murder

There was a murder about a 5 min. walk from my flat. I live right between Council Flats (gov't sponsored housing) and beautiful multi million pound homes. The murder happened at 7:50 PM last Wednesday. The big metal sign that the City of Westminster posted said that an 18 year old died from injuries that he got after people got out of a car and beat him. It's pretty scary and very sad. Sometimes I'm walking there right around 7:50. I'll have to take the other route by the cricket pitch in the future.

sunbured--what!?!?!?

Jed and I got sunburned yesterday! Can you believe that there was enough sun in England ever, let alone February, to cause damage to our skin? It's not a bad burn at all, and I don't even think that you can tell today. It was such a beautiful day yesterday that we took a walk along the river to Grantchester. There were loads of other people out, and we even saw a family from Jed's church.

Then we went to Borders b/c we had some time to kill before meeting friends for dinner. We usually go to Borders when we have a spare hour b/c I love to look at the American magazines--Real Simple, People, Oprah, etc. Jed will sometimes read either an American sports magazine, "I like them b/c i know that they won't talk about cricket or football on every page." or pick up a book.

Knitting--my hat is almost done! I bought some double pointed needles which i'll need in just a few more row.

Okay, have to get ready for church.

The English and Happy Birthday DADDY!

I've been over in England for just over a year now. I now know which way to look when I cross the street, I don't confuse 5 pence pieces for 10 pence pieces, I don't have to carry my A to Z every time I leave my flat, I'm used to the word loo, etc. However, there is one thing that I'm not used to at all. When English people are being really posh they refer to people by their titles not by their names. I watched The Queen last night and Queen Eliz. would say "I'll have to ask the Duke of Edinburgh..." when referring to her hubby! But, it's not only in the movies that people do it! I was on the phone with a client and he said, "Oh, right, yes, I'm not sure how to handle that. I'll have to ask the Provost." It's slightly Harry Potter ish to me. You know how they won't mention Lord Voldermot by name...

In other news...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!

Banjos

I'm back in London! I've been back for about 3 weeks now but I don't have a computer at my flat anymore. I spilled Diet Coke on my laptop. It made some sizzling sounds and then died. I haven't taken it to get fixed. I'm not sure that I'm going to get it fixed. I tend to waste time on the computer and there is no time to waste.

Last weekend I got to hear one amazing banjo player and another good banjo player. The first guy was Bela Fleck, arguably the greatest banjo player the world has ever known. In my mind Chris Thile is the greatest mandolin player the world has ever know and Jerry Douglas is the greatest Dobro player the world has ever known. Anyway... Fleck was playing with his band the Flecktones. I don't really appreciate the Flecktones. They have a guy who plays the electric bass, Victor, a horn player (mostly saxophone), and the FutureMan who plays the syntax drumatar. The SD is an instrument that he created. Think of it as a guitar that makes electronic drumming noises when Futureman presses little buttons. In my opinion the Flecktones take away from the Fleck. Thankfully they gave Bela about 10 min. at the end of the show to do his own thing. He played a medley of things including bluegrass, some Bach, and some innovative stuff. Bela doesn't read music. I just smiled the whole time and was really happy. I'm not sure why I liked the banjo so much. I think that I like the plucking/metallic sound that it makes and I like the way that it does sounds when it's contributing to the rhythm of a song. Fleck also seems to be quite a humble performer. He was fun to watch. You could easily see that he loved playing music.

If you are interested in hearing some Fleck, I would recommend the CD Music For Two. It's a classical duet with Bassist Edgar Meyer. I really like the song "The One I Left Behind".


Here's a picture of Fleck and Futureman. Yes, Futureman is dressed as a pirate. This is when Fleck, Victor, and Futureman were doing an old NewGrass Revival Song.










Then Jed came to London on Monday and we saw Boston based Crooked Still play at a little venue in Soho. Their banjo player Greg Liszt was just on the Seeger Session tour with The Boss. He's pretty fun to watch on stage, but their cello player really dominated their music. Their song Mountain Railroad has a good banjo part. I don't' think that Crooked Still will stay around that long. Most if not all of their members are members of other bands and seem to have other interests. Also, while I enjoy their music, it admittedly gets a little old after a while.

Jeremy Bentham

Today Jed and I went on the hunt for Jeremy Bentham. It was a really pretty day for January England so we walked through Regents Park and then over to UCL. Here's a picture. During the summer this pond is filled w. paddle boats.

Bentham is a utilitarian who was instrumental in the founding of UCL in 1826. Back then Oxford and Cambridge were the only real choices for university, but they were only open to the rich and church going. UCL was the first university in England to admit anyone without regard to creed, political, or religious beliefs.

Bentham asked that his body be preserved for all to see. Now he is in a big cabinet in the main building at UCL. He was closed today. Here's a picture of Jed in front of Bentham's "grave". Apparently his head used to be there, but it has since been removed.

I was thinking that it's kinda irreverent to be blogging about him--but I think that it's what he would have wanted.