Hypothetical illogical argument

In Castle, a tv show that I watch with unabashed glee, defines knowing when your in love as the moment when all the songs make sense.  Romantic and appropriately poetic, but, it made me stop and think for a moment about myself and my own run ins with Love.

I thought back onto my childhood, and I realized that even as a young girl, I knew what the songs meant. As soon as I was able to process abstract concepts, I knew love.  I watched it in movies, heard in it song, read it in books and poems; I even created it within my stuffed animals (each animal/doll/troll had to have a match, no matter the improbability.  And I still see no reason why a blue rhino and a purple elephant falling in love is such a stretch of the imagination.)

So, if we go with Castle's definition on how we know we're in love, then it would stand to reason that I've always been in love, because I have always understood them.

Of course, I could be deluding myself.  I could very well mistake understanding love for the longing of love, but I don't think so.

The romantic in me wants to believe that I've always understood love, because I've always been in love.  With my family, with the world, with my life.  And, perhaps, with my dear sir.

This logic will probably never hold up with argument, but it makes me smile.  That's all I require.

Unauthorized Autobiography

Born in light and bred in laughter
Three sisters, friends for ever after
Two Classic parents who never age
One girl whose life is for the stage

Bred in laughter, raised in love
Such blessings sent from Him above:
A place to stay and food to eat
And helping hands to guide my feet

Raised in love to live for fun
My life has only just begun

(and yes, I'm aware that an autobiography cannot me unauthorized.  It's a joke.  You may laugh now.)

January 3

The third day of the new year was Warwick Castle and Stratford-On-Avon.  Such a wonderful, but tiring day. 

Warwick Castle was neat!  Becca, I think you’ll flip out to know that I believe some of Merlin is filmed there.  Neat, huh?  Anyway, not only was it a medieval castle, but later on the early 20^th century, it was a house for the Duchess of Warwick, otherwise known as Daisy, from “Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer, do.”  Cool, huh? 

Once again, Madame Tussaud’s work was everywhere, both in the mediaeval part of the castle and in the Edwardian part.  It was fun to look at, and at one point, there was this was figure of a porter that scared the pants off of me, ‘cause I thought it was real, but on the whole, it was rather Disney-fied, which isn’t a bad thing.  I just prefer my castles straight, if you know what I mean.  Give me four walls and old stone, my imagination will do the rest. 

We did get to see a really wonderful show on owls, though!  I we got to see Ernie, an Eagle Owl, and Oscar, a Barn Owl.  Ernie was big and powerful, and so amazing to see fly.  Oscar was so pretty, but he was younger than Ernie, so he misbehaved sometimes.  Not to mention the fact that it was rainy and windy, and Oscar was having a lot of trouble keeping upright in the wind. 

After that I went to get tea, ‘cause I knew that we weren’t going to have a change to eat any lunch.  I had my first taste of clotted cream, and it was good!  Tasted a bit like butter, only slightly sweeter.  I liked it a lot!!

After that, it was off to Anne Hathaway’s house and Stratford!  Anne Hathaway’s house was fun, and very very small.  I saw a chair that the family said Shakespeare use to sit in when he came a’courting.  I got to go inside of Holy Trinity Church and see the grave of Shakespeare, but, unfortunately, we didn’t have a lot of time to sit and revel in the memory of him, it was back on the bus to Shakespeare’s Birthplace.  That was great!  I got to walk on the floor where he walked and through the rooms where he grew up!  It was great fun!  But by this time, we were all exhausted, having gotten up at early and been going all day long.  My stalwart friends and I decided to go to a pub, The Dirty Duck to be precise, (though it was first known as the Black Swan) and take a load off.  I finally had fish and chips!  Hand-fried Halbot.  YUM!  It was so GOOD!  DROOL!  I also had some local ale, Abbot’s Ale.  It packed a punch, let me tell you!  We sat there and whiled the hours away until it was time for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s production of Measure for Measure!

What a disappointment.  I’m completely serious.  No fault of the actors, though.  Entirely the director’s fault.  It was a post-apocalyptic setting.  Post-apocalyptic.  Measure for Measure.  WHAT?!?  Awful awful awful.  Then the costuming was ridiculous!  The duke had this stupid brown corset on that looked like something from Elmer Fudd’s closet of shame! Ugh.

Then the whores!  They were all BDSM.  Leather and spikes.  Very racy and pushing the envelope in what is socially acceptable to see onstage.  Unfortunately, they pushed the envelope in the wrong direction, because in the scene where Angelo propositions Isabella was so weak!  There was no tension!  I didn’t see Isabella’s horror, because Angelo didn’t do anything terrible!  He was acting like a douchebag, but he never laid a hand on her, so it seemed like her terrible horrified reaction came out of nowhere.  That was sort of a theme in the play though, because when The Duke proposed to Isabella that too came out of nowhere!!  There was no moment of tenderness, no inkling that they even liked each other!  The only clue we got was the first meeting that the Duke and Isabella had, and when he exited, he made it very clear that he lusted after her, but love?  It never came into play. 

I have much more criticism, but this entry is long enough.  Suffice it to say, my first RSC production was a disappointment.  The delivery of lines and acting was impeccable.  I found no fault in that.  It was the director who mucked it all up. 

So today is January 4, and I’ve finally caught up with all my journals!  It’s taken me awhile, but I’ve done it!!  Huzzah!!

January 2

I woke up rested and ready to head out!.... to class.  I forget sometimes that this is not just a pleasure voyage, but an actual class.  We had a summary of the 39 Steps, and a bit more on the technical language of the theatre, then we were released.  I knew I had a matinee at 3, so I decided to do something quick, but fun:  Baker Street!!

The Sherlock Holmes Museum is a wonderful thing to see!  They did it so well!  In the first floor they had set up the sitting room and Sherlock’s bedroom in exact detail, keeping with the books and the pure Victorian Style.  They even included the VR (Victoria Regina) shot into the wall whenever Sherlock is bored.  So much fun! 

The second floor, where Mrs. Hudson’s and Dr. Waston’s rooms should have been, was more of an exhibition.  They had some of Madame Taussad’s (I have no idea how to spell that) wax work figures of some scenes from the books, and throughout the rooms, there were little props from the movies and reconstructions of all the little details from the books, like blow pipe from the Sign of Four.  So much fun!!  It was wonderful!

I was snapping picture after picture, and one of the helpers in the museum remarked how nice it was that someone was taking pictures of the museum itself, instead of just themselves in the museum.  I then started to notice how true that was, not only in the museum but everywhere I went.  People always seemed more interested in documenting how they were somewhere, instead of the somewhere they are!  Isn’t that odd?  I think it is.

Anyway, after that it was time for my first play of the day:  Pirates of Penzance!  The Barbican Theatre was in a part of London that I had never been to before.  It was all steel and glass and very well to do.  Thankfully, no one at the Barbican seemed to mind that I was wearing corduroy pants.  They all seemed really pleased that I had such a keen interest in Gilbert and Sullivan. 

The play was wonderful!  The orchestra was right on the stage, and the chorus was behind them.  The main actors traipsed about onstage.  It was so much fun!!  They did a really fantastic job!  It was hilarious and the singing was great!  Frederic was so naïve and innocent, a real ham!  Mabel matched him to a T!  The Pirate King expertly buckled swash, and the Chief of Police was a big fat guy, who sang his songs expertly!  And General Stanly!  He was fantastic!!  A thin wiry guy, he was so wonderful!

At one point in the play, the Pirate King slapped his chest, but he accidently hit his microphone!  It made a huge booming sound, and the Pirate King looked embarrassed for a split second, and then he launched into a small bit of improv about how he had such a large heart and big chest.  We all laughed and then he went on with the scene and slapped his chest again, only he missed the microphone.  Then he shook his head, and slapped his microphone again!  We all lost it!!  After that, it was Ruth’s turn to speak, and she tried slapping her chest, but her microphone was a in a different place, and it didn’t make a booming sound, and she shook her head dejectedly.  The house roared with laughter!!  It was great! 

After that, I dashed home to grab my ticket for the 39 Steps, when I ran into Dr. Cannon and Holly!  They were going over to Yo!  Sushi, which was right next to the theatre.  They asked me to join them, and I gladly accepted!  It was so much fun!  The sushi goes around the restaurant on a little conveyor belt, and you just grab and eat whatever you want!  You can tell how much the sushi costs by the color of the plate.  It was such a fun place to eat!  Yay for sushi!

And ZOMG the 39 steps was fantastic!!  I loved it so much!!  So so so good!!

I completely adored it!  It was very campy, yet at times, it was very emotional.  For instance, when Richard, the hero,  was in the home of an ugly scott with the pretty wife, there were some very poignant emotions being played on the stage.  It was a very mature moment and I was very pleased that they had the courage to put that in there, right in the middle of a very comedic and slapstick play.  

The actors were phenomenal.  The main leads, one of whom looked alarmingly like Cary Elweiss, was wonderful as the determined hero of the play, always keeping a straight face no matter the hilarity that the other two men were performing at the moment.  Sometimes they were annoyed by them, and other times they were flat out ignored them.  

I was so impressed with the actors stamina!  You could see the sweat dripping down their faces, but they never relented their break neck pace.  The two supporting actors awed me with the different characters and voices they did, and how they were all so different, and how they managed to keep each individual character separate and unique.  Just amazing!

At one point in the play, He was giving a speech to the public, i.e. us, and he asked a question. I wasn't quite sure if it was rhetorical, so, when he asked the question again, I thought we were supposed to answer.  So I quietly said, "No?" and he looked at me and said, "Thank you!"  It was so funny!  

One of the most magical parts of the play was at the very ending.  It ended at Christmas time, and they made it snow out of the window in the back of the stage, then when they came down to take their bows, it started to snow on the audience!!  It was only foam, of course, but it was the most magical thing ever, when it had just started.  So beautiful!  I was sitting in the front row, so it was coming down right on top of me and it was so wonderfully awesome!

New Years

This might be a bit long.  I'll try to keep it entertaining, 'cause it certainly won't be short!

December 31

We had a day trip today to Dover and Canturbury.  Dover was first.  I was completely amazed and awed. 

We first set down on Dover Beach.  While there is no evidence that I was standing on the very beach that Matthew Arnold stood to be inspired for his poem, it felt like it.  I could see why he was so inspired.  The day was grey and cloudy and the sky and sea just blended into one expansive bowl.  The beaches were rocky, so I picked up a rock, just so I could have a rock from Dover beach.  I had an amazing view of the White cliffs of Dover.  So incredibly exciting!!  They were absolutely beautiful.

After our quick stop on the beach, we went up the hill to Dover Castle, but we didn’t immediately go into the castle at first.  We first went into the secret WWII tunnels underneath the castle, where Churchill ran most of the war.  That was absolutely phenomenal.  They did an amazing job recreating the sights, sounds, and smells in the tour we took.  I know this was an illusion, a video screen, but at one point, I saw a soldier at the end of the tunnel, and he looked at me before turning and marching off.  I could feel the ghosts of that place, and I am not ashamed to admit that my eyes were a bit misty throughout most of it.  The courage and triumph and fear and despair that went on in those tunnels are so humbling. 

I was wide-eyed instead of misty eyed when we were released from the tunnels to go see Dover Castle, home of Henry II and Eleanor of Acquitaine.  Words cannot express how wonderful that was!  I went in every room and took oodles of pictures.  From the throne room to the toilet, I saw it all, and loved it all!  I went up and down the steps, imagining Eleanor sweeping up them scheming all the while.  The people who own Dover Castle did a fantastic job at reconstructing what the castle would have looked like.  I was giddy with excitement. 

Also on Dover premises was a ruin of a Roman Lighthouse, which was quite wonderful!  It was nice to see some Roman work.  I always appreciate a good ruin.

After that, we all trundled back to the hotel footsore, but happy.  It was New Year’s Eve, and there was no way that I was going out at all.  So me and my four other friends (Holly, Callie, Sarah, and Heather) all stayed in together.  We had planned to get drunk on champagne, but that didn’t quite work out.  We never even finished the first bottle of Strawberry Champagne that Sarah had.  It was, in a word, terrible.

So we stayed sober for New Year’s Eve, but I’m okay with that.  I don’t really mind.  We went up to Sarah’s room on the seventh floor and got to see a bit of the fireworks, and then we all went to bed happy and content that we stayed warm and comfortable for New Year’s, instead of standing for three or four hours, smashed against countless strangers with no where to urinate. 

I definitely think our homey celebration was worth it.

January 1

Didn't wake up with a hangover!  Yay!!  I also got to sleep in, which was a fantastic gift.  Really wonderful, since today was going to be the day that I got scared out of my pants.

Sarah and I had seen and walked by something advertised as The London Dungeon.  On closer observation, we discovered that it was a scary tour with 3 roller coasters that took you through all the seedy dangerous times of London.  We both really wanted to do it, so January 1 off we went!

It was so much fun!  I was so very very scared, but it was so worth it!  They took us through the London in the 1600s with the plague, which was awesome!  They even had some rats behind glass, scampering about.  Quite awesome!!  We then had a little show on the Fire of London, and then we went over to be judged as criminals.  There was a woman in a judges wig who improved expertly!  She called one man, who was American, up on the box and teased him quite a bit, and then a little kid, and then she called on me!  I got in the box, and as soon as I opened my mouth to answer what my name was, she looked at me, and said, "Are you American?"  I nodded and she immediately said I was guilty and told me to get off the stage.  Then, as I was leaving, she told everyone to keep me away from the other American, because we might breed!  So funny!

Then we went on a ride on the Thames, our first ride.  It was a water ride, done in complete darkness, and we went backwards at one point.  So much fun!  Then we got off the ride, and were given 3D glasses and came to our second ride:  an occult madame, who accidentally filled the room with evil spirits and zombies that we had to shoot with laser guns.  It was all 3D video and it was so much fun!  It felt like I was in Left 4 Dead!  Coolio!!

We saw so much more, too!  Bloody Mary, a crypt of lost souls (a mirror maze that was so creepy!), Mrs. Lovett's Pie Shop, Sweeny Todd's Barbar shop, an excellent Jack the Ripper exhibition that had me quaking in my boots, and then finally, we went off to be hanged.  Our third and final ride.  It was the drop type of ride, like the tower of terror.  They took a picture as we went down, and, while I normally don't buy pictures like this, I couldn't resist.  Sarah's face is absolutely priceless.  She looks so mournful and scared!  It makes me giggle so much!!

It was a wonderful wonderful time!

After a quick lunch and a short rest, I set out on my own to explore the Victoria Albert, and a stupidly forgot my camera.  Yes, yes, I know.  All the groans. And while I could, and probably will, go back and take pictures of some of the sculptures, I couldn't take pictures of the things that I was really interested in:  The theatre exhibit.

They had an exhibit on "The Making of Postmodernism" which I passed over for obvious reasons.  To get to the Theatre Exhibit, I had to go through the Jewelry Room.  So much shiny!!  There were so many pretty things to look at!  Gemstones, tiaras, ancient jewelry from around the world.  They had modern jewelry, too, but it was less exciting, since there weren't any gemstones.  Who wants to wear a necklace made out of car tires?  Really?  

Another thing they had was a ring of gemstones, so that you could see what all the precious stones looked like.  It was a spiral of pretty and I oogled at it with cartoon hearts twirling around my head.  Yay for pretty and shiny!

Then, finally, I was in the theatre exhibit.  SO FREAKING COOL!!!   I saw so many many awesome things!  Mick Jagger's costume from the '72 European tour?  Saw it!  A guitar broken by The Who?  Saw it!  I saw many many costumes that famous actors wore, like Richard Burton's Henry V costume, Judi Dench's costume in the Seagull, and so much more!  They even had some Lion King costumes there.  So much fun!  

They also had a room for technical theatre, so I got to see models and sketches for a lot of plays, but, unfortunately, I didn't write any of them down, because, by that time I was in a theatre coma.  They had a model of Sweeney Todd that you could press a button and see the different lighting effects for each scene.  Drool!  

The only part of that that I didn't really like was the part where we got to see Annie Lenox's house.  It was... odd.  Very modern.  I don't think she's dead.  I'm still not very sure who she is.  Very very odd to have a person's "house" exhibited in the museum, when they're not even dead.  Doesn't that seem weird?

Anyway, after that, me and my tired footsies made their way back home to sleep.  I went to bed early, because the next day I knew was going to be amazing.  Two plays and Baker Street!

December 29 and 30

Okay, so here is my blog for December 29 and 30 because those were some AMAZING  days!!

Here's a quick review of December 29:  THE FREAKING GLOBE THEATRE!

After that little squee fest, we, that is, Dr. Cannon, Sarah, Callie, Holly, and I, all went out to eat at an Indian restaurant.  YUM!  I got a fruity lamb dish:  Kashmiri Lamb aljksdjlsfl (I can't remember, whoops!)  Eating took a long while, and by the time we got to the playhouse, all the tickets for that night got sold out.  I did get a ticket for the 30th, though, so all was well with me.

After that, we went to the pub just next to the theatre, and I had my very first Guinness in London!  Of course, that was not my first Guinness, but my first in London, so Yay!  We didn't make it to the Chester Cheese in, but the pub that we went to, The Shipwright Arms, was really good so yay!  I had a pint of Guinness, as well as a pint of cider.  Hee.... Apparently, I'm really funny when I'm "toasty" as Sarah says.  

ANYway, after that Holly, Callie, and I went back to their room where we may or may not of each consumed another pint of alcohol each.  It was fun!  We watched this odd British show hosted by Stephen Fry, where he asks odd trivia questions to famous people and comedians.  It's really fun!

So that was the 29th.

The 30th doesn't have any voice recordings (let the sad sighs begin), so sorry about that, but OMG the 30th (today, btw) was absolutely fantastic!!!

First we had class.  My little group (Callie, Holly, Heather, and Sarah) all sat at one end, and we thought that we were talking too much, but Dr. Wadia and Dr. Cannon assured us that we weren't, so that's a yay!

After that, Holly and I went to the.... British Library!  That was completely amazing!!  There was an exhibit on Illuminated Manuscripts and it was utterly fantastic!  I have never seen anything like it!  

I saw a prayer scroll of Queen Margret, you know, from Richard III?  The Crazy one?  Yeah, I saw her prayer scroll dedicated to the Virgin Mary so that Margret might have children.  Fantastic!  I also saw Elizabeth's present to Henry VIII which she gave him when she was only 12!  It was opened to a page that had her handwriting on it.  Her Handwriting!!  I saw Queen Elizabeth I's HANDWRITING!  Brilliant!

Holly and I then went to the main exhibit and we were both moved to tears by the things we saw there. From Shakespeare's First Folio, to original copies of works by Mozart, Beethoven, and Mendelssohn, from the Beatles to Arthur Conan Doyle's lost novel, from the Magna Carter, to the Gutenberg Bible, to the little bit of papyrus that the oldest known copy of the New Testament is written on.  We saw so many wonderful beautiful things there.  We were just completely awed and humbled by it all.  

After the we had explored the library for a number of hours, we sat down and had tea!  with a scone!  It was titled:  Afternoon Cream Tea, and the scone came with the most delicious cream... yum.  We had an excellent conversation.  It was a wonderful day.  We weren't running around like a chicken with its head cut off.  We were simply enjoying being in London.  Absolutely wonderful!!

After that, we went back to the hotel, were we met up with Dr. Cannon.  Then we three went out for dinner at a Thai restaurant not two minutes from our hotel, and it was so fantastic!  I had Pad Thai, of course, and true to most Thai Restaurants, they gave me so much food for such a decent price!  YUM!

THEN!  As a glorious end to an amazing day, Dr. Cannon and I went out to Canterbury tales in Southwark Playhouse.  She had bought tickets when she found that she couldn't get tickets for a Woman in Black, so we went together.

It.was.amazing!!!  The theatre was transformed into a literal tavern, where we could buy actual drinks!  I had mulled wine and it was fantastic!  SOOO GOOD!  Dear sir, even if you don't like wine, I think you'll like this!!

The play was amazing too!  The Host was just perfect!  Full of charisma and life, and he spoke in Middle English some of the time, which was absolutely amazing!  There were five other actors and they played all the parts, and they did such a good job!  They had audience participation and songs in between, and they embodied the spirit of the stories and the character to a T!  

I particularly liked how the man playing the Host, only played the host, which made him even more of a moral character.  Great!  

I also really liked how the guy who played the Pardoner, the last tale of the play, was given the really despicable parts in the other plays.  It wasn't so jarring that he was the horrible character, because we'd been used to seeing him be terrible.

But Man-o-mango!  Was that playhouse raucus!  Two of the actors dropped their pants and showed their buttocks fully to the audience (just the back, not the front, but still!)  And curse words and lewd gestures were flying about and it was awesome!  Dr. Cannon and I both adored it!  It made the Tales so alive and vivid for us!

And now I'm back in my hotel room, resting my feverish footsies and getting ready for bed, since we go to Canterbury and Dover tomorrow!  Yes, Matthew Arnold's Dover Beach.  I LOVE LONDON!!!

My First London Play

Today was fantastic!  We went on a half day tour of london, and it was great!  When we first got on the bus, we heard a British Radio Show talk about how "studies show that men who put their dishes in the sink and leave them their are more thoughtless than other men."  This amused us to no end!!
When I first got on the bus

We gout out at a few places, one of them being Westminster Abbey!  So much fun!  Did you know that they have a little statue of Martin Luther King, Jr?  True story!
Westminster Abbey

Then we stopped off at the Millenium Bridge to see something awesome!!  (Sorry for the sound quality, guys.  It got windy and cloudy.)
Millenium Bridge

We had some free time then, when this happened

The theatre:  first impression

And the play was so good!  There was tons of dancing and singing and sparkly shiny costumes!!  It was really really fun!  It was set in America, and I think that some of the more subtle jabs about the States were lost on the British Audience.  I don't think they quite understood that Westerners and Easterners commonly dislike each other.  Also, I don't think the 2 British characters were as funny to them as they were to me.  They were typical stereotypes of was Americans perceive as common British behavior.  But I thought it was hilarious!!!
My explosive rambling after the play

Tomorrow we got on a tour of the Globe!!!  SQUEE!!!  Then, I'm going to the Tate Modern Art Museum with Holly and Callie.  We expect to laugh at all the silly modern art.  Very silly.
Yay London!!