uppercase F

People are Talented! Oh Wait, Nevermind. June 30, 2008

I popped my open-mike cherry tonight, and went to A Spoonful of Poison. Monday night at the Rhythm Factory is declared as “one of the best open-mic nights in the known universe”. On it’s own website. But it wasn’t too bad. I’m always one for spoken poetry, and the few poets that went up were enjoyable. Problems started when fellows began to sing. Or whatever you want to call what happened on stage tonight. The acts varied greatly, including a man in spandex and eyeliner screaming “electro-punk” (whose name incidentally happened to be Son of a Bitch- an exceedingly appropriate pseudonym), the guy in the above picture playing a guitar and looking eerily like Spencer Pratt (Google him. It’s creepy), and a William Shatner-ish spoken word band thingy. That band was actually pretty fantastic because there were like 5 members, and they all seemed like they may have just picked up their instruments for the first time a few hours ago. And one of those instruments was the keytar. You can never go wrong with a keytar, folks. Never.

Not Cool June 29, 2008

Learned something new today- riding the Underground while ill is EXTREMELY unpleasant.

Nature is Nice June 28, 2008

I’ve had a nature-filled few days. On Wednesday I went to the Zoological Society of London for work, which runs and operates London Zoo. In order to get to the place, though, we had to walk through Regent’s Park to get there. Being a royal park, it gets tended to by royal gardeners- and you can really tell. The flowers were super bright, and a little robin even popped in to say hello. I felt like Snow White. Unfortunately, 5 minutes later we saw a cat with a dying pigeon in its mouth. Then I remembered that I’m in London.

On Thursday I went into the Amazing Butterflies exhibit at my work. I just popped in on my lunch break to see what it was about, but I ended up staying for about half an hour. It was incredible! When you first walk in it’s a little disarming having a thousand butterflies fly in your face, but after you get used to them it’s quite charming. There were two young children behind me who were decisively NOT having a good time. Butterflies are lovely to children in theory, but apparently in practice it’s not such a good idea.

Blood and Bandages June 23, 2008

There was a theme to today: injuries. On my way to work this morning I was ignoring the announcements over the intercom (I always do until I hear the word “canceled” or am told to get off a train), when I hear the woman end her sentence with “…because of a person under a train”. Now, I thought for sure I had misheard and there is no way they would say something like that over the loudspeaker in all London Underground stations. For sure they would just say someone was ill or something. Wrong. Someone decided to end it all during rush hour, and it was broadcast via intercom for the entire city to hear. Just the image you want in your head at 8:30 in the morning.

To carry on my theme, at work I was gluing books back together. When the spine has fallen off, or there’s a split in the binding you have to use glue and paper to build it all back together again. And then you get to wrap it up in a bandage! It’s like a book hospital! I love my job.

(the pictures below do not follow my injury theme, but we went to a 3D screening of Journey to the Center of the Earth tonight and the 3D glasses were rad)

Mmmm… June 22, 2008

Look at that sucker. Red velvet cupcake. De-lic-ious. Today I met Kathleen at Battersea Park, and because my navigational skills are brilliant it took me 2 and half hours to get there. By the time I reached the park, though, it was a gorgeous day and people were out in hoards. There were puppies and babies and hula hoopers everywhere. Everything a park should have really.

Then we walked up to South Kensington to grab some dinner. We ate chinese food, and then afterward went to The Hummingbird Bakery for cupcakes. This place is fantastic and serves really yummy cupcakes all day long. And it’s right next to my work. I have a feeling they may be seeing repeat business from me.

Last night a bunch of us went out for dinner and drinks and dancing for a friend’s birthday. It was super fun, and I ate Polish food for the first time at a small restaurant named Daquise. Polish food is intense, but yummy. This weekend seems to have been very food oriented.

Moosic June 20, 2008

Holy shit (sorry mom). Download Pete and the Pirates for dancey fun times. You’re welcome.

Ho Hum, Just Another Red Carpet

Last night me and Kathleen went to the premier of The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. It was the UK’s largest ever premier, with 10,000 people attending at the O2 Arena. It was intense. I met Kathleen there and we made our way in. This time no one took my camera away from me. Apparently though, the people’s red carpet was completely separate from the celebrity’s red carpet. They don’t want us common folk mingling with the stars. So, in an interesting turn of events, we somehow managed to sneak our way onto the celebrity side. It was a long process that involved lying to guards, walking a long way, and pretending like nothing was impressing us. I had to very sneakily take pictures of people, so that security would not be alerted. Above you can see a poor actor on a horse, and Liam Neeson and his wife being interviewed. Below you will see pictures of the Narnia children, some guy from Little Britain, some woman from Harry Potter, and Mr. Liam Neeson himself. I was so close to him that I thought perhaps they might notice that I was staring and ask me to leave. The Narnia children are short, Liam Neeson is tall, and Kathleen inadvertently budged her way past the Narnia girls to talk to a man in a banana suit (long story).

The movie was good- longish and jesusy- but I was entertained. It was an experience in and of itself to watch a movie with 10,000 other people.

Red Carpet Fun Times June 18, 2008

Best.Night.Ever. Tonight me and Kathleen walked the red carpet for the London premier of Will Smith’s new movie Hancock. We showed up really early for a champagne toast, and I got a few pictures of folks setting up the red carpet. Then, unfortunately, someone took both my camera and my cell phone away from me so I couldn’t document my brush with celebrity. People here really hate cameras.

We walked the carpet before all the big stars did, but it’s impossible to describe the feeling of coming around the corner and seeing a billion people behind barricades staring at you with cameras. And then all of them promptly looking behind you to see if there’s someone important coming. Not even one flash for us. Oh well. It was still incredible. I can see how people get addicted to the whole fame thing. At one point I waved and smiled to a friend who was up ahead on stairs, causing me to do the look up, smile, and wave combo. Awesome.

When we were in the theater we waited for Will Smith to stop taking pictures with fans (which he did for like an hour, and it was shown on the screen in the theater), and come in to introduce the movie. We were really lucky and had front row seats, so we were literally 3 feet away from him, Jason Bateman, and Charlize Theron. Will Smith’s teeth are really white, and Charlize Theron is stunningly gorgeous in person. It’s kind of disgusting how pretty she is. It’s almost like she’s an anamatronic version of herself. But not in a creepy way.

Anyway, the movie was really entertaining and we got free popcorn. But really, nothing comes close to walking down the carpet. Even if I will be tagged in any photos as “unknown guest”.

(Note how Peaches was lugged along)

Finally! June 17, 2008

Today someone stopped me on the street and asked for directions. I had no idea where the place was, but obviously I now look like I know where I’m going. It only took a month and a half!

Obligatory Feminist Post June 16, 2008

At lunch today I sat down to eat and flicked through a womens magazine that was left on the table. By the time I reached the end of the magazine, I learned that:

a) I’m fat;
b) My husband is cheating on me and/or will leave me;
c) The perfect summer lip color is pink;
d) My unborn child will have a horrifying birth defect, that will inevitably lead to;
e) The abortion that will cause lifelong emotional problems.

Jesus Christ ladies! What are we doing to ourselves by reading this crap.

In other news, I worked on journals again at work today. They were published in the 19teens, and there was a super interesting article about the sinking of the Titanic. Apparently a journalist and pro-women suffragist named William Thomas Stead died on the Titanic, and there was a long obituary for him. Interesting stuff. As well, there was an ad for “Spikeless Skirt Grips”. Apparently underwear in the olden days took the form of a medieval torture device.