Foot Adventures and All That Jazz

Do not come to London if you don't like walking. Certainly you can take the Tube, catch a bus, or break the bank taking a black cab, but seriously, you will walk your bum off (and I wish my bum would hurry it up already given all the walking I've done)!

Last Saturday I was left to my own devices while most of my friends here ran off to Stratford-upon-Avon to stalk David Tenant in Hamlet. I did not go because I bought advance tickets for the BFI London Film Festival and so I saw Frost/Nixon last Saturday instead. Much walking that day followed. For one, I managed to get myself lost - using my London A-Z Guide maps too - and I NEARLY missed the film. The map made it seem like the cinema I needed was somewhere down a side street NEAR Leicester Square; I THOUGHT it was IN Leicester Square. Turns out, the map i silly and I should have just gone looking around Leicester Square in the first place. But anyhow, I used the toilet and popped into the auditorium at the very beginning of the credits.

Now here's the fun part about my first experience in a foreign cinema: the auditorium itself was huge. It was standard movie seating, not stadium, but it was very wide and deep. According to the interwebz, the auditorium I was in holds nearly 800 people! I thought I was in the room that houses 500, but I guess my eyes were deceived and I saw the film with another 799 people! But anyhow, it was a decent film from Ron Howard and I got dibs on the review for the Chicago Maroon. Brilliant performances, too, and if Frank Langella doesn't win Best Actor this year, then a true will have been committed. Unless I see even more powerful performances in the coming months.

Following the show, I decided I would just wander around the city before going back. I hadn't done this yet and I was in a walking mood. I was going to look for Covent Garden but got myself lost and ended up on Oxford Street down near Tottenham Court Road. I walked all the way down Oxford Street, went up Regent Street, saw a lot of stores I doubt I will ever afford until I'm stinking rich, and then decided it was time to take a trip to Elephant and Castle to check out the Peacocks store situation. So I went off to a really random part of town, found a shady kind of shopping centre not unlike many shady places in the US, and was not impressed by the store there. So I headed back and sat online chatting with friends for a while before finishing my paper finally!

Sunday!!! Another day all to myself, and finally without that ghastly paper to fidget with. I was feeling like it was a pyjama day, and I was going to plan my movie locations tour for the next day, but while I was planning, I found that Who Framed Roger Rabbit used a building in London to film as the exterior of the ACME Factory, so being a mad crazy wild fan for that movie, I HAD to go find it. So I decided I would set out looking for that darn Winchester Pub from Shaun of the Dead first, and stop by the ACME Factory after; except, after a 50-minute Tube journey out to Kensal Green, and a half-hour walk, I learned that the Monson Road I thought I needed was actually a Monson Road I did not need: the Duke of Albany pub, aka The Winchester, was all the way down around New Cross Gate, so the trek to Kensal Green - which, by the way, is like Immigrant Central - was completely useless save for seeing a part of London very much unlike the centre. And by the time I was heading back, it was too dark to go elsewhere, so I returned to get ready for Monday.

Monday, after our first class with Prof. Helsinger and Bleak House, I decided I would have another foot adventure, so I planned to go down to New Cross Gate. But it did not happen. After several Tube changes, I learned that the East London Line was closed until Summer 2010 and that the only way to New Cross Gate is by bus, and I was not feeling comfortable enough to go looking then and there, so I decided to go all the way over to Shepherds Bush on the Hammersmith and City Line to find the ACME Factory ... and I did!!! It was great, just like it looked in the film, except without Toon Town behind it. And there was a ton of construction going on. They're turning it into a bus station partially. Somewhat ironic; the buses ought to be named the Cloverleaf Buses: in the film, Doom's company Cloverleaf buys out the tram company and tries to get the ACME Factory so he can tear down Toon Town and put a freeway through there. If they'd done that, I'd have been nearly laughing, except not, because then this cool film landmark would be gone! But I have pictures, and they'll eventually be online at some point. I haven't loaded them yet because I'm waiting until I build up a better collection.

The rest of the week was touch and go ... attending classes and trying to not fall asleep, visiting the Sambourne and Leighton houses which are preserved homes from Victorian times (some real sights, I'll tell ya), and trying to not fall apart under the weight of wanting to eat something other than the food I've been making lately. Although, Tuesday night we did go see Chicago!!! However, no matter how much excitement one might think is attached to seeing that musical, I have to say, I was not too impressed. It's not that great of a production. And it's not the English cast, it's the production itself. The film improves upon the story, the characters, the dances, and the songs in so many ways that it makes the film a remarkable piece of entertainment while the stage musical is left to continue in the shadow of the film. The actors lacked the bite of those from the film, the songs and dances lacked energy (for example, the stage Mama Morton just stands there singing her song, and nothing else, whereas Queen Latifah puts on one heck of a performance in the film), and ultimately the musical doesn't function well telling a story; the acts are all ordered up so as to tell a story, but it feels irreverent and contrived, whereas the film at least gives a reason for why these people are singing and performing cabaret acts. In the end, I would replace the whole cast, especially Velma, Roxie, and Billy Flynn: Velma, simply because Catherine Zeta-Jones played that role to the tee and put on a real show, and she also made Velma more of a vixen than the stage musical does (the stage Velma works like a talentless two-bit singer who complains like a child, whereas Zeta-Jones was a real witch, and all the better for it); Roxie also plays better when the actress makes her more conniving. Zellwegger dug into the role and touched on the dialogue and lyrics in just the right way. And ultimately, Richard Gere impressed me far more than the actor I saw, and he, too, really threw himself into his role - the tap dancing scene was actually ADDED to the movie! In conclusion, I put Chicago at the very end of my list of favorite theatrical performances I've seen. The only real strong conviction I had about the production was that the chorus was astounding and I really wish I could dance like that!

Today was another foot adventure day. We had to meet up in the lobby to join my prof to go to Chancery Lane, the courts, and also Lincoln's Inn. These are all places related to Dickens' Bleak House. We actually sat in on a trial in which a man apparently is accused of beating a man with a vase; we're not sure if the man was killed or if there is more to the story than just the questions we heard, but the guy was Chinese, seemed like he was fudging with the system by requesting a translator and acting like he doesn't know much English, and kept on lying on the stand. The prosecutor totally had him cornered and it was almost hilarious. He's going to jail. Also, Prof. Helsinger and a few others sat in on a trial involving a man who killed someone with an axe!

We then walked around Chancery Lane and Prof. Helsinger, who luckily knows exactly where she's going, showed us where Dickens imagined Krook's place to be, and where Snagsby's shop was, and then where the actual legal offices were in Lincoln's Inn, and then also where we can imagine Tulkinghorn living. Then we saw where the old graveyard is located that was used as Lady Dedlock's final stop at the end of the novel ... it's been converted to a playground today. Prof. Helsinger ASSUMES they tried to remove all the bodies, but she can't be positive they got to them all, simply because it would be a heck of a job.

After the tour, the whole group went to Covent Garden so Emily could pay for our lunch. Unfortunately, Emily hasn't been the greatest Graduate Assistant/RA-type person, so the lunch was not planned and we had to find a place to go, and then everyone of course had their own ideas of what they wanted to eat, and the first place someone shouted out was chosen, and then they didn't have certain things people wanted, and it was a hassle to seat us all, and the whole time I was thinking it was lame that it was not properly planned. This is London, you don't just walk up to places and expect seating for 25 and service to be provided to 25 people suddenly. And the whole spontaneous choice thing doesn't work well when you KNOW everyone is going to be like, "Let's go here!"

But whatever. After lunch, we broke off to go in our separate ways, so my group wandered for some dessert in Covent Garden and looked at some other shops. I really wanted hot chocolate because it's starting to get much cooler, so I tried Ben's Cookies, but because most places in London have a minimum charge to use cards, I ended up buying four cookies and a hot chocolate for more money than a normal person pays for such things. But it's London, and at least the exchange rate dropped to $1.54 today on account of a weaker sterling pound. And I have two cookies left for tomorrow and Sunday! And the hot chocolate was really good.

A few of us decided we'd look at Oxford Street shopping, so after browsing a nice place called Oasis in Covent Garden that we hope to one day afford, we headed off to Primark, a very intimidating place. The place was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO crowded, SOOOOOOOOOOOOO inexpensive (we're talking 5 pounds for knits, and 10 pounds for dresses, and at a quality I would say is at least level with Wet Seal, or even some stores like Kohl's), and it was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO big. We didn't have enough time to properly tour the place, and I wasn't feeling the shopping bug today as I felt kind of gross and frumpy in my UChicago hoodie and too-big jeans, and I'm really tired of my hair, especially because it's starting to frizz! But we're going to go back Monday morning before class because it'll hopefully be an easier time to shop. And with the exchange rate dropping, it'll be a good deal! We're all hoping the exchange rate goes to $1.30 range so we can all purchase a bunch of things.

Anyhoo, we all came back from Primark and I'm just typing before I go off to cook some dinner. It's the continuation of Season Three of Doctor Who tonight! We have the whole season from the library and we've been watching for the past two nights. Good stuff! LOVE David Tenant!

Also of note, I think I may be developing lactose intolerance! I've been having weird cravings for milk lately, but I've been having--how shall I put this?--intestinal difficulties which I blame the milk on. But maybe not, because some days I don't. Mystery!

I'll have a new blog update Sunday night as this weekend proves to be a busy one. The whole next week will be a busy one!