England Tour Update #5
Day 10: Another rainy day. Luckily the London museums are open, and free of charge. We started at the Victoria & Albert, a crazy mishmash of artsy items that have been sacked from other countries of the empire over the years and various English knick knacks that weren't important enough to make it into the British Museum. My favorite exhibit was George Formby's ukulele. Then to the Natural History Museum, mostly to check out the gift shop and see what David Attenborough has been up to. After that, 24 minutes on the Circle Line and we were in the older part of London where we found the underground crypt of All Hallows By The Tower, Leadenhall Market, thousands of business people going about their business, and The Museum Of London which has remodeled and opened an entire new floor since we first saw it in 2010. It was at about this time that I realized I had no idea how to get to our gig at the Duke Of Uke that night. It had moved since 2010, I neglected to print out a map at home, and our phones weren't getting service (I still sometimes can't remember how we ever found anything before iPhones. We must have spent all of our lives being hopelessly lost). Luckily, The Museum Of London gift shop has a whole section of London maps. Rather than spend money, I photographed a map of the area of town that The Duke Of Uke is in so we'd have it on the camera if we needed to look it up later. It worked. The Duke show was good, but weird. It was out in the warehouse-y district of East London that everyone told us was hip and trendy. I guess so, but why? Because every other place in London had been done? I don't relate to young East London hipsters any more than I relate to young San Francisco hipsters, but they seemed interested and attentive. I think they might have even liked us. I met Facebook friend Matt Whitby in real life, and Zaruf, who was at our 12 Bar show last year, showed up again, so that was cool. I had been resting my voice for 2 days and still wasn't completely 100%, but I figured since it was the final show I might as well pull a Béla Károlyi and go for broke. In between acts there was a guy DJ'ing, completely from Youtube. There's your state-of-the-industry-2012. Even downloading for free is too much hassle.
Day 11: Before heading to Heathrow we went for a walk in Hyde Park. On the train to the airport I finally managed to see the only fox of the trip. He was staring right at me. There's a big Caffe Nero in Heathrow, and I only needed one coffee to complete the frequent buyer card that I've been carrying around for a year and a half. I finally redeemed it, and it was delicious. The flight home was much more comfortable than the flight there. I watched "Sherlock Holmes: Game Of Shadows" and was stupified at how awful the recent Sherlock Holmes movies are compared to how great the BBC Sherlock is.
Favorite discoveries from the trip:
Frank Turner : Fun Of The Pier covers one of his songs, and introduced us to him (metaphorically, not literally). I guess he's a huge deal in England - 156,775 Facebook fans, played at the Olympics, etc. Not so much in California - his last 2 San Francisco shows were at Thee Parkside and Bottom Of The Hill. Even I've played there. He's like the next generation of Billy Bragg (whom he's friends with) only he's not a socialist. He's more of a libertarian, or the English equivalent. His album "England Keep My Bones" has been playing here non-stop.
Pointless : It's a BBC One game show, similar to Family Fued in that your score is based on betting on what you think the average person knows, except it's in reverse. I can't really explain it all here, but it's covered in the Wikipedia link.
Horrible Histories : Really great kids show about history, with songs and skits.
Holland & Barrett snacks
Fiona Bevan
Day 11: Before heading to Heathrow we went for a walk in Hyde Park. On the train to the airport I finally managed to see the only fox of the trip. He was staring right at me. There's a big Caffe Nero in Heathrow, and I only needed one coffee to complete the frequent buyer card that I've been carrying around for a year and a half. I finally redeemed it, and it was delicious. The flight home was much more comfortable than the flight there. I watched "Sherlock Holmes: Game Of Shadows" and was stupified at how awful the recent Sherlock Holmes movies are compared to how great the BBC Sherlock is.
Favorite discoveries from the trip:
Frank Turner : Fun Of The Pier covers one of his songs, and introduced us to him (metaphorically, not literally). I guess he's a huge deal in England - 156,775 Facebook fans, played at the Olympics, etc. Not so much in California - his last 2 San Francisco shows were at Thee Parkside and Bottom Of The Hill. Even I've played there. He's like the next generation of Billy Bragg (whom he's friends with) only he's not a socialist. He's more of a libertarian, or the English equivalent. His album "England Keep My Bones" has been playing here non-stop.
Pointless : It's a BBC One game show, similar to Family Fued in that your score is based on betting on what you think the average person knows, except it's in reverse. I can't really explain it all here, but it's covered in the Wikipedia link.
Horrible Histories : Really great kids show about history, with songs and skits.
Holland & Barrett snacks
Fiona Bevan