Pantos and Pianos
Thursday's marathon revising, typing, and hating writing session ended with a longer-than-necesary and typically rainy trip to the uni, but managed to end on a very happy note.
As Luther-in-Nottingham tradition dictates, the group purchased tickets for a traditional English theatre performance, the Pantomime. The idea is simple- comedy on the edge of innappropriate that keeps kids entertained and parents feeling dirty about having kids with them in the audience.
The show we attended was Cinderella, a haphasard combination of drag, cheesy music (ie: crazy little thing called love, go the distance from hercules, scissor sisters' i don't feel like dancing)... It's impossible to explain except to say that, without proper preparation, it would be easy to dismiss it as uncomfortablly campy.
The ugly stepsisters were played by two men in drag, who wore the most amazingly ornate shimmering, revealing, and innappropriate dresses and wigs. They are made up to be horrifically overdone, and their digging insults and topical humor made them the best part of the show....
Audience participation is the name of the game: booing, hissing, cheering, screaming insults, giving answers to rhetorical questions, etc... we were surrounded by brownies, secondary school kids, and a cavalcade of 6 year olds celebrating their birthdays...
Truly a cultural experience that can never be replicated in the States...
Afterwards, Ryan, Mary, and I joined Anna and Sonja Chi (visiting Lutherite) at Pitcher and Piano. In hopes of impressing our out-of-town guests, Pitcher has become the Place To Go. Be it parents or friends, Pitcher has an aura that makes Roscoes look like....dang, i can't think of anything trashier than 'scoes.....
Aside from drink prices that hover around 10 US dollars, the place was entertaining as always... especially our metro dancing friend in the corner....
A late night concluded with RENT in the library.... a late night that was only rectified by waking up at noon today..... first time sleeping in all week..
The only thing looming ahead is this Paidiea presentation on Wednesday, and the return of our field notebooks in Geology class......aka, good nights ahead this weekend....
Mac and Cheese awaits upstairs (thanks Mom and Dad Haugland, the Becker clan)....
a very American way to end another classy British week.
Jazzercise for the Muslim at heart
T-minus 20.5 hours until my "Aniconism in Contemporary Islam" paper is due (again, to reiterate, 50% of my grade), and I'm buckling down..... just me, Wikipedia, a 32 oz Starbucks mug stolen by Anna from the Stratford barrista, 6898 of my favorite tunes, and Office Word XP.
Best Friends for Life:
Me + French Press + 5tbsp of Sugar
This paper represents the middle of three hurdles that stand in between me and skiing in the Alps next Wednesday. Paideia test is over- 2 hrs of solid writing, with essays totalling over 7 pages of notebook paper.
To wind down last night, we watched some Weeds and I loaded every video and picture from Nottingham thus far on to my ipod, along with Superman Returns (great viewing material for the upteen hours i'll spend on trains this break...)... I booked hostels, bought my 600 dollar Eurrail ticket (5 countries, 15 days), and found a flight to France.
Stop procrastinating, start Islamicising....
It's like Jazzercize only instead of knee lifts you do the haj. And no fun music. So not really like Jazzercise at all.
More Pics while Paideia ruins my life (again?)
So, a few hours into studying for this bogus Paidiea II final, i'm taking a break. Here are some more random photos from Stratford, from Sunday as we made our way home.....
Best Loo Award.... not going to argue....
This was from Chipping Campden, the small town we hit up for lunch and tea.....
Our power was out for a few hours before we got home, then 10 minutes after lighting candles, turned back on.
Cool tree. Cool reflection. Cool picture.
haha. As we drove through Stratford on our way back, Aaron had to use the facilities. Ok, so most of us had to... but Kate took the blame.... We drove around for 20 mintues trying to find the entrance to the Tesco.... once making our way there, we ran under a security door about to close, with a guard telling us that we had 3 minutes...... The whole gang made its way through the toilets and we were just about to make it out alive when I opened my big mouth....
The woman in the picture below is making an appearence on the blog because of her reaction to my hate speech. I was curious as to how easy her job must be.... In Tesco, the check out people sit in chairs, swipe the food, and then make the customer bag his or her own items. EASIEST JOB EVER. I exclaimed, much to her dismay. She looked up and glared at me with a look that could kill. Whatever. She's lazy and apparently very upset at life.
2 hour essay final today after dinner, after which i will dive head first into my Islam paper due thursday (along with four journals and a chronology about the first 2000 years of English culture....)
Long Awaited Photo Blog..... Stratford pt. 1
Because i'm too lazy to upload these pictures in reverse order, i'll Tarantino the storyline behind them..... Most of these are a collection from Thursday, Friday and Saturday of last week.... Maybe Sunday if the internet cooperates.....
Shakespeare' Church... site of strange Sunday morning services and Shakespeare's grave....
Our play on Saturday night- this is the 'new years' celebration ala 1940s from Winter's Tale....
Yes, I am the greatest photographer of all time. Thanks for mentioning it...
Stop looking at me, Swan..... Cooincidentally, the name of the Theatre we went to.....
Strange tree-turned-bench thing from Shakespeare's son in law's backyard....
The man, the myth, the legend.....the grave?...... Creepily, he wrote his own gravestone poem, essentially cursing anyone who moved his bones...
Famous statue of Shakes, just above his grave....
Love this sign of the happy neighborhood, Bobby and all....
T. Bear store in Stratford.... avg selling price for normal sized bear? Try 100 US dollars...
What kind of plant is this? any Herbologists? The Garrick is the site of both post-theatre night pint downing sessions.
Stratford knows how to decorate. Each street had its own theme, colors, etc.....
Shake's wife's family home... just outside of town- very quaint
Timber, Plaster, Pepperoni. I really miss Queen Latifa's voice on tv....
Artsy? A little. From the chapel just across the street from Shakes' 'New Place'...
I'm not making this up.....
Again, the nice decorations.
Pitcher and Piano on Mary's parents last night.... Thursday.
Haha. Ricky with a pitcher of Guiness. Yes. they have pitchers of Guiness...
First look of Stratford.... Friday again... sorry to jump around so much...
Back to Thursday, see last blog post for story of Kate's Dog....
My Winter's Tale... a December Shakesperience
*i'll apologize for the lack of pictures up front.... patience..... this wifi connection is terrible....
Where to begin. It's been too long (by my post-a-day standards), so prepare yourself for a dramatic, breakneck paced tour of Stratford-upon-Avon and all that Shakespeare's ghost inspires...
A quick recap of Thursday would be impossible without mentioning Kate's dog. Kate is our resident 'Dr Dolittle'... at her farm in Minnesota, she runs a foundation with her mom that saves injured animals, protects strays, etc, and does a lot of awesome stuff for the area. Basically, she knows her fauna.
After settling in after no class all day, I was surprised to hear the familiar, haunting (yeah, Abe) sound of panting and paws on tile.... A quick look out the door revealed Kate, busy directing a beautiful black rotwieller mix into the house. Long story short, we coddled the pup, gave it some water, covered the house in fur, and Kate ended up taking him (i think the top few names were "Jujo and Max, but there were many possibilities for our 10th flatmate....) to the police station, as the pounds were full....
Later that night, Mary's parents graciously took us (including a self-invited M & C) to Pitcher and Piano, where they had decorated for Xmas..... we were lucky enough to claim the 'cove' overlooking the place- I felt like some guy on WallStreet, watching my minions run about like ants, doing their insignificant drunk business...
Friday was another early morning- our itinerary was set for a day in Stratford-upon-Avon (actually the name of the town, it is one of many on the Avon River.... kindof like Stroke-on-Trent near Notts, which is on the Trent....).
We arrived at Stratford forewarned of its 'touristy' nature, but Mark was a little premature in his judgement. Mark actually skipped out on Stratford years ago when he backpacked across Europe, thinking it was too overrun with tourists to get the 'real' Shakesperience.... Silly English profs...
We had on our itinerary 5 total 'Shakespeare Houses' to hit- they come in a pack for tourists, one ticket for 12 pounds for all 5 homes.... not a bad deal, really.
Homes included his Birthplace (immaculately protected and preserved), his wifes' family's cottage, his home when he moved back to Stratford (demolished by a hated former-owner who refused to pay taxes on it and disliked the mobs of tourists who came to see it), and then finally the home of his daugher and her extremely wealthy doctor husband.
It's so strange to think of the huge impact that one person has had on such a tiny town. The preservation and popularity of the hamlet (is there a better word?) is solely based on his popularity as the 'Greatest Writer of All Time' (rightly deserved).... To see the room he was born in, the school he attended (still in operation- how wierd would it be to go to the same school that Shakespeare did?)- it was all really surreal....
I guess i would compare it to going to Washington DC or the Louvre, and finally seeing paintings or buildings that you've always been told about or seen in pictures.... in real life, they're just buildings or just pictures.....
Shakespeare's grave is just a grave, and these places just historical buildings, but it still carries a feeling or aura of importance knowing that, again, this is my English Majory Mecca....
The show our first night was Pericles- one of the basic tragicomedies, love lost, love found, death, betrayal, awesome casts, and interesting seats.... It was played in an African theme- dictators, tribesman, machetes and machine guns.... really awesome, very dramatic.... almost cried once or twice (keep in mind i teared up while watching Nutty Professor with Eddie Murphy...((why do they have to be so mean to the fat guy in the comedy club?)))
The second night was spent at Winter's Tale, with the same cast (the Royal Shakespeare Company, best Shakespeare in the World, without a doubt). I hate the concept of Winter's Tale, but the first act almost redemed it. The 1940s theme was pretty solid, and the cast was great, but Shakespeare got a little lazy in plot development (in my undergrad unpublished opinion). I'll spare the lame details, but don't go to a production expecting to walk out without questions....
Going to these plays, i can understand why Mark and Carol go to 2 plays a week.... it's entertaining, enlightening, you get a 'cultural high' (some call it pretentiousness.... if that word exists)..... I really enjoyed having the text, which i've been lovingly 'forced' to read in past years, brought to life- these actors actually know what the text means, and could be speaking Aramaic and the audience would still have a clue about what was going on.... they're just that good.....
We spent some time both days walking around the city streets -still in their 10th century design plan- and went to Starbucks entirely too many times. Aaron needed his fix, and we needed Aaron to have an excuse to spend 6 dollars US on a grande carmel macchiato.
Our nights were spent in an awesome bed and breakfast run by an Indian family who also owned a restaurant in town. The guys were in the 4 bed penthouse, while the girls were split.... Friday night's awkward tv conversation will go down in history as the time where more words were wasted saying absolutely nothing. While watching the Red Hot Chili Peppers perform, the four of us were able to put together the most uncomfortable, unfounded dissertation as to why they were so popular that i can only look back and laugh at how much we must have been trying to impress each other with our lack of knowledge..... you had to be there?
Sunday's trip to a small town just outside of Stratford was a chance to see one of the tens of small villages in the area who thrived on their wool industry, this one called Chipping Campden was home to awesome old stone buildings and a huge church. Typical English Village, take 24.....
All in all, an amazing trip--- drama semi-averted, entertainment as always a premium in the UK, Starbucks fix dissuaded, and postcards and christmas cards purchased and half-written....
All is good in the world.
As i write this, flatmates are cleaning candlewax up off of the table upstairs---- we arrived at 6pm to find that last night's huge windstorm had knocked out our power, and 50 candles later we realized that our food must have gone bad (all of this while I contemplated how i could write a blog by candlepower....).... 50 candles later, (10 minutes) the power returned. irony.
This week will find me inaccessable and altogether boring. Tuesday huge test for English History, Wednesday/Thursday 50% Term Paper over aniconism in Islam, and then next Mon/Tues a 30 minute presentation to Mark and Carol over what my BIG PAPER for paideia will be on.... not due until February?
Back to my cave of Islamic and English solitude.....
pics up later....internet be damned....
