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I just got an email from TEDxLondon! I couldn't be more happy. Fingers crossed I won't be having anything else to do.

If you got 20 minutes to spare, this might be interesting:

Tourist

So I've been wondering arroud a little bit more down-town.

Went to Trafalgar square (you know, the famous square with the pilon and the lions), spent an afternoon in the national gallery (saw paintings of Rembrandt, Rubens, Vermeers, Van Gogh, Monet, Seurat, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, ..) Actually, I think a saw too many painings in one day. But I don't complain, the admission was completely free.
















http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/

Afterwards I passed by Oxford street, one of the best known and biggest shopping streets in the world, with stores like selfridges etc. Not that I had anything to spend there, but still nice to pass by. They just reopened Oxford circus, and made it the first diagonally-passable circus in london. I walked it, diagonally offcourse, it was funny because people weren't used to it and kept bumping into eachother.
http://oxford-circus-diagonal-crossing-opens
Ofxord street ends into west end, where all the big theatres are, including the dominion where queen's "we will rock you" has been playing for 8 years. Hope to go and see it one day.


On a school related note,
I had a practical session on Sunday morning at 6am (I must say I like late-night sessions a lot more), had some time to spare, set up some mics, recorded some guitars and vocals. Lots of fun.

For the more tech-geeky people, the vocal mic is a Neumann TLM 103 (which costs a small grand! But I didn't knew that at the time), the guitar mics are a Calrec cc01, a Neuman km84 and something from dpa. Yes I know, you'd be scared just to pick them up.

Indoors

I had been indoors for quite some time, due to two cancelled lectures.
So I got out to see some more london.

Direction: westminster

(cliche)

Also went to the movieum housed in londen county hall (the blue lit building), bit of a confusing place with identical corridors in all directions, but a lot of interesting stuff there. Plus a temporary Beatles exposition.

(original flash gordon script)

(original nimbus 2000)

(the original used spongebob background)

All good fun, then, offcourse, typical london weather set in..

Taking water

This was hanging on the door across the hall, luckily our kitchen didn't take any water.

On the other hand,
my window was tilted during the night, so normally the window should have still been reasonably waterproof.
When I got up I noticed a wet spot under my desk, and literally a pool of water on my desk.

How come?
Water entered through the split of the window, onto the window-ledge, onto the corner of my desk. It then spread about a meter on my desk, so this was what I found:My laptop was positioned directly in the middle of the puddle.. (removed on photo for obvious reasons)

Bit of a panic, removed everything, dried, cleaned, opened up laptop to check for water.


The amount of water removed, only by scraping it from the desk with my hand:










Eventually, everything still seems to be working.
I now reinforced the window-tile with towels, just in case.


On a positive note: finally got my hands on a masher, so much for making 'pekesstoemp' with a fork, fiew.

Practical session II

-catched bus-

Ended up getting home arround 5, wasn't planned for, but fun eitherway.

Some Pictures of the past week:

Otari Tapemachine
















Mr T. from kazakhstan, great accent, shown in 'a picture to impress the girls'. We're still trying to figure out if he's royal of oil. Incredible mixing skills.
















Mr TP, posing in front of soundcraft 1624 (build in 1979, crackling, but still working) at 5.30am, acting as if still able to see straight.

Quote of the day:

" When in doubt, go for it"

Practical session

-imagine yourself having to worry about nothing else but sleeping, eating, going to college-
(and posting packages, picking-up credit cards, having people over..)
Recap on the last three days:

Tuesday, getting up, going to class (3pm), going home (6pm) on 45m busride, making dinner, getting back to college for attending practical session (9.30pm), getting home on early bus after practical session (6am), sleeping 'till noon, getting up, going to class ...

It goes on like that 'till Friday.

After three all-nighters I spend a lot more than the necessary practical hours in the studio, but still, think I'm gonna join another classmate tonight from 0am. Jolly good fun.


I'll sleep on Saturday and Sunday.




People recognising certain Lennon cd's belonging to them, it got lost in my cd-case, I'll try to bring it home with me as soon as possible

-running of to catch bus-

TED

You should try having a conversation about this webcommunity without any nearby listeners getting the wrong ideas..

Benjamin Zander, inspirational.
Remembered this TED-talk because I had my very own 'Benjamin Zander' teaching music theory for the past week. Mat McKinley, yes he's really That good.
Most interesting theory lessons ever.




Should anyone be interested in getting there head screwed, just click, sit back, listen and wonder:

carl_honore_praises_slowness
mark_bittman_on_what_s_wrong_with_what_we_eat
dan_gilbert_researches_happiness

Keys to the castle

Mm, a few days without blogging, might happen.
Recap:

Not much worthwhile going on. Trying to keep on top of studying and living in general..
Was planning to take some pictures, but batteries only allow 5 shots after every re-charge, I'm trying to get hold of new ones.

Bought the great "Bob Dylan, no direction home: the soundtrack", recommended!
Bob

Thought I lost the key to my 'castle' yesterday, couldn't find them anywhere (2 minutes before I had to leave, figures). The thing is, if I lose my keys I won't be able to get in for at least an hour (I would probably have to call some accomodation emergency number, even then it would take a while. Service arround here isn't exactly beating any clocks). I would have to cross 2 closed gates, 1 closed hall door, 1 closed flat door, 1 closed room door.. you get the idea.

Note to self: néver lose key.
(Offcourse I found them in an unchecked pocket after some frantic minutes)

Rissotto for four. I'm betting we had our weekly share of vegetables in one day..
(without any vishy things, veggies, there's no point arguing)

Planning..

Yesterday evening we where going to make dinner (pasta offcourse) with some people from downstairs. That was gonna be it.

Instead arround 6 the fire alarm went of (again), in every room (imagine the constant loudness of a train passing by in every room). So we had to stand in the cold for about an hour (!) before the fire department came to shut it down. If there's ever a real fire going on.. actually it's not even funny.

Made pasta for 5 instead of 2/3 people, luckily we have an industrial-sized stash of dry pasta.
Talking 'till 1 am.

So much for doing anything else, but it was worth it.



On another note, these are the posters hanging on the advertising boards in my neighbourhood and all over the city (probably wherever there aren't any tourists).
"This campaign targets the small minority who break the law" - Home Office minister David Hanson
Makes you think.