excitingness!

okay, so the last real post ended just before The National Gallery and The Merry Widow.
(Wednesday) The Gallery was really good, got to see amazing art. the place is huge, you could spend a week there and probably not see everything. but i don't know that i could do that b/c it's not my favorite type of art. very little of it is actually from the movements i enjoy most- which is basically anything starting with impressionism. they did have Monet and van Gogh and Degas, Renoir, Pissaro, Picasso, etc. and it was all incredible to see. but most of the work before that is not my cup of tea, really. it's too representational, too realistic, too stiff. It doesn't leave much room for interpretation, and there's not enough expression in it. i know this doesn't apply to each piece, but as a whole, that's how i feel about it. it was a beautiful gallery, though, with decorated cloth on the walls. plus trafalgar square is gorgeous, with statues and fountains.
the merry widow was an operetta- which means it's like a musical (some dialogue between songs) but the music and singing are opera- which means it's hard to understand. they had the lyrics on an electronic sign thing, but then you had to keep looking back and forth, which got really annoying and i felt like i was missing a lot. the story was okay- fluff about aristocracy and their love affairs. it was kinda funny but most of the humor i think you had to be english to understand. but i ended up enjoying it by the second act, although i doubt i'll go to many operettas after this. designwise it was huge. the sets were grand staircases, lights were mostly functional, but the costumes were incredible! seriously, the budget must have been huge, to clothe that many people in such glorious dresses and suits, all period and beautiful.
walked back to vandon house today, passed big ben, parliament, and westminster abbey. also saw the london eye.
(Friday) the next day a top london theatre critic- Michael Billington- came and talked to us about being a theatre critic: what it's like, what you have to do, how to get there, etc. it was good to hear, even though i've no intention of getting into theatre after school. i was surprised by how personable he was, so polite and conversational. he didn't just talk at us. he listened to our questions, answered them fully, and then asked us questions. he gave us advice on what to see during our free weekend.
afterwards, i wandered around covent garden with hannah and sylvia, watched a few street performers but they weren't too interesting. checked out the market there. expensive, but they have some cool stuff. the best though was the guy who stopped us and asked if he could take our pictures. he was doing a photography piece where he had us write down our answer to the question, 'what do you think the world will be like in the future?' then he took our pics holding our answer, pulling together about 200 of these to form the letters asking the question. he was really interesting to talk to while we thought about our answers (mine was: 'hopefully better, but...').
we saw Small Change that night, and it was incredible! my favorite so far. a small personal found space (much better than the gold leaf and pink marble from the merry widow), only four actors- 2 mothers and their sons- neighbors. it's about the relationships of the mothers and the relationships of the sons, and occasionally of the relationships between mother and son. the script is so lyrical, when performed it was at times like a song, always like a poem. it was hard to understand at times b/c they had to represent themselves at different stages in life, it wasn't chronological, and there was a lot of ambiguity. but there is supposed to be. it's hard to explain, but i bought the script at intermission b/c it was so beautiful, so you'll all have too borrow it.
(Saturday) okay so here's the best part of the last couple of days---THE TATE MODERN! loved it loved it loved it! i could live there. this is where my type of art it- this is what i want to see. it's what i was most looking forward to and it definitely lived up to my expectations, even if some of the pieces i really wanted to see weren't there. jackson pollock made up for it. drew david you'll probably laugh, but i would have cried if pollock hadn't been there. i could have sat in front of that painting for hours. but there were more of his to look at, plus picasso, monet, richter, twobly, mondrian, francis bacon, giacometti and so so so many others! the building itself is as different from the national gallery as the paintings are. the outside looks like a factory- it was until about 10 yeas ago. there are still bits of factory left on this inside. plus the walls are all white, which works much better for such emotional pieces. best was being a nerd with tucker and inisha and freaking out about all of the names we knew and loved.
and it gets better- King Lear at the Globe as a groundling. an open air theatre, standing right in front of the stage (seriously, i was leaning on it. i could have touched the actors' shoes!) for 3 1/2 hours. it was painful after awhile, but we toughed it out. the show was pretty good, Lear was incredible, Goneril and Regan were perfectly diabolical, Edgar was gorgeous and amazing, especially during the fight scene. being outside was a bit distracting, and at times it was hard to hear. not all of the actors were up to par, but the main characters made up for it. and the traditional costumes were gorgeous.
(Sunday) today we went to church at St. Paul's Cathedral, part of the Curch of England. beautiful. the paintings on the ceiling are gold and sparkly and wonderful. not much stained glass, though. the service was long- full of hymns and liturgy and recitations, standing and sitting and more standing. plus the sermon and communion. but the boys' choir was lovely and it was interesting to experience a different tradition.
after that the day was ours. we came back to vandon house, tucker and i prepped for our preview of the show tomorrow, then we (tucker, hannah, sylvia, and i) headed off to Kensington Park to sketch. it took awhile to actually get to the sketching bit- there were artists showing and selling their work on the street outside it, so we had to ogle and comment and want them. then we stopped at the fountains for photos. then we had to find the statue of peter pan. then we sketched, and it was glorious. it felt good to sit in the grass and draw with pastels with friends. then we met up with cody and kelly randomly and we all went for supper.
speaking of supper, this is the amazingness i've had to eat in the past few days. some lunches have been from the grocery store b/c it's cheap, but i had thai (spicy panaeng curry), indian (lamb tikka mossala), gourmet burgers (jamaican with a mango and ginger sauce), and hummus twice (once with mushrooms and once with chicken). the hummus place is one of my favorites. it's not authentic anything, but it's hip and small and cool and tastey. mint and ginger lemonade or aloe vera juice to drink. a bowl of hummus with your choice topping. pitta bread. mmmm... that's where we had supper today, and it was awesome. the first time i went for lunch and the service was a bit different at supper. but it was really cool. we aren't sure exactly why, but we got free mint tea and a free dessert to share (delicious creme brulee type milk custard with date honey). it may have been b/c we were shorted one pitta bread, but we're not sure. we weren't going to complain!
so those are the main events that have been happening. other small things include jean trying to kill me by pullin me onto an elevator as the doors were closing and i got squished by the doors. there was a riot in the tube stations, b/c at midnight last night alcohol was no longer allowed on the tubes so of course everyone was drunk. some our group saw the riots and the police arresting people. happily i missed that, but the people i was with were on the tube with a bunch of drunks singing loudly. it was kinda funny. got irritated a few times with people, spending too much time with some of them i think. that's why i like meeting with others at different points.
gotta go, a few of us are going dancing! probably just gonna hang and NOT dance....