It is almost surreal to even think that there has been over a week of consistent sunshine here in London. And what more, the Icelandic volcano and the huge cloud of ash due to its eruption meant that all flights in the north of Europe were cancelled, freeing the skies en route to Heathrow from the usual air traffic noise (I can usually see/hear a plane every 60-90 seconds and this is a result of severe data gathering exercises since I have been living in this area of London!), which meant that the cloudless, blue skies were even more immaculate than usual. Mind you, temperatures did not soar beyond 17 degrees and went down to as low as 2 degrees at night, but, all in all, the weather was pleasant. This was only one of a series of great events this week...as till post will outline!
To be honest, the week started off in a somewhat crappy way...the wife was away for the weekend and I suppose it does not require much imagination to understand how a husband feels when his wife of a few weeks disappears for a few days, but this unfortunate event was quickly cut short on the Tuesday (really it was early Wednesday morning when we got back from the airport) and things resumed happily as before. I really should not provide further detail as to how the re-union was then celebrated...I bet I did get you, you filthy reader...I was referring to the fact that she brought back my 1 TB hard drive from home (which I had accidentally left behind). The hard drive which contains all of my life: 300 GB of music, another 600 GB of movies and 100 GB of pictures and random stuff. That was all, really (tongue in cheek!)
Friday, finally, and thus the weekend started. The usual trip to the pub sparked off the weekend; this week, for old times' sake, a visit to the Devonshire Arms close to our place in Kensington. And, while sipping my gin-and-tonic there, I recalled the many Sunday roasts I consumed there, which meant that somewhere in my diary I have to include a Sunday lunch at the Dev. Maybe in a few weeks' time when my dear old roomie visits from China (for this one brave dude, this will be the 2nd trip from the far east to Europe in as many months - remarkable indeed). And then Friday evening was concluded in the most chilled of ways in our cosy bed in the company of How I met your mother - I love that show!
Saturday kicked off with a brief but blissful visit to Oxford/Regent Street. Usually, I simply hate Oxford Street. Not the street per se, but the crowds, the confusion, the noise and all that kind of stuff which takes away all the pleasure from shopping. But at 9am on a Saturday, the place is virtually vacant and I could stroll down the 10m (!!!!) wide pavements leisurely, admire some decent Neo-Classical architecture and do some window shopping (I promised myself I will not subside to actual shopping this time) as I headed down to Regent Street. The Apple Store, to be precise. The motive was simple: my iPod had suddenly died and needed a post mortem. This proved to be inconclusive, which meant that the enviable customer support of Apple provided me with another iPod, at no cost. Talk about 'the customer is always right'!! Well done, Apple!
A quick lunch and the activity for Saturday afternoon: a trip to Somerset House (the Courtald Gallery, actually) and an exhibition of previously unseen Michelangelo sketches, drawings, poems and love letters to his (gay) lover from the 1500s. An extraordinary man from an extraordinary period from the past, which made me realise that, in this day and age, there are simply no people of such calibre, who can master art, sculpture, poetry, architecture and be some passionate, all at once. The event was concluded by some water antics in the piazza within Somerset House, where people must have thought I was a lunatic unleashed for an hour who happily found satisfaction in playing within the water fountain/s there. Well, I am young at heart, you know!
And, finally, the highlight of the day: a night at the theatre. This was wholly sponsored by my dear office colleagues, who, as a wedding present, gave us 2 dress circle tickets for the Love never dies musical. I had been planning to go to this from the day it was announced that (Baron) Lloyd Webber embarked on writing a sequel for his Phantom of the opera musical, which I have seen twice and still think is one of the most enchanting pieces of music in that genre. And the sequel: I tend to be super-sceptical of sequels, particularly in the world of film, but this one was simply amazing. The narrative was not a copy of the Phantom but almost a stand-alone from the original (I think the Phantom is no longer a monster while Raoul has become a modern-day alcoholic), the music and the singing were superb (albeit a few bars' worth of reference to the original music) and the scenery and imagery in the theatre was phenomenal. At some points, it was almost watching a movie rather than a stage presentation, but, at the same time, not taking away the magic of live stage production.
As always, whenever I engage in anything related to music, I tend to end up into a melancholic state of mind. I begin to ponder and ask myself why on earth am I not doing music full-time: composing, arranging, conducting, playing. It gets me shivers even writing about this, let alone be in a theatre as a spectator, let alone be in the industry as a performer! Nonetheless, unless you are a prodigy and/or extremely lucky, it is hard in this day and age to live off an "arts" profession. I once read what novelist Kurt Vonnegut wrote, "If you really want to hurt your parents and you don't have the nerve to be a homosexual, the least you can do is go into the arts". Shameful indeed, on many levels. A, there is nothing wrong with being homosexual (although I am clearly not one, I respect gays and their sexual choices) and, B, I cannot understand why one would hurt his/her parents by being in the arts. Which explains why I deliberately pointed out earlier that Michelangelo was gay, since he was both a homosexual and in the arts: his parents must have both died of strokes or heart attacks. And who would not want to be in possession of at least a fraction of Michelangelo's genius?
OK, enough said for today, partly because this is getting too philosophical and, more importantly, I have to leave for another activity, the details of which I will disclose later on, provided that the activity turns out to be as successful as I do hope it is! Summary: it was quite an eventful weekend! And I hope that it concludes even better!
No comments:
Post a Comment