one Thursday night, Sunday evening, and Monday evening. Apparently the one on Monday was due to a real fire.. That's what people are telling me. In general, though, I find the British far more concerned about potential fires than Americans. I make this statement based on the obscene number of fire doors that they have in every building. It seems really unnecessary--sometimes they are placed within 5 feet of each other. For serious. Today during the 10 minute break in my seminar, I waited 5 minutes to go into the main building for the toilet, and was swept into the current of people being evacuated. Perfect timing? Interestingly, the building where my class was taking place, which is in a slightly set off wing was not emptied. So eventually we all went back inside and class had continued despite 95% of the class's absence. I didn't get to use the restroom during break.
This is another picture of the beautiful day that was Sunday. Probably won't happen again, so I'm documenting here to let you know it was for real. Doesn't it look like a painting?
London is the greenest city in Europe. (Cristina tells me this every time I see her.)
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