uppercase F

I Will Possess Your iHeart July 14, 2008

Tonight, I sang about my feelings. Jonathan and I went to a Death Cab for Cutie show, as I uncharacteristically won tickets as part of the iTunes Live Festival. Though they’re a band I would never pay to see, I was excited to see them for free. And it was nice. The show was held at KOKO, which is an old theater in Camden. As expected, everyone knew all the words. Hands were clapped and emotions were shared. I’m sure a girl in the audience cried because Ben Gibbard like totally gets her. If only her boyfriend could articulate his feelings the way Ben does. Sigh.

Das Pop opened up for Death Cab, and they were super catchy, fun, and Belgian. They used both a tambourine and a cowbell, which can only mean positive things. Also, the singer introduced a song as “romantic, yet upbeat”, which is how I will describe everything I like from now on.

Speakers, Sandcastles, Street Art, and Saints July 13, 2008

Today was a fairly full day, considering last night was a fairly full night. Last night we went out to Soho, found a fun bar named The Metro Club, then ate food at my favorite all-nighter, Bar Italia. Nothing better than cannellonis and cappuccinos at 3am. But, unfortunately, cannellonis and cappuccinos at 3am are a recipe for sleeping disaster.

At around 2pm this afternoon we made our way out into the big city, starting off by eating a picnic in Hyde Park. I wanted to stop by Speaker’s Corner because I’d heard that’s where all the nut-jobs hang out on a Sunday afternoon. Famous men have spoken there in the past (including George Orwell and Karl Marx), and, as I found out, it’s really just an excuse for strangers to argue. People literally stand on soap boxes (or ladders) and shout about things for as long as they want. And people shout back. It’s pretty cool to watch.

We then headed South to the Tate Modern. The Tate was high up on Jonathan’s list of things to do while he’s here, and we’d had bad luck getting there earlier in the week. After a short walk along the Southbank piazza, we came upon some men making very elaborate sandcastles on the shore of the Thames. Though I wouldn’t recommend getting within 10 feet of the Thames river water, these men were risking life and limb to build a living room made of sand. Pretty cool considering they had a couch, a beer chest, and a grand piano- all made of sand.

Farther down the piazza we finally made it to the Tate. There’s a street art exhibit going on there right now (which wasn’t up the last time I went), so there was some awesome street art painted on the walls of the building. It’s hard to capture the size of the art in a photograph, but the pieces are huge and really impressive. When in the museum, I had my second legitimate celebrity sighting (not including premiers), when Jonathan practically ran into Guy Pearce. I had to practically physically restrain Jonathan from going into fanboy mode, since Mr. Peace is one of his faves.

We then made the short walk over to St. Paul’s Cathedral. We didn’t go in, because apparently catholic people do stuff in church on Sundays (who knew!), but the outside was very impressive. The clouds were looking pretty ominous, as you can see from the photos, so we quickly grabbed some Marks and Spencer food (delish) and jumped in the Underground to make our way home. Ah, London.

Battersea Power Station and Zombies July 12, 2008

Today we went to Battersea Power Station, as they are allowing the public in for only a few days this month. There are plans to redevelop the area into a mixed-use residential, commercial thing. For now, though, it’s a big shell of a building with giant chimneys sticking in the air. It’s pretty cool to walk around, since its been pretty much abandoned for about 25 years. The building is right on the south side of the Thames, so it’s a fairly recognizable structure in the London skyline. And very dirty. We even saw a fox wondering around the wasteland. Here’s some pictures from our meandering around the building.

Afterward, we went to go grub down on some fish and chips in our neighborhood shop. While sitting we noticed that across the street sat a pub named The Winchester. Now, Jonathan caught on much quicker than I did, but The Winchester is the name of the pub in Shaun of the Dead. And considering Simon Pegg is from Highgate, we are thinking that this pub must be the one and only Winchester referred to in the movie. At which point we promptly shoved our food in our faces and went over to have a beer in the zombie pub. Fantastic.

Catch Up

I’ve been an awful blogger the last week, and have not been keeping you abreast of my adventures. So here is a brief summary. I went to Scotland to visit my Grandpa this past weekend, and it was nice. It was rainy and cold the whole time, but that’s to be expected. I’ve included a picture of what it looked like outside the whole time I was there. People in America have a misconception that Scotland is a lovely, lush utopia. Take a look at the picture. Not quite the same. But we were able to make it out to eat some delicious food, and also the Kelvingrove museum. I went there at Christmas time, but wasn’t able to see everything I wanted to. This was a great chance to catch some of the stuff I missed.

After I got back from Scotland, I picked up Jonathan from the airport. Yippee!!!! He’ll be here for about 9 days, so we’ll have plenty of time to paint the town red. So far he’s just been wondering around to various places, but above you can see that he has been reunited with Peaches. Aw.

One exciting thing we have done is to see Avenue Q. Amazingly funny, I pretty much cracked up the whole time. It’s an adult puppet show which has been playing in New York for some time. Hi-la-rious. I like anything with a puppet in it called Lucy the Slut.

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.