Alison's House and on my way!

Tonight, I saw an amazing show written by Susan Glaspell. For those who don't know her work, start reading! I admit, I had not heard of her either, but She ranks among Eugene O'Neill in importance to American Theater. In fact, it was her and Eugene that wrote for a theater in Provincetown together. The show itself is about the poems of Emily Dickenson. It is set on the the eve of the new century, December 31st, 1899. The Stanhope family (Dickenson) is selling the house that Alison (Emily) lived and wrote in. The play debates whether her works and poems are for all the world to share, or a private matter, kept inside the family. It is about an old generation facing a new one. Very touching and moving. I highly recommend reading more of this playwright, because More Brits know about it than Americans, and thats just not right!

And now...in a few hours time...I am off to my journey to Europe! A few things; I will not have my phone so do not try to call. I will not have my computer either but I will have my iPhone which can pick up wifi when available. So if you need to contact me for any reason. Please the best way is to email me, or Becca Chelton, for I will see her thursday. I fly to Venice in a few hours, where I will stay for 1 night and 2 days. Saturday night/Sunday Morning, I am off to Rome for two days, to sleep in a hostel one night, and a train the next on my way to Zurich. I will not sleep in Zurich, but after a day's exploration, will jump on another train to Berlin. In Berlin, I will stay for one night and leave the next day for Copenhagen. On All Hallows Eve, I will be taking a train to Dusseldorf, where I will fly back to London the following morning, Sunday, November 1st

The Hostels I am staying at are:

Absolut Venice, Santa Cruce 1094
absolut.venice@hotmail.com
+39 334/ 6808059
+39 347/0701833

Youth Station Hostel- Rome via Livorno n 5
+39 06 44292471

Generator Hostel Berlin, Storkowerstrasse 160 d 10407
+49 (0) 304172400
berlin@generatorhostels.com

So see you all back here in November. From London, I'm Seth Thomas. Ciao! Tschuss! Cheers!

Fulham FC

Last night, I went to the Fulham vs. Hull football (soccer) match. It was a great time. Throughout the game, the fans were chanting in great unison their undying love for their club. I was sitting at the Southern Goal to the right, about 15 rows up. The games was actually televised in the US on ESPN2 if anybody caught it. There were two yellow cards given out during the game, but no red cards. A few things that I found odd was that there was an announcement against Racism at Football matches and you could not drink in the stands, you had to drink underneath the seats, where you purchased said beverage. Fulham won 2-0. Lots of screaming. Lots of fun!

Cultures Long dead revisited!

17/10/09 Just left Stonehenge, on a bus towards Bath. It really was quite epic in a way. Some of these stones have been here for over 5,000 years. That's five times as much as any anglo-saxon history on this Island, let alone almost twenty times over American History. We were not allowed to go and walk around the inside of the stone circles, but It was epic enough from afar.
Now the inner circle have smaller 'blue stones', which are about five feet in height and weigh a couple tons. These are from the Preseli Mountains in Wales, over 240 miles away. Now there were waterways to travel these stones over here, but only as close as 20 km away, and there were over 80 blue stones. So still a mystery on how they were transported so far. The larger stones are arsen stones, brought from Marborough Downs, about 19 miles away. There is a circular ditch around the outside of the stones. That is the Henge and it was made in 3050 B.C. They know this because they found deer antlers used as tools which are easy to carbon date to a precise year. The rest was made and arranged over 1,000 years until 1500 B.C., over 3,500-4,500 years ago. What is fascinating is that at the summer and winter solstice, the sun aligns perfectly with the Avenue over the heel stone to hit the alter stone in the center perfectly!

15:20 Our Tour Guide is a bitch. God forbid we Americans spend twenty extra minutes at Stonehenge, a place older than history itself, where most of us will NEVER see again. We are all truly sinners and deserve the sarcastic and rude remarks by a bitter tour guide. We are presently leaving Bath, with a LOOONG 'a' of course. The Ice Queen made us practice getting rid of our terrible American accents. Here we toured the Roman Baths that were built above the only known natural hot springs in the UK. However, the Anglo-saxons didn't bathe as much as the Romans, so when they took power, they just built over it. Not until Medieval times did they realize what was beneath them. After than, the built the Kings' Bath over the Roman ones. The Roman ruins of the Bath house was re-discovered in the 19th century and excavated to learn more about Roman life. Very cool to see three sets of history all in one city block, Roman, Medieval, and Georgian.
In the City of Bath, Jane Austin lived, but supposedly hated it here. The City itself is very commercial and all made in Georgian Architecture with this yellow-brown 'Bath Stone.' Interesting fact: all new buildings have to be made with Bath stone to go along with the look of the entire city by Law. Beautiful city. I would have enjoyed it more if the White Witch didn't threaten to leave us behind if we were not on the bus at 3:20 PM. She even showed us the train station and told us all the possibilities of getting back to London on our own. As someone said about her, "Get this bitch off my back."

Trevor Griffiths' Comedians

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yXVHwLOaIg

Tonight I just saw the work of pure genius and had to immediately write about it. A play in three acts about 6 up in coming comedians taking a night class from an old great who has forgotten how to laugh because he is eternally analyzing what is funny and what makes people laugh. The play discusses racist, sexist, and anti-semitic jokes and how they are a cheap way for laughs. That they are not actually funny, but playing towards a git audience. Those jokes do not help the human race. In fact, they degrade and lower us to dumber than what we really are. Also, the comedian that tells those jokes are not talented, nor contributing their talent to the world. This show is about non-conformity. It is about bigotry. It is about selling out and not standing in line to get work.

Almost Chekov-esque, This was an amazing show, and I quickly bought the script. The original production starred some no names such as Jonathan Pryce and Tom Wilkinson in the 1970s and the play has been acclaimed as 'the best play of the 70s!' But in this production, there was a star-studded cast. For those who liked 'Bend it Like Bekham,' the father played Mr. Patel. From such movies like Four Weddings and a Funeral,  Goldeneye, The Parent Trap, Match Point, and City of Ember, Simon Kunz played the Jewish comedian. Matthew Kelly, who I saw at the Globe in Troilus and Cressida played the old comedian. And for those who follow Robin Hood on BBC America, The Sheriff of Nottingham himself played the booking agent, Bert Challoner! He also played Irving Berlin in De-Lovely. I even stayed after to talk to Keith Allen after the show to get his autograph and talk to him about the show and how he looks exactly and acts like Christien Polos from BHS. He was a great guy, and signed my program, 'To Seth, Big <3! Keith Allen.' It was...amazing.

in other news, I have booked my train reservations throughout Europe so I do not have to dread about awesome not having a seat and getting lost in Europe somewhere. i leave a week from tomorrow and I am getting more and more excited as the days draw closer. But until then, more glorious London and more Fantastic theatre!

Make sure you check the link at the top. It is a preview of the fantastic show.

Travel Plans

Hey readers,

This post is not to inform, but rather to ask. I am currently planning my trip through Europe. I will start in Venice. From Venice, I will go to Rome, then Zurich, then Berlin, then Copenhagen. So my question to all of you is what do I NEED to see in these cities. Copenhagen, I have a tour guide, but the other four, I will be on my own to discover the cities. Each city will have 2 days of exploration except Zurich. So, let me hear it! What should I do?

Cheers!

Seth

PS- New Additions:

I have added a new slideshow to your left for more pictures of my travels. One album was just too small for my collections. If you click the link, most of my pictures are connected to a map, so you can see the exact location of where I took that picture!

Also, at the bottom of each post, there is check boxes. Please check one of them if you don't have a comment, but I would like to know people are reading, and I'm not talking to no one.

I wanna be a part of it! York, United Kingdom

11/10/09 09:30 Sitting in the stall of the York Minster. Yesterday was our first day in York. Nick and I made our way from London to the Gateway of the North with the help of a train and bus ride from MegaBus, an old friend of mine. We arrived at 1:30 to find Christina, a new friend of mine from Guam who studies archeology at the University of York. I know her from a mutual friend of ours, Ben Jacobson, a reader of this blog, and former student of York, when he studied there for a trimester last spring. I cannot believe how inexpensive this place is! a single pound for a sandwich at a shop in the shambles, there must be some scheming to get to that price! Tina took us around her 'Snickerway tour' of York, going in and out of the small alleys and tiny streets of this medieval city. It truly is a marvelous city. So far we have walked about half of the tour which we plan on finishing this afternoon. We had tea this afternoon at Little Betty's Tea Room with some scones smeared with clotted cheese and strawberry jam. For dinner, at the pub, the three of us had fish and chips with a glass of mulled cider. When ordering this from the bar, a man swiftly turned around, after hearing my order, and said, "a strong English accent if I ever heard one!" The pub was called "the Punch Bowl"and was all that you think of and more for a pub in England. Later in the evening, Tina took us to multiple pubs, bars, and clubs around town, I believe it tallied up to 6 by the end. A fun, bizarre night. Almost surreal in a way.  A guy from the states going up to York for the weekend to hang out with a gang of Archeological students in a medieval city.
Sitting presently in the Minster, I can see all the glory of this building. Families are here, old couples. Men and women who have probably sat in the same seat for many years and decades. Sadly, the East window is being refurbished for the next ten years, so a large life-size image is hung in front of the scaffolds to show what the window will look like. I am here for two services this morning, starting with Eucharist and then Matins. At the Matins, the choir is singing Stanford's Te Deum as well as Parry's "I was Glad when they said unto me."

14:45 On the bus back to London. So todays Matins was kinda amazing. It was

"Matins and North Eastern Circuit Annual Service:

Attended by Her majesty's Lord Lieutenant High Sheriffs

Her Majesty's Judges, Magistrates and

Members of the Legal Profession"

There were alot of wigs, both the small ones for the Lawyers as well as the large below the shoulder wigs for the Judges. There were many different types of robes; purple, green, blue, and red. Some of them looked very similar to St. Nicholas. Along side were old men in tights carrying swords (which I saw throughout the day on the streets of York) looking very similar to Robin Hood. The Mace as well as an Epic sword were carried in. And all of this was done with a fanfare of Police Trumpeters that had banners hanging from their horns. At the end of the service, we sang "God save the Queen" and it was truly spectacular!

I found my way across town to find Nick and Tina at Clifford Tower where we walked to Evil Eye Lounge to have a Sunday roast. And, as always, It was delicious and filling. we continued a condensed Snickerway tour toward Clifford's Tower stopping at a hardware store, that has a badass gothic entrance, as well as a fudge shop for a free sample. At the top of Clifford's Tower, the Castle of York, We saw an amazing view of the City and of the Minster. It really was a great trip and I hope to get back there if time permits sometime before I leave to the states, but the weekends are already running out!

Eye Spy the National Theatre

08/10/09 Today, after 'working' at my internship, I went towards the London Eye and the South Bank. With FIE, I got a discount ticket to ride the London Eye, and therefore seized the opportunity. It was fun to see a fantastic view of the city, how much the Thames cuts and turns, and a visual layout of this massive Capital. Check out the pictures on Picasa with the link on your left, for there are plenty. Once I hit the top, the ride down was just really waiting to get off. It was fine, glad I did it, but don't recommend it for the full price ticket of 18 pounds.
After the half hour 'flight,' I went to a production of The Power of Yes by David Hare which is described as " A dramatist seeks to understand the financial crisis." David Hare is the main character in this lecture-type show and as he says at the beginning, "This is NOT a play." This is an educational non-biased lecture about the financial hardships in Britain. It was very interesting, but rather dull. 110 minutes with no intermission. I read a review about the show in the Financial Times which based the show, but for the wrong reasons, implying that theater is only theater when there is spectacle. I find it funny because the Financial Times was not looked upon highly in the show, and it was as if they seemed to be covering something up...Hmm, I wonder? The more I think about the show, the more I liked it. But, I admit to snoozing a little at the beginning, but that was a bit due to sleep depravation.

All the Kings Graves and a marvelous Stage

5/10/09 14:00 Today in "World of the Play," we took a tour in the rain of the City of London during the Shakespearean age. We saw many interesting sights while we were drenched by the heavens. At the end, we went inside finally to the Shakespeare Museum, beneath the Globe Theater. And THAT was fascinating! When we first walked in, a demonstration was going on of Tudor Clothing and costumes. They showed all the underlying garments to give a young boy the shape of a woman, adding a corset and a pillow around the hips to allude to curves. And since these clothes could not be washed, and the shows runs for 5 months at a time, they always have to wear linen underneath. The exhibition was really informative about the age that Shakespeare lived in. Talking about how ther took the wood from a theater north of the city to the south bank because their landlord was a greedy bugger. The exhibit covered everything from special effects to costumes to music to even what type of wood they used for the construction of the new Globe. (Green Oak) the reconstruction of the Globe was all done by Elizabethan tools and wooden pegs. The whole creation process of the new Globe was a giant learning experience for carpentry and engineering. Presently I am sitting at the Tate very hungry, but have little money, so I shall wait until I get back to have some rice and curry at home.

6/10/09 14:11 This morning we went on a tour of Westminster Abbey. Very informative. Very Interesting. Saw thousands of graves there, including Newton, Darwin, Elizabeth I, Mary Queen of Scots, and Edward the Confessor (or St. Edward if you are Catholic). There will be the celebration for Edward the Confessor on his feast day coming up because his body has now become a relic, and the most holy parts of the Abbey. As for a church, there isn't much that IS holy. Sure, there are plenty of dead brits, but of Kings and Queens stained in a bloody history. I saw maybe 3 pictures of statues of Jesus or Mary. This is more of a shrine to a Tyrannical monarchy than to the Lord Jesus. Amazing. Beautiful. But in the end, a lot of dead rich folk...

21:07 At the intermission of Love's Labor's Lost at the Globe, and it is hilarious! I am standing in the middle front of the yard, in between two thrusts throughout the performance, circling my head around, for the stage is all around me. What really is amazing is since I am in the true center of this wooden "O," when an actor stands center I hear them amplified. or in surround sound, if you will. This is truly the way to see Shakespeare! The show itself is full of innuendos and penis jokes. Full of sex and angst. As bawdy as Shakespeare gets, I think.

00:24 after returning home from the raunchy Globe, I analyze what just happened. A fantastic, gut-wrenching comedy ending in a giant food fight. A strange, peculiar ending not in marrige, but a promise to marry in a years time. The performance was being filmed and since I was just about center stage, I was probably on film alot. I wonder if I can get a copy. My friend, Ted, says he talked to a guy outside before the show who knows where to find it once it comes out, so I shall follow up on that with him.
On the way back from the Globe, a few other students from Temple started talking to a drunk Irishman on the Tube. He was on a 'Grogball' team, a type of league play drinking game. He said he know the capitals of the States, so some tested him, and he got about 70%, which alot better than most Americans. A laugh, a riot. Fun experiences with fun encounters.

ENRON/OTHELLO/A NEW WORLD/MOTHER COURAGE

25/09/09 22:25 Just got out of a production called "ENRON" showing the rise and fall of the corporation. The leading role was Jeff Skilling bringing this whole company up on a belief, on an idea, on credit, on imaginary corporations, on shadow corporations, and when the bubble burst, so did many people's life savings. Skilling was sentenced 24 years in prison, and, at the time, that was the longest jail time any corporate criminal had served, until good ol' Bernie. A FANTASTIC production. Fantastical and witty. Arthur Anderson was played by a man and a muppet. The Lehman Brothers were two brothers in one trench coat with large mustaches. AND the ensemble was amazing, full of song and dance to show trading stock, electricity shortages in California with light-sabers, and the use of boxes/file cabinets to make a very adaptable set. 16 cylindrical lights hung from cables that could fly in or out all the way to the floor or to the ceiling. The back was a scrim that had, when lit from the front, projections from Clinton to the 2000 election. On the other side were two levels, the top level being corporate offices for such people like Ken Lay, the first floor smaller offices and other devices. In the middle, running through the entire show, was a stock ticker. The program had the entire script in it. Really brilliant was to show the crime of the end of the millennium, because no one understood it, they just trusted that some one else did.

26/09/09 17:30 On the bus back from Trafalgar Square. Just saw a production of "Othello" at Trafalgar Studios. A wonderful thing about this governmentally funded arts is that if you are under 26, The government sees a responsibility of theirs is to make sure  you have access to the arts. In other words, I got a FREE TICKET for todays performance. A great show, not the best performance by Othello, but it did not take away from the tragedy. But very enjoyable. Tonight, I am seeing a production at the Globe. Not a Shakespeare, but a play about Thomas Paine.

21:00 "Race St. is rough. Carry a stick!" At the intermission of 'A New World,' standing in a crowd of fellow Americans who go to Rutgers. There are many jokes that only us few understood, or at least, laughed at. The cast is mixed from other shows that I have seen here. Touchstone from 'As You Like It' played George Washington. Brilliant. The show is narrated by Ben Franklin, and the first half took place primarily in Philadelphia. Mr. Rittenhouse was a large part as well. This is the first time I have really missed the States, or rather, the first show I've seen that showed favor to US, showing us the tyrannical Monarchy of the English. Thomas Paine is quite excellent. Now off to England and France for act II.
23:30 A long show, but a good one. The second half dealt with the French Revolution, and how it got too violent and turned on the revolutionaries. Thomas Paine was on death's row for almost a decade, trapped in France. A great show worthy of the Globe Stage.

" I was born a Goose of Southwark

By the Grace of Mary Ovarie,

Whose Bishop gives me licence

To sin within the Liberty.

In Bankside stews and taverns

You can hear me honk right daintily,

As I unlock the hidden door,

Unveil the Secret History.

I will dunk you in the River

And then reveal my Mystery."

29/09/09 20:20 At the Founder's Arms on the Thames. In my 'Travel Writing' class. We ventured tonight into Southwark and Bankside towards the Prostitutes graveyard. It is really only a car park with a gate full of ribbons, but when they excavated, they found thousands of bones. The yard predates the 14th century and was around when Southwark was full of prostitution because it was legal south of the City borders. On this gate, there are piles of ribbons, with things written on them such as "A child found in a gutter, 1756" Creepy, Weird. The WEIRDEST things is that nothing is really here. It is just a car park with a plaque. It could be gone tomorrow because it belongs to Transport for London, and no one would notice or fight it. Over 1500 people were buried here and no one knows and no one cares...

03/10/09 13:40 Saw Mother Courage last night at the National Theater starring Fiona Shaw! It was playing at the Olivier Theater. In this, they showed the true might of that stage, rising from beneath the stage on their circular hydraulic lift. The play was must in regular Brecht style, showing all the stage hand and having back stage always visible. The music was in a rock style and written by the main performer, Duke Special. The show itself is about a war profiteer who goes through the hardships of war, including slowly loosing her children. The set was quite awesome, making buildings out of muslin fly-ins and showing the location of the scene painted on the same material, as it was Brecht's own script. A lot of the others in my group did not like the story, or at least it did not grab them. And I can see that Brecht is an acquired taste, but I really enjoyed the show and wish I can someday work in that EPIC space called the "Olivier Theater."

Breaking and Interning

Sorry for the long wait since last post. Been a busy beaver...or at least doing other things. I have categorized my most recent adventures. This post being about my internship.

24/09/09 18:00 Just left Tottenhan, from my internship. Today was kinda weird and cool. For the first "experiment", they are taking people, with a guide, one by one, through an abandoned and into an abandoned and dilapidated building that is hazardous to go into. They are doing this at night this Saturday. My job for that day was to make a safe passageway through the building, sweeping dirt and laying down old wooden planks on hazardous roots and holes, and pruning the leaves and plants that have been growing everywhere. The one thing that is weird though is that ALL OF THIS IS TRESPASSING! They have no permit, no legal right to be here. I would be worried about heath and law suits but they have National Health Care here. On our way out, after finishing the path, we saw a man also in the abandoned building. Quickly, we hid and ran the other way. But to our surprise, so did he. He had no more of a right to be here than we did, so we just decided to leave, walking right past him. He is still ducking in a corner of the bushes, and I can see his full face and him eyes looking at me, but he just doesn't move, thinking that he is invisible. Very odd. Who would have thought I would be cleaning abandoned buildings in North London?
I also had to build a flap in the fence to get into the abandoned lot, along with a hatch to lock it. The fence is made out of 3/4" plywood and the hole is a 2'x4' rectangle. I added hinges to the cut out piece, and a latch, to keep it shut, with some old screws and a twig that I found. While I am doing this, a man asks me, "Who are you? What are you doing?" I said I was fixing the wall, so no one could get in. He seemed contented with that answer. Weird stuff.

2/10/09 13:00 At my internship at Hornsey Town Hall. We are designing rooms in the Town Hall for 19:29's final production. The concept is based upon the building itself, the inter-war period in Britain, and four greek myths. The myths are Hades and Persephone, Orpheus and Eurydice, Theseus and the Minotaur, and Daedalus and Icarus. Yesterday, we went through each room and brainstormed ideas, then wrote them all down on a large wall covered in paper and blueprints. Today, we are designing rooms if we had limitless funds and no thinking about how to make such ideas into reality, which sometimes can be hard for a TD mind. The two rooms that I took on today were:
1. The Torture Room. A long room, originally used for committee meetings, with all original wood-paneled walls, and a green carpet. We can do little to change the room, because those in charge of the building do not want us to destroy the beauty of the room itself. All we can really do is put things inside of it. The idea I have for this room is to make it almost into a forrest, or the idea of a forrest. Taxidermy surround a centrally located chair. Lions, Tigers, Panthers are in the corners, On plinths, there is a bat, crow, vulture, and owl. In the corners of the room, behind the large animals are speakers to give motivated sound to the Forrest, make the audience member turn their head. Around this centrally located chair is four stands with a bare light bulb on top, similar to a 'ghost light.' There is more to it, but it has an idea of being interrogated in the forest.
2. The Icarus Room. A bright room on the top floor full of windows. Inside this room are three smaller rooms. My idea, without going into full detail is to make this room 'too close to the sun.' The walls covered in red, yellow, and orange paint, wet-blended together. Melted wax everywhere, and in two of the smaller room, thousands of feathers flying around from fans blowing. Right as you walk in, you see the skeleton of giant wings. No feathers, no wax, for they have fallen off. The floor is painted blue to show the sky below.

Now these ideas mean nothing without a script, which we do not get until tomorrow. So they could just be thrown out the window. But, It is very exciting that I will be able to design for this project. I have been given a lot of freedom so far as well as responsibility. For example, I was running the design session yesterday. And this week end sometime, I have to email my ideas for these rooms in a structured way, as well as alternate ideas if we DON'T have any money. We shall see what happens.