July 31, 2008 London
I am writing this final entry *tear* on my flight home from London Heathrow to Philadelphia International. I can’t believe it’s all over. This trip has been incredible and I have so many fond memories…I grew attached to so many different kebab stands. However, I’m pretty exhausted and looking forward to showering, shaving, and once again maintaining my personal hygiene after five weeks of living out of a suitcase, constantly being on the move, and jumping from hostel to hostel.
Although we traveled to London basically out of necessity, as the cheapest flight we could find home was from Heathrow, we had some pretty great experiences while in England. Although we vowed to not spend much money (impossible in London) by living off Shawarma and taking it easy, we hardly stuck to this plan and kept going intensely.
This guy was actually one of the more intelligent and rational of the bunch, despite the tighty-whiteys and swim goggles. Plus, I love the slogan on his shirt taken right from Tun’s room: “God is too big to fit into any one religion.”
Some noteworthy touristy activities included a trip to Buckingham Palace, a tour through the London Tower, and a Sunday at “Speaker’s Corner” in Hyde Park, to listen to the crazies on their soapboxes (left).
Another fun activity was a “Prom” at the Royal Albert Hall…not what you think… we weren’t on a quest to pick up high school girls, believe it or not. It was actually a BBC Symphony Orchestra performance of a bizarre, one movement Oboe Concerto by Eliot Carter, which the composer described as “the soloist accompanied in its widely varying, mercurial moods by a percussionist and four violas,” (whatever that means…it was pretty out) written twenty years ago and Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony in C minor, which was composed two-hundred years ago.
BBC Symphony Orchestra at Royal Albert Hall
What “Promming” means is that we had to show up a half an hour before the concert began to buy tickets for five pounds that allowed us to stand directly in front of the orchestra. We were literally three rows from the violins while people who paid upwards of sixty pounds got to sit behind us…suckers (I stole this picture off the internet, I confess). The Royal Albert Hall is an impressive concert venue both aesthetically and acoustically, and hearing Beethoven’s bombastic and tension-filled Fifth Symphony there, as performed by such a polished Orchestra like the BBC Symphony, was a pretty amazing experience.
Our final night (last night), after walking around the city all day and growing weary at around 5:30pm, we decided to rest on a bench near Hyde Park to kill some time by solving sudoku puzzles and reading before we planned to grab a quick bite and head off to a comedy show that came highly recommended by “Time Out” Magazine,” London’s (and other major cities’) trusty source for cultural, artistic, and nightlife activities. Because none of us were wearing watches, we had no idea that when we started to head back to our hostel it was pushing 8pm. By the time we finally arrived at the comedy club it was around 9:05, about twenty minutes into the comic’s one hour set. We decided to pay the cover and go in anyways, because we didn’t have a backup plan.
Scott Capurro
The comedian was Scott Capurro, a San Francisco-based comic whose bit was entitled “Goes Deeper,” and it was at Libertines bar as part of the Camden Fringe Festival. Capurro is known for his crude humor and equal opportunity offensiveness, as no religious, ethnic, regional, or racial group/person in his audience will escape his act unscathed. After ordering a drink at the bar, the three of us walked down to the basement where the show was going on. Right as we walked in, and before we could sit down, the comic stopped mid sentence to direct his attention to us and said: “who are these three idiots with beards and bad tee-shirts showing up late to my set? At this point, why bother? You missed the whole set-up.” He then proceeded to grill and rip on us for the next ten minutes by drawing on a bunch of U.S. stereotypes (several of the more specific of which the audience did not seem to follow), before moving on to his next victims. While his humor was often more about shock value than anything else, and at times came close to Michael Richards’ level of bigotry (but directed every which way), his act had its moments and, at times, he even provided interesting social commentary.
After the show we hit a bar close by the comedy club and spent a couple hours recollecting highlights from our trip over drinks.
I don’t know how to end this thing, but I’ve been rambling long enough and should get on with my life. I guess I’ll conclude this entry about our time in England with the coda to the Beatles’ final album Abbey Road, “Her Majesty” (it was either this or the penultimate track “The End”). For the sake of closure, however, I won’t use the version on the album which ends on the dominant unresolved, but rather an alternate take that goes to the tonic. This is one of my all time favorite Beatles tunes despite its simplicity and length (30 seconds), and I will leave you (hypothetical reader) with it. Enjoy.
Leave a Reply