Category: London

Friends, Humor, London

The Buddy System

“The only way to have a friend is to be one.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson

My friend Chris set me up on a blind friend dinner date with his sister the other evening. She was going to be in London for a couple of days having some dental work done. She and her family live in Turkmenistan (which she laughing described as one of the lesser “-stans”) but have lived all over the Slavic world as part of her husband’s career.

It was such a nice evening. As it turns out she’s attended my alma mater and had personally studied with a number of professors and researchers at whose shrines I offer academic devotions. I may or may not of geeked out slightly. She also once worked for Oxford University Press in New York before deciding that teaching was her vocation and got a masters in it. Now she volunteers with the expat community and the American school as well as a number of charity organizations. I got to hear all about the national dress, the dictatorship of the country, and the gleaming white marble buildings of the city over lamb kebabs and naan.

We both grew up internationally and had similar family situations so we spent the better part of four hours swapping stories and then wandering around Covent Garden and Westminster. She was snapping some shots of the Houses of Parliament when we both happened to look up at Big Ben (illuminated nicely) and exclaim, “What’s that?” For a second it looked like someone had thrown a bucket of water off the top of the spire which was heading straight for us. The penny dropped a second later as the skies opened up and drenched us both. We dove for the umbrella and ran for the tube station where we parted as old friends.

It was fun.

I knew I’d been missing friends and family but after I got home to debrief Jeff on my evening I realized how much I’m missing just palling around with people. I miss long gossip sessions with my godmother after the monthly Sunday family dinner, I miss sitting around listening to old radio shows with my sibs, and I definitely miss the Girls. I’m an equal opportunity do-er, I enjoy people and I enjoy being by myself. It’s actually been downright relaxing having just a bit of time alone. But clearly I’m missing my people.

Resolved therefore, I need more local mates. Now advertising, accepting all Londoners!

Humor, Linkstorm, London, Weekend

Friday Links

“Movies will make you famous; Television will make you rich; But theatre will make you good.”
― Terrence Mann

It’s going to be a good weekend, kittens, I can feel it. Apart from anything else, we’re going to see Edward II, by Christopher Marlowe tomorrow evening. I’ve got projects and applications still to get through, though,  so here are you links and be good!

First off, cast your vote. I found this at Borough Market. Try or avoid?
First off, cast your vote. I found this at Borough Market. Try or avoid?

‘Cause the afterlife ain’t no place to be if you don’t got swag.

Really interesting! Sort of a US version of the genetics map I saw at Science Uncovered a couple of weeks ago.

Beautiful photos but awfully sad.

Oh yes, someday this will be me.

Speaking of the afterlife, we’ve somewhat cute-d it up, but lest we forget Halloween has a creepy, ghostly, barriers between the world coming down sort of history that should be respected. This new trend of cute (or heaven help us, sexy) costumes is a fairly new thing… (h/t Jessica)

I’ll just leave this thing from Bill Watterson right here.

I know I’m not even in the country or anything, but I hate “Black Friday” with a vengeance, so you can only imagine my thoughts on Black Thursday – previously known as the single American holiday dedicated to gratitude and celebrating what we already have.

How weirdly fabulous is this ring?!

Looking for a superbly lovely Instagram feed? Let me make you known (if you aren’t already) to Stone Fox Bride, their non-traditional “[censored] weddings” attitude, and their never ending supply of out of the box engagement and wedding rings. Magpies rejoice!

Tumblr find of the week, the name sums it up.

Good grief, this unexpected mayor has been through a lot!

I’ll take this house, please.

Humor, London

Reset Button

“Nine times out of ten, you probably aren’t having a full-on nervous breakdown—you just need a cup of tea and a biscuit.”
– Caitlin Moran

Like I mentioned, I’ve been feeling a bit run down, but this weekend helped tremendously. Die Fledermaus was exactly what I needed, sometimes you just need to dress up and go to the opera.

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The production was excellent except for the awkwardness of the pseudo-Nazi guards which threw off the pacing of the second act. But at the risk of sounding glib, pseudo-Nazi guards where they add nothing to the creative direction or plot of the piece are kind of inherently awkward in a lot of ways. Things picked right back up when their strange involvement literally had no where to go so they faded and let the humor and natural vivaciousness take center stage again.

Jeff perked me up even further by throwing me a movie night on Saturday to watch Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing. For which I understandably have no pictures since we were in pajamas with our feet up on the tables. There may also have been a face mask involved on my part…

We thought we’d head out to the Geffrey Museum on Sunday but it was rainy and we decided to stay at home, drink tea, work on a job application (in my case) and chat with friends instead. Other weekend improvements included a much needed trip to John Lewis to buy pillows, because the paper thin lumpy ones from Tescoe we’ve been using have been a vexation all their own. We both slept like the dead after the upgrade! It’s the little things.

(all images mine, found here)

Humor, Linkstorm, London, Weekend

Friday Links

“Love doesn’t think like that. All right, it’s blind as a bat–‘
‘Bats have radar. Yours doesn’t seem to be working.”
― Iris Murdoch, The Sea, the Sea

It’s been a long couple of weeks, more on that later this weekend, but tonight Jeff and I are getting dressed up and going out! We’ve got tickets to Die Fledermaus and I can’t wait. But until then I’ve got a couple of projects and a cover letter to perfect. (How exactly does one make a major organization fall madly in love with one via note?) I may even try to cram in a museum or two over the weekend as well and hopefully a Skype date with the clan.

Die Fledermaus
It’s like Chicago and Christopher Nolan had an illegitimate love child, how could we not? (image via)

This may be one of the sweetest things I’ve ever seen.

Celebrating today as the International Day of the Girl Child. In some places girls are aborted before they are born, in others they are abandoned after birth, in others they are married off at horrifically young ages, in others they are beaten and neglected, in others they have no rights to their own bodies as individuals, and in others they are actively targeted and hunted for trying to go to school. Even in highly developed countries girls are at higher levels of risk for sexual crime, gender based violence, high drop out rates, and more limited work opportunities than their male counterparts. Speaking up for girls matters.

Thoughts on Photoshopping.

Does what it says on the tin. US Government Shutdown inspired pickup lines.

A new podcast find.

Punctuation is very important. I don’t get too riled up personally (professionally is another matter), but I know there are minions out there who go absolutely mental over an incorrect apostrophe.

Great find from Jessica! Black and white vs. color photos are interesting to me. For some reason, even though I know better, the B&W sometimes has a quality that makes the events and people they portray seem so much more long ago than they actually are, as if they are a bit removed from reality and more in the way of fiction. The clothes may look different and the technology is new, but the people and the world is largely the same. And really the people portrayed here didn’t really live that long ago. Many children of Civil War soldiers were alive in the 1950s, the decade my own parents were born.  But somehow color makes them seem more present and real sometimes. That picture of Mark Twain, for example, could have been taken yesterday in the garden.

Need a freelance editor? I know a girl…

In the spirit of Halloween, I’m not sure what the scariest book I’ve ever read was textually speaking, but I remember reading Dracula as a teenager and having to turn the book face down on the other side of my room from my bed, close my eyes, turn out the lights and hop into bed in one bound (because monsters, duh) all because the cover of the book freaked me out so badly. It portrayed no suave debonair vampire, but showed a withered face and body with particularly long fingers and horrible staring eyes. What can I say, I have a very active pre-bed-time imagination.

Awkward.

 

Humor, London

Silver Screen

“It’s not what a movie is about, it’s how it is about it.”
― Roger Ebert

At least once a week we pick an area and go exploring. Which is how we stumble across things like the Covent Garden branch of the London Film Museum.

It’s a relatively small museum that has only been open for a couple of years, but it contains a lot really good stuff, including early cinema equipment, some of the earliest films ever made, really fabulous exhibits on the history on the technology development of film. From painted glass sides you could hold before a lantern in the Regency, to digital recording innovations, it encapsulates the history pretty well! One of my favorite bits was the examples and drawings of the camera equipment that wilderness photographers had to cart around by pack animal to document the American West as it opened up. Trains of donkeys were often needed to transport one photographer’s gear and the glass slides that captured the images were large panes that required a level of care that was hard to get in a city let alone on a nearly vertical slope somewhere in largely uncharted wilderness

Early and massive camera.
Early and massive camera.

The other half of the museum is devoted to an exhibition of British in general and London specific contributions to film. The exhibitions are a mix of the different eras, themes, and social commentary of films made in or about Britain. As an additional treat, they have a really excellent collection of costumes and set pieces from iconic British television shows and films. The Coronation Chair from Elizabeth with Cate Blanchett, Laurence Olivier’s uniform jacket from The Battle of Britain…and then this which nearly made me shriek:

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Bow down , peasants, Cecil Beaton’s work as worn by Audrey Hepburn & Co. is present, including That Dress.

…Okay, it’s a copy, but they are made and put up close – not even under glass – so you can see the construction and design work that went into them. I don’t have a lot of super girly childhood moments to reflect on, but here’s one: as a kid I would watch, rewind (remember VHS, kids?) and rewatch the Ascot scene over and over again because of the beautiful costumes. I’d try to focus on a different one each time because (apart from the hilarious intention faux pas of the two ladies in the same hat) each gown was unique and stunning. I still have my favorites.

It’s such a new museum, and a satellite to another location on the South Bank as well, that I fear it’s not getting the love it deserves. It’s small and definitely still finding its way in some ways, but fun and charming and well worth a look in for history, pop culture, and film buffs. It’s totally free and open daily. I also recommend the cafe, located in the below ground and historic area of the museum – though if that doesn’t float your boat, our favorite gelatto joint is just around the corner.

Humor, London, Weekend

Sunday Jaunt

“The Thames is liquid history.”
– John Burns

Sunday was gorgeous. It was also a bit emotionally fraught, as weekends have a habit of being, with Monday looming. So Jeff grabbed the camera and went for a wander on our patch, south of the river in Bermondsey and Rotherithe. I took him to an urban farm I’d previously visited for an assignment before we took in the Thames.

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The park by our flat.

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It would have been rude to pry this knocker from the door and run off with it, but I was tempted. Jeff made, “Stop it, you’re being creepy,” sounds of protests as I snapped shots of this unsuspecting front door, but I was not going to be thwarted. We also befriended a rather sweet kitty who took a break from pigeon stalking for some pets.

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I love the docks and wharfs. So do the seagulls.

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#stillnotsickoftheview

Humor, Linkstorm, London, Weekend

Friday Links (Self-Conscious Ostrtich Edition)

“Have no fear of perfection – you’ll never reach it.”
― Salvador Dalí

What a week. Jeff’s under the weather again, I managed to cut both my thumbs slicing vegetables for dinner last night, and I made a stupid clerical error yesterday that really just makes me want to bury my head in the sand. I hate making easily avoidable mistakes, whether they’re typos or social gaffes, because I try so hard to avoid them. Even small things like that make me feel like a fraud masquerading as a competent being, it’s the negative flipside of some Type A tendencies. I am always grateful when my mistakes are pointed out, and I try to be instantaneous about taking responsibility, correcting and apologizing for them…but I still spend about a week beating myself up anyway.

In happier news, it’s Friday, I’ve got work to do, and I’m going to try and get to at least one exhibit this weekend so while my nights might be full of tossing and turning over typos, at least I’ll be getting some culture during the days. It’s also nice and blustery outside, which believe it or not I love, so excuse me while I throw open the blinds and knuckle down to finish a project or two. Tell me what you’re doing this weekend, kittens!

Had a rough week along with me? I’ve got just the thing, it’s perfectly corking! (This one’s for you, Savvy)

For the jeweled corn alone I could love this post.

Paris fashion week this week, I can’t even imagine how exhausted the editors must be. But in that continuing mindset…

These composites of what the “average” women looks like from different areas of the world is quite interesting.

Tumblr find of the week. Since Kelsey’s adventures have me dreaming of Prague…

Midi rings are the latest trend to flit through my fancy. I think this one is delicate and lovely.

The New York speakeasy is alive and well! Until it was shut down…

I’m sorry but I find the history and development of tablet devices a bit funny to watch unfold. First we created a computer without a keyboard because it was more convenient than having one.. but only a couple of years later we invented a detachable keyboard that could plug into our tablets because that was more convenient than not having one. While admittedly charming, I find this latest development downright silly. Consumers, figure out what you want!

Discuss.

Apparently I am a very middling sort of wife – it was all downhill after the red nail polish!

Um, I’d like to direct a Carnegie Hall orchestra, thank you very much. The Marriage of Figaro!

In lieu of another tumblr find, my friend Scott sent me this meme this, which I pass on to you.