American Celebs playing in London

It seems that many of America's sweethearts find respite on the stages of London's West End. So far I have seen: Woody Haroldson in Night of the Iguana (and he was brilliant), Christian Slater in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (and he was really good), I was supposed to see Patrick Swayze in Guys and Dolls (but he was sick with a throat infection!) Kevin Spacey will soon be here and I can't wait for his show, and last night, as I was walking around Soho, I saw Juliette Lewis exit from the Apollo Theatre and graciously chat with her waiting fans. I loath that I am thrilled by the famous, but I have long since given up trying to fight it, so I when I saw J. Lewis (my first official Celeb sighting in London) I acted as star struck as I am and I took her photo. Pathetic. It really is, and I can't defend my actions, so instead, I embrace them by posting the pic. She is absolutely tiny. Watching her talk to her people, hearing her voice, seeing her playfulness, totally feeling her underlying intensity and enjoying her urban-edge-attitude made me want to be her, maybe for a moment, maybe forever. She seems like someone who would be cool to know. All that in about 4 minutes of observation. Rock on Juliett.

A Saturday afternoon walk

What a walk, what a bridge, what a city. You just never know what you might find in London on a summer Saturday strolling along the Thames.









Love is art, true enough. These two were on the floor of one of the entryways to the Tate Modern. I found it sweet and strange and perfect for the floor of a Modern Art Museum. Maybe they were even a part of a display. Hard to really know for sure.






This little party was on a public beach on the river and it was called
Thames Trance. Why not? I wasn't tempted to join the party, but it was really fun to watch the party goers that were in attendance. Exhibitionists, the lot of em.









I saw, for the first time, my future home. I will convince every friend I have to move to London so we can all jam into a one-bedroom flat in this incredible architectural feat; it will be a cheap and perfect home sweet home.

EuroPride post Canada Day pics

By mid-afternoon Canada Day moved to EuroPride. This is me, literally, in front of the Trafalgar Square festival.













These boys were impressive. I wouldn't mind the look myself, but I just don't think I will ever quite be able to pull it off with as much panache.
Look at the attitude in that walk. I love it!










Boys in heels and other such heathen things will probably always insight a fair number of protesters. This bunch seemed particularly brutal in their energy and their sinage, but everyone was peaceful. Thank goodness for that.








This picture captures Canada Day turned EuroPride London, in top form. First, understand that the day's events began at 9:30 a.m. and this pic is taken at some point after 10:00 p.m. What you see is 4 usually smart, decent, interesting, responsible, level-headed (sort of) women who decided, after singing STARSHIP (thanks to shared ipod headphones) as loud as possible to a lesbian couple who were trying to share a private kiss in front of the Porto-potties, that the night would be much more fun if we were drinking mini-bottles of blossom hill white zinfandel in the middle of the street. As it happens, we were quite right. Natch.

Oh Canada Day Pics

This fine establishment is where the Saturday party started. Have I mentioned how much I love Canada and her people?











I think this sign is ridiculous, but I enjoy it ever time I visit the pub. The Maple Leaf is the most popular Canadian Bar in London. I have become an avid Sleeman's drinker due to the Maple Leaf, and one pint is never enough. I haven't loved beer like that since Millikin University. But can you believe that a pitcher runs just under £13.00. That's like, $23.00. Dumb, but I can't help myself.





This is self-portraiting Tanya. She is the nutter responsible for these impressive Molson beer box hats. She is the most well-travelled North American in London at the moment. She hasn't limited herself to Europe either. Nope, Egypt was her last major holiday destination, although right before she was in Italy for the Olympics and shortly thereafter she was in Scottland for a party. It's impressive. At the moment, she is training for the Venice Marathon. Doesn't she look like a Texan?



The hats make me so happy. On both ends of this row of four are two official Canadians. Vancouverites with Whistler connections. Maria and Tanya; best friends since college. They are both insane and delightful, and both are certain that I will have no trouble with immigration when I make my mad dash for the Northern border.

Wimbledon Pics

Does anyone recognize this guy? I neglected to write down his name, which wasn't familiar to me in the first place. Isn't he foxy?
Love, the hair.







A little Andy action








This is my friend Corrie. She is featured on the bar crawl entry of this very blog. We had center seats in Center Court. The crowd was constantly cheering for Andy Murray and, we all did the wave, twice. Not really what I expected from the Wimbledon crowd, in that way it felt a little bit like a Vikings game. It was really neat and super fun, just like this sentence.






The Grounds are well landscaped and colorful with beautiful flowers. This is the only flower garden that said something, but somehow all the blossoms were blooming, making for a calming, lovely environment despite the tension involved in many of the games.






The Hill. It's huge and lots of people pay the £11.00 to get into the grounds and then just watch their favorite players on the big screen.

Wimbledon village buildings are all beautiful. They fit in with the landscape with impressive fluidity.

summer sizzlers

I haven't posted for a month. Why, you might wonder. Ah, well, because it's World Cup season and I have caught a mild World Cup fever. There is truly nothing like being in a proper English pub, sipping a pint while watching on big screen TV England's soccer (football) team do better than expected. The experience of watching teams from all over the world play a little football in an event that is as infrequent as the Olympics is only half the thrill. The rest of the good time is being surrounded by screaming, swearing, hugging (I saw one man spontaneously lift another in a giant bear hug when England scored) , singing, gesticulating half-sober men, women and often children who are also watching the game on the big screen TV in the proper English pub. I absolutely wish everyone I know could be here for this because it is such good stuff.

Along with World Cup Fever, I have become an avid pursuer of anything famous and while I have always enjoyed playing and watching tennis, it would be a stretch for me to call myself a fan of professional tennis. That did not stop me (and I'm so glad because it was incredibly cool) from going to Wimbledon last week where I was lucky enough to watch Andy Murry play on Center Court.

Wimbledon Town is lovely. Perfectly landscaped and architectured and villaged. It was thrilling to be on "The Hill" where many people go to watch the various matches on a huge theatre style screen. Wimbledon Village was much bigger than I expected, but the courts were so small. On TV the courts always seemed so much bigger than they were up close and in person. I was happy about that, because it meant that I had a great view from my cheap seats and saw a lot of hard-core impressive tennis action in play.



Yesterday was Canada Day and EuroPride in London. Can I just say that nothing could have been better. I have always loved Canada and living in London has only encouraged my affections. There are loads of Canadians living in London and one of them is my very good friend Tanya. She introduced me to words like nutter and winger (both mean a person is insane). It's my view that she needs lots of words to describe insane because she herself is completely crazy and using said words makes her seem, perhaps, slightly more sane than those she observes. She is fantastic and I am so happy that we're friends. Since I want so desperately, at times, to be Canadian (along with many other Americans living in London) I was thrilled to have a day to pretend. The fact that it was combined with EuroPride was just gravy on the potatoes. The hats in the pictures are made out of beer boxes. Tanya got them on-line and they were a huge hit at Pride and at Canada Day. Strangers were asking for photographs a lot; it's probably the closest thing I will ever have to a paparazzi experience. Oh. It was just fun. I actually wish everyone I know could have been here for that too.

It was a long day, and I was plenty worse for wear by the end of it, but what a great time.