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Today we return to California for 2 months; we'll be back in London mid-February. I won't be posting to the blog again until then.
This was a particularly enjoyable stay, mainly because we didn't have to spend the whole time shopping for furniture. We love London; the friends, the theatre, the restaurants, the grey sky... See you in February!
This evening we saw One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest starring Christian Slater.
It really is exciting when a Hollywood "star" appears on stage in London. The actors can actually act; although I've heard it isn't always the case. In this case Christian Slater is truly wonderful. More than wonderful, amazing. And I'm not just saying that because he was in only his underwear some of the time.
Even when I don't know who the people are I enjoy it. Also in this play was Mackenzie Crook from The Office, a tv show I didn't like but I know it's hugely popular. He was really excellent in this play.
It is the ultimate theatre experience and one of the main reasons we decided to live in London. Bravo!
This evening we had dinner with Jacob Heringman (Jake) and his wife Susanna Pell (Zan). We've enjoyed their cd's for years and are especially excited to have them at Magnatune.
They are both extraordinary musicians and incredibly nice people, we had a lovely evening. Zan is also a member of The Dufay Collective and Fretwork, both with which Jake has also played. My mind boggles.
Here they are with new daughter Edie, she is a cutie.
Last night we had dinner with our fabulous friends Melanne and Simon from Avie Records.
We ate again at Hardy's, a restaurant in Marylebone where we plan on living so it should become a regular spot for us. The food is truly excellent.
We're very excited for Avie since one of their releases has been nominated for a Grammy Award. Handel: Arias by Lorraine Hunt Lieberson has been nominated for Best Classical Vocal Performance. Wow, we just had to have a second bottle of pink champagne. And the winner is... !!!
Today we went on a walk across Waterloo Bridge. Even on a grey, cold day like today the views from the bridge are classic.
I took more photos from the South Bank walkway along the Thames of the view of Big Ben and also from under the London Eye.
I was cold and tired so I took the tube back and John walked. On my way I decided I needed a Jelly Belly fix so I went to the fabulous Cyber Candy store which is right near our flat. They have all the flavours of Jelly Belly gourmet jelly beans plus a zillion other kinds of U.S. candy that I'm not interested in but, apparently, a lot of other people are because the store is often busy.
This evening we saw The Producers, and we were lucky enough to see it starring Nathan Lane.
I had wondered what all the fuss was about when it was on Broadway. I thought "come on, how good can it be?" OMG, it is the most amazing show we've ever seen. The writing is genius, the songs are genius, the sets are ingenious and the acting was... genius!
Nathan Lane was truly amazing, now I know why everyone is raving. He really is that fabulous. And the other lead, Lee Evans, was also incredible. It can't be easy playing opposite a legend like Nathan Lane and he did make it look easy, he was amazing.
Even after Nathan Lane leaves it will be fabulous because the show itself is so wonderful. No wonder it's sold out for weeks; it's a must see.
Today we went again to the Marylebone neighborhood to look at the Early Music Shop's Harpsichord Centre.
They have a few used instruments, of varying quality. They are also a dealer for Bizzi whose advertisements we've seen in Goldberg Magazine. They sound as well as they look, really gorgeous. After we have a house this may be the place I find a harpsichord for it.
The Early Music Shop is a few doors away from the Harpsichord Centre and it's an excellent store; with sheet music, recorders, gambas, lutes and a nice classical cd selection.
Tonight we saw Toby Young's "How To Lose Friends and Alienate People." He was brilliant. Amazing wit and perfect timing, we loved it.
It was refreshingly short, about an hour, which was perfect for our limited attention span. I think more shows/concerts should be shorter, many are just too long. And no intermission; my favorite. I think intermissions are distracting. I'd rather have the show/concert be shorter and go right through to the end without interruption. Like films.
Today John went rambling with The Ramblers which he has also joined as a member.
Unlike me, he (and they) likes to walk/hike long distances. Today a group went up to Hampstead Heath. It's really close by (on the tube) and he loved it.
Apparently there is a house nearby where D.H. Lawrence either stayed or lived.
Last night we ate at an amazing restaurant called Rules.
It completely non-smoking which was what initially caught our attention. Then we saw the photos on the web site and decided we just had to try it. We expected it to be a tourist meca but it was not; the customers were primarily British. As was the food. But it was excellent British, so we really enjoyed it. I had the salmon crab cake and John had the lamb. With pink campagne, of course! It's now on our list and we will be going back. Posh, beautiful and delicious.
On our way home we passed through the Piazza at Covent Garden and they have this enormous xmas tree all lit up, very festive!
Today we made an excursion over to the Marylebone neighborhood to see what it's like for future house-hunting. We decided we liked it a lot. Take a look at the crowds on the sidewalk on Oxford Street! It actually is wall-to-wall people for as far as you can see. It being Saturday plus xmas time makes it impossible. We made the mistake of going into Selfridge's but I insisted we leave immediately, it was just too much. However, just a couple blocks north it becomes quiet and easy. Very nice.
Last night we saw Bill Bailey "Part Troll".
We have never heard of him, of course, but he was fabulous. His one-man show is a combination of stand-up and musical parody. We didn't understand half of the cultural references but the audience did and were hysterical. The rest of the time his wit and humour were general enough that even we got it and really enjoyed his performance.
He is extremely talented. His musical parodies were excellent, including imitations of Portishead and Kraftwerk. He also sang original songs with guitar and keyboard and they were hilarious. With jokes and clever rambling in-between, it was a full 2 hours of brilliant comedy.
Today we took the tube to South Kensington to take a look at The Designers Guild Store. They have lovely furniture, linens, dinnerware, etc. It's their sheets and duvet covers we bought last summer.
Then we walked along Kings Road to see what kind of shopping was there. A lot. There were many of the same stores near us: Heals, Habitat, etc. We ate at a fabulous restaurant called Manicomio. We ate in the Deli in the back, a glassed-in patio, rather than the restaurant because I didn't want a large meal. We both had the seared tuna. It was lovely and delicious.
Since we were in the area John suggested going to L'artisan du Chocolat. He bought quite a lot and will be mainlining it if I don't keep and eye on him.
We walked back to the tube via Sloan Street which is one of those ultra-posh shopping streets with Prada, Chanel, Bulgari, etc. It was a fun excursion.
OMG, today is December 1. It's hard to believe 2005 is only one month away!
We didn't do much today, no theatre or shopping. It was grey and cold so I stayed in and read and John worked on Magnatune.
I did get a very nice piece of fan mail today from someone who bought my 24 Preludes for Solo Piano. It's always wonderful hearing that people enjoy my music. A couple companies have actually licensed some of my electronica which is particularly exciting.
Click on the photos for larger version.
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