Well, haven't updated this in a while! I guess it's that I've either been busy, or have had nothing to talk about - pretty diametrically opposed there, but here's a recap of what I have been up to!
Last Wednesday I went to the BFI to see the 400 Blows, as I have Wednesday's off from class. It was, as would be expected, awesome, and they showed Francois Truffaut's first film, a short called Les Mistons (The Brats) that he made before the 400 Blows which dealt with similar childhood themes. My one complaint was that previously my experiences at the BFI had been great because I was surrounded by a crowd of appreciative older people - this time I was surrounded by crotchety OLDER people (I went around 2pm, so the retirees were able to make it to that showing) who all kept grunting and complaining about whatever they could think of.
The next day, Thursday, for my Modern Art in London class, we went to the Museum of Everything. This particular exhibit they were showing consisted of props and memorabilia from circuses/sideshows/vaudeville acts, etc. They had their own collection of Punch and Judy characters and sets, a whole room full of miniature carousels, a room full of stuffed (as in taxidermied) animals, set into fun positions - for instance, a court room full of squirrels, frogs pushing each other on swings on a playground, stuff of that sort. That was really the most amazing part of the museum, because it was like those books you read as a kid where the human world is populated with animals going about their own human-esque lives - that is exactly what it would look like. So we hung out there for a while before heading to another museum across town that specialized in Italian Modern Art, which was good, but not as interesting as the Museum of Everything. After that we were supposed to go to these things called First Thursdays, where the local, independent, more avant-garde galleries have exhibits where you go and there are drinks and it is a very social way of viewing the work, and I believe the artists show up if possible. However, we arrived a little early and none of the people in my class wanted to wait the fifteen minutes for the gallery to open, so we ended up dispersing. Hungry, my friends and I set out to find a restaurant. Fortunately, we happened to be next to this street filled with Indian restaurants where someone was posted outside, harassing you to come eat there. So we walked until we found the best discount, which was fitting as it was probably the worst restaurant. There was also a Rough Trade record store in the area, and since Rough Trade is a great label (The Fall, the Smiths, the Feelies, Galaxie 500, Arcade Fire, Jonathan Richman, This Heat, Swell Maps, the Raincoats, the Red Krayola, Young Marble Giants, Belle and Sebastian, Pere Ubu, ......(!!!!!!!!!!!) I went in to check it out. I have to go into record shops with a plan, or else I get overwhelmed, so I only stayed there briefly before heading out. Fortunately, the London Underground makes sure to shut down as many lines as possible whenever given the chance, so it took me two hours to get home.
The next day I want to have a good time that night, as I was a little restless, so I made plans to go see the King's Speech and have a quiet night out on the town. So I went back to the Rough Trade shop and picked up Kraftwerk's Trans-Europe-Express and a Rough Trade t-shirt. I then headed to the West End and got my outrageously expensive ticket and had a really mediocre dinner where people were staring at me because of my accent. But then, the King's Speech, oh my God. That is in a really tense race for the Best Movie of the Year, in my opinion. Colin Firth, of course, was amazing. After that and a Single Man, I'm pretty convinced that he is one of the best actors out there today. After the movie, I came out in a "Fuck yeah" kind-of mood, and saw this British flag waving proudly in the breeze. It was mad epic. That night, feeling lots of English pride, I bought myself a ticket to go watch the English National Football (soccer) team play Ghana at Wembley Park, which I can see from my room. It's in late March, and ought to be a really good time.
Saturday I got up and didn't have much of a plan. So I stayed inside reading, before deciding I was going to go out that night. After fumbling around with some plans, my friend Meghan and I headed to Central London to meet up with her Australian friend Pete, whom we went out with, along with his friend Marco, who looks just like Max Everett. We all went out, and had a great time and spent way too much money. We hit up some pubs before they all closed, and were then forced to go into a Casino to drink and hang out, as that was one of the few places open. I had a few drinks there, while Marco played some Poker and won 40pounds. It was then around four in the morning or so, and we were all tired, so we headed back to Harrow to hit the hay. After coming back Meghan and Pete came over to my room and we drank wine and talked music and art, and had a general good time.
I woke up hurting the next morning, so I took it easy and sat around reading and lying in bed all day. That night was the Super Bowl, so I headed into London to go to the Student Union to hang out with some friends, have a buffet and cheap beer, and watch the game. The game was actually pretty exciting, the food was cold and bad, and the beer was cheap as shit. So I had a pretty good time and then had to take the God forsaken bus back to campus, which takes roughly an hour. We accidentally got on the bus going the wrong way - luckily some vagrant decided the top story of the bus was an appropriate place to get up and go to the bathroom, so we got off and hopped on the bus in the other direction.
I didn't do anything Monday. I played chess, read, and listened to music.
Today I made sure to get up at 9am so that I could finally get un-jetlagged. I've been waking up at like 11:30, and falling asleep around 3, so nothing has really changed in my schedule. Time to do something about that. I did some reading, played some chess, listened to some music, and then headed to class where we watched a clip from Die Hard, a clip from Paris, Texas, a clip from Do the Right Thing, and discussed Radiohead. Which was sweet.
Now I'm here.
