A "job"

The view from my room

I've found something to do! I'm going to be working with the East End Film Festival coordinating a program that features Americana films. It's still in the beginning stages, but the screening could range from one day of American movies(mostly odd-ball documentaries to start) during the actual festival in April, to a monthly screening of films, maybe somewhere in Shoreditch(the cool, hip area of London...think Silverlake or Williamsburg). But along with the actual movie, there will be music and drinks and food...hopefully all themed with the movie. Today, I had my first meeting with the Director of the festival, but as we get going, I will hopefully have a better idea of what I'll be doing. Overall, I definitely excited to be using my sweet Coordinating skills, but also getting to be involved in the creative process.

Other than East End Film Festival interviews and meetings, I've been doing a lot of hanging out and cooking stir-fry. It's sooo hard to get motivated to go out during the day and walk around by myself. Luckily, yesterday my flatmate Ady had the day off, so we walked around together...all over London. I'd been to most of the places we walked to, but I'd never walked to them, so it was good to see just how close everything really is. I took some pics....so here's a little tour of where I walked. First we walked through London Fields, it's a really nice park down the street from my house. Then we went through Spitalfields, where I saw this crazy etching on the side of a building. Someone chiseled into the wall, and made a picture.

Next we made our way to Oxford Circus for some window shopping(we actually caught the tube there, where we resumed the walk).
Decided we could use some culture, so it was off to Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery. We walked around the Gallery, saw lots of famous art and dodged school children.
Next we thought we take in a bit of government, so off to Whitehall and Downing Street we went. (of course you can't actually walk on Downing Street but we looked through the gates). We also found what looked like an old fort covered in vines. Ady investigated, but we couldn't figure out what it was. Finally, we ended up at Big Ben. It was a good day, and nice to be away from the computer for awhile.


I also went to a show last week. A friend from Australia was on tour with his band in London, and I went to their last show. It was fun...there is so much night-life in London and I really need to take advantage of it. (I also need to figure out how to post pictures on this blog without making it look like a total mess. I'll work on that for the next one)

Welcome to London

I can't believe I've been here for a week. The weather has been nice....I was even walking around in a T-shirt yesterday. I've managed to keep pretty busy. Went to the Tate Modern, saw an Australian friend's band play, walked around Brick Lane, and found a couple cool coffee shops in my neighborhood. Yesterday I had an interview with The East End Film Festival...even if I don't get the "job" (i guess it's called that even though I'm not getting paid), it was still nice to get the interview.

Yesterday, my flat-mates, some friends and I all sat around and watched a TV show called Question Time on the BBC. It's a political discussion show, and there was a lot of controversey about last night's episode because the leader of the British National Party was invited to be on the panel. The BNP is a racist and facist party that wants to "secure a future for the indigenous peoples of these islands in the North Atlantic". The show was pretty interesting, but it was basically people trying to prove how stupid the BNP is....and their leader Nick Griffin didn't help. At one point he was talking about the USA, and he called Native Americans, the "American Red Indian"....and that was just one stupid comment he made.

I've edited together a short video of my flat. I'm definitely going to have to practice with the FlipCam. It really takes concentration to keep the shots from being wobbly...much more so that a normal video camera. I also realized I have Windows MovieMaker on my computer, so I'll have to practice that as well...I tried to make this video 3 times but kept accidentally uploading clips with the same name as others and deleting the original. Finally I realized what I was doing...but by then I was kind of over it....but at least you get an idea of my place.

A video of my weekend

A video of my weekend at the Boicott BMX Jam. It was made with the crappy software that comes with FlipCam...so it's got cheesy effects...but whatever. The Jam was super fun, and made me want to find a good place to ride my bike in NYC. I hope someone in London will find a bike for me to use while I'm there (hint hint)

I can't upload this to Facebook cuz of the Mogwai song...so it's going here...good thing I've kind of stuck by the rule of only actual friends on Facebook..since I'm now sharing my blog with the world (although I guess just cuz I share doesn't mean anyone will actually look at it)