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While we were in Finland last week, a program called "Click" on BBC World did a feature about John's project, BookMooch in their Webscape segment. We were very surprised and completely delighted.
We don't have tv but the BBC website has RealAudio of the program so we were able to see it. We're so excited to see BookMooch getting press and attention. People seem to love it and that makes us very happy.
Ok, I spent nearly all of today blogging our trip to Finland. Start here.
Our conclusion? We loved it. Helsinki is one of the best kept secrets in Europe. The people are the smartest and friendliest we've ever met. There was a serious lack of bad attitude, which we've never experienced anywhere. We're very excited that we had this opportunity.
As I've said before, I love taking photos from the window seat on the plane and this was no exception. I got some spectacular photos of central London from the air on our way back. Although there were a lot of clouds this trip, I did get a few of Scandinavia as we flew over. And notice the monitor inside the plane. It shows the landscape directly below the plane. That was very cool.
We're back in London!
The flight was easy. The airport at Helsinki was a piece of cake. And, as usual, Heathrow was a complete nightmare.
Right now, we're running out the door to go to a party in North London. So blogging about Finland will have to wait until tomorrow!
Update: I took that photo from the plane as we flew over central London. I can't believe how detailed it came out, wow. For a very large even more detailed version, click here. Warning, it's 800k but it's worth it. I can even see our house!
Well, it didn't snow today. The sun is actually shining. Partly.
But it is 36 degrees F and very windy. So, we're freezing. My new coats from yesterday are wonderful but it's even colder than they can handle.
John is out gallivanting in museums while I rest after a 2 hour lunch of amazing Italian cuisine and a bottle of champagne at one of the hotel restaurants: Toscanini.
There's something about getting drunk in the middle of the day in a foreign country that is so naughty and very appealing.
The day after John's presentation to the Aula Network he got email from a member of the audience expressing her enthusiasm for his projects. As we always do when someone emails us, we googled. John was very impressed by Andreea Chelaru and her accomplishments, so he invited her to have dinner with us.
She suggested dinner at the restaurant at Cafe Esplanad. It was fabulous. Great food in a charming atmosphere. Andreea is another gem. We talked and laughed for hours. She's super brainy and techie and we're so happy we met her and had a chance to hang out.
Add her to the list of amazing people we met in Finland.
We did something today that I rarely do: we shopped.
As much as I usually don't enjoy shopping, I do enjoy it when visiting other countries because their aesthetic is often so different. The aesthetic in Helsinki is beautiful, from kitchenware to clothing, we're in love with it.
Yesterday after lunch with Vili, we went to the Design Museum where we saw some fabulous clothes in an exhibit by designer Irja Leimu. It turns out she actually has a shop in Helsinki, so today we went. I bought two gorgeous coats.
John also discovered a street of several shops of designer clothing so we took a stroll. We bought some seriously beautiful clothes. First, we bought several things for John at Marimekko. I have always loved Marimekko designs and didn't know it was a Finnish company. This was their flagship store in Helsinki. Wow! Gorgeous, gorgeous, clothes.
Further down the street we found Annikki Karvinen. Ok, I'll admit it: I spent several thousand Euros. They had the most stunning clothes I've ever seen and it was impossible to make up my mind. Every time we told the saleslady we were done John would discover another coat or jacket that was a must-have.
We took a break for lunch at an amazing restaurant: Ravintola Teatteri. Exquisite. We loved it so much we had dinner there on Saturday night too.
Then we did some shopping in a store called Stockmann, Helsinki's largest department store. I'm not a fan of department stores because the clothes are usually too generic or are the same stuff you see everywhere. But we did find a few terrific things for John which was a nice surprise.
Once we get back to London I'm going to photograph us in our new outfits for a little blog fashion show so stay tuned.
In the meantime I'm glad I bought a thick winter coat because the weather forecast for tomorow is snow and 20 degrees colder than it is today. Brrr.... Actually, I think I will prefer it to raining sideways.
Once in a blue moon, we meet someone special. Either on vacation, or a dinner party, or a conference, etc.
Vili Lehdonvirta was at John's presentation to the Aula Network on Monday evening. Afterward, our host Herkko introduced us to Vili. They are both on the board of the Electronic Frontier Finland and Vili often represents them in the media, including tv.
He rode in the car with us to the restaurant and then, really by accident, sat next to me at dinner. Herkko and Henrik sat with us too and the dinner conversation was hilarious. Such fun and nice people!
Vili is a delight. He's brainy (my new favorite word), accomplished and easy to talk with; we really enjoyed meeting him. Then he was at the OpenMind Conference on Wednesday and came to the dinner afterward there too. He's the one who introduced me to the actor from Star Wreck.
We got together for lunch today in Helsinki. He is such a cool guy. I hope we'll be able to get together again some time, either in London, or Japan or somewhere. Thank you, Vili, for helping to make our visit to Finland so much fun.
We walked from the train station to our hotel, Klaus K. It is part of the Design Hotels collection and is lovely but definitely has the problem of design over function.
There was only one window, in the living room, so the room was dim all the time and the bedroom was dark all the time. The lack of sofa was disappointing; there were two and a half very uncomfortable chairs. Watching tv was difficult and uncomfortable. Although there was a tv in the bedroom, the dvd player was not hooked up to it, so we had to watch dvd's in the living room in the nasty chairs.
The convenience of the location is probably the biggest plus. That and their restaurant Toscanini which was excellent. Overall, the hotel was lovely with excellent service so we do recommend it. I would stay there again if the room had a sofa.
An interesting side note: as we where checking in there was a television crew in the lobby interviewing someone. He said the word "bullshit" about a zillion times so John decided it must be the guy who wrote the book "On Bullshit" and indeed it was. John said the book is... well, bullshit. We thought it was strange and funny that he was being interviewed in Helsinki on a Thursday in the lobby of the hotel we happened to be checking in to. We saw him at breakfast every morning too.
This morning we took the train from Tampere back to Helsinki.
The view from our hotel window in Tampere this morning was very different from when we arrived on Tuesday. Of course the weather always improves on the day you leave anywhere '-)
While waiting on the platform, a very long train filled with logs came past. You don't see that every day. Once again the train ride was easy and fast. The scenery was mostly forest but there were also many lakes which were very pretty.
Note the difference in the photo of the train at the platform after it arrived in Helsinki, compared to the same platform in the early morning on Tuesday. We didn't know the ceiling was made of glass.
After the conference there was a round table discussion and dinner at a local restaurant (the roundish building in the photo below).
Part of the round table discussion was a "debate" between John and a guy from Rockadillo, a Finland indie record company, who was taking the side of the traditional music industry. He was charming and had actually done some research about Magnatune and was therefore able to actually discuss it intelligently with John. That doesn't happen a lot. Most people get up there and say, "So what's the difference between Magnatune and iTunes? What makes Magnatune so special?" (If I ever hear that question again I'm going to just punch the person and be done with it.) But this guy was terrific and was far from an "adversary." He is most definitely one of the good guys and we enjoyed meeting him. Damn, I wish I could remember his name but I can't.
Then! As we were walking to dinner a guy we met and became friends with (more about Vili later) introduced me to a guy and said he's an actor. He turned out to be Atte Joutsen who is one of the actors in the film Star Wreck, the Star Trek/Babylon 5 parody that was released on the internet as a download and dvd last year. Wow! Then Timo Vuorensola, the Director and one of the main actors, was at the dinner and did a short presentation about the film. I was completely verklempt and ran up to them and expressed my adoration and they kindly agreed to a photo. It is one of the funniest, most ingenious, films I've ever seen. I laugh every time. And the special effects are astonishing.
Add them to the list of amazing people we met in Tampere, Finland. Awesome.
Today John presented Magnatune and BookMooch at the OpenMind Conference. We were very pleased with the response to his presentation and there were many intelligent and enthusiastic questions and comments.
The conference was in the gorgeous Tampere Hall. It looks like a building from Starfleet Academy. The inside is also futuristic and beautiful.
This is one of the best conferences I have ever attended. I don't always go with John to conferences because the few I've gone to in the past were full of losers making tedious presentations and then talking to them afterward was a nightmare. This was completely different! I have never been to a conference with so many extraordinary people making outstanding presentations.
There was one exception, who just read his powerpoint slide show out loud and had the nerve to keep going even after he was 15 minutes over his time limit. Thankfully that meant there was no time for questions. But he was the exception. Everyone else was excellent. Even I wasn't bored and for those of you who know me that doesn't happen often.
Update: There are some great photos of the entire conference on Flickr.
Of the many excellent presentations, we particularly enjoyed the one by Wikipedia which we think is one of the most amazing projects ever created on the web. The woman who presented was French and clearly very intelligent and committed. Her descriptions of how Wikipedia came about and is being developed and maintained was extremely interesting. I also found her presentation style very interesting and fun. Sometimes when she was faced with a question or comment that contradicted the philosphy of Wikipedia she responded with a stereotypical-French "Pffzt!" I loved it.
Then. I wanted to tell her how much I enjoyed her presentation and her personality so I did, at the dinner after the conference. First, I should mention that when John presents Magnatune he starts by saying that, among other things, it was my experience with the music industry that inspired him to come up with the idea. So, when I introduced myself as John's wife to Ms. Wiki she said, "Ah, pffzt! Always it is zee women who are zee inspiration and zee men who take all zee credit."
That. Is. Hilarious! I tried to explain that I am involved with Magnatune and I also have many projects of my own but she just wasn't interested. She had declared her "Pffzt!" and that was that. Actually, I don't think being zee inspiration is such a bad thing.
After lunch with Mikko we walked the short distance into downtown Tampere. It's very old-world looking and small enough to walk around easily.
Everyone told us we should go to the Spy Museum so we did. It was interesting but depressing. Depressing because it really shows some of the worst of humanity and the evil things our governments do, to each other and to us.
After that we stopped for coffee at Wayne's Coffee, Finland's version of Starbucks. Their coffee is excellent so we were really pleased. I put the photo of me and the cup because I've never had coffee in a cup that is the size of my head. You can see my hand straining to hold the giant cup up, it was pretty hilarious. But tasty.
On the way back we saw a couple restaurant possibilities for dinner. Frankly, there weren't a lot serving the kind of high-end cuisine we like. We ended up at Coyote Grill which was very good. Chicken with goat cheese, that sort of thing. And just for you, Glenda, I've included a photo of our dessert here! Yummy!
On our way back to the hotel I took a photo of the train station at night which was really neat, so I put it next to the photo of the train station by day below.
After we got settled in the hotel, we had lunch with Mikko Saari, who is a big fan of BookMooch and is even one of the admin volunteers. What a wonderful coincidence that he lives in Tampere! He is an incredibly intelligent and nice person and lunch was really fun. We are delighted to know him.
We went to a restaurant that served a buffet lunch. I think mostly we went there because it was quiet which made it possible to have a conversation. I had what I thought was beef stew. As I ate it I thought to myself that the meat was rather strong tasting. I had heard they eat reindeer and elk (and moose, someone told me) so I figured, what the hell, meat is meat.
Well... afterward John told me it was liver stew but he was... wrong! Hurray! Mikko says it was not liver. I'm so happy. Actually, I found it hard to believe it was liver because the texture really seemed like beef. Thank you for the clarification, Mikko!
This morning we took the train to Tampere where John is presenting at the Openmind Conference tomorrow.
Herkko met us on the train and it was a pleasant and fast ride to Tampere. Just drizzle instead of sideways rain this time so that was great. I don't know what the temperature was, it was chilly but not uncomfortably so.
Because Finland is so far north, it was totally dark when we went to the train at 7:00. There wasn't a hint of sunshine until around 8:30. The sun was up when we arrived at 9:00 but the weather was gloomy so it was hard to tell how light it might have been normally.
We checked into the Holiday Inn, which was right down the street from the conference. Although nearly everyone speaks amazingly good English, the street signs are in Finnish (see photo) so getting around was sometimes a little confusing. Mostly we didn't try to say any of the words, we just pointed at the map like the idiot tourists we were. But everyone was incredibly pleasant and helpful.
The photos are from our hotel window. The weather was really volatile and the clouds moved very quickly in the sky.
This morning John and I flew to Finland. John is speaking at the OpenMind Conference on Wednesday as well as a meeting of the Aula Network and various journalists and people interested in his projects.
London's Heathrow was a nightmare and we nearly missed our plane. Firstly, you now have to check-in your bags, even the ones that used to be small enough for carry-on. The current acceptable carry-on is so tiny that there's no point. How they decided that this helps security is one of the mysteries of the universe. So there was a much longer line to check-in than usual.
Then, the security line was horrible. It was the longest I've ever seen and it took over an hour. By some miracle of fate they switched us to an empty line at the last minute (literally, I'm not even exaggerating) and as we were running to find the plane (seriously, we were running), they were calling our names over the loudspeakers. That has never happened before and it was definitely upsetting. We made it onto the plane with 1 minute to spare. Then the plane sat on the runway for 1/2 hour. Yea, Heathrow is a mess.
The flight was easy and we landed in Helsinki. I didn't get to see much from the plane before landing because of the cloud cover but what I saw was austere and beautiful. John phoned our host, Herkko, who had kindly volunteerd to pick us up at the airport. We met him outside customs, loaded up his car and off we went through the heavy rain to central Helsinki to our hotel.
John and I had about a hour and half to get refreshed and then Herkko picked us up at the hotel and we drove across town to a meeting of the Aula Network. (Photo below is John and Herkko.)
Before John's presentation a guy named Henrik Ingo came over to our table and I introduced myself as John's wife, etc. etc. But he already knew who I was! Seriously, that never happens. He said he knew all about my music and Magnatune and gave me a copy of his book which includes Magnatune as a topic. Thank you, Henrik!
John presented BookMooch and Magnatune. It was an amazingly intelligent and accomplished audience. Afterward we went to a restaurant with several of the attendees and John and I were again impressed by the intelligence, humor and accomplishments of the people we met. And everyone speaks nearly perfect English. It made our first impression of Finland very positive. Although it would have been nice if it weren't raining sideways '-)
Last night was our first house concert for this London visit, our tenth house concert overall. It was a magical evening.
Again, we had Jeni Melia, who sang at our last house concert in July. But this time she was accompanied by 2 lovely lutes, played by Christopher Goodwin and Thomas Dunford.
We've known Chris Goodwin for several years and it was an honor and a delight to have him perform at a very special house concert. Thank you, Chris!
Their performance was completely gorgeous. It was a combination of singing with one or two lutes, lute duets and solo lute.
Jeni's singing is truly wonderful and her interpretation is lovely, we are so excited to have her sing at our house for a second time. Chris Goodwin is a wonderful musician and caught us by surprise by singing beautifully as well.
Also, it was such a pleasure to have Thomas Dunford playing at our house. His playing was breathtaking; we are enthusiastic new fans. Interestingly, we are long-time fans of his father, Jonathan Dunford whose cd's we own and have enjoyed for many years. On his recent trip to Paris, John met Jonathan Dunford for the first time and they discovered quite by chance that it was at our house that his son Thomas would be playing. What a pleasant surprise.
The three of them have a new cd that will be coming out on Magnatune very soon. Bookmark that page and come back soon to buy their new album, it's stunning.
Last night we had dinner again at L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon.
This time we were joined by Mary Deissler, one of our favorite people on the planet. As always, Mary is hilarious and we have such a great time with her.
Once again, L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon was a level of perfection we rarely experience. The lamb cutlets were the most amazing lamb I've had ever. Seriously. Ever.
John and Mary got multiple small plates that looked like little works of art and were jaw-dropping delicious. OMG, we had dessert again. It's the only restaurant where I just can't bring myself to skip dessert. Yea, we're going to be regulars.
Last night we had dinner with Claire Hammett and her husband Dan.
(Sorry, I didn't take photos. That's an old photo I had of One Aldwych.)
We ate at Indigo at One Aldwych. It is exquisite. John and I decided that the food at Indigo is far superior to Axis where we ate the other night and is also in One Aldwych. So we'll be going to Indigo more often in the future.
The hostess started to seat us at a table on the mezzanine overlooking the hotel lobby/bar area and the noise was so horrendous that I asked if they could reseat us on the other side of the restaurant and, thankfully, they did. Otherwise the four of us would have been eating and just staring at each other because conversation would have been impossible. Also, the smoke rising from the lobby/bar was completely gross so it's important to get as far away from the lobby as possible. The upcoming smoking ban is going to transform London, we can't wait.
Here I go again singing the praises of the fun people we know but I mean it. We've really struck gold on this visit to London, getting together with so many new, amazing people. Claire and Dan are both really brainy, interesting and fun. Fabulous!
Yesterday, Patrick and Tim, our California house guests, and I watched the Project Runway Finale Part 1 because they were in London when it aired in the U.S. and missed it. We were disappointed that iTunes has not yet released Part 2 for download. Idiots. But we already know who won because of the enormous and well-deserved press that Project Runway got after the finale. Jeffrey? Ew. But we all agreed that Jeffrey was portrayed/edited in a much more sympathetic way in the Finale Part 1 than we had seen him in the entire series. He's still gross and creepy but didn't seem so mean. Of course, all you have to do is show someone with tears in their eyes hugging their child and everyone goes "aw!" and they're automatically declared a saint. Jeffrey. Ew.
Then John joined us for lunch at one of our super-favorite restaurants, Patara in Soho, which was as fabulous as always. We were delighted to be able to take Patrick and Tim there and to have some time to hang out together and catch up on how their visit is going.
They have been having an incredible time in London, leaving no stone unturned. I think they've seen everything and have been to places I haven't visited yet! They also went to Paris for a few days which is the icing on the cake for any trip to Europe.
Last night they went to see Wicked which is one of their reasons for coming to London. They loved it and bravely waited at the stage door and got photos and autographs from the stars! I'm so pleased for them, that is really fab. Patrick seems a little obsessed with Wicked and Idina Menzel, which I think is adorable.
Update: The Project Runway Finale Part 2 just showed up on iTunes (Saturday at 1 a.m. California time) . Wow! It was fabulous and I was verklempt several times, especially when Tim Gunn was verklempt. I adore him.
Well. I never liked Jeffrey but they did portray/edit him as nicer in the two finale parts. I was always rooting for Laura but she really soiled her elegant and mature image with her nasty behaviour in the finales. It's not just accusing Jeffrey of cheating, it was the way she did it. Being outspoken is one thing but this time she just came off nasty and self-righteous. Kind of like Jeffrey had all season, ironically. She was such a hypocrite after they cleared Jeffrey of cheating when she tried to back-pedal on her intentions and suddenly appeared to have great affection for Jeffrey. What a bitch.
But wow can that bitch sew. Laura's collection was gorgeous and, for me, a close second to Uli's. Uli's collection was my favorite and I think she should have won. Michael's collection was awful, I was shocked. Jeffrey won but I thought his collection was only so-so and sometimes ugly.
Wow, I love this show. I can't wait for season 4!
Last night we had dinner with the people from Read It Swap It.
Since John's project BookMooch is also a book exchange site, he sent fan mail to Read It Swap It and suggested we get together.
We were very impressed! Andy, Donna and Neil are extremely intelligent, highly energetic, and wonderfully committed. We rarely run into even one of those qualities so for each of them to have them all is really inspiring. Read It Swap It is awesome and after meeting them it's clear how it got that way. And they're so young. Sigh.
We had dinner at one of our long-time favorites, The Red Fort, in Soho. As always it was an extraordinary meal, with lots of pink champagne and sparkling conversation. We hope to see them again; just to hang out with fun, interesting people! It was a great evening.
The photos are from our new Sony Cybershot DSC-T50 camera we got earlier in the day. Our Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX7 is a couple years old (most of the photos on the blog are from it) and technology has improved a lot since then, especially for things like flashless indoor photos and anti-jitter. We were so impressed by our friend Ramsay's camera the other day that we decided it was time to upgrade. So far, the Sony Cybershot is terrific. It's certainly very easy to use, the view screen is enormous and the indoor photos are grainy but less blurry than usual. John and I took photos of each other while waiting for our guests to arrive. The waitress offered to take a photo of John and me together which is nice because we don't have a lot of those. Does the camera live up to its hype? Undecided. Some photos are good, some aren't. We'll do some fussing and adjusting.
Last night we had dinner at Axis with our friend Anneke Scott, who performed in one of our house concerts a few months ago.
She plays horn in one of our favorite orchestras, The English Concert. We were very excited to hear they are about to tour the U.S. Ironically, while John and I are in Finland next week, Anneke will be playing in Berkeley at Zellerbach Hall where we go all the time. In fact, I was just there a few weeks ago.
I know I say this a lot about people but I mean it: we really do feel so lucky to know Anneke. Besides being an extraordinary musician she is incredibly nice and really really fun. She's also really brainy which makes for very enjoyable conversation about things like the joys of Skype while on the road.
The restaurant is in One Aldwych which is where John and I always stayed when visiting London before we decided to live here. Other than the maids slamming the service room door 100 times a day and the internet not working half the time, it's a lovely hotel. Last night the restaurant had live music which made conversation sometimes difficult but we managed. Dinner was excellent. We had champagne and wine and dessert; we were very bad. Yummy!
Last night we had dinner at the recently opened L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon.
We had eaten in the L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon in Las Vegas in August and loved it. We were very excited when we read that Robuchon was opening a restaurant in London.
The interior design is gorgeous, the food is perfection, the service is perfection. It's all... perfection! And, ta da, it's 100% non-smoking. We sat on the ground floor because we didn't reserve (their reservation policy is confusing). It was one of the most amazing meals we've had in London, or anywhere. John had five small plates (a new concept for London diners but not for us) and I had a starter and main. My starter was a soup that is one of most amazing soups I've ever had (celery puree, roasted chestnuts, truffle and other astonishing goodies.)
Next time we're sitting upstairs to give that a try. Next time? Bien sur! We're going to be regulars. It's literally a five minute walk from our house. Definitely one of the best dining experiences in London and we're going back very soon. Many times.
Here we go again with the burnt out light bulbs, or "lamps" as they call them here.
Unlike last time, I decided I'm not going to run around London looking for replacement bulbs. Besides, the ones in the stairway are different and I can't figure out how to get the bulbs out of the fixture. So, I emailed the decorator who is sending one of his guys over later this week to replace all the burnt out bulbs in the house and there are many, several on each floor, including the entryway which requires a ladder which we do not have.
Hey, isn't that one in the floor the same one I replaced last time? Damn. I hate when that happens.
At least we're getting our black-out window shades installed in the TV room today so we can watch Battlestar Galactica during the day. Update: The shades didn't fit so they have to be trimmed and installed at a later date. Sigh.
Yesterday, Ramsay Wood, one of our favorite friends, came for lunch. We feel so lucky to know people as creative and fun as he is.
We had lunch at Tas on Bloomsbury Street. The food is amazing and it's a lovely restaurant. The photo is of us that Ramsay took with his fabulous Sony Cybershot. I think I need to get one of them. One of these days I'm going to get a photo of Ramsay and me together so I can put it on the blog.
After lunch we walked over to the British Museum nearby and looked at an exhibit of wonderful Islamic pottery, metalwork, etc. from the middle ages. Lovely.
Yesterday afternoon our friend Anna Langley came over for a late lunch and to play some lute duets with John. She is such a delightful person. And her playing is lovely. They played for a couple hours and I really enjoyed listening from upstairs. It's so nice to see you, Anna!
Then John and I went to North London to a party at Sonja and Paul's house. They are the nice couple we met the other night.
The Tube's Northern Line was closed for repairs on the weekend so we took our local Piccadilly Line to a station further from their house than the Northern Line would have taken us. Then we walked 1.6 miles (I love Google Maps) which we enjoyed because we like seeing what the different London neighborhoods look like. It was rather a long walk so, thankfully, our friends Jane and Stephen gave us a lift back to the station after the party.
The party! Well, Sonja and Paul are fabulous. I assumed their guests would be interesting but I could not have predicted how interesting they were. All of them were fantastic! A house packed with interesting, fun people!
There was an actress I recognised but couldn't remember where from. And I talked with a woman whose son plays in a band I admire that recently performed at the Hollywood Bowl. Very cool.
Everyone brought something to the party so there was an amazing amount of delicious food and wine. The people we sat next to while eating were charming as was everyone we met and talked to. Thank you, Sonja and Paul, for a wonderful evening!
Wow!
Last night we watched the season premier of Battlestar Galactica that I had downloaded from iTunes. As tedious-to-use and evil as iTunes is, I don't know what I'd do without it to keep up on the only 3 TV shows I watch (Battlestar Galactica, Project Runway and Lost).
We didn't use the screen because we decided the projection looked just fine on the wall. There on the right you can see our laptop connected to the system to display the downloaded file. I love living in the future. Of course, it all barely works because technology is advancing faster than its reliability and integrity but that's just the way it is. When they invent "beaming" I'm definitely not going to be trying it until at least version 4.0.
As always, Battlestar Galactica was amazing and, as they promised, season 3 is darker and quite disturbing. I sort of see a slight Iraqish Warish analogy they may be trying to portray, which is being discussed ad nauseam on the internet. It's well done and disturbing but I'm not sure I'm interested in political analogies in fiction because they're usually preaching to the choir. I don't think the people that matter give a damn. George Bush isn't going to watch Battlestar Galactica and say, "Damn, they're right! I screwed up the whole world! I'd better fix it right away!" That's just not going to happen.
Yay, another new episode aired in the U.S. last night so I can download it later today and we can watch it as soon as the TV room is dark enough for the projector (because the designers accidentally removed the blackout shades and we're waiting for them to come back and put them back in again).
I'm very excited about part 2 of the finale of Project Runway next week and dream of hearing the words, "Jeffrey, you're out."
Last night we were invited by our friends Jane Dorner and Stephen Gottlieb to attend a lecture and dinner at the Art Workers Guild. Stephen is the current master so we were "Guests of The Master." That is cool. Sounds like an episode of Dr. Who.
It was like traveling in time. The building interior is lovely and old-world. There were beautiful paintings, robes and creaky old wood stairs. It was very well attended and seems like a really interesting, erudite group. After the lecture was the dinner, which was deliciously prepared entirely by Jane. Well done, Jane!
We met a charming couple who we will be inviting to our next house concert and I think we're going to their house for an informal dinner party tomorrow night. They are intelligent, accomplished, interesting and fun.
On the other side of me at dinner was one of the most obnoxious women I've ever met. She was the classic elderly bully who is very pleased with herself and her superiority to everyone around her. It was hilarious! When I asked her what she does she said, "I do many things and I do them all to an exceedingly high level." I responded, "How interesting!" Yea, I started out polite because sometimes it's just easier that way. But that was just the beginning.
As the "conversation" continued she proceeded to put down absolutely everything I said. In a heated (on her part, I really didn't give shit) discussion about digital photography vs. "the correct old-fashioned way" she responded to my enthusiasm for digital photography as, "Yes, I've heard it all before and I find it quite appalling."
She continued: "I prefer 1840, when they had to exercise skill and taste in order to create a photograph. Digital is quite quite lazy."
I replied: "Well, sadly, everyone is entitled to their opinion." Yea, polite wasn't working for me at that point. I assumed she would ignore me and she did so no harm done.
Then somehow the "conversation" moved on to custume and clothing design and I tried to tell her about my favorite show Project Runway. I described it as a show where they put a dozen amateur fashion designers in a room and then give them a challege to make a dress, with a limited budget, limited guidelines, and only a day. She said, "That's not a challenge, I could do that!" I said, "Well, I enjoy the show because I'm so impressed that they can make a dress in a day considering I don't know anything about sewing and can barely sew on a button."
Her response: "How does one respect oneself if one cannot sew on a button?"
OMG, that has to be one of the top funniest things anyone has ever said to me.
So, I'd had enough of her nonsense and I replied, and I'm not kidding: "Well, I have many other extraordinary abilities." I know, I know, but I just had to say it. The situation was too hilarious not to.
Her response? Silence. Finally!
Then I somehow managed to get her to start talking to the woman on the other side of her and was rid of her and I enjoyed talking to other people who were all very nice.
The whole evening was very 19th century and was unique and interesting and could only happen in... London.
Today, Patrick and Tim arrived from California to stay in our guest suite for a couple of weeks. Yay!
This is their first time to London so they're very excited. They have a lot planned (more than I ever did!). After they arrived we took them to lunch at our favorite restaurant: Moti Mahal for some posh Indian excellence. With champagne of course!
They are so nice and so much fun. And it's really great to have someone to talk about Project Runway with. Seriously.
The new blog sort of works and sort of doesn't.
The problem appears to be the virtual domain london.redmood.com. The actual address is janhanford.typepad.com.
Of course, Typepad insists the problem is not them and it is our dns but that can't be it since it works sometimes and then doesn't work. If the problem were our dns it would never work. We've dealt with this kind of thing many times, dns stuff, and John has a serious understanding of how it all works.
And then the blog worked but the design stopped working. I may abandon the virtual domain if it doesn't work itself out in a few days. I really love Typepad so I hope they figure out the problem.
In the meantime, the blog is either sometimes missing or just plain ugly. Sigh.
Update: Yay, the blog seems to be working and the design is fixed. Fingers crossed.
