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Monday, December 03, 2007 London Highlights ^ Top | 3:54 AM | | | 
Tuesday, November 27, 2007 Mummies My keyboard appears to be British, but as I type it's conforming to an American layout. (Strange--though appreciated--since I haven't changed any settings on the software.) I'm in the basement of an internet cafe right next to the Young Vic, waiting to see their production of Brothers Size, which has garnered rave reviews. I spent most of today exploring the British Museum's extensive Egyptian collection, with minor detours into Assyria and Greece/Rome. Their placards are actually quite informative; I hadn't known that hieroglyphics were a formal form of writing reserved for monuments and art whereas Hieratic script was standard for everyday use (account keeping, letters, records). Eventually Hieratic became a formal script for religious texts, replaced by Demotic script in daily use. Looking at the mummies, while fascinating, feels a little odd--these were people, and they've been removed from their carefully prepared tombs. It's a different feeling than just walking through a cemetery or looking at tombs, in which you're a step removed from bodies, different even than wandering through Parisian catacombs. According to Ancient Egyptian beliefs about death, they needed to remain intact in order to be reborn into the afterlife. (Somewhat problematic from the standpoint of bodies moving hundreds and even thousands of years later--when would one enter the afterlife? Wouldn't they have already been reborn? Would one die again in the afterlife if the body here decomposed? Would servants be lost there, assuming they appeared in the afterlife to begin with, if their corresponding statues were destroyed in this life, though so much time has elapsed?) Moving the mummies seems problematic from that point, even though comptemorary people do not share those beliefs. Labels: Ancient Egypt, London, travel ^ Top | 12:36 PM | | |
Saturday, November 24, 2007 Welcome to London Stepping out of the Tube station near my home for the next four days, my first sight of London from street level consisted of Starbucks, KFC, and Burger King. It’s always amazing to me how large cities are so similar even in the midst of their differences: the area near the Knightsbridge stop is home to the iconic Harrods department store—and a host of stores that I can find on Michigan Avenue in Chicago. Staples like the Gap hang out next to H&M, and I expect the clothes are primarily the same, with the exception that here they cost twice as much. I earned a laugh from the man working the Gatwick Express ticket counter at the airport when he told us that we were getting a great deal—two train tickets for free since there was a 2-for-1 deal on our party of four—and I chuckled and said that was good, since “My money’s worth nothing here!” Before leaving Bryan warned me that prices in London look normal. Until you remember that one pound is worth two US dollars. (It’s pathetic when even Canadian money is worth more than ours.) I wonder if Britons traveling to the US experience a similar feeling in reverse (“Wow, everything’s so cheap here!”). It’s interesting walking around Central London after recently reading Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere--when I first heard the recorded voice on the Underground say “Mind the Gap!” I nearly burst out laughing. (This would have probably caused my family to wonder if I was insane. Oh wait.) I browsed through Harrod’s imagining an underworld’s market materializing in the middle of the night and disappearing by morning, leaving no trace of sellers who would trade food for ballpoint pens and girls auditioning bodyguards. I know, I’m a geek. ^ Top | 2:11 PM | | |
Thursday, August 30, 2007 Recipe for a Birthday Trip to New York 1 Missed flight due to Bryan's last-minute caulking-the-tub project 2 Bumps from overbooked flights 1 Lost boarding pass 1 Additional night in Chicago 3 Total visits to O'Hare 3 1/2 Days in New York City 1 Cute pet rabbit that doesn't utilize his litter box as much as he should 1 Off-Broadway theatre production (the excellent Eurydice) 1 Free Lincoln Center performance (Kristjan Järvi’s Absolute Ensemble--it was forgettable) 1 Breakdancing performance in the subway near Times Square 2 Visits to Chinatown 3 Trips in search of quality chocolate and/or ice cream 1 Viewing of performance art that was less interesting than the view from a skyscraper (Dean Moss and Ryutaro Mishima) 1 Street performance by Chinese musicians (they were terrible) 38 Photos (the camera battery died) 1 Helping of Birthday Night Birthday Night: 1 Concert in a tiny jazz club/restaurant (Moto) 2 Borrowed birthday candles from the neighboring table 1 Dedication of "Happy Birthday" by paid-off jazz duo 3 Birthdays (at two tables!) in the same night at a jazz club that holds less than 25 people Throw all ingredients except Birthday Night into a weekend and mix until just blended. Frost with Birthday Night. Serve warm. Sure to please singer-songwriters! ^ Top | 6:29 AM | | |
Monday, March 26, 2007 Michigan Travels I find pieces of my parents' house in my brother's. The ceramic dishes, the wok hiding under the stove, the pots on the burners. It's the first time I've been to his place since he moved in, and it feels both immediately familiar and unfamiliar. Familiar because I feel comfortable--it's the bachelor pad of my kid brother, after all, and I don't feel the otherness of a guest even though his friendly roommates refer to me as one--unfamiliar because this is the first house he's lived in without our parents, and though it's been months since he moved to Lansing I hadn't been able to visit until this weekend. I played a show at the cafe down the street. The walls are decorated with brush paintings from a trip to China two years ago, chopsticks from his fellow InterVarsity staff roommate, a jazz poster from his musician roommate, and wallpaper that was fashionable decades ago. The fridge is a relic from the 70s (much like my microwave), but with the retro feel of the house there is a footed tub in the upstairs bathroom that's begging to be photographed or painted. In Ann Arbor I slept in the TV lounge of an all-women's co-op owned by the University of Michigan and remembered what it was like to live in the dorms while walking down the hall to use a communal bathroom with four sinks, three toilets, two showers, and a tub. I walked around my old city with friends I've known for years, surprised to see that the theatre building has been mostly torn down--only a third of it still stands. Its replacement is on North Campus, home of the engineers. I wandered through the Arb and tried to avoid patches of mud on the newly-thawed ground--spring has finally arrived, and just being in the sun, strolling without a jacket, conversing on life plans and theology while surrounded by a carefully sculpted wild landscape, was satisfying. And I played Guitar Hero and Karaoke Revolution for the first time--an apartment's worth of guys (and me) laughed so hard when Alex belted out tenor notes in a range almost too high for him that he wasn't able to sing from laughing himself. Here I've gotten a snapshot of my brother's life, playing Settlers of Catan with the other IVCF interns, hanging out with his students from Chinese Christian Fellowship, meeting the family that's essentially adopted him as their own (recently the two-year-old daughter spontaneously started calling him "Uncle Ben"). Three concerts, two cities, one brother, and lots of friends. It's been a good trip. Labels: concerts, touring, travel ^ Top | 1:07 AM | | |
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