Well, hope everyone is having a Happy Hanukkah (of those who celebrate). It's been pretty low-key for me so far, although today I did go to my uncle Josh's for a nice and very lively Hanukkah dinner, complete with latkes, sufganiyot, and plenty of singing, candle-lighting, and good cheer. In any case, I've wanted to recap my trip to London for a while now - between work and the general business of getting back into the think of things here in LA though, I feel like I've had barely any time for anything, and half the time this week I hardly knew what day or what time it was - basically, I'm still recovering from the craziness of going to CT, to London, to CT, and finally back to LA over a week-long period.
But London was a really cool experience. Now that some time has passed, I realize it's kind of pointless to write about it in a ton of detai, but at the same time, I've always regretted that my first trip to the UK came right before I got fully immersed in the world of digital photography, social networking, and blogs like this one. Not to say that I wish I had spent my semester in England in '03 blogging, uploading pictures, etc. - but, I still marvel at how I am updated on my brother's time in England in such a real-time way via a constant stream of pictures and the modern wonder that is Facebook.
Being in London again though, for me, it just helped to refocus my perspective and remind me that the grand ol' USA is but a small place in a big world, and that a relatively short plane ride can take you to a place where people talk, think, eat, and act differently than the ways with which we are accustomed. It's funny though - going on this trip with my parents reminded me that there is a real power in youth. Sure, I'm not exactly a kid at this point, but I feel like being a person in your twenties, you can almost go anywhere in the world and be a part of a global youth culture - which is both scary and really cool. Everywhere in the world, young people are gawking at new technology, pondering the war in Iraq, seeking out the latest and greatest music and movies, figuring out where they fit in. During my semester in England, I was there as an American, yes, but that was in many ways negated by the fact that I was just another college kid in a world full of college kids, who have a lot more simialrities than differences. This time around, I was much more the tourist - with nearly everything I did accentuating the fact that I was a stranger in a strange land, even if only 5 years ago I had lived there long enough to think of myself as a Londoner. I guess my point is that, when you've lived in a city and absorbed it, it's in some ways difficult to go there and suddenly be relegated to the role of outsider. For me, what's truly interesting about going to new places is the culture, the little quirks, mannerisms, ways of speaking, the vibe. Luckily though, London is a city PACKED with things to do and see. So being a tourist never really got boring this time, because honestly you could live in London for a year and still not do or see even a fraction of what it has to offer.
So as for this trip - I've spoken a bit about it via my special-edition live-from-London blog, but here I'll go into a bit more detail. Going back to the beginning, I had quite the week leading up to the big trip. As I've already reviewed here, last Tuesday (which already seems like a year ago), I was rocking out to VAN HALEN in LA, live and in concert at the Staples Center. That night, I packed my things and prepared to fly from Burbank to Hartford the next morning. Despite my exhaustion, I made it to the small but convenient Burbank airport just in the nick of time on Wednesday, with some drama en route to Hartford courtesy of Southwest Airlines (following a stop in Vegas, our landing was delayed by a few hours dure to heavy fog over Bradley airport, meaning I didn't land in CT until past 2 am ET).
The next day was Thanksgiving, and my parents and I headed to my uncle Michael's house in Longmeadow, MA for the traditional celebratory meal, attended by my grandparents as well as a whole host of guest from Michael's wife's side of the family. It was a relaxing time with the family, but soon we would embark on the big trip to LONDON.
I have to say, Virgin Atlantic is a great airline. We took it going to and from London from Logan airport in Boston, and not only do you get a great meal on the flight (can you say Oreo cheesecake?), but you have an individual TV on the back of the seat in front of you with a great selection of on-demand movies, TV shows, and games.
Movies / shows I watched in the air to and from London:
- THE HOAX with Richard Gere and Alfred Molina - decent little movie, I'd prob give it a B or so.
- HOT ROD with Andy Samberg - surprisingly very funny with pretty random humor - I'd rank it a B+.
- The first ten minutes or so of EAGLE VS. SHARK, which I missed when I saw the movie at a screening over the summer. Finally, I've now seen the whole movie, one of the funniest of the year!
- An awesome British TV series called THE MIGHTY BOOSH. When my brother and I met up with Gemma and Amy in London (more on that later), they recommended I check this one out, and lo and behold they ahd select episodes to watch on the flight back from London! Like a raunchier Pee Wee's Playhouse mixed with Family Guy sensibilities and a uniquely British sense of oddball humor, this story of two washed-up rockstars, who live with a magician and a giant ape and go on many surreal adventures together, is ridiculously fun and hilarious. The episode I saw, called Old Gregg (in which our heroes are captured by a singing, gay seamonster), had me dying of laughter.
Anyways, Virgin Atlantic is a sweet airline, and sure beats the crap outta Southwest. It's funny too, because it took less time to get from CT to London than it usually takes me to get from there to LA! So it was a bit surreal as I was sure it would take longer to get to the UK - aside from the big time-difference, I was shocked at how easy it was to travel across the Atlantic versus traveling cross-country.
- When we got to Heathrow airport though, my parents and I were all pretty out of it. For us it was late at night, but in England it was the crack of dawn, and suddenly we were thrown into the midst of one of the world's largest international airports, trying to figure out how to find the car service that was supposed to take us to our hotel. It really is amazing though - being in England, you are really in a global hub, versus being in America, where any foreigner is pretty easy to spot in a crowd, The US is of course a melting pot made up of many cultures and races, but as soon as you step off the plane in England, you find yourself listening to languages from all over Europe and beyond. This isn't Kansas anymore, baby.
- We stayed at the K+K George Hotel in South Kensington - Earl's Court to be more specific. We had a 40 minute or so drive from Heathrow made pleasant thanks to a friendly / chatty driver. Once we got to our hotel though, we of course were confronted with the fact that check-in time wasn't until noon, and at that point it was about 9:30 am. Also at that point, the three of us were barely keeping it together - totally exhausted with heavy eyelids begging for precious sleep. It's kind of funny looking back too, because without a chance to get situated in our hotel and get a few moments rest, and with my brother not meeting us until later in the day, we were all pretty out of it and disoriented. I suggested we leave our baggage at the hotel and explore our surroundings a bit. But we were so tired, freezing (it was bitterly cold, especially for me since I'm pretty well used to LA weather at this point), and unsure of what exactly to do that we pretty much wandered aimlessly before just heading back to our hotel and waiting for my brother. It reminded me of the first day in London in '03 - you just kind of walk around aimlessly, totally culture-shocked and just taking in the people and surroundings.
When Matt finally joined us, we at lunch at this interesting place called Nandos in Earl's Court, then headed over to Portabello Market, which was cool but extremely crowded and perhaps a bit much to take in in our debilitated, sleep-deprived states. But we walked around, and checked out the vast array of shops and kiosks and goods for sale in the giant open-air market.
Our next stop, in light of the cold and our tiredness, was a bit more low-key - The Tate Modern museum, which was one of my favorite stops back during my '03 semester. Honestly, we were probably all a bit too tired at that point to fully appreciate the museum's vast selection of modern art, from Rothco to Picasso and everything in between. But man, they do have a great gift shop with innumerable books on any artistic subject one can imagine. And, on the way out we crossed the famed Millennium Bridge, which crossed the River Thames with great night-sky views of the Tower Bridge and the London Eye.
We then headed back to Earl's Court for some dinner at Zizi's, a local Italian chain that was a much-needed bit of relaxation and hearty food (well, as hearty as English food can be). And after being up for like 36 hours, we finally called it a night.
- Each day we ate breakfast in the dining room of our hotel, where they had a nice little English-style buffet. Of course, in English-style buffets you get like random gross meats and spreads alongside staples like toasts and cereal and crossaints, but overall it was usually a nice way to start the day.
- On Day 2, I took my parents up to the site of my former internship at Twenty Twenty TV - Camden Town! Personally, I love Camden, it's such a unique place - some condsider it the birthplace of Punk Rock, as it was the place where bands like the Sex Pistols first emerged on the London scene. Walking through the streets of Camden Town, it's just a crazy outdoor market sprawl, with souvenier shops mixed in with stores selling leather corsets and other goth-club gear, custom drug paraphanalia in all shapes and sizes, tattoo parlors out the yingyang, all manner of T-shirts sporting every snarky slogan known to man, and everything else in between. Sure, Camden Town now is a mix of tourists, curiosity seekers, and workers like those at Twenty Twenty who happen to be located in its vicinity, but it still feels like you're in some kind of rock n' roll fantasy land all the same - there's still this down n' dirty punk rock aesthetic in the air. Suffice to say, my parents were probably a bit taken aback, but good times were had. For me, it was just cool to revisit the old stomping grounds and walk by Twenty Twenty again.
From Camden, we took the Tube back south a bit to Russell Square. When you get off at the Russell tube stop, you're in this great park outside the University of London. I had many a tasty sandwich from the snack shop there in the Spring of '03 while doing an errand or two for my internship at the University, sitting on a park bench, watching the high-spouting fountain in the middle of the circular park grounds. The park looked a lot less scenic this time around, as it was cold and wintry and a Sunday ... but still, I got a definite feeling of nostalgia seeing that fountain again. Our real destination however was the British Museum, a short walk from the park. The British Museum is quite the sight to behold - a massive, imposing structure with huge columns and a grand entryway - all bright shiny white revolving around a sprawling circular stairway leading to the museum's upper levels. The main attraction is on the ground floor, however, where the Rosetta Stone is kept. We saw the Stone, many of the Egyptian artifacts and other ancient relics, as well as the vast libraries, and then headed back to South Ken.
We met my brother and had a nice lunch at Garfunkel's (basically the British version of Chiles, though as with all British restaurants, it's quiet and low-key). nearby to the BU dorms by the Gloucester Rd. tube stop. With Matt along for the ride, we then proceeded to visit a bunch of the attractions local to the Kensington area. We walked around Hyde Park - a sprawling, Central Park-esque area that is home to grassy hills, swan-filled ponds, and of course, to Kensington Palace, once home to Princess Diana. After that, we took a taxi to Harrods, the world's biggest department store. Harrod's is certainly a sight to see - it's like a gigantic mall except waaayyy more posh. They have rooms and rooms of "food-halls," with meats, poultry, ice cream, pizza, chocolate, and everything in between. There are entire areas of children's toys, of clothing in all shapes and sizes, of electronics, books, furniture, and everything else under the sun. Considering that last time I came to Harrods in '03, I made a hasty exit when I somehow set off the store's alarm system (!), it was nice to actually roam the hallowed halls of Harrods at my own leisure. Following our trip to this shopping mecca, at which I had procured a bit of tasty gelato, we took the tube a few stops over to eat at a Matt-recommended place, Pizza on the Park (while in the States, pizza joints are almost universally more dive-y places, the Brits take their pizza very serious and proper-like - it's to be eaten with fork and knife only, and hell, even Pizza Hut is a pretty high-class establishment in the UK).
On Monday, my parents and I went on a guided bus tour of some out-of-London sites. We scrambled in the morning (and trust me when I say SCRAMBLED) to find our meeting point by the Victoria tube station, but we made it to our Golden Tours bus just in time after I had literally sprinted through the streets of London to find the place (yikes!). Once on the bus though, we settled in for an enjoyable journey to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and Bath. We had a very talkative tour guide who looked a bit like John Malkovich crossed with my Uncle Harry, and talked like Patrick Stewart doing a parody of himself. Aka, he was kind of awesome. I mean, this guy rolled his "R's" like no man has ever rolled his R's before. Like, "This is the home of her ... rrrrrrrhRoyal majesty." I mean, dayum - I didn't know you could find that outside a production of the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Windsor Castle was cool. I was surprised at how vast a town Windsor is, and how upscale and trendy. I assumed it would be more of a quiet village a la what I had seen when I toured Leeds and Warwick castles in '03, but man, Windsor is quite the cosmopolitan royal stomping grounds. The castle itself was as I had expected - gaudy, lavish, and filled to the brim with all manner of imperial excess, from hundreds upon hundreds of china plates, to vast armories of swords and firearms, to furniture so bejeweled and lavish that one chair could probably buy you a house. At Windsor we also witnessed that castle's Changing of the Guard - less famous than the one at Buckingham but pretty similar, in any case.
Next up was Stonehenge. We stopped at a small, quaint little pub outside of Stonehenge for a traditional pub lunch. Luckily, I had grabbed a sandwich at Eat in Windsor, since to me traditional British pub food is largely vomit-inducingly gross. I will say though, while a lot of British food is not up my alley, they do have a variety of excellent little sandwich / lunch stops a la Eat, Prett a Manger, etc. I wish we had places like that in the US where you could get a freshly made baguette at a reasonable price. Definitely a great alternative to fast food, and, man, the chocolate mousse cups at both Prett and Eat are to die for. Anyways, our little tour-bus group ate at the pub in the middle of nowheresville, England, then went another 5 minutes to Stonehenge. To me, the main cool thing about Stonehenge is all of the mystical / supernatural stories that revolve around it, from its association with Merlin to its location at a point where many ley-lines converge to all of the mystery surrounding its assemblage. Unfortunately, our tour guide wasn't too into all that, and when you take that mystique away, it's basically just a huge-ass pile of rocks and a one-stop photo op. I got some suitably ominous pics of Stonehenge, complete with ravens perched atop the stony structures, but I missed our great tourguide from BU who got a bit more into all the really cool stuff as pertains to Stonehenge. Also, man - it's always friggin' freezing there in that big field.
Our final stop was Bath. Bath was another place where I kind of assumed it'd be a small vilalge centered around the Roman Baths. Surprisingly to me, Bath was another very cool little city with a ton of bustling, hip shops and eateries and seemingly a ton of young people walking around and having fun. We could have easily spent a whole day there, much like Windsor - but then again, the nature of this tour allowed us to see a heck of a lot on a very short amount of time. The baths themselves were interesting, mostly though they made me want to go to a spa or something. Since I had never been to Bath in '03 though, it was cool to visit and see what it was all about.
So overall, Monday's bus tour was fun and informative, and a nice way to take in a lot in a short time. We ended the day with a meal at the ubiquitous-in-London restaurant, Pizza Express (it's a lot cooler than it sounds, though they do make a tip-top margherita, as far as British-style margherita pizzas go), and then we headed back to the K+K after a long but interesting day.
- Tuesday, while Matt toiled at his internship, the parents and I decided to see some of the local London sights that we had yet to take in. Amusingly, we tried to do this via one of those around-London bus tours, but we soon got frustrated with trying to find the connection points for the bus route and proceeeded to go from one place to another by foot and then taxi. Oh well, at least my parents got their moment on the top of a double-decker bus (even if it was freezing on top on this mid-November English morning).
Our first stop was Buckingham Palace for the obligatory viewing of the Changing of the Guard. It's a lot of powaiting followed by a short flash of pomp and circumstance, but I'd say it's worth checking out, if only for the packed crowds of tourists hailing from all corners of the globe. While it's cool to see the ornate, gold-plated gates of Buckingham and the Wizard-of-Oz-looking guards yelling comically at each other while marching in their cartoonishly elaborate ritualized procession, the real fun is just seeing all the tourists angling for photo ops.
From there, we went to Westminster Abby, which is fairly interesting and pretty amazing in terms of the old-world artistry that bursts from each of its many elaborately-decorated rooms and tombs. It's the kind of architecture that you don't find in America, in a building far older than our country itself. It was cool seeing the tombs of great authors like Dickens and Forrester, alongside the many royals who are buried in the Abby's many chambers. After touring Westminster Abby, we somehow found ourselves at the Houses of Parliament. My dad was eager to check 'em out, so we went inside and waited to gain entry into a House of Commons debate. Unfortunately, the place was packed with visiting school-kids, and after waiting patiently for a long while, we gave up and decided to move on.
Finally, we wound up at the Tower of London, the heavily-fortified castle that houses the famous Crown Jewels. As schlocky as the whole idea of having a monarchy in today's day and age is, there is something pretty cool about seeing the crown, sceptre, sword, etc of the British Royals on display, in a series of rooms designed with uplifiting multimedia displays (actually done by Disney, I believe). Meanwhile, the Tower of London is cool in that it's a bit more castle-y than Windsor, in that to fully explore it you have to squeeze through narrow passages, climb winding, claustrophobic staircases, and traverse through iron gates, cobblestone walkways, and high arches. The place just feels bloody and brutal - you can feel the ghosts of murder and trachery seeping from the walls. Definitely a feeling of entering the Heart of Darkness, and a reminder that for all the pomp and circumstance, the British Empire was a perpetrator of great evils, and one of the world's most vile and brutal and oppressive kingdoms for centuries.
Tuesday night, I met up with Matt, and, as nice as it was to tour England with the parents, it was also nice to go out on the town as two Baram boys ready to cause trouble and stir up some anarchy in the UK. Hahaha ... Anyways, the real reason we met up was so that I could have a little reunion with two of my most favorite British ladies - Amy and Gemma Goodman. Back when I did my semester in London, which holy cow was practically 5 years ago, one of my friends and roommates from BU was lucky enough to have cousins living just outside of London - in a very nice, very Jewish suburb called Edgeware. It was in this way that I met the Goodman family, who at the time was nice neough to have us over for dinner on multiple occasions, for meals, for weekends, and even Passover seder. At the time, it was truly awesome and infinitely rewarding to befriend a British family (and a British Jewish family no less), and to really learn about the cultural differences as well as the similiarities. In any case, in all this time since then, I've really missed the Goodmans, especially the Goodman kids who I had befriended and at least sporadically kept in touch with over the years (again, Facebook really is amazing). Well, it was really cool to see Amy and Gemma again (brother Adam was away at university). It's so funny because Gemma, who is totally insane in the best way possible, on the phone was like "Your brother will think I'm mad!" Well, she had clearly not yet met my brother! Haha ... suffice to say it was quite an assemblage of personalities, and we all exhanged hearty laughs over hip Asian-fusion cuisine at Wagamama in Leicester Square. It makes you realize ... as great as it is to see museums and markets and castles, there's nothing quite like seeing good friends (cue your "awwws" now ...).
- Wednesday, my parents went on a Jewish walking tour of London while I took the opportunity to veg a bit and finally get more than a few hours of sleep. I made sure to take an hour or so and do a little store-hopping, and collect some little British odds and ends. I love the magazines and newspapaers in England - and I love the culture there which is one in which everybody reads and you can't get on a subway without 80% of the people glued to the daily edition of their newsapaper of choice. It's funny how we here in America are always bemonaing the death of books, the death of newspapers, the death of magazines. Did anyone ever stop to think that there's nothing wrong with books or newspapers or magazines? Maybe the problem is that we as a country are a bunch of braindead slobs who can't be bothered to actually READ and keep up to date with current events that don't center around celebs with no underpants? Ugh. Well, one of the main reasons that I'm such an Anglophile is that I love the British culture in which, god-forbid, INTELLIGENCE is actually valued and USED on a daily basis in discourse that involves political debate, culture, and dialogue. Then, as a pop culture junkie, it's jsut plain cool to see how th British perceive things, from TV to movies to games. There's no better magazine than EDGE with which to get an intelligent perspective on the gaming industry. The Brit's RADIO TIMES, filled with interesting articles and editorials on television, only reinforces what a rag TV Guide is. And EMPIRE is one of the best film periodicals out there - the geeky sensibilities of Ain't It Cool mixed with the snappy writing of Newsweek.
Anyways, Wednesday afternoon, I met up with my parents and brother for a trip to London's hopping West End. though touristy, it's one of my favorite areas of London, as it's just such a modern, cool-feeling area that nonetheless lacks the clutter or mess of a Times Square or downtown Hollywood. We started out in Picadilly Circus and made our way to Trafalgar Square, home of giant fountains and towering statues that you can't help but be impressed by. We wandered into the British National Gallery across the street for a few minutes, and then worked our way up to Leicester Square, home to uber-cool movie theaters featuring huge, customized marquees (At this point there were towering images of Beowulf poking out at the gathering crowds), many a tourist-friendly restaurant (including London's only TGI Fridays), dozens of trendy bars and clubs, and throngs of young people and tourists walking around the closed-off, wide and open walkways. Our final destination was Covent Garden, yet another big open-air market, at this time decorated quite festively for the Christmas season (nary a menorah to be found in London!). We explored the markets for a bit, combed through trinkets, books, etc., then staked out the theater to which we had tickets for ... Lord of the Rings - The Musical! (yikes!) Yes, my brother Matt, being an even bigger geek for Lord of the Rings than I (well, at least for the films, of which he often partake sin day-long trilogy marathon viewing sessions), insisted that we see this London-only spectacle. So after a steak dinner in Leicester Square (appeasing my dad's desire for meat, haha), we headed back over to Covent Garden and embarked on a 3 hour journey into Middle Earth, in musical form.
So in the midst of this London recap, here is a first - a MUSICAL Review!
LORD OF THE RINGS: THE MUSICAL - Review
My thoughts on the musical? Well, um ... ambitious, to say the least. The sets, costumes, and f/x were certainly amongst the most impressive and technically remarkable I've ever seen at a live stage show. You'd think a musical might shy away from the big set pieces from the movies. But the opposite was the case here -- we got Gandalf vanquishing the Balrog in the Mines of Moria, the Black Riders felling Frodo, the march of the elves in Lothlorien, and Sam Gamgee using Galadriel's light to defeat the giant spider Shelob on the road to Mordor -- all staged using massive puppets, whiz-bang f/x, and impressively choreographed action. Gollum was a huge achievement as well - a twisting, contorting, otherworldly performance that was truly something to see. On the other hand, the music was less than impressive. A few of the songs were fun and memorable, mostly those sung by the musically-inclined hobbits, in particular the opening/closing Sam-Frodo theme and a rousing song sung in the tavern towards the beignning. But musical numbers didn't dominate the production like they do in a Les Mis or Phantom - songs were used more sparingly, which drew attention to bad acting and stilted dialogue by the likes of Gandalf, Saurumon, and some others (certainly nothing that came close to measuring up to Ian McKellan or Christopher Lee, and also made it feel pretty awkward during the few times when the less whimsical characters like Aragorn broke into song. The production was also very long, condensing all three books / movies into one uber-epic story. This meant that a number of key characters and plot points were eliminated, and much of what was kept felt rushed and incomplete. Really, this is one to see for the spectacle of the set-design and staging - the mostly lackluster music and acting keep it from being anything more than a curiosity.
My Grade: C+
- Okay, despite my slightly negative review, it was a fun time at the theater and definitely something worth seeing, for novelty value alone. And hey, my parents both loved it, and they are not exactly hardcore Rings fans, so what do I know. In any case, it was a fun day and night in London's West End. At this point, we said our goodbyes to Matt, without whom we would have had a much more difficult time navigating London - in a place that vast, any one with any wisdom in terms of getting around is much appreciated.
- Thursday, as soon as it had started, our trip came to an end. We had only an hour or so between breakfast and the time when a car was set to pick us up and bring us to Heathrow, so we made one last quick run-through of the Earl's Court area, picked up some last minute gifts, and then rushed to get our suitcases all packed for the journey home. Since we had some time to waste in Heathrow before our plane departed, we got to wander around and see all the shops that litter the vast airport, which is practically a mini-Harrods in its own right. Finally, we boarded our plane - another smooth ride courtesy of Virgin Atlantic - and after some reading, sleeping, another excellent meal, a viewing of Hot Rod and an episode of The Mighty Boosh - we touched down in Beantown. Soon enough, we were back in Bloomfield, CT (unfortunately as cold if not colder than London). After sleeping for many, many hours, I awoke the next day exhausted and tired still, but satisfied that I was once again a world traveller who had seen many sights and done many things. The bug was back - since that point, many of my thoughts have turned towards seeing the world and exploring what there is to see just over the horizon. Sure, already that pull of distant lands has been slightly dimmed by the grind of day-to-day life in LA, in the real world, but still, there is that spark, and I hope to travel more sooner rather than later.
- My short time thereafter in CT was mostly spent simply chilling out and resting up for the return to normalcy that would soon follow. I had a long flight via Southwest - home of cramped seats and bare-bones service, from CT to Burbank last Sunday, with stops in Nashville and Vegas en route to California. If only getting here had been as easy as getting to London ... Now, it may have only fully lasted for a day or so, but there's no doubt that for at least a little while following my trip, I was more at peace than I'd been in a while. I got to work on Monday and felt as though I was a step removed from all of the drama, weirdness, superficiality, and wear and tear that is life in Hollywood. I was here in Hollyweird, sure, but a part of me was in London and elsewhere, in giant castles and dusty museums and hopping markets. I think you need to have that perspective, that knowledge that elsewhere, things ARE different, that your way of life is only one way of life amongst many and there's no harm in being unique and not conforming to one standard of living. I hope to retain that British sense of intellectualism, of higher culture, of history, of humor - even here where it feels a million miles away.
Because, though it may be far ... London is calling.
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