Harrod's Abbey Burana

10-25-2008
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.

Our first mission was reading and signing the walled gate around the studio. It seems every visitor to this hallowed Beatles ground has to sign the wall with a "blah blah was here" or a nifty quote from the fab four. Pictured is yours truly next to my quote "Because the world is round...." Then we got in position, held up the traffic, and Jenny took one of the better pictures I've ever had the privilege to be involved in:

Sadly, I have learned that this isn't exactly where the Beatles crossed in their album cover as the city of Westminster has moved the crosswalk 20 meters forward to the actual intersection, opposed to the middle of street like it was in the 60's. I was told this by a camera man who worked for the San Diego Chargers who was simply sitting at Abbey Road, listening to the Beatles, and watching tourist almost get hit by cars. He is in town to shoot the game that the Saints and the Chargers will play tomorrow as Wembly Stadium. Nice guy. He loved photoshop.

Oh and here's another nifty quote from the wall of signage.

From Abbey road, we took the tube to Knightsbridge, walked down Brompton Rd. and visited Harrods (just thought I'd give directions in case any of you are looking to visit soon). Harrods, for those who are unaware, is a block long glamorous department store that carries everything a rich person could want.

My personal favorites were: the robotic dog that would shake, pant, and lean toward whichever side you were scratching him; fake snow that started as granulated powder that fluffed up when you add water; the £250 baby outfit; the leg bone of a dilopasaurus for decoration that was only £9,000 (stand included).

Speaking of dinosaur bones, I stopped by the Museum of Natural History after Harrod's to fulfill a childhood dream, see some real dinosaur bones. And I'm not talking some tiny dinosaur that was the size of a chicken. I mean real, mammoth-sized lizards, fully intact dino bones. I got my fill. And yes, the theme to Jurassic Park was running through my head the entire time I was there.

I finished my journey through the dinosaur graveyard as the museum was closing. Just down the street was my final destination for the night, Royal Albert Hall. There Jenny, Cody, Enmma and I met for a massive performance of Carl Orff's Carmina Burana. I had the honor of performing this incredible piece as a member of the choir at UWSP about two years ago. So actually sitting back and taking in the whole performance as an audience member was a truly moving experience....and I must say it was difficult not to sing along.

And let it be known that I did not record this video, rather a fellow concert goer did. No, you are not supposed to film during the performance, but the damage was already done. What was I supposed to do, let the footage go to waste?

A Full Friday

10-24-2008
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.

Our ultimate destination today was the Saatchi Art gallery. It's an art gallery completely dedicated to contemporary Chinese artists.

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.

The concert was...I don't want to say a dissapointment because I love his music, but it wasn't what I expected. I expected a full group with strings, piano, trumpet, vocalists

and someone dropping beats, however it was just one guy with video of himself behind him playing all the instruments, all in sync of course. It was an experience.

But all around a solid Friday.

Streets

10-23-2008

This morning at breakfast I caught up with Collin another member of the UWSP group. He told me about a Streets concert that evening. I've heard of them and perhaps a song or two, but really knew nothing more than that. However, it was something to do, so around 19:00 Collin, Jim, Mike, and I went to the Roundhouse theatre in Camden for the concert.

I must say I was rather pleased with the evening as the streets put on a wicked show. The crowd was ridiculously into it, especially as Beat Stevie, lead British rapper, crowd surfed right over me. It was a spectacle of a show since the normal streets band was backed by a 40 member orchestra. 

While a good show, it was a shorter show. We were able to make it back to ISH bar in time for a solid hour of karaoke. The only way to finish out a Thursday night here in London. 

Here's a shortie from Santogold, whom opened for the Streets:

Aida

10-22-2008

Again, the English National Opera made me proud to be a vocal major as Luke got me a ticket to see their opening night of Aida. I've seen Elton and Tim's version twice and thought I knew the story quite well, but the opera has it's differences, besides just the singing and music.

First off, Aida is already an Egyptian captive as the audience enters the story. Also, unlike the musical, Amneris, the Egyptian princess, despises Aida from the beginning and eventually hates her for stealing Radames. 

In my opinion, this opera should be called Radames, as the story of the opera mostly revolves around him not Aida. All the major choral numbers are based around his actions. Once he's named the leader of the Egyptian army about 30 odd men join him on stage to shout "Battle, Battle Battle," in a rousing musical number. 

Another scene is when Radames defeats the Ethiopians (in the musical version they are the Nubians). There is a huge Egyptian celebration upon his return. Composer Giuseppe Verdi writes in a lengthy music interlude which in this performance was filled with acrobats, dancers, and an artsy nylon elephant that Radames rides to glory.

SPOILER ALERT: if you haven't seen any version of Aida, stop here.

Probably the most intense scene in the show takes place behind a stage-sized jail door with the Egyptian eye dominating the center.  There is enough room between the bars to see some incredible lighting which allows the audience to see the 30 some priests standing around the imprisoned Radames as they decide his fate as a traitor. Amneris waits outside the bars until they are lifted to take Radames to his death sentence.

And finally, Aida and Radames are not buried together like the semi-happy ending in the musical. Rather Radames is lowered alive into his tomb and finds Aida waiting for him as she snuck in to be with him until their deaths. How romantic!

This time, my friend Kim made it on the "opening night reactions" video  

Yo Sushi

10-21-2008

Katy and I went to Yo Sushi! after work today. That is all. 

A Monday of Truth

10-20-2008

After work today, I tried to find a venue where the band Horsefeathers was playing (remember, they opened for Jose Gonzales). The venue was supposed to be off the corner of Farringdon and Rosebury, but it was no where to be found. 

The whole area around there though, the Finsbury neighborhood, was a quaint area with a pedestrians only cobble street where I imagine there is a pretty nice Saturday market. It was a drizzlie evening and since I made it all the way out to Finsbury, I figured I'd enjoy the area. 

I pulled into a little pub, grabbed a pint, took out The Whole Truth and read till I finished it.  I really didn't have a choice. Once you get to the last 150 pages it's impossible to put it down. 

The coolest part of this pub: the intense 'drip-drip' candles they had going for themselves. It must have taken them 18 candles to make that one wax coated bottle. Now that's commitment. 

Frieze, Everybody Clap Your Hands

10-19-2008

It was a late one last night...or an early one this morning, whichever way you want to look at it. Therefore I declare it is perfectly acceptable to sleep in till noon when you went to sleep at 6:30am. In actuality, noon is waking up early under those circumstances.

My day started off pretty crazy actually. A group of us were walking to the Frieze Art Fair when we came across this:

I couldn't believe it. Right across the street in Regent's Park a poor young woman was murdered last night, at least that's what we gathered from looking at this crime scene. I got the best picture I could, as I had to sneak through the bushes to get it without getting my camera

confiscated. Obviously the case had yet to be solved because these guys in white coats were searching pretty intensely for whatever clues they could find. On their hands and knees looking through leaves, surveying the land, and roping off the immediate area. I couldn't believe I was seeing something that you'd only expect to find on CSI. I'll be checking the paper tomorrow to see exactly what went down.....

Chances are there won't be anything in the paper because the previous paragraph was a complete fabrication. The above scene was actually part of the Frieze Art fair. This was just one of the many works that really put you in the art. The entire exhibition hall was filled with samples from galleries from around the world, many displaying new concepts and brilliant works.

Beautifully unique works of art.

One of the most interesting parts of the entire art fair was the way they turned smokers into art work. For those that desperately needed that nicotine, there were three glass booths in place, complete with a chair, ash try, water cooler, and ventilation pipe.

Rumshake, Park Art, and Moshi Moshi

10-18-08

Our original goal today was to get bitch'n London tattoos. By 'our' I mean about five of us from Wisconsin who all had our own original ideas for tats and intending on getting inked while we were overseas. I would love to divulge what my design was to be even though I didn't get it, however that doesn't mean I won't get it trapped into my skin sooner or later.

None of us got tattoos that day, mostly because the best places were booked for the day, but also because after short consultations with multiple artists, none of us were really pleased with their feedback. I heard from three different artists at three different shops that my design would have to be much bigger that I would like it because of the detail involved. If any tattoo artists are reading this and can set me straight please comment. While I suppose they might just have my best interests in mind, I also had a suspicion that they were all trying to make an extra £100 off me. Meredith on the other hand (remember her from the art gallery?) scheduled an appointment and will be heading back next Sunday to get the outline of Wisconsin somewhere on her body.

Our trip to the Camden tattoo parlors was no waste of time. Camden is always a fun time, whether it be shopping or just looking. Our excitement today was stopping by a place called the Diner. It's a chain and a good one at that. I had a hard milk shake, strawberry cheesecake to be exact. The perfectly blended rum was barely noticeable and slowly hit me as we chilled in the diner. Katy's fries were the icing on the cake as I dipped them in my rumtastic beverage.

Kallie and I ended up making the walk back to the Regent's park area together and stopped to see the outdoor sculpture garden of the Frieze Art fair. This huge exhibition features galleries from around the world and takes over the largest green space of Regent's for five days. In any other circumstance, I'd be upset that a large green space was being monopolized by a huge structure. However, this art fair looked as if it was definitely worth it. We didn't go into the exhibition hall, that will have to wait for tomorrow, however we did see the free sculptures.

Tin cans skull

A semi-happy fellow

After checking out the sculptures, I went back to the room and had a quick nap. It lasted 10 minutes until my buddies came in to get ready for the night ahead of us. Mike, Chad, and I headed to the O2 for the Moshi Moshi records anniversary party. Took us a little while longer to get there than we anticipated as the Jubilee line, the tube line that leads to the O2's front door, was out of commission. So we took the tube as close as we could then hopped on a bus.

The bus ended up taking longer than it should have as well since the driver took us in the opposite direction of the 02 until someone said ''excuse me, where are you taking us?''

His reply, ''opps, thought I was driving the 29 instead of the 20, shouldn't have drank so much tonight.''

Reassuring I know.

Anywho, we made it there around 11:30 and only ended up missing one of the bands we really wanted to see. The gig was from 10pm-7am. We ended up staying till about 5am listening to some incredible DJs while grooving on a dance floor that vibrated due to the giant sub woofer underneath it. 

Oh and saw some incredible bands....

Tilly and the Wall: wasn't incredibly familiar with them before tonight, but I sure am now. Their bass drum is accented by the three singers pounding their feet while they dance on amplified wooden boxes.

and HOT CHIP. I've been in love with this band for a good two years now. When I got to London I immediately looked up tickets to see these blokes and found the cheapest ticket at £100. However at this Moshi Moshi party I saw both bands and DJ's for £20....Hot Chip rocked me hard, and I loved every minute. Even when I was sandwiched amongst sweaty bodies.

Good Food and Comedy

10-17-08

Most Fridays I don't work. It's a nice arrangement that I'm going to miss once I have to get a real job. I did however go in today. 

The first thing I did when I got to work was go out to lunch with my supervisor and another volunteer my age. Salaam, the restaurant which made my taste buds sing, is on my route to work every day and I've always wanted to check it out. Now I have.  The humus was creamy and delectable and the warm nan bread complemented it quite well. 

My main course was the size of a family meal, a plate-size piece of nan bread topped with a salad and lamb meat. This meal served well as multiple meals throughout the weekend. 

After getting a wee bit of work done that afternoon, I went out with some co-workers to see a fellow c0-worker in his comedy routine. There were 4 comics total, including one from Brooklyn. My co-worker, Geoff, was the headliners and rightfully so, as he was the most talented comic that night. The venue was small, and unfortunately not many showed up, but it made for all the more intimate of a show.

An Evening of Proud

10-16-2008


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.

A Wednesday in Harlesden

10-15-2008

London is cultured. There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it. Above is an example of such culture. You're in a crowded Tube car. You can't move and the only thing that's going to keep you from tumbling onto the blokes around you is the handrail above your head. As you reach to grab on, you notice the above poem by Robert Graves.

She tells her love while half asleep,

   In the Dark hours,

       With half-words whispered low:

As Earth stirs in her winter sleep

    And puts out grass and flowers

         Despite the snow,

         Despite the falling snow.

The excitement at Life today was that I got to work with a professional to voice an ad. This was a great change of pace from working with small business owners who really don't know how to deliver a voiced radio ad. No offense too them, but they should leave it to the professionals. Like Adam here. He's narrated documentaries and voiced plenty of adverts, including one for Mc Donald's, which he assured me was only done because it was good money. 

After working with him throughout the morning I came to find out that this voicing ads thing is just a side gig. He's an actor. A damn good one at that. I know because after putting the pieces together I came to realize that he played the fairy leader in A Midsummer Night's Dream when I saw it at the globe (see a day at the Globe post). Bottom line, Adam was super cool and down to earth and didn't seem to mind a star struck Wisconsin kid asking him tons of questions about his career. 

My Love, Jose Gonzales

10-14-2008

I love what I do at work, but every once in a while you just want to get through the day. Today was one of those days, because after work I had tickets to see Jose Gonzales. The concert was at the University of London Union, a quaint venue that gave the entire show a personal touch that is very much necessary for Jose's kind of music, as well as the opener, Horse Feathers.

They were a pleasant surprise on the evening. A chill indie band from Oregon on their first tour of Europe consisting of a singer/acoustic player, a violin, viola, an cello. I absolutely love when classically trained musicians take their talent to an indie scene. It only ever means good news.

Jose is a brilliant classical guitar song writer who puts lyrics to his mellow finger picked arpeggios. When he was joined by two hand percussionist, their tight knit groves gently swayed the crowd as many sang along. 

A euphoric evening of music. At the end of the concert, I was ready to go into a music en dosed slumber. However, the lady who accompanied me to this concert had yet to spend her £2.50 that us interns are give every day as a "meal stipend." We used it at the bar, which surprisingly got us two drinks. Gotta love the ISH bar. 

Two drinks was not all I had though, unfortunately.  Two blokes from East London just so happened to be at the ISH bar buying round after round for the ladies from Wisconsin. Ben and Joe were great though because they didn't discriminate. They were buying drinks for the guys  as well. Before I could say no, I had two shots and a pint coming my way. Long story short, I ended up closing the bar with these guys...pretty good Tuesday.

Awake to Amsterdam, Sleep in London

10-13-2008

I woke up this morning at 5:00am in a room of 30 bunk beds with about 40 random people of all genders sound asleep around me. This is the life of hostel living. It' s not luxurious, but it sure is cheap, and truthfully, it's all anyone needs. 

Wherever you find a hostel, you will find an amazing city with lots to see, do, and fun to have. So why would you waste your money on a place you are going to spend 8 hours in max? These youth hostels have it down. A locker to put your stuff in, and a bed to pass out on. Simple. Granted, you have to hope the others in your room aren't (1) Drunk and obnoxious (2) Heavy snorers (3) or serial killers...meh, you get what you pay for. 

I made my way in the lonely darkness of the red light district towards Grand Central Station to catch a train to Schipol Airport.  This was the first time I have seen the city absolutely dead. No red lights, no shouting bars, no half naked women, just me, the cobblestone streets, and the canals... oh, and a persistent bum who kept yelling at me for change even after I was a block away. I guess those guys never sleep.

I got to work around noon. Finished what I needed to do and made my way home. 

For the first time today, I took a good look at the tube tracks  at the Willesden Junction tube station and discovered why one should never jump onto them...

A Sunday in Amsterdam and I Missed Church

10-12-2008

Once again I have to praise Sandeman's New Europe Tours. We took a three hour walking tour today with a lovely, intelligent guide who showed us a bit of the history of this fabulous city.

The original headquarters of the Dutch East India Company. Which I've come to discover is the world's first international conglomerate corporation. They began the evil...

World famous fries from the Vleminckx. They are world renown for the sauces that their fries get smothered in. Mike and I tried the war sauce: mayo, onions,  and peanut sauce. Amazing.

Hidden chapels where

Catholic's worshiped during their persecution. 

And of course, the narrowest house in Amsterdam (note the red brick).

We also took some time out in Dam Square to see some street performers. I wish I could say good street performers but they really weren't. Mostly living statues that weren't really all that still. However, there was one performer worth of note. 

She was from Canada, or at least she claimed to be. If I were from Canada, I would have walked up to her three minutes into her show and punched her in the face for giving my country a bad name. But thankfully, I'm not from Canada, so I just laughed.

Sporting a red track suit with the word "Canada" plastered all over it, a Canada visor, and a pair of glasses that belonged to the early 80's, she told jokes that were not funny, juggled tricks that were not hard, and every time she didn't get the audience response she desired, looked at the audience and gave out an annoying "Come on!" My friend Chad claims this all was part of her comic genius, but I beg to differ.

An Amsterdam Saturday

10-11-2008

Amsterdam. It's an experience. It was a very chill day, but a good day with some great friends.

Red lights anytime of day.

Playing chess in the Amnesia coffee shop. 

Febo, a chain of giant vending machines.

A tiny car with a tiny dog, worthy of a pic. 

Amsterdam Belatedly Begins

10-10-2008

I've been putting off writing this post for a while because this day sucked. 

Last night I got to hang out with opera stars... and have quite a few drinks with them. It was free, what was I supposed to do, only have 8 glasses of wine instead of the 9 that I had? Actually, in retrospect that's exactly what I should have done....

I woke up Friday morning at 7:30am, having slept right through my alarm. My flight left at 6am. It's a solid hour and a half journey to Luton airport. So I ended up spending quite a bit of time in that airport and have come to loathe the place. 

But let's look at this glass as half full, shall we. In my time at the airport, I wrote my entire final paper that was due for the end of the continental tour. Plus I bought an amazing book which I'm in the middle of now called The Whole Truth by David Baldacci (I found this link when looking for the previous link, worth a click and a scroll) It's an international terror-thriller about the rise of a second Cold War. 

Eventually I made it to Amsterdam the beautiful city of canals and cobble roads. I found a cheap hotel right in the middle of the red light district (probably why it was so cheap), and galavanted around Amsterdam. I was supposed to meet some buddies here, but I was 8 hours late and they obviously weren't in there hostel room. So meeting up with them would have to wait till tomorrow. 

I soaked in the red lights and later in the night, I made it to the Paradiso. This club had four separate rooms, each catering to a different dancing crowd: hip-hop, disco-ish, chill, and the basement indie scene, where I spent most of my time. The headlining DJ in this basement scene was one of the Junior Boys, a favorite sound of mine. 

I Talked with a Worldclass Counter-Tenor

10-9-2008

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

10-8-2008

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.

A Tuesday

10-7-2008

Of the six people that I went out with last night, I was the only one who could really physically afford to be out all night, as I didn't have to be to work till much later in the morning. Plus, I danced off all my alcohol so this morning I felt great. Others, not so much. One of my friends wrote the following on my facebook wall:

"By the way, last night was a fantastically retarded idea. I can't decide if I love you or hate you for it."

Indeed, strolled into work around 11:30 and had a cup of tea, did some audio editing, and took lunch two hours later. Today I also sat in on an executive staff meeting. It's amazing how an ocean apart, there are still the same issues that arise in every station or every office. Same Same, but Different.

Grabbed a spring roll from a stand in the Baker Street station after the tube ride home and made my way to room 179. Where I've been online since. Good day.

P.S. Look at the date I wrote this... then above that at the day I posted it. Yup, completely caught up. I'll probably get behind again tomorrow, enjoy it while it lasts.

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.