Hallowed, Cloistered Halls

I have four hours to kill between my lecture and my seminar on Wednesdays, and I suppose I could use that time for actually reading for my seminar, but that would defeat the entire purpose of this blog. If I actually worked, then I would have no interesting excuses for not working to elaborate on. Today's excuse is that the recent spate of wonderful sunny skies in London is just too great not to take advantage of.

So I took a walk along The Strand, which is seriously one of the loveliest streets I've seen so far in London, especially if the site of high-powered businesspeople and barristers powering down the street munching on bagels gets you all tingly, like it does for me.

On my way back to the LSE I decided to look around the Royal Courts of Justice. Yesterday evening the Media department had a guest lecture by Samira Ahmed of Channel 4 News, who told us to visit the RCJ if we hadn't already. Most barristers and judges she said, go from the cloistered walls and communities of Eton to Oxford to the RCJ, never really having any contact with the outside world. And they're the ones who make real decisions that affect everyday people. So I dutifully went and checked out the RCJ. As stunning as the building is from the outside, the inside of it is just as beautiful. It has a very ancient and hallowed feeling to it, and I spent a lovely hour walking around and soaking in the atmosphere. It was a lot quieter than I expected. And there are some really nice exhibitions in different corners of the building, like a display on the history of the Legal Costume in Britian, and some manuscripts and books from as far back as the 16th century. One book, the 'Mirrour of Justices' from 1646, listed out the different classes of people who were not eligible to become judges. These included women, 'villaines', the 'deafe', 'dumbe', and 'repugnants'. Heh.

It is of course interesting to think of what Samira Ahmed said, especially considering this article by The Guardian yesterday, which outlines how new rules for a more diverse judiciary isn't really working out as planned. The vast majority of high court judges in the U.K. are still white males who were educated in posh independent schools and Oxbridge.

Unfortunately photography is not allowed inside the RCJ, but I do have these camera phone shots of the building.

Pretty, yes?

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Right, so I must make it clear that the above was written yesterday afternoon, when the weather was bright and beautiful. Today it turned on me. It was the windiest day I've experienced yet, and as I was struggling with all my might to control my umbrella, my iPod, which has a lovely sense of humour, was playing "Keep on the sunny side of life." Sure.

BUT! The BBC Weather page predicts that it's going to snow tomorrow! OOOOH.


OOH! :D

Recap

So 21st January was supposed to be the most depressing day of the year. And by extension I'm guessing the week following it has to be pretty damn depressing as well. I mean, poor Heath Ledger died. The day after the most depressing day of the year. Poor, poor Heath Ledger. :(

It's not been that bad for me, though. Far from it.

Last Saturday, Wiebke and I went to see The Lover/The Collection playing at the Comedy Theatre. I'd already seen it on Tuesday, but I loved it so much (and the fact that I may be unhealthily obsessed with Richard Coyle from Coupling) meant that I just HAD to see it again. We waited outside the stage door after the show for Richard to show up, but he didn't. Not a total loss though. Charlie Cox (of Stardust fame) showed up, and he very graciously let me have a picture with him. He is SO SWEET. I hope he's the next Orlando Bloom. Not only do I think he totally deserves it, but that would make my photograph become a lot more interesting to talk about at parties. :P

On Monday, the most depressing day of the year, I turned in my essays. SWEET!

On Tuesday, I just happened to bump into a friend of mine at the LSE who runs the Film Society, who just happened to have two free tickets to Sweeney Todd, who just happened to be busy that evening, so she gave them to ME! I took Carla, and we made our way to a rather obscure Odeon in Surrey Quays, and while getting there was quite an adventure in itself, the movie ROCKED our socks off. Tomorrow I'll be treating myself to TimeOut's audiowalk of Sweeney Todd's London. I can't wait!

On Thursday I went to Primark, the happiest place in London. Especially the first thing in the morning on a weekday. Shopping bliss!

On Friday I went to my first LSE Crush. It was Bollywood Night, and it finally hit me why they call it crush...waaaaaaaaay too many sweaty bodies doing jhatkas in the underground bar. It was REALLY fun (as the current slideshow attests), but we had to leave at around 1 because there were just too many people.

Today I tried out an audiowalk from http://londonwalks.libsyn.com/ and explored my lovely neighbourhood of Bloomsbury. Among many quirky surprises, I found out that there is a church near the British Museum- St. George's Church- which has, on top of the steeple, a statue of King George I dressed in a toga. Weird. :)

And my TV show for the week is The West Wing. Yes, I am incredibly incredibly late for this bandwagon, but what with the writer's strike and the most depressing week of the year, this show has actually been pretty good comfort. And the fact that Josiah Bartlett went to the LSE chuffs me up to an alarming degree. :D

At various points over the past week, I challenged myself to go for a full 24 hours without making a single reference to a television show, or anything to do with television. Fail? Yes, mighty big fail.

I'm actually in the library on a Saturday night, but not actually getting any work done. So now it's time to go home and watch the latest episode of Psych. Buenas noches, amigas. And a very Happy Republic Day to India. Yay for constitutions, and such.

I can't bloody work on my essays tonight...

I met Bill Bailey and John Lloyd at a BBC Radio 4 taping and I can't stop grinning. Like, literally.



Shitty cellphone camera picture, but it is a momentous moment in my London existence. John frickin Lloyd and Bill Bailey! British comedy Gods! aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.

Back in London...

...And seriously jet-lagged! I hope this isn't going to be a repeat of the last time I came here from Houston- one week of compulsively waking up at 3.36 am and watching old episodes of Spin City on my laptop. (Michael J. Fox cures homesickness. It's a tried and tested trueism.)

Speaking of truthiness, I used my wide-eyed state of awakeness to see the new episodes of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, which have joined the ranks of other late night shows coming back on air despite the WGA strike. I, like most fans of these shows, have mixed feelings about them coming back. On the one hand, it's awful to think of the beginning of election year going uncovered by John and Stephen. But then... support the writers! Down with big business screwing the workers! If you're a typical viewer of this show, a left-wing bleeding-heart tree-hugger who spends December 25th at "Osama's homo-abortion-pot-and-commie-jizzporium", then you will obviously feel uncomfortable about the fact that your favourite political pundits are not making a very good statement by coming back on air.

Also, the fact that you've downloaded the shows off iTunes gives you other things to think about in your jet-lagged state.
1. By paying to download these shows, you're supporting the AMPTP, and the writers get nothing.
2. But then, for these particular shows, there were no writers involved! So it's not like they should get paid in this case.

My solution- Download them for free. That way you're sending a symbolic screw-thee message to the producers, and you get your John and Stephen fix, and nobody gets paid, and everyone's happy.

Ok, well you're happy.

The shows were interesting. I thought Stephen was cleverer about the whole thing by relying more on old clips, and his opening teaser (with nothing to say) and 'The Word' segment (with no word), and the sudden blankness of the magic box that reads his mind and transcribes his thoughts (the teleprompter) was hilarious. The fact that one of his interview guests was an LSE alumnus made me happy inside. I liked that Jon paid more attention to the strike itself, and that he acknowledged that this show without the writers was not 'The Daily Show', but he seemed a bit uncomfortable. Probably because he doesn't really have a convenient right-wing blowhard characterisation like Stephen to hide behind, and I think he overcompensated with the extra-long interview segment about the strike. And he just seemed to ramble at times.

I did however, think his comparison of the WGA strike to 9/11 was awesome. Not because the joke itself worked (it didn't), but because the audience had no fucking clue how to react! Hee!

Links:
Variety live-blogged the return of the Daily Show.
Fans in support of the strike discuss the episodes.


Well it's past 5 am and I'm still not in the least bit sleepy. So now I can either-
1. unpack
2. work on my essays
3. watch The Simpsons.

And if you know me at all (or have at least read the title of this blog), I think you'll know what I'm going to do. Ciao, bella.

I love being a nerdy girl...

And this blog totally reaffirms my awesome nerdy way of life. Plugging: The Park Bench. Celebrating the girl nerd way of life with news, features, reviews and general musings on all things nerdy.

They have a Nerdy Man of the month which just- yes. Michael Cera! Nathan Fillion! Stewart and Colbert! All of whom make the little heart behind my pocket-protector go pitter-pat.

To the above I would like to add James Roday and Dulé Hill, stars of my new pet obsession- Psych. I've been watching the episodes in order and I think I may have a crush on the entire cast. You know that a show is good when its website makes you laugh just as much as exchanges like-
Shawn: Simba... I am your father.
Gus: Mufasa never said that.
Shawn: Mufasa, Vader, it's all James Earl Jones .

And, you know. You get the in-jokes and feel proudly geeky.

So. James Roday should be added because he's a theatre guy with a theatre background, who co-runs a theatre company in L.A., and theatre guys are oh so slightly more geeky. He's a writer. He's really, really, really funny. Plus, his character is just the most charming, incredibly joyful person on tv right now with a photographic memory (which, hot!).

Dulé Hill needs to be added because he's a West Wing alumnus and has an awesome name. And his character is the epitome of adorable nerdiness. Spelling bees, 6th grade accelerated law classes, the SuperSmeller(tm), Astronomy, Comic Books, Super Stealth Powers... and that's just the first ten episodes or so.

But the Most Important Thing that qualifies them for the nerd hall of fame- when the two of them share a frame, the HoYay meter cranks up so high it orders Apple Martinis and indulges in surreptitious foot-tapping in the restroom.

And just as a treat, one of the most awesome scenes in the series, ever. Gus and Shawn compete in 'American Duo'.



So, anyway. The blog. It is good. And Liz totally shares my digust for Sex and the City, which, thank you. SatC is just one of those TV shows that I wish had never been made. Like Two and a Half Men. Which, considering I've watched Ferris Bueller 6 times solely for Charlie Sheen's two-minute cameo, should tell you something about the depth of my hatred for that show.

I can't work on my essay, I'm too busy falling in love with fictional private-eyes. Later.

Neil Gaiman says it best...

And I remember when he said it, three years ago.

May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you're wonderful, and don't forget to make some art -- write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.
http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2007/12/as-i-was-saying.html

I don't think it can be put any better.