HIS mom never told HIM to stop drawing on the walls...

We attended the last of Mahogany Browne's London shows on Thursday at Neighborhood's near Portobello Rd, which apparently the venue where hip-hop got started in London.

We got there early enough to walk around the area a little before the show, and we happened upon some spraypaint on a wall by some dude who defaces public property. Gosh, what was his name...? Bant...Brink...Blank.... oh, yeah....BANKSY. here's his website. We also saw a really sweet skate park wedged in the space below an overpass.

The guy who runs the Farrago International Slam was there and remembered us from Mahogany's first show. He invited me to feature at their next show (Nov. 2nd - this friday,) but it's a spanish/english night, so he expects me to do at least one piece in spanish or a spanish translation. I know, right? But it's a feature spot, so I'll cover some spanish poetry if that's what it takes. I've never featured before, though, and I'm kinda nervous about it, especially since Allen won't be able to go with me. I know, I know - get over it. I'll be fine. I have decided to make a music myspace page, though, so it looks like I'm at least a little bit of a poet. I'll post the link when it's done. A publisher from Tall-Lighthouse also contacted me after the Farrago slam about doing a feature and submitting some poems for their 2008 anthology. He's giving me a short feature spot at the November reading at the Poetry Cafe on Nov. 28th.

This post ended up being not nearly as exciting as I thought it would be...hmm.... sorry abo- OH MY GOD! A HUGE CHUNK OF THE ROOF JUST FELL IN BEHIND ME! THERE'S BLOOD, ASBESTOS AND PIGEON FEATHERS EVERYWHERE! OH, THE HUMANITY!

...too much? it was too much, wasn't it? i should have kept it small... no one goes for roofs caving in - too dramatic. oh well...i tried.

stacy

my legs = jelly

We did it! We found poetry! And Mahogany Browne was featuring! And she was AMAZING! The slam was WEIRD, though. I had to go first, and my score of 23 was the HIGHEST of the night until the last two poets read. Yeah - a 23. Out of 30. Freaking crazy. It gets weirder - one guy read 3 short poems instead of one 3-minute, another guy passed out brochures with his poem and promotional material for himself before he read, and the last poet was introduced by the very impartial host as "by far the best poet living in london." It was a zoo. I got candy, though, which was pretty cool, and a publishing fellow talked to me after the slam about doing a feature sometime while I'm here, so we'll see how that goes. I should probably start memorizing some poems. Mahogany is doing a couple more features this week, so I think we're gonna just follow her around and look for some more poetry connections in the city.

In other news, I hiked over seven miles on Friday, and my legs almost fell off. No, seriously. I almost needed peg legs. Yes, both of them - don't question it.

It was beautiful. We hiked somewhere around Surrey, by Boxhill to Leatherhead (small towns about 30 minutes outside of London.) Apparently there is something in Jane Austen's Emma about Boxhill (any idea, Sarah?) This was one of the paths we took - a little stepping-stone bridge.

I started my new job at HMV on Saturday, and I LOVE it. I had no idea how hard it apparently was to get the job, but one of my managers told me he gets 400-500 CVs (british resumes) a WEEK. Yeah, that means I'm amazing. Or lucky.... we'll go with amazing. Apparently it's also the 2nd largest music store in Europe. (The largest is HMV's Oxford Circus location, just a few blocks away.) I work in "back of store" which is the rock/pop, metal, vinyl, dance and urban section. It's been tough to remember to say "pounds" instead of dollars when I'm working the till (that's what they call the cash register...silly, isn't it?) I messed it up once, and the guy I was helping was a real dick about it, so I punched him in the throat. Ok, that's not true, but I gave him a less-than-cordial "thank you" when I was done. Take that, man.

Let's see...what else.....umm.... I decided that I'm starting to get just a little home-sick, but not necessarily for home. I think I'm starting to miss familiarity in general. I'm having a really great time here, and I still love it, but I have been wanting nothing more than to play zombies with the roommates, sit in my hammock, or have a Wednesday night at the Coffee House. These things are all very regular and familiar to me, and though I'm building my own familiarities here, I still feel like a visitor. And I miss people. You should all come visit me. Get on that. You can take turns sleeping on my couch.

Wait a minute! Have I posted pictures of my room yet?! I don't remember. Here you go.... aww....it's small! Well, look at it on facebook, then.

I am going home. To my small room. Goodnight, moon.

stacy

Minor Delays

Some dude's suicide totally put a damper on my evening.

This is a ridiculously long and whiny story, so I'll try to sum it up for you quick-like:

We went to a museum for our Literary London class on Tuesday (which is worthless, by the way) and I was scheduled to meet my Hospitality Design class at Dans Le Noir (see previous post) for dinner to research unique dining and all that jazz. We didn't have to meet until 9 and it was 6 when we got out of the museum, so I thought I had plenty of time to go home and change. I should have had plenty of time to go home and change, but NO, the world hates me, and the central line (of the tube - the London underground train I use to get EVERYWHERE) was partially shut down b/c of "a person under the train." So by the time I got off I had to run home and change and get right back on the tube, realizing that the restaurant was only one stope away from the museum I had just come from. Ugh. But I had an hour to get there, so I thought it would be ok.

Nope.

Not only did it take me an hour and a half to get there, but it started pouring rain as soon as I got off the tube. Not a biug deal, though, right? I can meet my class late - no problem. So I finally get there, and they wouldn't let me in to meet my class! They said that once a party enters the "dark room," it is not possible for them to be joined by anyone else until their meal is done - not even if that person has just spent a hellish hour-and-a-half on the tube and in the rain. So I yelled at the lady and left.

Seriously, if you are going to kill yourself, don't do it in a way that inconveniences me. Ok, that's not entirely fair... I also heard the guy might have been pushed. If you are planning a death of any kind - yours or someone else's, please do it in private or at some obscure tube station that no one (meaning me) uses.

Thank you.

stacy

Frozen Furniture, Satin Peaches, and Jane Austen

Hey, kids. It's me again. I'm going to go ahead and assume that you missed me terribly and that my resuming this blog-action has just made your day. You're welcome.





Life lesson #34


You can only rinse and re-use styrofoam bowls so many times, and that "so many" is never as many as you think it is.





Life lesson #51


Though it takes slightly longer, cereal gets just as soggy on milk-soaked carpet as it does in a styrofoam bowl of milk.





I learned a lot yesterday morning.


It was a great start to an even greater day. Allen and I spent £30 each (that's right - $60) on a show that we never should have gone to, I ran out of money on my oyster card (again) and had to use change to top it up because I had no more money (so embarassing), and a pigeon crapped on my head. Ok...that last part was a lie...but my seemed really horrible and then I started bitching about it and it didn't sound nearly as bad as it was in my head, so I compensated with pigeon poo. Don't judge me. The point is, we're poor.





Our friend Katie knew some guys in a band (The Satin Peaches) that was passing through the area on tour with The Go! Team. We saw them at Astoria near SoHo in central London, which was a pretty sweet venue, but tickets were £10 and £15 (don't ask - it's a sore subject) and after a couple Strongbows and Jack-and-Cokes, our money was gone. We only caught the last couple Satin Peaches songs, which sucked because they were pretty good. We were there for the whole Go! Team set, though, and that was not as good. Not nearly. They all looked about 17 years old (all SEVEN of them - seriously - is that necessary? They had 2 drummers on stage, and I'm pretty sure they were playing exactly the same thing the whole time.) Whatever. It was a night. No more ridiculous outings. If we're going to see a band we don't know, we're setting a limit on our spendings.





My financial woes are about to ebb, though, ladies and gentlemen! I'm getting a job! I've actually already been hired....at....subway....

but that's only a last resort, I swear! I told them I can't start til Monday so I'm going to see how my other interviews go before then. I have one at HMV, a big music store on Oxford Street on Friday and with Gift Fundraising, a company who does street fundraising for charities. I am super-excited about that one.



Yesterday we went to The British Library for our Literary London class. What a horrible thing - spending class time in a world-famous library/museum surrounded by original copies of some of the world's most important works of literature. Seriously, it was miserable. (If you can't smell sacrasm wafting through your computer speakers, please make necessary adjustments.) I saw Shakespeare's First Folio, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Sylvis Plath's Insomniac, pages from Leonardo Da Vinci's notebooks, Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre, Virginia Woolf's Notebook for Mrs. Dalloway, Jane Austen's Vol. the 3rd (one of several stories she wrote to a friend when she was young), Oscar Wilde's The Ballad of Reading Gaol, John Milton's commonplace book, the Codex Sinaiticus, the original handwritten lyrics of a bunch of Beatles songs, a letter from Charles Darwin to Alfred Wallace, one of the four surviving copies of the Magna Carta, and LEWIS CAROL'S DIARY. That was so freaking cool. I also looked through a digital copy of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in his handwriting, with his original illustrations. And that was only some of it. A few little things like the original copies of Beowulf and Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales were out of rotation, so we didn't get to see them. It was still pretty fantastic, though.



I really like my classes so far. My project for Hospitality Design is to "redefine the dining experience." I'll explan more about it as the term goes on, but I'm looking into doing a public-awareness project on the experience of dinnertime as a homeless person. It's looking pretty promising so far, and I am SUPER excited about it. For "research" our professor is taking us to a couple "unique dining venues" around the city, the Ice Bar and Dans Le Noir.




Ok, time for some food. There's an amazing deli down the street that sells everything for £1 after 18:00, and it's totally 18:15 (Yeah, everyone uses "24 hour clock" here. It's weird).


Done and done.


stacy

School?

Sorry about not posting for awhile, we've been busy. Oh, and the internet is hard to find for cheap. For some reason I'm opposed to paying £4/hour for internet, which is what some of these places charge. So instead I've scouted out Central to find places with free wireless. In all of Central London (which is big) I've only found three. It's irritating to say the least. But now that school's started, we have access to the school's computers, but I can't hook-up with my laptop because it's taking FOREVER for my computer to be registered with the network. Which means that you're getting a blog post, but still no pictures. Deal with it, lovelies.

Thursday and Friday we took two days off from life. I was still feeling really not good, so I bought some immunodefense multivitamins and Vita-bombed (thanks, Niki) myself while also getting lots and lots of sleep. Stacy apparently worked on some cardboard art project to make her room pretty (don't ask her if she's finished it yet). It was good. I felt TONS better after those days of rest. I'm practically healed now.

Saturday we went to Camden Market, which was pretty freakin awesome. It's basically this huge street market in these old vaults and catacombs which actually used to be a cattle market, so the old stables are now shops. We were there nearly the entire day, and spent very little (mostly because: 1) We're terrified of using our American credit cards because people look at us funny because we don't us the same kinds of cards as the Brits, and 2) We refused to bring cash with us), which was good, since we're poor. The market was a lovely little adventure. We ate at the food stalls, where Stacy got salmon shish and I got an intense veggie burger. Then we went back down to Shepherd's Bush (that's the neighborhood where we live, in case you forgot) and went to the Post Office, where Chaya (our Indian London mom) had a bag FULL OF INDIAN FOOD for us! Pretty amazing.

We wandered down to SoHo with Andrew that night, but I went home early to make sure to get lots of rest (and continue to get better) before school started.

Sunday was orientation for school. Orientation itself was pretty boring and generally useless, but Stacy and I stumbled upon some of the best people in the world there. We've already started our own little clique, and we call ourselves the Clever Clique, which is a much improved version of the Smart Kids, which was my idea, by Kiki (or Kristine, whichever you prefer). In our little clique we have Stacy and I, obviously. Then there's Katie Lee, or Katilee, a demure and chic indie girl from Chicago, and Kiki, or Kristine, a short and spunky Detroitian (I have no idea if that's what we're calling residents of Detroit). There's also Sarah, from Albany, NY (and who goes to SUNY Oneonta, which those of you who know about an incident I had at the National Poetry Slam will realize that I freaked out when I found out which school she goes to), who is quiet and confident, and another shy but hilarious girl named Alli from somewhere in Michigan. We hung out most of the day and through the night, and ended up at the OhBar, which is one of the places where Stacy and I had tried to find an open mic, so we already knew where it was. Along the way we absorbed Joe from Chicago, a fashion design major with a penchant for hoodies. There were a bunch of kids from school at the OhBar, and we got to know a couple of them. Stacy and I ended up taking an hour an a half to get home on the bus that night, because we made a tragic error in getting on the wrong bus (I know, I know). But thankfully, on the right bus (which we found eventually) we met a sweet guy named Jay who talked to us most of the way.

Monday there was a Freshers thing, and we ended up at the Marylebone Tup (which is one of the places with internet, so Stacy and I had been there numerous times before). There we ended up hanging out with the four guys who go to our school (I'm almost serious), and then we went home.

Tuesday was the first day of classes, and before class our little group hung out at the lounge in the main building, and that's where we unofficially absorbed the guys into our group. So there's Kurt, who is tall and lanky and is almost as much of a know-it-all as I am, and then there's Alaska Joe, or Joe Foxley, buff and blonde and a super nice guy, and then Dave from Wisconsin, who is a complete smartass and sarcastic dick, which makes him my favorite. We were talking about bands coming to London that we wanted to see, and Dave mentioned The Decemberists were coming on the 21st. I asked him to go check the net to see where it was, and he was too lazy, so I went to check. Turns out, it wasn't the 21st, but it was that very night. Luckily, I checked. We surveyed the table and turns out only Dave, Sarah, and I were interested enough to pay £20 to go, so we bought tickets.

Kurt, Stacy, Joe Foxley, and I are all in Literary London, so we trekked off to class. The professor is an odd little duck with eccentric stories and an easily distractable personality. Apparently we aren't going to need to buy any books, we're only going to partially read the books she provides (most of which are already public domain because they're old), and one class per week (out of two) will involve us going to museums and other locations of literary interest in London ...score. Sounds like a tough class, right?

After class I dashed home to shower and then dashed to Waterloo to get to the concert hall. However, the stupid tube line was delayed because of signalling problems, so I got there late. Thankfully, we just missed the opening act, and didn't even remotely miss the Decemberists. We got pretty fantastic seats at the Royal Festival Hall, and it was a GREAT show. Well worth the 20 quid.

Afterward, the three of us wandered around the Thames and Parliament Square, seeing the London Millenium Eye, Parliament (and Big Ben), Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, St. James Park, and Trafalgar Square at night. It was sweet. Wait till you see pictures. And... then we went home.


Which means, we're doing well. I'm feeling a LOT better, mostly because I've been sleeping my butt off and bombing my body with vitamins. Stacy's been doing well too, I guess. Meeting new friends has been good for us. Especially the cool kids. Yes, there are TONS of stupid fashion design (no offense kids) kids here, but we met the smart kids.

Okay, more later!

Cheers!