When I was little, Greek mythology and Arthurian legends were my favorite. I knew more about the knights and gods than any 7 year old had a right to. Fast-foward a couple years, and I was buried in Dickens' novels (among other classic authors), not to mention the incomparable J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and the influence they had on my intellectual progress. (Full disclosure, I've been lying on my bed listening to Peter Hollens' LotR/Hobbit covers for the past hour and it's taking a serious emotional toll, so that is the angle I'm writing from, a bit.)
The moral of the story is: a conglomeration of things in my past have created this massive, ethereal pedastal on which stands England. London being the capital, the home of the West End, the city where Les Mis is running in it's 30th consecutive year... I'm blindly, unabashedly in love with London. No denial here. (I'm sorry I'm really distracted by LotR/music feels and I can't focus. I'm trying really hard to get this written. Not that this is live or anything. But I feel like my lack of focus is probably coming through regardless.) OKAY. Here we go! I went to London!!! I've wanted to for so ridiculously long, and I went there for an entire day, and since then I've been very preoccupied with wanting to go back. You guys, it's exactly what I wanted it to be. I don't even know how to qualify that, or what specifically about it I even love, but I want more. I feel really restless and ungrateful spending my first month in a new city/country/continent dreaming about moving somewhere else, and don't get me wrong, I am very happy in Aberdeen. But London, guys.
London.
I'll throw some general pictures from my wanderings, but here's a quick(ish) wrap. I took an overnight train down on a Friday, got to the city at 8am, and zoned out in a Starbucks (little ashamed of that) because I literally woke up as the train was pulling into the station and was way too recently asleep to process the navigation of a new city. A fellow Malone alum is studying in London, and was an excellent host/tour guide through the city all day, despite all of my very specific and largely uninteresting must-see destinations (example: being on Fleet Street, because Sweeney Todd). Thanks again, Kyle! Um. So one other thing about London. I was there because back in the fall, I found out about a show that was running off the West End. I'm not going to even try to lead into it subtly because you probably know how this ends anyways, and it's just too exciting.
AARON TVEIT. I saw Aaron Tveit perform live in a very small, intimate theatre and he was absolutely incredible. The man has stage presence like I've never seen, with an amount of swagger that is, frankly, not quite fair. In the opening number, he was not on stage, and it progressed to a point that I was sure he was taking the night off and someone was covering his role. Then, not kidding, he comes sauntering through the (very smoky) doorway, and the entire cast goes silent. (Background: he was playing John Wilkes Booth in Stephen Sondheim's Assassins, ergo he was a bit of a ringleader. It was a fascinating show and a job very well done by the entire cast, even if I play favorites a bit.) For anyone who was heretofore unaware of Aaron Tveit, he played Enjolras in the 2012 film adaptation of Les Misérables, which everyone hopefully knows is not only my favorite musical, but one of my favorite overall things. Enjolras is my favorite character, he played the part admirably, to say the least, and that led to what I will describe as a dedicated apprication of his professional career. He's very good, objectively speaking. I swear. I tried to get tickets to a live concert he gave in NYC, May 2013, but rabid fangirls (which I do not qualify as) bought all the tickets in the first 15 seconds. So this was a really stupid ridiculous big deal for me. Added perks:
•Catherine Tate (Doctor Who, The Office) was also in the cast and she is absolutely hilarious. I loved her.
•Fra Fee (played Courfeyrac -my car's namesake- in the Les Mis film) was IN THE AUDIENCE! And like a creep, I recognized him, verified his presence by checking his twitter account, and got super excited. By honest coincidence, he was next to me in the shuffle of people leaving the theatre, so I very awkwardly said something and he was incredibly sweet and Irish and 100% called me out about being there to see Aaron Tveit, which I could not even try to refute. •I "met" Aaron Tveit... In the sense that I was running very late for mass, he had a big group of people waiting to meet him (and Fra wanting to hang out) and the whole situation was rather hasty. But I got a photo and an autograph and it was and is entirely surreal. And then (I'm sorry this has ended up much longer than I intended) I caught (the majority of) mass with Kyle, found food and a bus stop, and took an overnight bus back to Aberdeen!
Experiencing London and Aaron Tveit on the same day was very overwhelming, and I was completely unable to function on the following day. I sat on my bed all day thinking about what had happened, and if it had actually happened, and then I drank wine and watched Moulin Rouge in an attempt to cope with my feelings. I still can't describe the mental/emotional outcome of that day, but it was a big deal and I'm fairly certain that it's had a lasting impact on the course of my life.
I was going to, at this point, give a bit of a rant about how I may be slowly dying inside because physiotherapy doesn't speak to my soul, but music and performance and beautiful stories do. I need them back in my life. Not "want"... I really, really need them back. And I need to find a way, very quickly. But this has been too long so the real rant will have to come another day. I am happy here though, I promise. It's going very well. Just... kind of a surface level well. Sorry. Next week. Okay bye :)
