Chim-che-che-WEE!

Only the best give Wednesdays off. And I shall take nothing else. – Mary Poppins

Shann and I saw Mary Poppins on Tuesday and had a load of fun. General impressions:

• The musical deviated quite a bit from the movie plotline of the story. The songs—all well sung—were strung together in a bit of a random fashion. They threw in Supercalifragilis(etc.), for instance, in a search for the “last word.” There was also a rather frightening scene where the toys in the nursery come alive. They pronounce the children guilty of a temper and punish them by throwing them around and generally terrorizing them.

• The set was quite elaborate, with whole floors of the house moving up and down the stage. The lighting, however, was a bit morbid, I thought. It’s not too much of a sunny set design. They used a lot of dark blues and dark greens.

• The family next to us was completely enraptured and oooh-ed and aah-ed all the way through. Especially at the end when Mary Poppin puts up her umbrella and flies over the crowd.

• This play made me think about a lot of things that I hadn’t when I first watched the Julie Andrews version as a child. Who is Bert, for instance? What is his relationship to Mary Poppins anyway? Why do they always have to say her first and last name? Could Poppins be her middle name? Is it sad to be Mary Poppins and have to fly around whenever the wind changes? Does she feel she has a life? Is Bert part of her real life? Is that something I really want to think about?

The best part of the musical definitely nurtured some of these new thoughts. And actually, I think the best part was an accident. It happened during the Supercalifragilis(etc.) number. The song is, in general, a very wholesome tune and has wholesome choreography to fit it. In an educational fashion, the cast spells out the word with their bodies in rapid fire. It’s fit for Mary Poppin’s character—a woman almost painfully prim and proper--there’s one woman who definitely does not have any form of scoliosis.

At the peak of the song, Bert makes a ring around Mary Poppins with his arms like a hula hoop, and she’s supposed to do a little sway. As the chorus swelled up, though, and the cast members surged on the vigor of their spelling, Mary Poppins got really into it, and instead of a neat little sway, she totally broke it down. Mary Poppins REMIX!!!! In a single move, Mary Poppins transformed herself from a proper nanny into a repressed Cabaret girl. Shann and I simultaneously burst out, “WHAT?!” and started laughing hysterically in our seats (good thing we were in the back of the orchestra floor).

I think we got a little window into Mary Poppins’s Wednesday nights off.

Oh horror!

Here are a few pictures outside of the theatre (note English spelling). In the first one, you’ll see some random girl’s arm, which swung into the photo at the last minute. In the second, you are supposed to see the Mary Poppins poster in the upper right hand corner, but somehow the guy totally missed it. Oh well.

---

Oh, and here’s what happens when you accidentally cook beef in your Muslim flatmate’s pan…



Here is Shann, trying very hard to prevent the fire alarm from going off, since even shower steam is known to send the alarm blaring on a regular basis. In addition to boiling water in the pan under high heat, Shann and I felt so awful about it that we washed the pan twice, scrubbed it with baking soda, and then washed it again. To this day, every time my flatemate passes I think to myself, I defiled his pan!!!

---

“Tomorrow we are going to Dublin!” announced Liz to our British friend last night. “Or, for those of you who have an accent, tomorrow we are going to D-oo-blin.”

“Is that how Americans say Dublin?” responded the British friend. “D-oo-blin? Doooblin? Luke, listen to how the Americans say Dublin! Dooblin!”

Yes, today, I am going to Dooblin.

---

Two last minute orders of business:

1. Johnny is watching Basil, my basil plant, for me!

2. I just brushed my teeth with shaving cream. To be explained when I return.

K. - S. - i - n - g

You’ll never guess whom I saw tonight.

I saw KEVIN SPACEY. *go wild*

This afternoon, my friends and I nabbed student tickets to see Spacey staring in Eugene O’Neil’s Moon for the Misbegotten! We saw it at the Old Vic Theatre, where Spacey is the artistic director. Apparently he’s received criticism in the past for not appearing in enough roles, so this performance has been especially anticipated by London.

We got second row seats for only 12 pounds, the student rate! Unfortunately, they weren’t quite the second row seats we imagined. Rather, they were second row seats on the first tier, pushed allll the way to the right side of the semi-circular theater. In order to see the stage, I had to lean all the way forward with my chin on the banister. Still, I felt really close to the actors, especially since the size of British theaters is much more intimate. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time! Whether I liked it or not.

And luckily, I did like it! Spacey was AMAZING. O’Neil’s work is typically marked by a sobering emotional sensitivity, and Spacey really did justice to the play. The first act was much slower than the second. I spent a good part of it in awe of the fact that I was just meters away from the guy in Superman and The Usual Suspects (kind of distracting). But the second half was so moving, I cried through a good portion of it. At one point, Spacey as Tyrone just sobs and sobs into someone’s lap, and I just started crying out of the pure empathy of the moment.

Like any classic, the play reaches down into some of the most haunting and delicate struggles of being human. Even though the characters are older, I think young people would do especially well to see it because of the way it addresses certain insecurities and threats to innocence.

Anyway, since most people haven’t seen or read the play before, this is all a bunch of gibberish, and I don’t want to get too English-y (whoops, too late). So I’ll just say anyone who is a person should see it. There.

After the play, we went over to the stage door to see Mr. Spacey! After several minutes of lunging at people who turned out to be no one we recognized, a little window opened up, and Mr. Spacey received autographs through the little hole. At first I didn’t want to go up because I thought I would be annoying. I felt bad that he must get this all the time.

But my friend Liz gave me good advice. “You’re being lame,” she said and pushed me into line. He was clearly a really nice guy, but I still felt nervous. I stepped up to the window and slid my little brochure toward him and stammered, “Thank you so much for your performance tonight. You were really amazing.” There was a pause, and he looked up, just realizing I had said something.

“Thank you,” he said. I nodded.

But boy was I happy that Liz made me go!

This is how I felt when I got the autograph:
















Even though this is how I looked when I asked for it:
















And here's a picture of all us who went. Note that we took two pictures and somehow I was talking in both. Whoops.

---

Last night, I had the best meal I’ve had in England so far! I spent the afternoon with Shann at the Picadilly Circus Waterstones, where I had tried in vain to find some books for class. So, we went upstairs and plopped ourselves down on a red, cushiony couch. I read my class packet and then 60 pages of Jane Eyre (a book I Love so far).

Afterward, I met my two Chinese flatmates to go eat at a Korean restaurant! Technically, only one is my real flatmate and the other is my flatmate’s friend who is living out of the same room because he has no home yet. But, puh, what are technicalities?

I met Vincent (the one without a home) in Oxford Circus where we met Johnny, the other guy. The Korean restaurant was really nice, with frosted glass separators between restaurant sections. They ordered a TON of food: two orders of glass noodles, kim chee, kim chee with tofu, two orders of stone rice, a huge pot of soup noodles, ribs, bugolgi, and pork. Vincent also ordered a bottle of wine for us all to share, since he had acquired a taste for wine while traveling in Paris. Vincent and Johnny frequently say the phrase, “It’s really very nice,” which they applied to every single dish that came out.

At the end I was STUFFED SILLY but very happy. Vincent was really nice, too, and picked up the bill for all of us!

Pictures from the night:

---

I am thinking about purchasing a space blanket for when I travel, since I get really cold and have no portable blanket with me. Is this a good idea or bad idea?

Anyway, it’s really, really late now. This post took Forever because my iPhoto's export function is broken, so everything takes a long time. Tomorrow Martha and I are going to the Senate House Library to read for class.

Odds 'n Ends

Sorry for the lapse in updating! Shann and I have been busy with experiments in the kitchen.

A few notes on today
• I got passes to Parliament to see the Prime Minister's Questions!!!! I'm so excited! I get to see Tony Blair defend himself against the lords and ladies! Hear hear! The earliest available pass was for the last week I'm in London. So I'm even more thankful that I got it. (thanks, Justin, for tips on nabbing it!)
• Shann and I were going to see Mary Poppins tomorrow, but I found out a few hours ago that I have an academic meeting right when the show starts. :-( I think I'll try to go next week, though.
• We're trying to plan a trip to Krakow and Warsaw. I want to see Auschwitz.
• We are also trying to go to the Scottish Highlands, specifically Glasgow.
• My Chinese flatmates are taking me to a Korean restaurant tomorrow! ^_^


Here's a video of my Welsh friend Reese. He's saying the name of the longest town in Wales.

Dewey Dewey Dewey. You know the world'll be rockin to-ey to-ey to-ey

I love Dewey!

I love Dewey for two reasons.

1) He established a curriculum at McKinley High School that eventually helped truly democratize Hawaii. It put power in the hands of the people and broke the old missionary oligarchy.

2) THE DEWEY LIBRARY SYSTEM! The thing is Brilliant. They may look like little random numbers. But oh hoo they are so much more. With the Dewey number system, I can quickly locate any book in every library with efficiency and swiftness. Praise the Lord! I am competent!

And then England took Dewey away. Or, rather, I guess they never had him.

Apparently, the Brits use some other system based on the book’s title. It confuses me. I spend dizzying minutes looking for the books I need. In the US, this would be like looking for organic broccoli in the supermarket—it takes a little looking and a little time, but if they don’t have it oh well—pesticides for you. In Britain, it’s more like Photohunt or Hidden Pictures LIVE. You can win! You can lose. British students don’t buy books because the assigned readings often go across a huge range of sources. If you do not find your books at the library, you won’t get your classwork done. And there’s a bit of a math problem: there are fifty students in the class; there are two copies of the book.

Not to be outdone, last Monday, I burst out of class and ran to the library. I would beat this borrowing scheme! I would have my books! I tore to the appropriate aisles and then stood and looked. As I stood blinking at the shelves of books, other members of from the class sauntered up. Nobody acknowledged that we were from the same class or that we were all holding the same syllabus in our hands or that we were looking for the same exact books. It was an awkward few minutes as everyone hovered above the shelf. Every now and then a student would lunge forward and take a book. Eventually, one by one, the British students left in victory. I, on the other hand, was left with only two of the 10 books I needed.

I miss Dewey.

---

Cutest moment from yesterday:

All the bathrooms in McDonalds looked full so I was waiting on the side. The door on the end started to swing open, so I walked over, cursing my stupidity in not noticing the open stall. From the doorway, out poked a small head. The head belonged to a little Chinese girl. She was about 5 and had round chubby cheeks and chin length hair, all shiny and jet black.

“Excuse me,” she said in a small British accent. “Do you know how to lock this?”

I went in and showed her how to put the little bolt in the hole. It made me so happy.

It's nice to know how to do things and be grown up, I thought to myself as I walked to wash my hands. Then I realized I didn't know how the sinks worked, and a girl, of about 10, had to come over to show me.

---

*Please note that you can now subscribe to this blog by email! WOO HOO. Just look in the right column and click on the link.