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Wireless
Entrance to the Wireless festival. Woo!In the last five days I've been to a play, an operetta, a music festival, one of the hippest nightclubs in London (or so I've been told), and a culture celebration. The arts aspect of London is one that I'm keen on learning more about. Lets squash all of those adventures into one, shall we?
1. That Face. A play by a young playwright who wrote the piece when she was 19 years old. It's about the destruction of a nuclear family when the father leaves and the mother drowns her sorrows in alcohol and Valium. This was one of the assigned pieces we had to see for Reporting the Arts, so I'll be sure to post the review I write about it in here once it gets graded. There were aspects that I liked, and others that I didn't. The woman who played the mother was a fantastic actress and she seemed to keep the momentum of the show going.
2. Candide. A musical operetta by Leonard Bernstein, adapted from the French satire by Voltaire. Again, we were sent to see this for Reporting the Arts, so I'll post my review in here once it gets written. This
Wireless 2
These people were marching around during the day. Hilarious. was an interesting version of the comedic operetta, and as I never saw an original Bernstein version of Candide I'm a little confused as to how the story is really supposed to be told. The play had themes and images from the American 1950s and 60s, with lots of hidden references to the American Dream. Voltaire's book was titled "Candide, ou l'Optimisme," or Candide, the Optimist, so using 1950s imagery of the perfect white suburban American family seemed really fitting with the plot and meaning of the piece. My favorite part was during the finale, when the whole company came out on stage to sing the final number, a beautiful song called "Make Our Garden Grow." The song starts out with the two main characters, Candide and Cunegonde, singing to each other about righting the wrongs they each did in the past, and reconciling for the future. It's a lovely song of starting a new and moving past things that had previously held them back from being together. Once the rest of the cast joined them, the sound was so chilling, so overwhelming. It's power filled the whole theatre. Throughout the show, images of happy-go-lucky things from the 50s and
Black Kids
Hard to see, but the Black Kids rocking out 60shad been projected onto the back wall of the stage, but the imagery was much different during this song. Images of caving glaciers, starving children, dried out rivers, destruction in the rain forest. It was very fitting with the song. I loved it.
3. The O2 Wireless Festival, with Morrissey as the headliner. Londoners really love their summer music festivals, and there is a big festival almost every weekend that I'm here, so I knew I had to get to one at some point. The O2 Wireless fest was a four day spectacle in Hyde Park, one of the biggest parks in the city. I decided to buy a one day pass with Jessica, and we both decided Friday would be the best day for us. Each day seemed to be a genre-specific day, and the day I chose that had the most bands that I wanted to see was (surprise, surprise) the more indie/alternative day. It turns out that Heather, another girl from my program, also had a Friday ticket, so the three of us set out to Hyde Park for a day of sweet, sweet music. The festival had five stages and a bunch of little booths
The Wombats
Cause I'm moving to New York... with food and merch, and what I loved about it was that it was a big amount of space so it didn't feel overly crowded or anything. Once we got in, we bought a schedule and scoped out the grounds so that we could make a set plan of action. Once we realized that the first band we wanted to see wasn't for another hour, we just began to wander and listen in on bands we'd never heard before. We made our way into one of the enclosed stages, in a big circus-looking tent, and watched this band called Black Kids. They were awesome! I had only heard maybe one song of theirs before, but they were a lot of fun to watch perform. We danced a lot and I've been listening to them like crazy ever since. Go check out their myspace page if you're jonesing for a good, new band to rock out to. Next we went over to the stage where we thought Sea Wolf was playing, but it was another band instead as their was a change in the schedule. Sea Wolf had actually already played while the Black Kids were playing. Disappointedly, we watched the
Crunchie!
Me, Jessica and Heather indulging on delicious Crunchie ice cream bars. Guillemots for a bit before Liam Finn began his set on a smaller stage. He is a folk singer from New Zealand and I really dig his sound. I watched maybe half of Liam's set before running over to the main stage to watch The Wombats. Woo! They were great! Really really really good energy. I originally wasn't gonna watch their whole show so that I could get a good spot for Siouxie, but I got so swept up that I watched the whole thing. We ran back over to the circus tent to catch the last half of Siouxie's set. One part of me is angry that I spent so much time with The Wombats that I missed seeing punk goddess Siouxie up close, but at the same time I'm really happy and overwhelmed that I at least got to see her from afar and be in her presence in the country that made her (and the Banshees) legends of punk. She is one incredible lady. We took an ice cream break (they make my favorite UK candy bar, Crunchie, in ice cream form!) before parking it in front of the main stage to wait for... BECK! When he
Wireless girls
Jessica, Heather, moi. Waiting *patiently* with out best Beck impersonation faces. came out on stage with his dirty long hair, hat and Raybans, I had to hold onto Jessica for support. Beck is one of the artists on my "Must See Before I Die" list, and there are no words to properly describe how I felt when he began to play. I just wish it was for longer, it was a short set for a little over an hour. Thats the bummer about big festivals - short set times. BUT he was phenomenal. Everything I expected it to be, especially his on stage persona of "I'm Beck and I'm way too cool to move or rock out. I'm just gonna chill in one spot behind my Raybans and look mysterious." Oh, Beck. I enjoyed him very much. When Beck finished, we ran over to see The National end their set. I dig the National but wasn't too bummed that I missed them because I've seen them before and they tour quite a bit. We debated going over to watch the New York Dolls for a little while, but decided it would be best to stake out territory for Morrissey.... Oh. My. G-d. Morrissey. Was. INCREDIBLE. I felt like I was gonna
Beck!
From afar. Still amazing. have a seizure when he came out on stage, I was that excited. Everything about his set was fantastic in every single little way. His costume changes... from a Playboy tee shirt, to an American Idol tee shirt (it was the 4th of July, after all), to his turquoise button down. The few Smiths songs that he threw into his set that drove everyone insane. His jabs at Kylie Minogue. His attack of the meat-eaters (he said something like "Smell that pungent odor of death wafting towards the stage as you all eat your hamburgers." YAY VEGETARIANS!). Awesome, awesome, awesome. Jessica and I both flipped out when we fully realized what we were seeing... a Brit rock legend on his home turf. That opportunity will not be knocking on my door any time soon. It was a phenomenal, meaningful, legendary day for me that I won't be forgetting any time soon.
4. Fabric. An uber-trendy club right down the road from my flat that has a reputation of being the second best club in London (the first being the Ministry of Sound). A good 15 or so people from my program decided to go on Friday night, so I
Wireless 3
Butterfly wings surrounded the main stage. rushed back from the Wireless fest, changed from a dirty v-neck to a glam top and heels, and sprinted down the road. We went in a few different small groups, seeing as we had so many of us to begin with, and my group (me, Jessica, Kelsey, Erica, Alana, Riddhima, Andrew and Evan) was the first inside. We paid a little extra to buy advanced tickets, which turned out to be a great idea. We strolled past the hundreds of people queuing out the door and walked right in, just before midnight. The club itself is a big, hot mess, with three different dance floors with different types of music. We began at the bar (naturally), which overlooks the main dance floor - the techno/house floor. We tried to make our way downstairs to dance, but the club is so dark and so labyrinth like that we accidentally ended up in the Drum n' Bass room. We danced there for a bit, but DnB can be a bit overwhelming and tiresome after a while (I like it, but can only take it in small doses). We weaved our way out and found the right room. This room gave me that
Morrissey!
Not a good shot in the slightest, but I swear we were in a much more decent spot than it appears we were haha. real sense of what European clubs are like, with the Euro-trash kids and the trendy techno beats. We began dancing, and didn't stop the whole night. The DJ that was spinning from 12-3am was great, and everyone in the packed to capacity club was mesmerized by his set. Slowly, people began to get tired and retreat home, and soon it was just me, Susan, Brandon and Heather. After an energy burst we kept dancing until my feet began to buckle. Dancing for hours in spike heels is not a good idea. I had to leave. We stopped for water and crisps (potato chips) on the way home, and I collapsed into bed after a well deserved shower just as the sun was coming up at 4:30am. I rarely stay out all night like that, and I was surprised by my will-power to keep going. I was having too much fun to stop.
5. London Pride. After seeing the matinée of Candide on Saturday afternoon, we saw a bunch of colorful characters walking towards Trafalgar Square and heard infectious pop music. What was going on? A flier I saw a few days prior jabbed my memory. It was PRIDE! We
Flat mates
Flat #6, so hot right now! Clockwise from top: Jessica, Kelsey, me, Hayley. excitedly followed a guy wearing a shirt that read "Some people are gay. Get over it." Once at the Square we saw a wife-beater and skinny jeans clad guy on stage performing some insanely catchy songs. I never caught his name, but he was really good, and everyone there seemed to be really into it. There were a lot of booths with info on gay friendly activities around the city, as well as lots of merch and food. The rainbow flag soared high in the air from a flag pole in the Square, and a man in a Seuss looking hat waved an even larger flag from the middle of the crowd. Many people were draped in pink British flags. It was probably a 60-40 gay-to-straight ratio, which was excellent. Everyone was really happy and having a great time. The thing that made me want to cry with joy was that I didn't see any protesters, religious extremists, or homophobes in sight. None. It was such a fun, peaceful celebration. It wasn't anything near the outrageousness of San Francisco Pride, but even SF celebrations have hate-filled people coming to try to bring down the fun.
Last week we
Fabric!
Dancing like a fool at Fabric. I really wish I never saw this pic... apparently I don't look cool when I dance haha. Stolen from Kelsey's pics. were really lucky with the weather. The sun was beating down on us while we were at Pride, and most days it wasn't even necessary to wear a sweater. Now, as I'm sitting in my flat by the window, I see the rain coming down in buckets. The dream-like first week is over, and the reality of the English summer has just set in.
I think I'll go to a museum today.
Love and miss you all.
Cheers,
xo Leah
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