I saw a film today, oh boy...

So, after finally getting all of my classes in order (a much more difficult task than back in the States), I've been able to enjoy being in London a bit more. This past Tuesday, after class, I dashed off to University College of London where they were hosting an author event, in which Neil Gaiman interviewed Susanna Clarke on stage in order to promote the paperback release of her short story collection, The Ladies of Grace Adieu. Having spent the summer reading (and adoring) her novel, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, I was thrilled when I heard that I'd have the chance to see both her and Neil Gaiman at the same time. My excitement was further compounded by the fact that my friend Jenny from BC is spending the year at UCL and she came along.



The event got off to a good start, when the fire alarm went off. It turned out not to be a fire, but some glitch over in the nanotechnology lab next door (Perhaps the nanobots were making a break for freedom and the "clumsy one" accidentally tripped the alarm. Now, none of the other nanobots are speaking to him) Anyway, this resulted in me and Jenny spending 45 minutes out in the chilly London evening air, standing three feet from Neil and Susanna trying to eavesdrop. Near the end of this, apparently someone had brought a tray of coffee for them and the hosts, and there was an extra one. Neil offered it to anyone within shouting distance, and that person ended up being me!

Eventually we got back inside and Susanna and Neil finished with the interview, reading, and Q & A, which was all very fun and enlightening. The only disappointing thing was that neither of them were doing a signing, Neil because it wasn't his event, and Susanna because she wasn't feeling well. However, Neil is having a signing this Tuesday in Piccadilly Circus in conjunction with the London premier of the film adapation of his novel Stardust, which more or less makes up for the fact that I lugged an 800-page hardcover novel 3000 miles for the purpose of getting it signed, but didn't. I'm getting him to sign the "Study in Emerald" poster I mentioned last post, as well as the hardcover illustrated Stardust.

On Thursday after class, I decided just to wander along the banks of the Thames (which campus is right on) and saw a few sights along the way. One thing that struck me was just how close everything is. I had just intended to see Cleopatra's Needle (a genuine Egyptian obelisk, flanked by two Sphinxes), which I did:




(The pock-marks in the base are from WWII bombing)


(The London Eye, which I have yet to ride)

But then I noticed that just around the bend was Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, so I figured I'd just stroll over there and look around:





(there were protesters calling for sanctions on Myanmar (which they still call Burma in their British imperialist fashion)




And it turns out that Westminster Abbey is just across the street, so I strolled around there.




By that point, both building were closed to tourists, so I'll have to go back later for that. Anyway, I continued my stroll down Whitehall (the government district) to Trafalgar Square. On the way there there was this memorial to the women who contributed to the war effort in WWII:



Also, I think I saw some kid get busted for dealing, but he was across the street so I couldn't be sure. It looked like it might have been entrapment, which should have been obvious if the "customer" proposed meeting in Whitehall. If it wasn't entrapment, then both of them were stupid for dealing in Whitehall. That's like dealing in front of the J. Edgar Hoover Building. You're just asking to be caught.

Anyway, I made it down to Trafalgar Square, which was very impressive and swarming with tourists.



I wanted to get a picture of me sitting on a lion, but I was hesitant to entrust a stranger with my camera. Eventually I settled on a group of four Polish girls about my age who were saddled with shopping bags and were very clearly tourists themselves.


(That's the Canadian embassy behind me)

That was it for Thursday. On Friday, there was a dinner in Covent Garden for all the BC students in London, and Jenny and I met early to see Across the Universe, which was exactly what I expected it to be: a love letter to the Beatles in the form of a cliché story of the 1960s with psychedelic puppets and a woman who sounds like Janis Joplin singing a riveting cover of "Helter Skelter". On a side note, going to a movie on the day it opens is not something one should do lightly in London: the tickets were £12.50, which means $25. So I am very glad that I am not the film buff I used to be. But it was the Beatles, so I had to. The movie finished two hours before the dinner, so we wandered around Leicester Square a bit (the cinema district) and found this statue of Charlie Chaplin:



Then I took Jenny to Trafalgar Square, and on the way we found the Oscar Wilde statue, which I had first heard about when I saw a picture of its unveiling with Stephen Fry (Hugh "Dr. House" Laurie's old comedy partner, star of the Wilde biopic, and one of my most favorite people in the world) and Lucian Holland, Wilde's great-grandson (who is devastatingly attractive, but denied my friend request on Facebook).



Here's me with the statue:





The dinner was delicious and free. And typical of BC students, my fellows were astounded that I could stretch one glass of red wine over an entire three course meal, while the rest of them imbibed half a bottle or more each. Of course, it wasn't particularly good wine either, but that rarely matters with your typical college student, I suppose.

The evening wound down around 9 o'clock, and so Jenny and I parted for our respective dorms, and I made it back in time for the new episode of QI, a fantastic show in which Stephen Fry lords over a panel of British--and the occasional American--comedians as they exchange useless trivia. For example, Thomas Edison once electrocuted an elephant (to be fair, the elephant had killed three people) in order to make a propaganda film against Westinghouse's AC electricity, because he believed that his DC electricity was safer. Which just goes to show that you don't have to know how anything works in order to invent things that use it. The film itself is now YouTube fodder:



And tonight (Saturday) there was a Stephen Fry marathon in celebration of his 50th birthday, despite the fact that it was a month ago (I know this because Stephen Fry did accept my Facebook friend request, and I saw it listed under "Upcoming Birthdays" back in August). I watched him go to Slovakia to his Jewish grandfather's hometown to track down information about his relatives that died in the Holocaust; my favorite episode of Blackadder Goes Forth which included Hugh Laurie in drag and Tony Robinson's terrible Charlie Chaplin impersonation (in which the role of his mustache is played by a dead slug); him listing his guilty pleasures, which include ABBA, swearing, and hitting Hugh Laurie; him listing the things he hates, like the way Australians say everything like it's a question, New Age crap, and the fact that there's a show dedicated to people listing the things they hate; and a rerun of Friday's QI. Tomorrow there's going to be a birthday tribute special, and on Tuesday is the first part of his documentary on HIV/AIDS. He did a similar documentary on bipolar disorder (which he has) last year. He doesn't have AIDS, but he is gay, and he lost a lot of friends in the early days of the disease. If it's anything like the bipolar documentary, it's going to be a fantastically personal story that serves as a springboard to address the wider social implications of the disease, including how the public perception has changed and the current crisis in Africa.

Tomorrow, I'm going to take advantage of the fact that I'm living in the same area in which Charlie Chaplin grew up, and try to cobble together a list of pilgrimages. And then go to them. Hopefully my next update will be quicker this time.