Two Way Monologue

It's been a while since I wrote in here. A lot has happened in the past few weeks.

Some snippets about my academic life:
+ I got my first Contemporary Art in Britain essay back: B+
+ I had a presentation in my Writing London class about Edgar Allan Poe's "The Man of the Crowd" and my teacher seemed to like it.
+ My Reporting the Arts teacher had an ex-editor from Time Out London come talk to our class and, afterwards, I asked the guest about the possibility of working there. He gave me some contacts and told me that I can use his name to drop in my email. I don't think my teacher is too keen on helping me or my career, though. I emailed my teacher asking how to spell the speaker's name (since it's not an everyday name), and he never responded but waited until the next class to spell out the names. Not for me, mind you, but for the midterm "quiz" we're having next week.
+ I had a presentation on Marcus Harvey's art piece "Myra" (depicting rapist and murderer Myra Hindley) in my Contemporary Art in Britain class. Everyone liked it and told my group so.
+ I have a paper about Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde due tomorrow for my Writing London class. Normal school stuff.

Aside from that, life has been quite interesting. I have discovered that time spent away from this dreadful, dreadful "Nido" building is much more enjoyable. My friend Jaba lives in far east London (Essex, to be more specific), which is more suburban than the city. A lot of rich people and chavs (which, in Brit slang, essentially means white trash) live in Essex. It's a 45 minute tube ride there, but it's really nice to get away from everything for a bit. Not to mention, it's great to hang out with someone who has a TV and junk food for those lazy Sundays for which I sometimes long.

Also, one night when I was out at a party called Durrr, I brought my camera. I wanted to record my life, of course. And since my camera is so impressive and makes me look so professional, I was approached by a guy who said he works for London Kicks, an online fashion/art/music/nightlife magazine. He said their photographer wouldn't be able to make it and asked if I could photograph. I said yes, of course, since I was doing it anyway. This guy, my "boss", is named M+olaroid. (There is no + in his name, but I didn't want him to, say, google himself and find what I say about him.)

"M+olaroid? Like Polaroid with an M?" I asked.
"Yes."
"Is that your real name?"
"It is now."
"What was your name before?"
"I can't tell you; I hate to say it out loud."

He never told me. But what could be worse than M+olaroid?? Anyway, he's this eager, yet unprofessional youngin who is, I'm sure, milking the London nightlife to get his name out there. Regardless, he's helping me get my name out there, so it can't be all bad.

Here's a link to photos I took for the website:
http://www.londonkicks.com/display/pictures/?set=575BFB77-E0C4-ED84-0D949498E36946E4

There's actually a photo of me in there, but eh.

Another night, I went to a bar called Mahiki, which is this ridiculously expensive Hawaiian-themed yet ultra hip bar. Kristen and I went because MGMT, a Brooklyn band that we love, was supposedly having its after party there with a possible performance (which never happened). We made friends with a promoter-type person for it, so he told us about it. At the bar, we discovered that a pina colada was the cheapest thing on the menu (it was a special "Happy Hour" type deal), so we got one of those:




























After that, our friend told us about the "Smash and Grab Punch" which was only three quid. The drinks on the menu, however, ranged from nine quid to the thousands. It was quite a quirky bar. And Kelly Osbourne was there! Hip place, indeed.

Sunday night, I photographed something else for London Kicks, and the photos should go up today, so I can provide the link in my next post or you can peruse the site to find it on your own.

My Spring Break plans are once again become more concrete. As of now, I plan to go to Nice on the 13th of March (as in, a week and a half). I will stay there with a friend for about a week and then I will move on to Paris, where I have another friend with whom I will be staying. Since the cost of travel is now dramatically lower (since I don't have to pay for places to stay), I decided to opt for a plane trip instead of a grueling train or bus ride. My Mom hooked me up with a standby fare that will allow me the flexibility of flying that I'm used to, while making traveling more convenient. I hope.

Kristen and I have also planned a weekend trip to Barcelona the weekend after Spring Break. There are two DJs called Woolfy that we plan to see. That really inspired the whole weekend trip. The rest of the weekend, we plan to hit the museums, beach and nightlife. Sounds wonderful to me.

In other news: Morgan is coming to London this weekend!! I am so excited that I get to see her and I am going to show her everything I can in the short amount of time that she is here. Last Christmas, we decided not to get each other presents and, instead, save that money for a lovely dinner or a nice night out (or what have you) during our adventures in Europe.

And now for something completely different: Remember how I was so excited about photographing Nouvelle Vague? Here are the results. The band's manager even asked me to make a watermark for my photos in order to ensure that I am credited, no matter where the photos may appear.










































I hope that helps you catch up with my life recently. I'm sure I skipped a lot. I'm sure I skimmed over some details of the things I did mention.

In conclusion, this post is very scattered and random.