"I just gotta live while I'm alive!"

I love Chinatown :)

...sings Juliet & Romeo and my heart explodes into pink/purple/aqua/silver glitter. If you ever get the chance, YOU MUST SEE & JULIET.

FRIDAY, JAN 28
Today I have plans in the morning with Kim, one of my first film friends, and maybe-evening plans with an old boss so I use the opportunity to get a ticket for a matinee show of & Juliet and suddenly I’m looking at my first full day out of the house.
I’m not sure if I can pull this off. My energy has been low since around March 16, 2020 and I’ve been feeling especially fragile lately. Will I need a nap? Can I have a conversation with someone who isn’t Stella or Chris?  Do I have the capacity to be out of the house all day around people AND be social WITHOUT having an emotional breakdown? I’m hopeful, but I don't know.

930a I meet Kim for tea before our 10a appointment at the Sir John Soane's Museum. (I can carry a conversation! And, it feels good! Talking is fun?!?) It’s Kim’s favorite place and I’m so happy it is, bc I never would have considered going if she hadn’t suggested it. 

Sir John Soane

Sir John Soane was a prolific, brilliant and eccentric architect in the late 1700s, early 1800s. The Bank of England is his most famous design. He was knighted in 1831. His home, which is actually a few homes next to each other, is floor to ceiling, wall to wall, filled with art: paintings, sculpture, his own designs, antiquities, mirrors, Greek & Roman bronzes, glass, Chinese ceramics, pottery, urns and a sarcophagus. I am enchanted.
It’s impossible to capture the splendor and spectacle of being in his home but I sure try and I take tons of terrible pictures. Each room has a volunteer who can tell you everything about everything about Sir John Sloane and each room. The top floor features winners of a modern architecture contest that effectively links past to present and it makes me marvel, once again, at design, imagination and ingenuity.
1130a Kim recommends I go to The British Museum because I was drooling over Sir John’s sarcophagus and his other death-related pieces. We make plans for dinner before I go and I check my calendar for a good day over the next two weeks before I leave… except I see on my calendar that I’m leaving next weekend. How the fuck? What the shit? Did I slide into a time warp?
I did. It’s called my mind. Spending the last week stuck in Blogsville focusing on my first two days of travel locked my mind into January 20/21. I was still there. I’d somehow lived a full week without allowing any time to pass. I compartmentalize the 'I’ve wasted a full week!’ panic and get busy living. So off to the British Museum I go to look for mummies. 

Mummy! (Cleopatra's Mummy, actually.)

12p I’ve been to the British Museum before but I can’t remember when or any details so I’m brand new here! Maybe a perk to my swiss cheese memory? I travel through time and take pictures for Chris of the things I find most interesting and things I think he’d be interested in. It’s all interesting! I take a ton of pictures. Then I find the mummies and reeeeeally take a lot of pictures. It occurs to me that I’m making a spectacle of these old bodies and remember nobody cares. I find the coffins especially beautiful, painted inside and out with meaningful pictures and I guess instructions on how to master the after life? I’m taking pictures of the info placards instead of reading them, imagining that I’ll use them for context later. Do I? No!
My favorite guy is the body of a man they found buried in a shallow grave in the sand and mummified by the elements and temperature. He’s called the Gebelein Man and lived around 3500 BC. (Huzzah! I used one of my photos for reference. Good Idea, Bianca!) My second favorite is the skeleton of a man buried around 2050-1750 BC. Both men are buried in the fetal position which touches me. It’s such a natural way for the body to rest. I wonder if the tradition of laying a body prone came from beliefs about being ready to sit up and party when you enter the afterlife or if it was a capitalist decision along the lines of womb shaped coffins don’t make spacial or financial sense. Hmm...
I’m in a time crunch because I want to be at my show early to get through vaccine card check and sit down before the bulk of the crowd arrive, annnnd... My lower back hurts! Because I'm out of practice at being upright for over 4 hours apparently??! I HATE THIS... However. I’ve only gotten through one floor of the museum. I skip the Americas and Mexico floor (seen it) and try to tuck my pelvis and other posture things as I buzz through Africa downstairs. I’m struck by how the museum acknowledges that colonialism is responsible for some of their acquisitions. Similar to how the V&A Museum acknowledged gender inequality and racism in their Design 1900-Now exhibit, I appreciate the words. I know the words aren’t enough, but coming from a country where some "patriots" are fighting to deny history and facts and the humanity of so many people, the honesty feels like a salve. 

& Juliet at the Shaftsbury Theater! Early bird gets the panorama ;)

230p I see & Juliet. It’s the story of “What if Juliet didn’t die?” and the life she sets out to reclaim after the death of her husband, as told through pop anthems from Britney Spears, Katy Perry, Bon Jovi, the Backstreet Boys and any other top 40 artist you have ever danced to. (All from the catalogue of songwriter Max Martin, I found out in my research.) Obviously, I LOVE IT!!!!!! I admit I occasionally feel myself tiring of the gimmick and within moments the show surprises me and I’m engaged and captivated all over again. It’s the only show I’m seeing where I don’t know at least the broad strokes of the story. IT'S SO FUN! And it cures my back pain! Yay! I hope it comes to the states someday, y'all would love it! (I research more: The show I see features Grace Mouat as the Juliet understudy for Miriam-Teak Lee, so when I listen to the soundtrack and hear Lee's voice its a whole new experience and I fall in love with the story in a brand new way. ALSO, I can't stop thinking about the performances and grinning. Jordan Luke Gage (hilarious! And possibly my favorite performer of all 6 West End shows I saw? I'll have to do a grand West End review...), Cassidy Janson, Melanie La Barrie, and David Bedella are so so GREAT. And the show's featuring a range of body types in the dance company is so refreshing and makes me feel GOOD.)

Ol' Mary Poppins in Leicester Square

5ish I haven’t had WiFi all day so I don’t know if I’m meeting my old boss Peyton or not. Some theaters have free WiFi, some don’t. The Shaftsbury doesn’t, so I look for the closest Starbucks because in a world of uncertainty, Starbucks is a safe constant. I spend the next 90 minutes ping ponging around the theater district, Leichester Square, Chinatown, and Soho looking for wifi and something to eat. Even though it’s looking like dinner with Peyton is a go, I’ve only had two halves of two pastries all day and if I don’t eat soon I’m going to freak out. Both Dishoom (my fav Indian food) locations I try have lines down the street. Every place I see has either a line or a huge crowd of unmasked people both inside and outside. It feels like New Years Eve because there are so many people just OUT. (It wasn't my imagination. Boris Johnson ended mandatory masking and Covid passports the previous day, and it resulted in the huge gobs of people out in the world. My mask stayed, and is staying, on.) I see a fist sized samosa at a newspaper stand and I’m not sorry I buy it. It’s excellent. I find a healthy WiFi signal at Whole Foods and arrange to meet Peyton in Chinatown bc it’s the only place I’ve been in the last 90 minutes that looks like it could have a table for us. PS Happy Chinese New Year! It's a beautiful surprise to stumble into.
7p Peyton and I settle in for dinner at the first place we see in Chinatown that has beer. Stella joins us after about an hour and it’s such a fun time! The food is okay but the company can’t be beat.
10p Stella’s friends are at an outdoor pub and I’m energized by a fun day so we convince our Uber driver to change our route from home to a pub a couple of neighborhoods over. The only reason he agrees is because it’s on his way home. We meet Stella’s friends at the Black Lion Pub. It’s freezing and we’re sitting outside to avoid the crowded, fun, boisterous pub scene circa 2019. We wish we felt safe enough to be inside singing along to the 80s cover band but we don’t. We still have fun shivering outside but still- stupid Covid.
12p We get home. I’m so happy. I feel like ME, not the half inflated balloon which has been my usual for the last couple years. Covid anxiety + relocating anxiety + the exponential anxieties that resulted from relocating *multiplied by* all my coping mechanisms = not the vibrant, confident, capable, fun ME that I like. Today was a huge relief.

Sir John Soane's home

Terrible picture of a stunning collection

 

 

 

Sir John's kickass sarcophagus

Last one, I promise

Lady Di, William & Henry in Covent Garden

Julius Cesar. Also how I want a sculpture of my own head

Gebelein Man in my favorite sleep position, 3500 BC

Another homie at rest in the fetal position, 2050-1750 BC

Tree of Life, created by Adelino Serafim Mate, Fiel dos Santos, Hilario Nhatugueja & Christavao Canhavato out of weapons turned in to the Transforming Arms into Tools project in Mozambique.

 

& Juliet superfan! I also HIGHLY recommend the soundtrack!

"The 'Guh' is silent"...

...says Glinda. I will love this show forever. 

I have been changed for good

SUNDAY, JAN 30
Once upon a time this was going to be my departure date. But what is time? A manmade construct to measure the immeasurable and give value to the invaluable? Pffffffffffffffft, life is but a dream, the whole world is a stage, and we’re living in a simulation. I think I’ve covered all the religions in that last sentence; back to me and my adventures!

Flashback to Weds, Jan… I don’t know the number…
The thing with declaring this trip as an Artists’ Retreat is that I planned the structure I wanted my days to have. Mornings were for writing, afternoons were for exploring, absorbing, expanding, nourishing.

So far, I had ignored my plan and was only writing. Which is *AMAZING* but I wasn’t replenishing myself. So I pick the Victoria & Albert Museum, because it’s relatively close and I’ve never been. (All this replenishment stuff is what I realize in retrospect. In the moment, I was writing, yay!, writing, fun!, oh, jeez, the walls around me are suddenly closing in and I need to leave the house before I disappear.)

Not a real person.

Some words about Wifi. I have it at Stella’s so I can operate like a modern human who’s addicted to their phone, but once I leave the house, I have to use my brain. It’s totally fun! I always forget until I’m forced to remember, that I like using my brain. Having instant gratification, directions, distraction, and communication from my phone is a luxury I enjoy and take for granted, and it creates a nice comfy buzz. But when my brain goes into travel mode and I get to problem solve, design, adjust, fail, take leaps of faith, spin my wheels, mess up, and adjust more, I feel alive. Life takes longer and I’m forced to Not Know sometimes, which I hate (Hello, I’m a 3 on the enneagram! And a Scorpio, ‘sup?), but that makes my outings into adventures. I LIVE FOR ADVENTURE!
…What was I talking about? No Wifi… oh yeah, so I used a paper map for the first time in like a decade.
Anyway, the V&A museum is a Design museum. It brought to mind dresses and textiles, art and sculpture. I like these things so I figured I’d like the museum. Cut to: I LOVE THIS MUSEUM.  
Design isn’t just the beauty of form, rather its the function of it, whether the intention of the piece is to invoke an experience or problem solve one. I think?? Thats what I got from the museum anyway. Design isn’t just art— or maybe design is what makes everything a piece of art? I’m getting in the weeds here with my words which means I SUPER DUPER LIKED IT. It touched me and inspired me. Highlights:

Build a Crystal Palace?! AWESOME!

SCULPTURE: After story and moving pictures, sculpture is the art I find most captivating. How stone can swirl and smile, how so much life and depth of emotion can come from a single pose frozen in time and earth. The juxtaposition of hard and soft, movement and stillness, momentary and eternal breaks me into pieces. I loved the different collections there.
DISCOVERY ROOMS: Throughout the museum, there were these interactive opportunities for people to experience the exhibits. Like when you go to a kids museum and kids can put their foot inside a dinosaur’s footprint. Here, you could do stuff like put on a hoop skirt and try to sit down in it or build a crystal palace or use a silver press. HOW FUN to put the design to work and experience it.  
JEWELRY: Its the largest collection of jewelry in the world, but I only fell in love with one crown and butterfly ring of Beyonce's. It was overwhelming to have that many pieces of jewelry in one space so I went brain-numb. Then I realized the jewelry was organized on a time line and things started to come back into focus. I like order.
DESIGN 1900 - NOW: This is the first exhibit I’ve ever been to where I read all the info placards. Its collection of everyday items that demonstrate how people design things to meet the moment out of necessity and opportunity. It wasn’t the collection so much as how the exhibit contextualized them in terms of politics, manufacturing, technology, society and home. I was so fired up and inspired by human beings’ ingenuity and also fascinated by our drive to progress and succeed, no matter the cost. Another cool thing about the exhibit was its Rapid Response Collecting. To keep up with the frenetic pace of change in our world, the museum is able to gather objects in direct response to current events so as you can appreciate the past, you can also appreciate and integrate whats happening in the world right now. This extends not just to Covid, but to the racist terrorism and forced refugee displacement around the world. I can’t recommend this exhibit enough.  

1993 Social justice poster designed by Lex Drewinski in Germany

  

Flashback to Thursday, Jan whatever
Show day! I spend the day writing, blogging and self soothing and this evening I FINALLY make it to my first show. 

I grew up indifferent to musicals. Theater was something rich people did, and we were not rich. In college, I saw Cats and Phantom when they toured through Austin, but I didn't feel a connection. I couldn’t shake my impression that shows were things made for fussy old White people.

Then I saw Wicked in Chicago in 2005 and it blew my mind. But it really wasn’t until I saw the Hamilton performance at the Tonys in 2016 and listened to the soundtrack and nothing else for the next 6 months (Not a hyperbole. Those 6 months were some of the worst of my life and Hamilton was my refuge.) that I got the musical theater bug.
To say the last couple of years have been a challenge is an understatement. I miss theater. I miss shows. I miss the energy of being held captive with an audience where you can feel the longing or the loss or the celebration together. So I took this trip as an opportunity to geek all the way out and am seeing as many shows as I can.
Tonight: WICKED… WICKKKEEEEED….WICCKKKKKKKKKEEEEEEEEEEED!!!
BAHHHHHHHH! I LOVE WICKED. I saw it again last time I was here and it was at the top of my list to see again. To be honest, as I started exploring more shows, I was like, buhhhhhhggghh I love Wicked, buhhhhhhht did I just waste 25 pounds to see a show I’ve seen twice?
No. It’s so great to be back in that world. I’m enjoying the show start from my very high perch in basically France, but I’m still dealing the miser in the back of my head. Then Lucie Jones as Elphaba hits the crescendo of her first song and I burst into tears. Her voice is so powerful and clear, commanding and emotional that I am hers for the rest of the night. Glinda - and I’m not sure who played her bc I was so far away it’s hard to determine if it was Helen Woolf as listed in the cast online or an understudy - is superb. She’s hilarious and her voice is stunning. As per usual, the last 15 minutes of the play I am an emotional wreck, my body shaking as I sob. My mask is so big it that my eyes just peek out above it, so I’m free to silently wail underneath it which felt necessary. 

The smize is real!

Truth & Falsehood, Alfred Stevens. Truth RIPS OUT Falsehoods double-TONGUE. YES!!

Isinova, a 3D printing company in Italy, created this snorkle mask converted into a CPAP mask to answer the shortage of respiratory equipment due to Covid. They made the design available for free online and its been downloaded over 2 million times to use in countries all over the world.

Somersault cup. Designed with a bottom that makes the cup impossible to set down unless it's empty. It was used in 16th century drinking games.

I thought Jesus was high-fiving this baby when i first looked at this.

Pretty rings! And most importantly, *ORDER*

Lot's Wife, Hamo Thornycroft. One of my favorite favorites.

I told you the water is hot here.