Much like yesterday, there wasn't a set plan for today. There was talk but no real plan. Eventually, Luke, Chad, Mike and I decided that a picture of us walking across Abbey Road was necessary and today would be the day. We got Kim to come along to be the photographer and ended up running into a slew of other folk who wanted to come along. So we all journeyed up the left side of Regent's Park toward Abbey road studios.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Harrod's Abbey Burana
Much like yesterday, there wasn't a set plan for today. There was talk but no real plan. Eventually, Luke, Chad, Mike and I decided that a picture of us walking across Abbey Road was necessary and today would be the day. We got Kim to come along to be the photographer and ended up running into a slew of other folk who wanted to come along. So we all journeyed up the left side of Regent's Park toward Abbey road studios.
Monday, October 27, 2008
A Full Friday
This random Friday became rather eventful rather unexpectedly. Kris and I took a journey south of Hyde park to see the sights there. The first sight to see was the Marble Arch right outside speaker's corner.
Zhang Xiaotao
Feng Zhengjie: Chinese Portrait P Series 2006 No. 1
Sun Yuan and Peng Yu: Love it! Bite it: (and entire city made from dog chews)
Sun Yuan and Peng Yu: Angel
Bai Yiluo : Civilization
Since we were just a few blocks away, we decided to edumacate ourselves by going to the Science Museum just outside the Imperial College of London.
We saw the worlds first computers, planes, jet engines, an exhibit on plastic (most exciting), model ships, and a whole array of things you'd expect to find in a science museum. Excluding, however, the one thing I did expect to find, on of those pipes you hover your hand over to make your hair stand up. I mean, come on, how do you miss that?
The coolest section was the interactive children's section. The only downfall, all the damn kids. Although they didn't have the electric hair stand-up thingy, everything else made up for it's absence. This computer monitor to the right was one of my favs as it taught children about sound waves and audio. Basically what I do every day.
We took a bus home, I grabbed a panini from ISH, and hopped the tube over to Brick Lane where I met up with Chad, Mike, and Luke for an Alaska in Winter concert.
Before even arriving, we got a concert of our own on Brick Lane as we drank our cheap beer from the shop. This guy wheeled his kit around London and played wherever he wouldn't get kicked out of, and believe me, he knew what he was doing. Check him out.
Streets
Aida
A Monday of Truth
Frieze, Everybody Clap Your Hands
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Rumshake, Park Art, and Moshi Moshi
Good Food and Comedy
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
An Evening of Proud
After work today, I got to see how one of my fellow interns is doing at her place of employment. Meredith is working at Proud Galleries. It's a sweet combinatioin of a concert venue, bar, and an art gallery. There are three branches of them in Camden and other parts of London. This one, on this particular night was giving away free drinks as a celebration / slap-in-the-face to the gallery next door who was trying to hold a celebration of their own.
Free drinks and cool photographs of musicians form the 70's? Pretty sweet place to work Meredith.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
A Wednesday in Harlesden
She tells her love while half asleep,In the Dark hours,With half-words whispered low:As Earth stirs in her winter sleepAnd puts out grass and flowersDespite the snow,Despite the falling snow.
Monday, October 20, 2008
My Love, Jose Gonzales
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Awake to Amsterdam, Sleep in London
Saturday, October 18, 2008
A Sunday in Amsterdam and I Missed Church
An Amsterdam Saturday
Amsterdam Belatedly Begins
Friday, October 17, 2008
I Talked with a Worldclass Counter-Tenor
At Life today I began probably the biggest project I’ve worked on yet. It’s an audio story telling of different cultures' Diwali celebrations. The Brent Council and I are producing these story tellings to be played at the annual Diwali celebration in a couple of weeks. First, I spent about 3 ½ hours in the studio with a fabulous story teller and her friend who served as the music consultant. Truthfully her voice didn’t need any music behind it. She’s just that captivating. But the music does fill in a lot of gaps.
We got all the music and narration in place. Then we went through the script with a fine tooth comb and they told me where they’d like effects to enter in, where music should fade in a fade out, and the like. After another 3 hours of editing, I have half of it done. I’m pumped to go into work Monday and finish it.
I had to leave work right at 6 in order to make it to the English National Opera in time. My flat mate Luke is interning there and he scored me a ticket. He told me the other day that while he isn’t getting “paid,” he has been compensated in the form of opera tickets to the sum of £1,200. Once I saw where we were sitting, I completely believed him. We were in row K of the stalls (the main floor). A brilliant seat for a contemporary / 1950’sish take on Handel’s Partenope, a ‘comedy’ about a queen which basically everyone is in love with. So a massive love triangle.
The set was very modern. The first act took place in a large white room where the lighting really played with shadows. The second act was outside a building, and a bathroom on the outside of the building carried most of the action. Finally in act three, the cast is in one room where a photographer, who has been taking pictures throughout the whole show, is combining his pictures into a massive collage.
During the two intermissions, Luke was able to get us into the press lounges where we enjoyed free wine and bumping elbows with London's press. After the show Luke’s leverage worked to our favor again as we went to the after party with the performers in the sky bar at the top of the Coliseum. There I was able to chat with pit conductor Christian Curnyn, soprano Rosemary Joshua, and countertenor Iestyn Davies. Mr. Davies was awesome. I had a good conversation with him about how to develop a countertenor voice. He was truly down to earth.
Luke and I were also interviewed for an ENO promotional video:
http://www.eno.org/video/main.html
We're at the end of the Audience Reaction to First Night of Partenope video.
An amazing night to say the least. An opera at the Coliseum and got to talk with world class opera performers. Oh and all the drinks at this after party were free…..
A Wednesday in Harlesden
Work was interesting today, as my tasks were quite varied. I began the day adding friends to the Life FM myspace page. Eventually though, I was off doing my normal audio editing. At one point today, I officially felt like an intern as my uber busy boss asked me to get her a cup of tea. It didn’t really feel degrading, more like one co-worker asking for the another's asisstance. She apologized after her meeting saying she’d never ask me to do something like that again, just that she was in a rush.
Later that night, Meredith, Kaity, and I attempted to see The Ting Tings. We were intending on just scalping a ticket from outside the venue, as the show had been sold out for months, however due a tube delay of about 25 minutes on the Bakerloo line, we realized we weren’t going to make it to the venue, Sheppard’s Bush, in time. So we hopped a different line to Oxford’s circus.
When we ascended from the tube station there, we stumbled upon two terrific street musicians. The drummer played four plastic pails, a tin pot, and a symbol which he laid on the ground and used his foot on top which made it function like a high hat and sound like one too. The sax player with him gave the duet a melody which he rocked hard.
Down Regent’s street we attempted to go to a pub called Ain’t Nothing But (the Blues) as they feature live music every night. However, that was packed and the bouncer was enforcing a strict one in, one out policy. So we journeyed around the corner to a hip diner called The Diner, where the men’s and women’s bathrooms are marked with just a black lightning bolt and a red lightning bolt, nothing else. Which would you choose?
There we sampled a banana bread beer. Not bad really. In a night I could probably only handle one. But the beer went great with my waffle topped with Swiss cheese. From there we checked out a club called The Metro, nothing to write about here…
After that it was 1:00AM, and we all had work in the morning.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
A Tuesday
"By the way, last night was a fantastically retarded idea. I can't decide if I love you or hate you for it."
A Monday
10-6-2008
I’ve been working at Life FM now for a little under two weeks. Therefore, my supervisor thought it appropriate that today we have a short review. She asked me if I was getting out of Life what I hoped to (no pun intended), what I could do better, and basically we just had a pleasant little sit down.
She also brought in real Italian lasagna for the office, as she is from Italy. It was more creamy than cheesy, but oh so delicious.
After work we had a UWSP group meeting. I sat down, had a piece of Katie’s birthday cake, and left. It was a good meeting.
The night got much more exciting as myself, along with Luke, Jose, Chad, and Mike, did a bit of clubbing, because I didn’t have to be in to work till 11:30. I randomly connected, via facebook, with an old high school mate, Joseph, and I had him tag along with us. First we all went to Roxy then to Ghetto, which we came to realize was a gay club, but they were playing good music so we didn’t mind. Except when I accidentally made eye contact with a guy in the bathroom… just don’t do that, trust me.
Welcome to Planet Starbucks
10-5-2008
I’m caught up. I’m actually writing this date's entry on the date it’s happening (although I didn't post it till two days later). Currently, it’s 18:27 on this Sunday and I’m in a Starbucks getting caught up. Yes, I agree, it’s corporate America, but as Mike Wilson so elegantly puts it “capitalism is the new imperialism,” but that’s a topic for a different post.
Perhaps it was divine intervention because I went to that Fetish Convention yesterday, but as I was catching up on blogging, doing laundry, and trying to figure out what I would do today, I stumbled across the picture I took of the Westminster Abbey service schedule. Thanks to that picture, I took in the 15:00 Evensong, their Sunday afternoon service featuring the Westminster boys choir. My sister told me about this fantastic group and upon recognizing the title, I knew I had to see it.
Heavenly is the only way to describe their voices combining in unison to give praise to God. I’ll be visiting them again…maybe I’ll make it a Sunday thing. I haven’t done that in a few years. Bah, I have to get out of this Starbucks. If I do anything exciting tonight, I’ll revisit this post.
*The most exciting part from Starbuck to when I got home was that there was the cutest dog ever on the tube. She rested her head on my foot. Her name was Angel.
PARENTAL DISCRETION is ADVISED, London Fetish Weekend
10-4-2008
Thanks to picking up a copy of London’s entertainment magazine, Time Out, we discovered that this weekend was Fetish Weekend in the UK’s capital. The largest "alternative lifestyle" (a.k.a fetishes) expo was being held today. It's simply called TheXpo. How could we not!
Visit the following sites and you’ll get the gist of our day (by clicking you consent that you are at least 18 years of age and that you are the pervert for clicking the link and Shawn is not):
- Esinem: Japanese Bondage Courses
- Medieval garments and masquerades
- Waaaayyyyy too much latex
- Swings make everything more fun!
- Latex for men as well
- A little help for the boys
- Our favorite
Basically a lot, and I’m talking a lot, of latex and rubber. We watched a fashion show, did a bit of window shopping, the girls bought some nifty heals, and we watched a girl in a bunny suit get tied up in some pretty intricate bondage. I’ll post the more appropriate pictures here:
We stopped by Primark on the way home, a four story department store that goes through it’s entire inventory in about 4 days. It looks all pretty at the beginning of the day, but around 6 when we got there, it looked like a tornado or a tropical storm had rolled through. It’s packed at every hour of the day, and it’s understandable why. With jeans at £6, sweet hoodies at £6-8, pillows at £3, a five pack of dress socks at £2, everyone in London has at least one item from Primark. After shopping there once, I can walk around London and recognize Primark products. I got two bomb hoodies, one of which is a combination cardigan / hoodie.
All that intense Primarking got our appetites going, so Kris, Jose, and I stopped at the most amazing fast food joint called Yo Sushi!
It is the future of fast food as we know it. You sit around a bar-like counter with a conveyor belt that carries around saucer sized dishes with sushi on them. The dishes are color coded by price. At the end of the meal, a waiter counts up how many dishes you've eaten and you're good to go. I've never had sushi before and I'm very pleased Yo Sushi stole my sushi virginity. Thanks Bobbi and Kenny for suggesting this one.
Early in the week, I met the back-up vocalist to Eric Roberson, a R&B Soul artist who was playing London tonight. This kind guy from Chicago chatted with me about football and we ended the conversation with him giving me a free ticket to the show. So I took the tube out to the O2 and got there with the help of two ladies who were also on the way to the show. They stopped me from getting off at the wrong stop.
I love discovering new music. Eric Robberson’s soulful R&B was very jazz based with lyrical rap-like vocals over the top. I thought it was fantastic.