Shakespeare and Starbucks (And Tower of London, too!)

Hello everyone. I promised pictures of Southwark and the Tower of London, and so I deliver. Just a little geography and history for everyone: Southwark is on the south bank of the Thames, across from the City of London, and it was famous in Shakespeare's day for its theatres and red light district. It is said to be the foil to the City of London's focus on work; people come to Southwark to unwind. I'll fill in the other parts of the history as we move on. (Remember, the captions are above)

The tour started in the City of London, at the site of the Blackfriar Church. I don't have any pictures (it's just a courtyard now anyways), so this first picture is the Thames from the north side, just before we crossed under it into Southwark. Look close to find the London Eye!

Ah, it was so satisfying to finally get a picture of the Globe. I won't have any pictures of the interior until next time, but for now just appreciate it for its round glory. Of course, this isn't where the original Globe stood...

This is where the original Globe stood, and we know this since they preserved the ferryman's seat from the original theatre. This is the seat the ferryman who got everyone across the Thames for the performance would use. It now sits on the side of a Starbucks. About twenty feet from another Starbucks. During the tour, I was thinking that people 1000 years from now will not understand archaelogical records when they find two Starbucks that close. They'll think we all had very short-term memories. Or maybe they'll read this blog, and discover that one lone, brave voice saw the strangeness of it.

This is the door into remains of the old Rose Theatre, a competitor of the Globe that had to shut down for that very reason. Christopher Marlowe's plays were often performed here. We couldn't go inside; you need very special permission.

Here is where the Globe would have stood. The sign on the ground says "The Globe," sorry I couldn't get the shine out of it. I don't know how to, and I probably needed extra equipment.

Here is a sign commemorating the Globe that you probably cannot read. My apologies.

Fun fact: this is the pub overlooking the Thames that they say Samuel Pepys sat in and watched the Great Fire of London. Whether or not he gave patronage to the prostites afterward is anyone's guess.

And this is a recreation of the ship (The Gilded Lady, I think) that Drake sailed in...around the world, I think. I'm sorry I'm so unclear, the group didn't stop here and I had to take a picture instead of read the sign.

Okay, here's where it gets serious. By viewing these pictures you are violating a thousand ancient Biblical laws. This is Southwark Cathedral, where Shakespeare is buried, and I found out after only two pictures that you need a permit to take pictures. Some guy in a funny outfit told me so; I think he may have been a monk. So these pictures are precious and should not be squandered.

I'm just warning you, this may be the like the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark. If you see these glorious works of God (without a permit), your face may melt off.

Because of the restriction of pictures, I couldn't take a picture of Shakespeare's tomb. There is a glorious stained glass window above that had all the important Shakespeare's characters. I don't have the energy to find a picture of it online, but I strongly suggest you look it up. There is a quote across the top from The Tempest that was wonderful. Look it up.

No permit needed for the outside, though, so look away. It was a nice day, though a little cold.

This is where we all had lunch, and where I finally had good fish and chips. The pub has been there since the 15th century, so I guess they had time to figure out how to do it right.

Okay, part two: Tower of London. I think everyone kind of knows the history of the Tower, so I don't need to go into it. Also, many of these pictures won't have captions since they don't really need any explanation. I will try to guide you through, however.

This is Watergate, or the Traitor's Gate, from the outside. I think I included this in my ferry pictures as well. Traitors were brought in through this gate and then beheaded. At high tide, the gate may have beheaded some of the taller prisoners itself.

Tower Bridge. I just like taking pictures of it, I guess.

White Tower. You will see it from many angles.

Pictured: my attempt at visual artistry

They had two helmets the guards would have worn displayed inside the Salt Tower (I checked, no Pepper Tower). It was smart of them to chain the helmets to the table, because if they didn't I would have stolen both in a hearbeat. No question.

Old and New London. In New London, they like to shape some buildings like bullets.

This was the exhibit in the White Tower. I'm pretty sure this is the same exhibit that was there four years ago when I visited. We couldn't take pictures inside, so this will have to do. Suffice it to say, Henry VIII required a lot of armor.

The Jewel Tower. It holds the Crown Jewels. I saw them, and they remained unchanged from the last time I saw them. Question: why is there a coronation spoon? Is there a coronation soup bowl? A coronation napkin? Some coronation crackers? A coronation mint? Okay, I'm done.

The Bloody Tower. And all that implies.

They played out the sentencing of Anne Bolyn. Spoiler alert: she's beheaded!

Okay, that's the Tower of London. At the point we had finished, we were exhausted, since we had been going since 9 and walking lots. However, before we left and went back I bought some presents for some little cousins o'mine. They will receive them soon!

Parliament tomorrow. Must rest. Night all.

As I Really Liked It

Okay, so this post will basically be a review of the two plays I've seen this week. I'm going out of order and reviewing As You Like It first, since that's freshest on my mind.

I saw it at the Globe last night, and I forgot to bring my camera so there are no pictures save the one from my ferry trip last week. But rest assured, I will bring my camera next time. But as for picturing it, the Globe basically fits all the description of it, and it looks (if I remember correctly) exactly as it was portrayed in Shakespeare in Love a few years ago. The stage juts into the crowd standing in the pit, with entrances at the back and leading down catwalks right into the crowd.
This isn't my picture, and I don't like it since it doesn't have the catwalks that would be coming towards the crowd on the left and right, but it gives you an idea. I was on the second tier, on the right.

It was this detail that captivated me most, because for all the times I had heard of how the stage juts forward, I never understood why that was important. But what it means is that the players can engage in a level of audience interaction that was wonderful to watch. Jacques soliloquizing on a wall near the entrance of the theater, Orlando and Charles' wrestling match being played out in the crowd, Orlando throwing his love poems around the pit while more rained from the ceiling; truly, Shakespeare was meant to be performed at this theater. And the performances were, of course, wonderful, with the actors truly really bringing an energy and happiness to what is, after all, a very happy play. It even ended with a Slumdog Millionaire-type Bollywood dance after the traditional courtly dance at the end.

My favorite part, and this is out of many choices, was undoubtedly Jacques' speech which begins "All the world's a stage..." It was done as the other actors were gathered around a fire in the middle of the stage, the flickering light playing off the faces of those in the pit as night gathered above created this almost...holy atmosphere. As he spoke, there was an almost tangible reverence by the audience, and a silence so complete you could hear the wood snapping and crackling in the fire. And his delivery was mesmerizing, and not cliched at all; he even found appropriate members of the audience to point to as he narrated Shakespeare's players in life: the puking infant, sunny-faced schoolboy, bearded soldier, etc. After it was over the audience applauded for a long time, and I think he deserved it.

But as I said, many favorite moments. In particular, the guy playing Touchstone truly inhabited the character of the clown, even coming out at intermission and dancing. Throughout the play he was constantly having little reactions to the other characters, and at one point, as a plane passed by overhead, he began looking up fearfully. The woman playing Rosalind did this as well, since a particularly loud plane passed by right before her famous line, "Love is merely a madness." She paused, and her and the other actors looked upward for a moment and waited for it to pass while the audience laughed. I don't want to give the impression it was informal, but part of the magic is the self-awareness that Shakespeare wrote into the play, the fact that this play was meant to deeply involve the audience. That's something you can't intuit from just reading it.

Anyway, I've ranted enough, and suffice it to say I enjoyed this play much more seeing it than reading it. I've seen pretty good performances of Shakespeare before, but seeing it at the Globe is, as I said, an almost religious experience. It makes me fully appreciate how brilliant the guy was.

The other play, Arcadia, I saw on Monday night, and it too was very good. It's a Tom Stoppard play involving two story lines: one in the early 19th century with a tutor, Septimus, and his pupil, and one in modern times involving two scholars investigating them. It was full of references to romanticism and existential futility and it had good humor too. Sidenote: the girl playing the pupil was Lavendar Brown in Half Blood Prince this summer. The characters are kind of similar, so I thought it was funny. Anyway, it was an interesting exploration of the universe and mathematics and the Enlightenment, and it had a half-happy ending. I can't muster up the same enthusiasm I had for Shakespeare, but that's not to suggest I didn't like it as much. There's just not as much to say; go see it yourself!

I will have ample photos tomorrow, since I'm going to Southward. And I promise to have pictures of the Glove next time, I really regretted not being able to show you the stage in all its wonder for myself.

Irn Bruski? And Greenwich Too

(P.S. (pre-script!) I've put the pictures' captions above them this time, not below. Just in case it was confusing)

Hello all. I just got back from Greenwich, and it was very fun, so I'm here to share pictures and regale you with the stories that accompany them. But first...

Last night, I noticed something shocking on the shelf in Sainsbury's...
'Why Joey, that's just a bottle of Iron Brew!' you say, shaking your head. Well, it is Iron Brew.

Pictured: The destruction of my innocence

It is, in fact, vodka Iron Brew. Yeah, it probably is hard to tell from the picture, sorry. But I assure you, it is Iron Brew-flavored vodka. I had no idea this was going on. Was it a vodka first, before a soft drink? Does this happen often? In either case, I drank it and it was disgusting. Truly not a good combination.

Okay, now for Greenwich. The ferry left at 9:45, so that's when the action starts.

We had a good view of the London eye from Westminster Ferry, so I got another pictures. Just in case someone had forgotten what it looked like.

Also, Big Ben was looking so lovely I felt I had to take another shot. The trees make for a nice angle.

Okay, the ferry didn't technically have a guide, but the captain came on to tell us things about what we were passing. He did so with a wonderfully dry British wit that was only made better by the fact that he had clearly told these jokes about a thousand times. His sarcasm was, at times, almost tangible.

This is the Globe Theater, which has been rebuilt since Shakespeare's day but has roughly the same form. I'll be going there Wednesday to see As You Like It. I hope I will.

There is the London Bridge, the first bridge to be built by the Romans around 50 AD (potentially, some say the original was a little further on) and basically the reason London exists. Okay, so this version was built in the 70s, but the spirit lives on, I feel.

There is the other side of the bridge. I just wanted to confirm that it was not, in fact, falling down.

You guys are lucky I'm such a good photographer, or I might not have captured this hand on the left so perfectly. Its overexposure, its placement at the edge of the picture...I'm an artist, truly. Oh, and there's some sort of Tower of London taking up space in the rest of the shot. Sorry about that.

More pictures of the river on the way back. For now, we're in the Greenwich market, which has so many good things to eat I could have spent a lot of money there. Luckily I saved my money for later.

After the market, we (some of my flatmates and I, the program basically got us there and let us do what we wished) went to Greenwich park and found the Royal Observatory, pictured here.

Here's the Observatory from another angle. It was such a nice day.

The Observatory sits on a hill which has a panoramic view of London, so I took some pictures from there. You can see the park below in some.

That's the...Greenwich Dome, or something, which was built around 2000 but was a huge bust for the taxpayers since...I think the builders went bankrupt? I'm not sure; someone correct me. It will supposedly play host to some of the events of the 2012 Olympics, if the residents of Greenwich consent (they may not, apparantly!).

This was a red ball that dropped so that sea captains could use it to set their watch. I'm not sure exactly how that works out, but I thought it was interesting enough to shoot.

And here is the PRIME MERIDIAN OF THE WORLD, where Time was born in the late 18th century. I'm not sure what we did without it.

Sky City Park.

Here is the actual meridian. I would have stood on either side, but I assumed I would be flung into some sort of space-time continuum in which I would have to use a combination of wits and luck to make my way out. I was tired, so I skipped it. Just kidding, I totally stood with one leg on either side. I felt like I was riding the Earth.

Pictureless note: after this we trudged down the hill and got lunch at a place called the King's Arms, which boasted good fish and chips. Having tried the aforementioned fish and ships, I can attest to the lack of veraciousness in that boast. In other words, it sucked. And was expensive.

But then we found the National Maritime Museum.

We weren't allowed to take pictures of many things inside, but I did get one of the figurehead for the HMS Adventure. I assume you italicize that, I'm not sure. I thought she had a very calming expression.

Also, there was an anchor outside the main doors to the museum. As the museum was not floating away, I think it was doing its job.

On the ferry on the way back, I got a picture of Tower Bridge. It was getting colder, windier, and cloudier at this point.

Finally, here's a picture of the Millenium Bridge, rebuilt after it was destroyed by CGI in Half-Blood Prince.

So that was my day so far, and it's been tiring but fun. Also, for those who may or may not be expecting them, I may or may not have gotten postcards that I may or may not be sending out as soon as I figure out British postage. Maybe.

It's Molly's birthday today (she's 20), so we'll be celebrating that tonight. Thus, I have to get a few more things done, so I'll leave you. I don't know when I'll next post; I may go to the British Museum tomorrow (is it open?) and get some pictures there. If not, I may not post unless something of particular interest happens. Next weekend is...a walking tour of Southwark, a visit to the Tower of London, and a tour of Parliament. Yeah, so next weekend will have many more pictures. Until next time...

Harold Is Also A Nice Name, You Know

Okay, so I just got back from War Horse, so I'll talk about that first. The website is here, and it is a really wonderful play. I think I mentioned this before, but it's about a horse on both sides of WWI and a boy trying to find him. The horse was named Joey, so extra emotional involvement for me. Also now my flat mates constantly imitate the boy calling "Jooooooeeey" all the time. But obviously there aren't horses on stage, so they use puppets, and it is incredible to watch. There are about three people on each horse, and you think that would be distracting but it is unbelievable how quickly you forget they are there. And these puppeteers must have watched horse behavior for months, because they have every tick and detail down about their behavior. You could just watch the horse the whole play, how its ears move a little and tail twitches and feet stomp. Just watch.

Other than the puppetry, the play was, as I said, wonderful. I get really involved with any story about an animal in trouble/being looked for, but I enjoyed it immensely.

Also, I spent the afternoon walking around the Roman wall portion of the City of London, near the Tower of London. It's incredible how many little things are all around that reference the city's past. I was planning on pictures, but I'm too busy writing and it's still a class, not a tour. The walk was a lot of fun, so I can't wait until the next one.

After the walk we only had about an hour before the play, so we found the theatre and went to a place called My Old Dutch, which basically just served pancakes. It was pretty cheap, so I got some with bacon and apples. Very good; the Dutch know pancakes.

I'm tired and I have homework tomorrow. Night.

As I Kind of Liked It

So I spent the morning doing homework, reading all about ancient Londinium and As You Like It. I honesty was a little disappointed by this play; the beginning was interesting, but it dragged in the middle without a clear conflict, and the resolution to the major initial conflict happened off-stage as a kind of deus ex machina. I think the play had its strengths in the characters (I loved the clown) but not my favorite Shakespeare, I know that.

Neuroscience should be really interesting, and thankfully it's being run as an introductory course. I say thankfully because it's full of Oberlin neuroscience majors and had the potential to be above my head, but it won't be. Well, nothing is ever above my head, but...you never know. Today we learned what everyone used to think about the brain, from trepanning to the four humors to spiritual illness. We had to talk about what we thought about the brain, the mind, if there was a difference, etc. I found I didn't really think there was a difference; empirically, we are just a collection of experiences, that's what we operate from. What do I know, though?

Play tomorrow, Warhorse, at the National Theatre. It's the story of a horse being on different sides of WWII, done with elaborate puppetry, supposed to be quite good. Sorry, these aren't full sentences. I'll try to get pictures at the theatre, and I'll have good pictures of Greenwich next weekend. I'll try to wear a certain shirt as well, with pictures for another certain blog...

Must go.

Classes

Classes started today, which meant I finally have a clear idea of what I'll be doing school-wise this semester (with the exception of neuroscience, the first class of which isn't until tomorrow). Generally, this is not a trying semester; my Shakespeare class has three papers and is all class discussion, which is the best kind of class. Also, we get to see many good production of the plays at the Globe once a week, something not many Shakespeare classes can boast.

My History of London class is lecture once a week, but then walking tours of London the other class, so it evens out. Today we just talked about the Romans founding London in about 50 AD basically since it was a good place to cross a river. That's a better reason than the Romans had to found Rome, since I think they used bird signs and magic squares as auspices for the basic layout. Maybe that was just for Palantine Hill. In any case, London had a good start. Makes me happy.

As I said, I don't know about neuroscience yet, since it's taught by an Oberlin professor who is supposed to be tough. But I say pshaw, how tough can she be? I'm a Grinnellian, and we know how to work. But the neuroscience book hasn't arrived, and I checked and they had to ship it from their warehouse in New York and it will get here between Sept 2-7. Which means if it's not here the first day (tomorrow), then I really hope we don't need the book for anything in class. I doubt we will, though, since most people are still in the process of getting it. I'll have it eventually. Sorry, I had to make that little rant, since it's worrying me.

Sorry for the slow post. It's tougher to have good things to talk about with classes, with no pictures or real interesting events. But how about I post a question for my very limited readership to answer? Okay, what's everyone's favorite Shakespeare play? I realized that although I had read a few, I didn't really have a favorite, but I plan to remedy that this semester. To comment just click on the little "comments" link at the bottom of my blog and choose a name for yourself. They can be as witty as you like.