Tuesday, July 26, 2011

There's a juvenile roach trying to eat my broccoli and I do not appreciate him.

I've decided something. Milk tastes really really good when you haven't had it in a while.

I've also realized something else. When I was in Wyoming, Heather, Jake and I discussed a little about how hiking was just walking. And when we'd go on these wondrous hiking adventures into the canyons…all we were really doing was walking. The other night as I was walking around the city, I realized that all I was doing was walking…on the same ground…on the same earth…just in a different location. If I can walk in Grandpoint, Louisiana, and if I can walk in Moose, Wyoming, then I can walk anywhere. It's all ground. It's just walking.

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Millennium Bridge from the Tate Modern.

Last weekend I went to the Tate Modern. Yum, it's so lovely to see art that I recognize and had studied.

Like Giacometti.
mmmfinger marks.
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Divine Corpse.
These are great. And it was really great to have recognized what they were before I got to the tag because I had never actually seen one. My 20th century professor had our class do these. The Surrealists would take a piece of paper and fold it in three so that the other two sides were hidden. Each person would draw their interpretation of Head, Torso, or Feet...depending on which section of the paper they had.
amazing.

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Then I walked over the Millennium Bridge (Over the Thames River) to St. Paul's Cathedral and all around that area, and then I walked over the Southwark Bridge and passed London Bridge to Tower Bridge. I walked, again, over that bridge and to the Tower of London where I watched a greedy bird not share his bread. Those shananagans took all day. What a great day of great shananagans. That night I went to Camden town where the fun ensued.

Photobucket Good ole St. Paul's

PhotobucketSouthwark Bridge

PhotobucketTower Bridgeeeee

PhotobucketPart of the Tower of London


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Moat.

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A square bush doing a great job being a square bush.

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He told me to got "That Way." So, I did.

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And when I did I bumped into this pot-bellied Putti.

Sunday I went to a great great place called Abney Cemetery. I know…cemetery..great…not usually said together. But this cemetery was basically an overgrown forest with pathways that wove their way all through oodles and boodles of tombstones and beautiful angel statues. And guess what, I forgot my memory card here…so there are no pictures.

I even found this mini colony of probably a hundred mini mushrooms…………and I didn't have a camera. Sigh.

I met this real interesting squirrel. He was on top of a tall cement memorial and I was walking towards him. He panicked and went in circles as I got nearer. Then finally took a leap of faith and caught the smallest branch he could have and wiggled his way up the tree. He was fluffy. I don't think he appreciated our encounter, but I did.

It's so great to aimlessly walk…wherever…because here…you always find something worth walking towards.

Todaaaaaaay, I got off of work early and decided to visit the Queen. I forgot that Tuesdays are her pajama days. So she wouldn't have me today. (I wonder if the queen wears moomoos….)

I even did the secret-special pose and she STILL wouldn't have me.
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PhotobucketHey guys, no gossip.

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For you, Victoria.

Anyway, I instead decided to continue to walk around eating my olive [insert "f" word for French kind of chewy twisty bread with black olives] Yummm.

and admire.
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Ooooooooh HEY, I also found out something very nice. My one and only colorful bulbousy crusty love of London is called a London Plane. They're a hybrid of the Oriental Plane and the American Plane…which…I'm not sure how that happened really…These trees are also aaaallll over Paris. Yum yum yum. I also found out that the reason they are so crusty and shed their bark so much is because it acts as a defense mechanism against pollution. Way to adapt buddy.

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He's smiling.

Also, this was peaking outside a gate from inside a great looking little park..that was locked. Chelsea it's reeeaaaal selfish of you to lock up your nature so that I can't go enjoy it.
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And I'll appropriately end it with this.
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except I have to actually end with this
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I miss this little turd.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

"Wherever I sat, there I might live." Thoreau

First, this guy:

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I saw him one morning while heading to the tube. Slow and steady. Patience. I bet he's very observant.

Today, I went out exploring after work today. For some great reason London wasn't pouring all of its moisture onto its streets when I got off of the tube, so with my pocket atlas and camera in hand, I embarked on a mini adventure.

First off, I don't know how New Cross cosmetologists stay in business, but SOME HOW every other business owner in this area is a barber or a hairstylist. I’m REALLY NOT EXAGGERATING when I say that EVERY two shops is a hair salon. Sometimes there are even two right next to one another and then one right across the street. I'm really not kidding. You think I'm kidding, but I'm really not kidding. SO MANY.

So I walked down Lewisham Way for about a mile and a half. It was just a bunch of shops, a college, buses, and a nice roadside garden at one point. I decided to head back down a different road. I wasn't too impressed by my journey at this time; I was hungry, and it was starting to drizzle. Plus, the area I was in started to look a little sketchy. BUT THEN, then, OUT OF NO WHERE, I see a river and green grass and trees! I found a little oasis in the middle of the cement village of advertisements! It was perfect.

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LOOK AT THAT!

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IN THE MIDDLE OF THE CITY.


Also,I think I've fallen in love with London's trees. They are so warty and bulbousy and colorful.

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character. so much character.

I remember talking about pleasure gardens in my nineteenth century art history class. All these gardens and parks and green spaces were meant to make the person immersed in them feel as though they are in some divine paradise. That's also what William Morris was getting at with all his wallpapers and fabrics. What a great idea.

So, I emerged a much happier camper. Right back into the colorful advertisement clad streets. No but really, I think I like the city life. Especially when I know a tiny paradise get away is only a few blocks away…no matter where I am in the city.

It's also nice not to have any reason to drive. The tubes and buses go everywhere, and if I lived here I'd have bike.

Another great thing that happened to me this week was that I got to go to the printers. So I got to see how large scale textile printing works. Hand printing tables, machine aided hand printing tables, rotary printing machines, and flat beds! OH MY!

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Machine-aided hand printing.
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Rotary printer
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Flatbed.
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I met this great great great man named Pudge who told me about some funk and soul music that I haven't had the chance to look up yet, and who told me all about the machine-aided hand printing machines. He also let me run it and do some printing. PLUS I hand screenprinted with him. The screen was huge so it was a two person job where you had to hand the squeegee off to the other person in the middle of the fabric. La;kdsjfwoerivmaerwoijweoijf;alsdkjfsldfj It was lovely. I reallllly want to do more team printing.

Oooohhhhhh what a great great life this is. Thoreau has been telling me some great things as well. Read this sentence and tell me if you don't start drooooling. "I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms…"

Assertive.

Yummm yum yum yummm

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Mind the Gap

Mind the gap.

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Amy told me that before I got to London. I wasn't exactly confident I knew what it meant; I thought maybe it had something to do with the big ocean gap between the US and the UK. Then once I finally got out of the airport and to the train station I saw it painted in bright yellow letters. Mind the gap. They mean literally, the gap between the cement and the train. But, I think it means a little more. Mind, remember, recognize, realize, take note of…the gap, the situation, reality, the now, the moment, life. I think it's a good thing to do; to stop and realize the state your life is in and how you are being and faring.

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I'm getting real comfortable here. It was a very interesting start and is continuing to be just as interesting.

This is the street I live on.
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Yesterday I went to the V&A.

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I walked around wanting to throw up the whole time…in a good way, in a great way actually. HOW DOES SOMEONE HAND EMBROIDER SOMETHING SO INTRICATE-SO PERFECT-SO HUGE and it's used as a tent cover? Actually who cares what it's used for….IT'S HAND EMBROIDERED. And the tapestries?! And the block prints!?!?! WHAT!? It was great. I got real excited.

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This isn't the best image. But this is only a detail of a piece that was as large as the wall....And it was a big wall. Embellishment is too easy for us these days.

There were a lot of great trinkets. Like this friendly looking camel.
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And this hippo who's trying to eat the little ram's head.
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And who wouldn't love this little guy in your pocket?
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But my favorite is this guy.
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I just wanna cuddle.

I also realized that I have an affinity for figure sculptures that are about a foot tall. There's something about them. One day I'll have a collection.
And then I got to see an Alexander McQueen dress. My jaw dropped. This is a good life.

But wait, it gets better.

I walked to Hyde Park. Oh yeah, it rained all day on my day off…and today…on my other day of. Ah well. Anyway. I walked to Hyde Park, at an expensive sandwich (no that's not it getting better at all) But what's the best is that…I found a tree……. I know I know I know, not hard to do in a park full of trees. But this tree…oh this tree.

She's got a BULBOUS puffy sluggy bottom that sits nicely on the ground. She's got a smoooooth part with thin cracks that crawl up and down and in the middle is another bulbous goose-bumpy belly that has wrinkles above and below. She goes dark and light parts, she's got lichen and fungi. She's got deep veins that curve and wrap around. She's got holes and crevasses and knots. She's got stripes and spots. She's got spiders. She's got a huge green leafy canopy. She's got everything. She's even….the home to an owl……THIS TREE.

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Life feels good. so good.

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Wednesday, July 13, 2011

uhm, London.

So this life has been very interesting for the past four days...as it always is I guess.

It starts with me finding out that my boss is a female after calling her mister for the last seven months through email up until now where about five minutes ago I had a beer at a brewery by myself because I have no friends in London. It was awkward.

But I'm at an internet cafe now. Paying to use 30 min of internet. Money is more expensive here and coins are used alot more often...so it feels like money is a lot cheaper. That's where they get you. sneaky sneaky Brits. Not to mention a Chai Latte is £3..not to bad it seems..except that really means almost $6...but not totally..i don't have time to do the math, remember I only have 30 minutes.

anyway. In Dallas I met this great lady from Belgum who had great shoes. On the HUGE plane to London I met a wonderful lady named Jane from England. She was great. We chatted alot about things and food. Apparently the US puts sugar in EVERYTHING. I haven't had much room to compare with foods just yet... I've only eaten sandwiches carrots and an orange...and chai lattes....jet lag?

anywho. Then I broke my good hedphones on the plane. We had tv on the plane, and blankets and a small pillow. Here's a few tips, wear pants on a plane and have a sweater accessable and always unplug your headphones before you get out of the seat. OH! and I finally used the airplane toilet. Nothing too special.

This might be getting kind of boring.

Oh but then, the journey goes even more down hill from breaking my headphones. Turns out the UK are real sticklers for who they let across their boarders. I had to wait about 45 minutes in a line to get my passport checked and then I got asked 20 questions about why I was entering the UK and then I got detained...for six hours....in a waitingroom hidden in the airport...where I got my mug shot taken (which I have copies of and is quite funny because I smiled real big) and my fingerprints taken, and I got interviewed. It was great...not really. It was terrible. The asked me questions like "where is your internship? do you have the number? so you've never spoken to these people? Only through email?" shit. Is my internship a hoax. Am I that gullable and stupid. WHAT AM I DOING?! So I sat back in this room. I did get two free sandwiches, some cookes and some water. The people were real nice. But it was terrible really. I really thought I was getting deported. The two men that were in the room before me got deported, so what was I to think..specially when the lady with the really great accent told me that a girl in my case got sent back a few weeks earlier. Thanks great accent lady. So, I destracted myself by reading a Eat Pray Love. I know I'm ranting...there's no real thought put into this and no real point exept to let people know what's happening with me since I have no real connection to the US right now.

Which actually feels kind of great. I never look at my phone! But I miss you all. A lot.

So, I got out of the hold in the airport and FINALLY got to see some daylight.. FINALLY. after SIX HOURS. And I met another great girl on a train who told me about how she never saved money ever. One day she has 10 thousand and the next few days it's gone. wait what?

let's take a moment.


But she showed me the way to my train, and even gave me an oystercard and showed me how to top it up. crazy.

I have nine minutes left.

So I found my flat. It's infested with tiny roaches. awesome. and I forgot to grab my blanket set... so I slept on the bare most springy mattress ever and used my jacket as a pillow. I ended up having to use another sweater over my head and my yoga pants half way up my legs to cover the rest of my legs because I didn't bring pants............

It was great.

I found out in the morning that there's no way for me to get internet in my room and there is no wifi...and I didn't know how to get to my work. awesome.

A nice man in a news store let me use his computer. I found it.
Public transportation is weird. NO ONE TALKS TO ANYONE. And everyone runs to the next tube even though the tubes are around every 5 minutes or so. It's real strange.

So once I got to Kings Road I had to find Burnsall St. Another nice man helped me do that. (who said people in England are rude?!) So, I found it, except all this time I thought the adress was 8.... I get to 8 and there's a huge red warning sign on the door and I hear hammering on the inside. No Christopher Farr.


awesome.


But then I realized that the adress was 6 and not 8. And I met Michal, a wonderful lady. My internship is great. It's going to be a lot of business and less design. But I'm okay with that. I'm real excited and it's in a great location.

BUT I'M ITCHING TO WALK AROUND THIS CITY. So far I've only been on the street of my flat, underground, and a litte on Kings Road. Saturday. It's gonna happen.

So that's been my life. Oh, and I get to pay for water. awesome. the tap isn't drinkable. awesome.

But I'm happy. Me and my ham and cheese sandwiches, expensive water, no internet or phone, roaches, and appliances that I keep breaking and burning up are having a great time.