XD

Once upon a time in the Kingdom of  Heaven, God was missing for six days. Eventually, Michael the Archangel found Him, resting on the seventh day. He inquired of God, "Where have You been?"

God sighed a deep sigh  of satisfaction and proudly pointed downwards through the clouds, "Look,  Michael.  Look what I've made, the place of balance."

"Balance?" inquired Michael, still confused

God explained, pointing to different parts of Earth,  "For example, northern Europe will be a place of great opportunity and wealth, while southern Europe is going to be poor; the Middle East over there will be a hot spot.  And over there, I've placed a continent of white people, while over here is a continent of black people."  God continued, pointing to different countries.  "This one will be extremely hot and arid, while this one will be very cold and covered in ice."

The Archangel, impressed by God's work, then pointed to a spot in the center of a large land mass and said, "What will be there?"

"Ah," said God.  "That's Iowa, the most glorious place on earth. There are beautiful lakes, rivers, sunsets, and rolling hills.  The people from Iowa are going to be modest, intelligent, and humorous, and they are going to be found traveling the world.  They will be extremely sociable, hardworking, and high-achieving, and they will be  know throughout the world as diplomats and carriers of peace."

Michael gasped in wonder and admiration, but then proclaimed, "What about balance, God?  You said there would be balance!"

God replied wisely, "Wait until you see the 'Ding Bats' I'm putting around them in Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri,Arkansas, Nebraska, and Minnesota."

:)

The English have some gall to celebrate St. Patrick's Day, but that might just be me.

Oh, Paddy dear, and did you hear
The news that's going round?
The shamrock is forbid by law
To grow on Irish ground!
St. Patrick's Day no more we'll keep,
His color can't be seen,
For there's a bloomin' law agin'
The wearing of the green.
I met with Napper Tandy
And he took me by the hand,
And he said, "How's poor old Ireland
And how does she stand?"
"She's the most distressful country
That ever yet was seen;
They're hanging men and women there
For wearing of the green."

Then since the color we must wear
Is England's cruel red,
Sure Ireland's songs will ne'er forget
The blood that they have shed.
You may take the shamrock from your hat now,
Cast it on the sod,
But 'twill take root and flourish still,
Tho' under foot it's trod.
When the law can stop the blades of green
From growing as they grow,
And when the leaves in summertime
Their verdue dare not show,
Then I will change the color that I
Wear in my canteen;
But 'till that day, please God, I'll stick
To wearing of the green.

Real post to follow later.

Thursday and Saturday - Docklands/Faust and Underneath the Lintel

I am back at my favourite skeazy little internet cafe in London, in the alley (St. Anne's Court) off the side street (Dean Street) off Oxford Street, because the Albert's internet could not have chosen a worse weekend to crap out. Big stuff happening in Levy and two papers due next week. Not being online is NOT an option (Mathan have been poising to be married since July 2005. I'M NOT MISSING THIS).

Anyway, since I haven't had a chance to tell you all about Thursday yet and I did something very fabulous and fun tonight, I thought I'd share.

Thursday, class didn't begin until three, and we took a very long tour of the Docklands area. As in, I'm pretty sure we walked more than Sarah intended us to. My hip started hurting me and the pace to keep up was grueling. I'm pretty sure Sarah was one of those people who started the Oregon trail in March with a grueling pace, and then was in Oregan with all five members of her party by July 4. If she were the Oregon Trail playing sort. Not everyone is. So yeah, my hip was hurting, and there's other medical TMI that just made this experience not fun for me, but I survived (barely).

Faust was not in a theatre in the traditional sense, but an abandoned warehouse in Shadwell, 21 Wapping Lane. (Just keeping you all with me, Shadwell is in London. It's a neighborhood in the Tower Hamlets borough, directly east of the City, ending at the Tower of London.) So, first thing that I should tell you is that this is not theatre in a traditional sense. The entire building was the stage, there were no seats (well, there were, but they were part of the scenery), and they did the play twice, one time after the other. Punchdrunk, the troupe that did it, calls is a promenade play. The audience, rather than watching the play, not only watches the play but becomes part of it, interacting with the actors in the space, and you move about the building freely as you please. You're encouraged to go it alone, follow action or actors as the spirit moves you, and stay and go as you please. I think there was a lot of trepidation in the group, because like Sarah (future roommate in Florence, not speedy Gonzales Sarah) reminds me, "We're not all theatre people." Dennis had mentioned something similar that he had seen, and so I got sort of excited.

( Faust. )

I left the "show" early because there is only so much wandering around in the dark I can do before my eyeballs begin to hurt, so I turned in my mask and had a seat in the bar, which was also where we went in. I sort of regret leaving early now, but nothing to be done. The show is completely sold out for the rest of the time we're here, so there's nothign for it. :/ It's probably just as well, since going back you would definitely lose the initial trepidation and terror about being out and about in dark, strange places But it was EFFING AMAZING. I really did feel like I was part of their performance - and, as ridiculous as it sounds, when an actor nudged me aside because I was standing where he needed to be, I felt like an actor who had missed their cue. It was strange.

So Faust gets two enthusiastic thumbs up from me.

Now, Underneath the Lintel. So, I saw that Richard Schiff (aka Toby from The West Wing) was doing this one man show and decided that I would be seeing it. XD And... okay, right, it was awesome. It's sort of a bit of metatheatre. The audience is, assumed to be the audience of The Librarian, who has rented the theatre for one night to give this presentation of his, that started with getting a library book back that was 113 years overdue. This starts a trail several hundreds of years long that points back to the Wandering Jew, and two lives wasted who are doing anything and everything to leave their mark. The jew sending away Christ poignantly parallels the Librarian sending away his school years sweetheart, his one and only love - and both of their only chances at happiness. It was an amazing play, I can't believe it was only ninety minutes long. I felt like I could have sat there all night.

And Richard Schiff was amazing, as well. He was just... wow.

I waited and got him to sign a postcard that they were giving out that said "I was here" (significant to the play). I told him that I enjoyed the show and am a fan of The West Wing, and it was just nice. He looked sort of tired (not that I blame him, theatre is tiring under the best of circumstances, but being the only person in the cast must be especially daunting) so I just sort of hightailed it out of there.

And... here I am now. :D Tomorrow I want to go to Speaker's Corner and the Peter Pan statue as well as do my own little Jack the Ripper walk - I found where the five canonical murders took place in modern London and it's really not as big of an area as you would think. I'm going to walk it in the order that they were murdered (which will involve making one big zig zag). But I'm doing it in the broad daylight. I'd be nuts to do that at night. :P