Hi-o, wonderful readers!
As promised, I went out and did Fun Things after sleeping away my first day and a half in London. So after shaking off the residual lethargy, I hopped on a bus to Liverpool Street Station and met up with my Aunt Suzanne at a street performance held as part of a series called the City of London Festival. We caught the tail end of an excellent African band (and watched the amusing dance skills of a few shirtless older men, which is actually an experience that I would have been fine with skipping):
We then watched a half-hour performance entitled, "Dig a Hole" by a troupe of acrobatic highway workers called "The Bureau of Silly Ideas." Much mockery of British Health and Safety rules as well as the absurdly long and convoluted process of carrying out a simple bit of roadwork occurred, as well as, most importantly, some very amusing pre-Olympics gymnastics:
We met up with my Uncle Daniel and ventured onward for some food. Along the way, we ran into some curious characters:
This is Mandeville. He is one of the London 2012 mascots. I cannot for the life of me figure out what he is actually supposed to be, or why he is decorated in this manner.
And this is Wenlock. The other mascot. Same problem.
Then we had a great dinner at a cool bistro/bar in Spitalfields Market, and as it was a beautiful evening (despite my daytime grumblings, the cooler evenings really are quite lovely), we walked back through pub-goer-infested streets to the flat. When we asked what was going on that had everyone out in the pubs, the consistent answer, delivered with a casual shrug, was simply, "It's Thursday."
Believe it or not, I somehow managed to get myself onto UK time overnight (huzzah!), and after changing my clothes three times this morning because the weather simply refused to commit to either "hot," "cool," or "rainy," I hopped on another bus (such a local) to London Bridge (which, I am happy to report, still has not fallen down) and met Suzanne at her office. Her building happens to be immediately next door to the Shard, which is now the tallest building in Europe, and, as the name suggests, is extremely tall and pointy and made entirely of glass. I couldn't have even hoped to get a picture of the thing from where I was, so I didn't bother (sorry). You can look it up if you are so inclined.
Anyway, I met up with Suzanne, and then, the GREATEST THING IN THE HISTORY OF THINGS occurred.
I met Michael Price.
[Insert your raised eyebrows of "really, Vanessa? This is the great big news? I don't even know who this is" here.]
You may not know his name, but you're likely familiar with his work. You know that little show that I kind of enjoy [read: am completely and utterly obsessed with], "Sherlock"? (If you don't, stop reading this blog and go watch it RIGHT NOW.) Well, Michael Price composes the music. So yeah.
He also happens to be a new personal friend of Suzanne's, so I may have begged a little bit for her to set up a meeting with him. And he was nice enough to agree to hang out with us for a bit today. So we took a short walk from the Shard to Borough Market (which is my favorite place in all of London), and wandered around buying coffee and croissants and this interesting mushroom pate stuff and looking at all the tasty things, then suddenly realized that the Torch was about to pass by on the Royal Barge, but we missed it, so we just kind of sat by the Thames and chatted for a while.
The torch is somewhere over there, by the Olympic rings. But, um, tada! Olympic rings! On Tower Bridge! Arent' you glad that I showed you this picture?
Michael Price is a super nice guy; youngish, attractive, incredibly friendly, down-to-earth, and, oh yeah, rather musically gifted. And he had such interesting things to say! For instance, he recently wrote the score for a movie called "The Mountain," in which a group of disabled individuals climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, and as research for the project, he climbed the mountain with them! Despite the horrific cold and the altitude sickness, he says it was one of the greatest experiences of his life and would recommend it to anyone. Apparently, "It's not actually that difficult. You just kind of walk." Ok, sure.
We also talked about music more generally, the crazy schedules involved in composing for movies and tv, and then, of course, we talked about "Sherlock." He has, of course, met everyone in the cast and crew, and has sat in on the read-throughs. My favorite anecdote was when he sat in on the "Reichenbach Fall" read-through, and the first time that Benedict Cumberbatch spoke (his "Sherlock" voice is different from his regular voice), Michael said, "the table sort of rumbled with the vibrations of his deep, rich voice, and all of the women in the room started sort of fanning themselves—and about two-thirds of the men too—we were all like 'whew. ok then. ahem. carry on.'"
Other interesting tidbits: "Sherlock" is currently up for 16 Emmys, including one for the score, so Michael will be off to LA in September (fingers crossed!) for a score that he had ten days per episode to write. 10 days! He also said that every scene in the show gets about two takes, and that's it, which I find incredibly impressive. This sort of economy led to the unfortunate mis-match of the on-screen violin playing with the score in the second season, which upset Michael greatly, but he assured me that this will not happen again in season three (which starts filming in January!).
To top it all off, he brought me a cd of the second season score, which he signed for me [my inner fangirl still has not stopped squealing], and then, at Suzanne's insistence, I showed him two of my "Sherlock" tea blends (if you're curious, you can find here), which he was so excited about that I gave them to him [Again, inner fangirl is still carrying on at an incredibly high pitch in my head]. We chatted a little bit longer, and then we saw him off (he gave me a kiss on the cheek goodbye!!!).
AAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! ahem. sorry.
So what does one do after the greatest thing in the history of things occurs? One goes shopping, of course! We stocked up on a few necessary provisions from Borough Market: chocolates from my favorite chocolatier in London, lots of olives, bread, cheese from Neil's Yard, approximately 1,000lbs of produce (according to my shoulder, which had the pleasure of carrying said produce), and a few other delicious delights.
We bought all of these vegetables. Approximately.
Finally, we headed back to the flat to recover for a while. And recovery is absolutely necessary, because tonight, ladies and gentlemen, are the Opening Ceremonies! Details to come tomorrow. Until then, dear readers, enjoy the spectacle, and go listen to the "Sherlock" soundtrack for me.
So insanely baffled that you actually met him.. But anyway you'll have to report, even just a tad, on the field hockey ;) Have fun!
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