Weekly Round Up

Ummm...
Quick explanation: My hormones hate me (seriously, they hate me) and since landing in London, in the week before my lady time (0_0) I basically become a depressed vegetable. It sucks, I know it's happening (which makes it worse quite frankly) and there's nought I can do about it. That's why my music marketing paper still needs to be written. So that's what happened this week. I became a depressed vegetable.
This week was very busy though. On Monday I cleaned my room, but didn't dust which was a bad idea. I should have dusted. Tuesday I finished most of my critical report and went to see Billy Elliot which I'll talk about more later. On Wednesday I woke up really early for my Art and Society class, saw a bust made out of blood and had a "movie" night with Amanda where we watched the first four episodes of The Mighty Boosh. For some reason I've been convinced for the last week that Old Gregg was introduced in the first series, but I was wrong, he came in the second. On Thursday I went to the 8th annual Douglas Adams Memorial Lecture where the topic was the number 42 and its relation to prime numbers. I didn't really understand 42's connection to prime numbers, there was something about harmonics and logarithms, but most of the last 1/4 of the lecture went right over my head. However Prof. Marcus du Sautoy was very interesting to listen to and Clive Anderson was the MC, so it wasn't a complete bust. Had a crappy night on Thursday, but Friday was fun despite the sleep deprivation. The highlight of the day was avant garde accordion music. As with Billy, the accordion showcase will be discussed in further detail after the round up. On Saturday I had my first UK PEO meeting and met a lot of nice older women and then went to Camden for their markets. I got a leather jacket (second hand), a t-shirt with a big strawberry on it, and a bag that says "Leave me alone! I don't like broccoli!" which is exactly my sentiment. This morning I had a weird realization that the UK hasn't entered daylight savings time yet and that I don't need to change my clocks. Before I go into my cultural review I will just say this: The War of Roses still doesn't make sense to me, the Tudor to Stuart transition makes some sense, and the Stuart to Hanoverian transition was just really stupid. Also, the Hanover's are the same as the Windsor's, just slightly less German. And Facebook needs to stop showing me ads about Mika, it just makes me sad that I didn't get to see him when I could have. Which is why I obsessively pour over Time Out on a daily basis now.
Billy Elliot
I saw the movie when it first came out on DVD and while I thoroughly enjoyed the dancing and the emotional stuff, the whole miners striking bits confused me. I tend to become bored with history after the Enlightenment and so anything from the 80's, in a foreign country is bound to be...foreign to me. Also, I'm not really enthusiastic about movies becoming Broadway musicals. Or books becoming Broadway musicals. I love "Good Morning Baltimore", but I don't necessarily want to see Hairspray. So when I went to see Billy Elliot with the social programme, I was ambivalent. I came away mildly impressed and desperate to see a real ballet (which I'll be doing in April.)
If you've seen the movie, you know what the plot is. Add in some music and a general confusion over where the act is ending and you've got the play. The young man/boy who played the part of Billy was a very good gymnast and an okay dancer, which considering how he's suppose to grow up to be this great dancer is kind of squiffy, but he was impressive nonetheless. The forced Northern accent bothered me at times, but the musical was good enough to allow me to ignore that fact. While I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to my friends, I was glad I went to see it.

Accordion Showcase
When I think of accordions I automatically think of polka music. I don't think of contemporary musical compositions written specifically for the accordion or studying the accordion at conservatory. All of these assumptions were dashed on Friday at the accordion showcase at the Royal Academy of Music. Accordion players do not just perform polkas and some of them compose really out there pieces for accordion. They also make the strangest faces known to the performing world. They make the faces other performers wish they could make.
But besides faces, the music was really interesting and very well performed. I'm not a huge fan of 20th century music, but I appreciate it more than I did a year ago (thanks music theory V!). The performers were all excellent and if you ever get the chance to go to London, be sure to check out RAM for an accordion showcase, it will be worth the cost it takes to travel on the Tube (it was a free performance.)

So that's the week. This week I'm going to see The Elixir of Love at the London Coliseum on Tuesday and The 39 Steps at the Criterion Theatre on Thursday and on Friday afternoon I'm going to Alice in Wonderland at the BFI Imax and then going to buy my weight in books, because I really need more books (not really.) Then it's Spring break and I'm off to Cardiff. I might update during that first and second week of spring break, because I have to bring my computer with me to Cardiff and Liverpool, but less likely during the third week when I'm in Glasgow and Leeds. Fun times are a-comin' my friends, so prepare yourselves. Until next time, don't panic.