Since The Last

Well, This is a much needed update. I apologize for the 11 day absence. I know that my mom probably checks this a few times a day, so here is an exciting post. P.S. If anybody else is reading this, leave a comment. Send me some love!

So, Kim moved in the day after the last post, and she is wonderful! She is a welcome addition to the flat. Matt is with us still, and hopefully he'll be sticking it out. He just got a job at Reiss, so that should help him pay rent and keep him happy. I hope!

The next exciting happening was the Concrete and Glass music festival. Thursday was the first night of it. The only band for that day that I wanted to see was Bodies of Water. The hard part was getting there. First, we had to collect our free wrist bands that I won on the Internet. I got Matt and I so lost, trying to find them. We almost gave up. But then somebody told us we were really close.

On our way to the ticket place, we passed three girls. One of them asked me for directions. I told her we were lost, too. Then I looked over at the girl on the right, and who was it? It was Mischa "O.C." Barton. I quickly snapped into nerd mode, and shouted, "Hi, Mischa!" She just gave a coy smile and kept on walking. It was quite an adrenaline rush.

Then we found the place, got the tickets, and power walked to the nearby venue. We arrived minutes before the band started. They were amazing. It's like gospel indie rock. So joyous. Cue video evidence:



We got home after the show, and I got a good night's sleep because the next day (Friday) was my first day at Offspring! It was amazing! Everything is so great at work. I've now worked a whole week, and the initial excitement hasn't worn out at all. I'm still so pumped. The shoes, the responsibilities, my co-workers, the department store; they're all great. So, you get the point: I love this job. I won't be parting with it until I get kicked out of the country.

After work, I had some dinner at Wagamama. Then, I met Matt and Scott at Brick Lane to see Lykke Li perform. This was day 2 of the Concrete and Glass festival. Now, I am not a huge Lykke Li fan. I really like her a lot, but I have had trouble falling in love. Fortunately, her live performance was way better than her album. She was amazing. So much energy. Her enthusiasm and the band's performance took her songs to a whole new level.




After that, I sought out TV on the Radio. They were supposed to play at one venue, but when I finally found it, the place was deserted. I met a nice, married, Brazilian couple, and we formed a team to find the new venue location. Unfortunatly, when we got there, the queue was super long. We waited for an hour, only to find out that none of us were going to get in. So, I was bummed out and headed home.

We took Kim out on Saturday night and had a good time. Then I made Sunday a lazy one. I watched Gossip Girl almost the whole day. I hadn't seen a single episode, but now I'm both caught up and obsessed.

Monday I worked 10-7. Tuesday was 11:30-8:30. And Wednesday was 10-7. After work on Wednesday, I headed to Camden to see CSS perform for free. It was actually not that great. I expected them to be a little more crazy. Plus, I don't care for their new album very much, and a lot of the songs were off of it. But, it was free, so that's alright.

Thursday was tough because I worked 9-6 (aka I had to get up earlier than usual), but it was still a nice day at work. Then, before I realized it, it was Friday once again. I have a feeling my time here is going to pass much more quickly now that I'm working every week, and I'm fine with that. I actually had Friday off because Saturday was my induction into Selfridges.

I spend that Friday night at St. Luke's for the London Contemporary Orchestra. It was really great. The main reason I went was to hear Johnny Greenwood's piece, called "Popcorn Superhet Receiver." It turned out to be almost the exact music from There Will Be Blood, so I was thrilled. You'll recall how incredible the score for the film was, so I was excited to hear it played by a live orchestra. Here's a video that I snuck between my legs since recording was prohibited:



As amazing as the piece was, it was the performance before it, "Put Flesh On!" by Emily Hall, that really caught my ear/attention. It was the world premiere of the arrangement. What Emily did was use recordings of a female preacher's sermon, remix the words and add electronic music, then have all of that performed with strings. It was captivating and like nothing I had heard before. I don't think the video really captures the piece, but here's a little sample anyway: