halllujah!

I am writing this to you all from my room! That's right, we got the internet hooked up--AT LAST! Lest you think that Goldsmiths took pity on us, no, it was the concerted efforts of my hallmates and I to get a line run to my room, to buy a router, to set up our wireless cards and connect to the provider. Yet, somehow, we managed to do this in a quarter of the time it's taken the school to install lines to our (still empty) "computer room." So, huzzah!

Yesterday I went out and did "research" for my final project, which consisted of me going to a museum and then to a show--not a stretch you might say, but I spent a great deal of time observing people around me. I went to the Museum of London which is a huge building for all the odds and ends (and people) they've pulled out of the soil over the years. Here I observed several children not fully appreciating the scope of the Great Fire of 1666, which led me to conclude that perhaps THEY should be locked in a burning thatch house and THEN...no, no, no, we won't get violent. They had a diorama and some preteens thought it would be funny to jump in and scream "BOGEY!" while we're all watching London burn in the dark. Mamas, don't let your children grow up to be a££holes...The funniest thing I saw was an unexpected piece of china which declared "Wilkes and Liberty!" and got my hackles up for a minute until I realised it was commorating John Wilkes, the English patriot who went to jail for breaking a law banning freedom of speech and was denied a seat in the Houses of Parliament, even though he was elected with something like a 90 percent majority.* Oh, and he was also a namesake for a certain 19th century assassin, but that's a footnote.

Then I went to see "The Woman in White." I had seen posters advertising it was closing, so I thought I better...I didn't realise it was THE LAST performance until I got there and the lights went down. I was sitting so high in the theatre that I didn't realise the older sister and the woman in white were two different people until they appeared onstage together during the second act. (the angel Gabriel actually tapped me on the shoulder once or twice and told me I was blocking his view--THAT's how high I was.) I was so annoyed by the scenery that I enjoyed the show less than I would have. The set was a semi-circle of screens that revolved and were projected onto...having such realistic sets and costumes and computer generated backdrops in a Victorian show was really incongruous. The show itself I thought was fine--the biggest problem was--IT WAS TOO BIG!! What's the matter, Mr. Lloyd-Webber, to ashamed to do something in a black box? Which is where this show rightly belongs. You could do it with eight people and an orchestra of six. (I figured it out: if anyone wants to mount a production, send me an email.)

Right. I have some naughty photos to download in the privacy of my own room. Ta!

*Good Lord, is that one sentence? God bless the comma.