(This is for Tuesday 9 December)
So, Tuesday was my birthday! We sang happy birthday the night before at midnight at a pub after the show, so that was nice... saw a lot of people on Tuesday and headed to the Cecil Sharp Folk Club after a day full of class - very cool. So amazing to be spending a birthday in London! Can't believe it.
15 December 2008
Day 102: The Woman in Black
(This is for Monday 8 December)
Monday I went to the play The Woman in Black just off of Covent Garden at the Fortune Theatre for Honours Seminar. It's a classic ghost story and was incredibly well done. I definitely almost screamed a few times. I really enjoyed the play and love to scare myself, and it was the perfect play for that. If you didn't want to be scared, you probably wouldn't be. There was a large group of middle school or high school aged kids behind us (scary how I can't tell how old kids are anymore), which was hilarious... gasps and screaming all over the place.
I'd definitely recommend it at Christmastime to anyone in London!
Monday I went to the play The Woman in Black just off of Covent Garden at the Fortune Theatre for Honours Seminar. It's a classic ghost story and was incredibly well done. I definitely almost screamed a few times. I really enjoyed the play and love to scare myself, and it was the perfect play for that. If you didn't want to be scared, you probably wouldn't be. There was a large group of middle school or high school aged kids behind us (scary how I can't tell how old kids are anymore), which was hilarious... gasps and screaming all over the place.
I'd definitely recommend it at Christmastime to anyone in London!
14 December 2008
Day 101: Homework at Southbank
(This is for Sunday 7 December)
Sunday I had to do work the whole day, but I decided to head to the Southbank Centre since they have free wi-fi instead of staying inside in the flats or going to the London Centre.
I sat outside for a while reading and watched people at the Christmas market. I still can't believe that I did homework just watching the Thames and a Christmas market in London...
I headed inside after it got darker and watched some children's choirs perform, which was adorable. A great way to do homework, even though I'm sure I could have been more productive.
Sunday I had to do work the whole day, but I decided to head to the Southbank Centre since they have free wi-fi instead of staying inside in the flats or going to the London Centre.
I sat outside for a while reading and watched people at the Christmas market. I still can't believe that I did homework just watching the Thames and a Christmas market in London...
I headed inside after it got darker and watched some children's choirs perform, which was adorable. A great way to do homework, even though I'm sure I could have been more productive.
Day 100: Union Chapel
(This is for Saturday 6 December)
Saturday I went to a free concert at Union Chapel in Islington because one of the groups from Friday, Rún, mentioned they were doing a show. It was really nice, and I liked the variety of wintery-Christmas songs and more trad-sounding ones. I hadn't been to the Union Chapel yet and had wanted to go, so this was the perfect opportunity.
Saturday I went to a free concert at Union Chapel in Islington because one of the groups from Friday, Rún, mentioned they were doing a show. It was really nice, and I liked the variety of wintery-Christmas songs and more trad-sounding ones. I hadn't been to the Union Chapel yet and had wanted to go, so this was the perfect opportunity.
Day 99: Young Folk Awards
(This is for Friday 5 December)
Friday after our final English Composers class I stayed at the London Centre for a while to finish up some work and then was planning on heading over to the Southbank Centre for a quick free performance organized by The Magpie's Nest , a folk club I've fallen in love with here. They had organized a few sets before and after the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, so since the awards were sold out I figured I'd stop at the first free set on my way home from the London Centre.
While I was there, I saw Sam Lee, one of the people in charge of The Magpie's Nest, who conducted our workshop at the Cecil Sharp House for English Composers. I mentioned that I'd decided to stop by on my way home even though I wasn't going to the awards, and after the performances he found me and mentioned he had asked about getting more tickets - what a nice guy! He ended up finding out that there were actually a lot of tickets that had been returned, but still, I wouldn't have found that out if he hadn't checked on them. I ended up going to the awards show, which was great. There were so many talented young people, some of whom just exuded amazing potential, and others who were more seasoned already. I think my favorite performance was from the winners of last year's award, Jeana Leslie and Siobhan Miller.
You can listen to their performance from last year's awards here. Or I'd highly recommend watching the following two YouTube videos:
Saints and Sinners
Bedlam Boys
This year's contestants and winners were great as well, but I left wanting to find more of last year's winners' music.
Oh, and here are some photos from the walk over there:
Friday after our final English Composers class I stayed at the London Centre for a while to finish up some work and then was planning on heading over to the Southbank Centre for a quick free performance organized by The Magpie's Nest , a folk club I've fallen in love with here. They had organized a few sets before and after the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, so since the awards were sold out I figured I'd stop at the first free set on my way home from the London Centre.
While I was there, I saw Sam Lee, one of the people in charge of The Magpie's Nest, who conducted our workshop at the Cecil Sharp House for English Composers. I mentioned that I'd decided to stop by on my way home even though I wasn't going to the awards, and after the performances he found me and mentioned he had asked about getting more tickets - what a nice guy! He ended up finding out that there were actually a lot of tickets that had been returned, but still, I wouldn't have found that out if he hadn't checked on them. I ended up going to the awards show, which was great. There were so many talented young people, some of whom just exuded amazing potential, and others who were more seasoned already. I think my favorite performance was from the winners of last year's award, Jeana Leslie and Siobhan Miller.
You can listen to their performance from last year's awards here. Or I'd highly recommend watching the following two YouTube videos:
Saints and Sinners
Bedlam Boys
This year's contestants and winners were great as well, but I left wanting to find more of last year's winners' music.
Oh, and here are some photos from the walk over there:
 |
| From London and Thames at Night |
Day 98: Lighting of the Tree
(This is for Thursday 4 December)
Thursday I was at my internship all day working on my final project, so afterwards I met up with a friend in Trafalgar Square for the lighting of the tree. Every year for about 62 years now, I believe, Oslo has donated a tree from their forest to London as a sign of thankfulness for Britain's help in the war. There were a choir and a band there for carols before the ceremony, and then numerous people including the Lord Mayor of Westminster, the mayor of London (Boris Johnson), and the mayor of Oslo gave speeches.
Boris Johnson lived up to his reputation, saying something about "all those hedge fund managers who have made millions in shorting to get us in this crisis are wondering when it will be okay to go out and start flashing all their money as they walk down Oxford and Regent Street... well, the lighting of this tree is a signal that it's okay to go." What a guy...
The mayor of Oslo made a very sweet speech in English, including a few jokes that I'm sure made sense before the translation, and then pressed the button to light the tree.
It was a cute ceremony, and there were a surprising number of Oslonians (?) there as well, including two very tall ones in front of my friend and me. Here's an example of me just holding up my camera and hoping for the best:
Thursday I was at my internship all day working on my final project, so afterwards I met up with a friend in Trafalgar Square for the lighting of the tree. Every year for about 62 years now, I believe, Oslo has donated a tree from their forest to London as a sign of thankfulness for Britain's help in the war. There were a choir and a band there for carols before the ceremony, and then numerous people including the Lord Mayor of Westminster, the mayor of London (Boris Johnson), and the mayor of Oslo gave speeches.
Boris Johnson lived up to his reputation, saying something about "all those hedge fund managers who have made millions in shorting to get us in this crisis are wondering when it will be okay to go out and start flashing all their money as they walk down Oxford and Regent Street... well, the lighting of this tree is a signal that it's okay to go." What a guy...
The mayor of Oslo made a very sweet speech in English, including a few jokes that I'm sure made sense before the translation, and then pressed the button to light the tree.
It was a cute ceremony, and there were a surprising number of Oslonians (?) there as well, including two very tall ones in front of my friend and me. Here's an example of me just holding up my camera and hoping for the best:
And here, the Christmas tree after the ceremony:
Day 97: Queens, giant spiders, and socks.
(This is for Wednesday 3 December)
Behind again... sorry! I'll catch up though because I should be studying for finals, so we all know I'll be needing some study breaks.
Wednesday after class I heard from someone it was the opening of Parliament, so I headed over towards Parliament to see if I could see the Queen. Thankfully I had my camera with me that day, so I was able to get some shots. It was pretty cool to see all of the guards lined up and all of the horsemen coming through - something special you don't really get to see too often.
I stayed long enough to see the Queen go into Parliament and come back out, then headed over to the Tate Modern , my original plan for the day. I walked through the Southbank Christmas market on the way, which was cute.
Though I wouldn't say I'm necessarily a modern art-lover, I really do enjoy a good amount of it. Even if you don't like Jackson Pollock (though I do), there's something different about standing two feet away from those paint streaks and splatters than looking at a slide of it.
One of the main exhibitions a lot of the ND kids have been talking about is Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster's "TH.2058". There's a large, warehouse-type room with empty metal bunk beds, a giant spider, a giant apple core, a dinosaur skeleton, and other random things.
Can't really say whether I really liked or didn't like the exhibition, but it was pretty neat to walk through it since it was just a giant room. After going through pretty much all of the free rooms, I went to this little quiz/game thing where there were about six adults playing a touch screen game. Apparently, I dominated the game, and at the end all of the arrows pointed towards my screen, and this sweet old Irish couple were just absolutely amazed and thought I must be a genius for winning the Tate Modern quiz game. I chatted with them for a bit, and the husband had been involved in the integration of education in Northern Ireland, meeting and working with Bill Clinton in the 1980s. Pretty cool to randomly meet someone involved with something like that.
Heading back to the flats, I took Millenium Bridge over the Thames and headed past St. Paul's Cathedral, which now has a Christmas tree up in front of it!
I'm not sure if it's because I'm a December baby, but Christmastime is one of the best times of year.
Later that night I headed out to the Borderline in Soho to see the band Department of Eagles. The show was just great, and we managed to get up to the front and centre, right in front of the stage. It was a small venue anyway, but it was great being right there. I only took a few pictures, but I'm glad with how they turned out. The concert made me appreciate the band's music a lot more, and it doesn't hurt that they were really down-to-earth guys. I got my ticket signed afterwards, and when I was talking with one of the guys, I said I'd seen his sock during the show and it looked like he had guitar socks that matched his sweater -- turns out they were actually squirrel socks. And that he was wearing two different socks. I'm not awkward when I talk to people in bands at all...
Behind again... sorry! I'll catch up though because I should be studying for finals, so we all know I'll be needing some study breaks.
Wednesday after class I heard from someone it was the opening of Parliament, so I headed over towards Parliament to see if I could see the Queen. Thankfully I had my camera with me that day, so I was able to get some shots. It was pretty cool to see all of the guards lined up and all of the horsemen coming through - something special you don't really get to see too often.
 |
| From Queens, giant spiders, and socks |
I stayed long enough to see the Queen go into Parliament and come back out, then headed over to the Tate Modern , my original plan for the day. I walked through the Southbank Christmas market on the way, which was cute.
Though I wouldn't say I'm necessarily a modern art-lover, I really do enjoy a good amount of it. Even if you don't like Jackson Pollock (though I do), there's something different about standing two feet away from those paint streaks and splatters than looking at a slide of it.
One of the main exhibitions a lot of the ND kids have been talking about is Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster's "TH.2058". There's a large, warehouse-type room with empty metal bunk beds, a giant spider, a giant apple core, a dinosaur skeleton, and other random things.
Can't really say whether I really liked or didn't like the exhibition, but it was pretty neat to walk through it since it was just a giant room. After going through pretty much all of the free rooms, I went to this little quiz/game thing where there were about six adults playing a touch screen game. Apparently, I dominated the game, and at the end all of the arrows pointed towards my screen, and this sweet old Irish couple were just absolutely amazed and thought I must be a genius for winning the Tate Modern quiz game. I chatted with them for a bit, and the husband had been involved in the integration of education in Northern Ireland, meeting and working with Bill Clinton in the 1980s. Pretty cool to randomly meet someone involved with something like that.
Heading back to the flats, I took Millenium Bridge over the Thames and headed past St. Paul's Cathedral, which now has a Christmas tree up in front of it!
I'm not sure if it's because I'm a December baby, but Christmastime is one of the best times of year.
Later that night I headed out to the Borderline in Soho to see the band Department of Eagles. The show was just great, and we managed to get up to the front and centre, right in front of the stage. It was a small venue anyway, but it was great being right there. I only took a few pictures, but I'm glad with how they turned out. The concert made me appreciate the band's music a lot more, and it doesn't hurt that they were really down-to-earth guys. I got my ticket signed afterwards, and when I was talking with one of the guys, I said I'd seen his sock during the show and it looked like he had guitar socks that matched his sweater -- turns out they were actually squirrel socks. And that he was wearing two different socks. I'm not awkward when I talk to people in bands at all...
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