Monday, May 28, 2018

London Rocks 2018 | Newest Day to Day Calendar

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Jump to the latest upcoming London Rocks cineTREK™

Dr. William Anthony Nericcio, Ringleader | London Rocks 2018
Director, MALAS | Professor, English & Comparative Literature
THE FACTS!
1. Our PUBLIC facebook page where I will post group pictures and you can share with familia/friends/etc

2. Our PRIVATE GROUP page where I post most of the time

3. Our course description for Eye/I on London which lays down the working rules/laws of the class for Anth 439 CompLit 470 Engl 493 and MALAS 600A
5. Where you post your writing assignments
16, May 2018 | WEDNESDAY


Filled with excitement and anticipation, we board our respective jets in Los Angeles, San Diego, and other U.S. cities for our trip 'over the pond' to London, England--be sure to get plenty of sleep if you can, tomorrow will introduce you to a brave new world!

Here is my itinerary in case you want to land around the same time I am landing (either two hours or more before I land or one or so hours after I land, sharp!)
  
17, May 2018 | THURSDAY



Mildly jet-lagged but still excited the majority of us stumble our way off our transatlatlantic teleportation vehicle and onto the offramps at Heathrow anticipating the cheerful greeters in the British immigration services! 

Those of us meeting at the Heathrow Terminal 3 "Meeting Point" for the Underground trip on the Piccadilly line will consult Twitter (using our hashtag #sdsulondonrocks18) and/or our private Facebook group page to ensure no one gets left behind.



Do yourself a favor and DO NOT take a nap when you get into your home! Try to stay up as late you can the first day and go to sleep at a normal time after the sun goes down--stay away from caffeine or you may not adjust to London time quickly!


Fun planetary fact! London is in a much different spot on the globe than San Diego--when we get to town sunrise is at 5:06am and sunset is at 8:48pm.
18 May, 2018, Friday


It is bright and early Friday morning--welcome ALL to beautiful London!  Today, you have a meeting at the Holiday Inn Kensington Forum at 10:45am.

Do try to get their a little early as you make your way around in your new environs!

AND, Later on for Friday Night!?  Our first cineTREK! Make sure to bring along the ticket that FIE gave you today at your orientation / welcome meeting at the Holiday Inn.

I will be waiting for you at the front door of your flat at 6pm sharp as we dash from 123 Queens Gate to the South Kensington station for our brief ride up to Leicester Square and the Leicester Square Theatre. THIS IS A FREE, MANDATORY cineTREK™... one of the perks that come as part of your support package from FIE.


What to expect!? Well, of course, fun! One of the actors, classically trained, will be drunk as a skunk.  But also, parody. Contemporary parody of a classic play by William Shakespeare. Parody is a complex genre--in order to GET IT, you have to be at least vaguely familiar with the original.  Whilst I don't expect you to read THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, I do want you to read about the play and its synopsis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Merchant_of_Venice

19 May, 2018 | Saturday


It's a glorious Saturday morning in London. Your schedule states that we will gather just round the corner of your flat at at Manson Place at 10am sharp for the beginning of our bus tour of London.  I, Professor Nericcio, will be coming along for the ride/tour fun.  I will be outside your flat at around 9:55am, just a tad early to make sure we all make it onto our tour bus--do please try to be on time.

After the tour, we will head on over to Parliament, for...









What is "Parliament"--and what does architecture and interior design have to do with power, history, empire, and identity.  It turns out the second question is answered by the first as we tour the Palace at Westminster, the seat of power for the United Kingdom, and the symbol, and working engine, for the empire that was and is England, post-Brexit and all.  As we tour today, cast your attentive, curious, keen eyes on everything around you. Of course, we will listen to our guide, but even more important will be your attempt, like a spy or surreptitious cultural anthropologist, to catalogue in your minds eye details of what you see. Your syllabus (which you should, now, carefully read) speaks of a need to keep an "I/eye on London"--what it means is that as important as it is to see what unfolds around you, even more important is to take a step back from yourself and ask how it is the things you see impact the way you think, the way you are. In short, the eye and the "I" are intimately connected, and the institution you are walking through acts upon both the organ of the I and the psyche of the self.

Consider this. We are "Americans," most of us, and yet a fair number of our group is dashing off to experience a ceremony (a wedding) that is a visual spectacle reinforcing the power of a monarchy our country fought grand wars to break away from. And yet still, princesses and princes, parades, costumes, and spectacle, beckon to our eyes and our "I," speaking a secret powerful language we cannot resist. 

This is NOT a day to dress especially poorly nor to bring any bags, etc. Security is tight and anything you bring with you will merely delay us as we pass through inspection! The Houses of Parliament at Westminster are arguably the incubator for democracy as we know it in the West.  Watch here for a recent debate during Prime Minister's Questions
20 May, 2018 | Sunday


A day to rest, shop for good food (Little Waitrose is really near your flat, as is a Tesco Express, wander, and get oriented--no scheduled events today. Be sure to make your way to Hyde Park--a great escape from the hustle and bustle of London.  If you are a runner, make your way to Holland Park, a mini-forest in the heart of London!
21 May, 2018 | Monday



It is 10am in the morning and I appear on your 123 Queens Gate doorstep to lead you to a free cineTREK (the best kind)--a visit to the most remarkable design museum on the face of the planet, The Victoria and Albert Museum. Design, Technology, Architecture, and Fashion are the name of the game here--their focus on "decorative arts and design" leads them to a provocative range of curatorial choices... If you are interested in marketing, product design, fabrics, fashion, packaging etc, then the V&A will be a dreamland of discovery.  Once we get to the museum, we will position ourselves to join the free one-hour tour of the museum that begins in the main lobby at 10:30am. 


What to write for your cineTREK blog posting: 1}. Wander the worlds contained within the walls of the V&A and find two specific artifacts that have a direct connection to your major, your personal interests, or even, a direct connection what you perceive to be your specific intellectual superpower (don't tell me you don't have any, that's just the bad part of your psyche whispering cruelties in your ear--tell it to "Shut up."). Carefully frame two photographs each, at least, of these artifacts and author a 500 word piece that ponders your relationship to the pieces, and their relation to each other!



cineTREK™ 4 @ BFI--the British Film Institute

Imagine some mad fusion of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (the Oscars), the Smithsonian Institute, and a Hipster pub/restaurant (with cool indy booksellers outfront by the Thames on the Southbank) and you begin to conjure an image of BFI Southbank, the headquarters of the British Film Institute. 
Today we venture out from your house at Hyde Park Gate at 7pm for a special screening / discussion of WAITING FOR GUFFMAN. From the promo: "Mark Kermode Live in 4D at the BFI. Join Mark Kermode and director Sam Mendes as they discuss Waiting for Guffman, a rarely seen comedy from the This Is Spinal Tap team."  Kermode is a note cinema critic, whilst Mendes is the famed director of American Beauty, Skyfall, Revolutionary Road, & The Road to Perdition (most recently he has been working on Penny Dreadful).

The BFI hosts these kinds of cinema discussions all the time--but I have to warn you, this cineTREK may only be of interest to true lovers of comedy and film... screen the trailer for WAITING FOR GUFFMAN here and make sure it is your cup of tea as this event is not cheap!  


WAITING FOR GUFFMAN is an odd film--it is a parody of a documentary, and in some senses, a mockumentary. But what exactly it is parodying and/or mocking is for you determine. I see it as a breakthrough, watershed production--in it you can see the styles and techniques that will come to be common in shows like THE OFFICE, and PARKS AND RECREATION.


As of a few minutes ago there were plenty of tickets but you never know with BFI--so if you are unsure go ahead and book online with the student concession.  It is not cheap, but it's not cheap to protect the history of cinema in a nation where some of film's greatest innovators come from--think Alfred Hitchcock, Michael Powell, Christopher Nolan, and Sam Mendes, himself, just to name a few. NOTE: going to the movies here in the UK, in some places like BFI, is like going to theatre, with reserved seating.  So if you plan on just joining us for the ride tomorrow night, there may not be tickets left at the box office--there should be, but you never know!

Two choices for your cineTREK blog posting: 1}. a close critical analysis of what you view to be the most significant moment in the film--with specific evidence to back your contention up OR ...  2}. A first-person commentary wherein you juxtapose your experience as a moviegoer in the U.S. with your experience here in the UK, using your BFI trip as your point of departure. Due to be posted on your blogger site by Sunday, June 12 at midnight.

Here, again, is the ticket link.  The film begins at 8:30, but we are leaving at 7:00pm in order to prowl the Southbank a little bit before the show. BFI has a cool outdoor pub, great for people-watching; and a posh indoors bistro, great for pondering deep thoughts about cinema before the show.  If you go there on your own, be sure to check in with me at the theatre--I will be sitting in seat, Centre-block D-18.



22 May, 2018 | Tuesday



It is 9am! And you are up early to head over to Foundation House and to the Vivienne Westwood room for our first and last formal class of the semester. Please enter the room having carefully read the selections by Berger, Dubord, Barthes, as well as the brief pieces on cultural anthropology. Class will run from 9am sharp to 9:50am.



At 10am, also in the Vivienne Westwood room (who is she? go here), is your first British Life and Culture class with the one and only John Makey. BLC will run from 10am to 12noon.




22 May, 2018 | Tuesday


It is 9am! And you are up early to head over to Foundation House and to the Vivienne Westwood room for our first and last formal class of the semester. Please enter the room having carefully read the selections by Berger, Dubord, Barthes, as well as the brief pieces on cultural anthropology. Class will run from 9am sharp to 9:50am.


At 10am, also in the Vivienne Westwood room (who is she? go here), is your first British Life and Culture class with the one and only John Makey. BLC will run from 10am to 12noon.

23 May 2018, Wednesday




Once again it is morning, this time 9:40am, and I am once again on your doorstep at 123 Queen's Gate malingering as I wait for you to appear. We will leave promptly at that time for the MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, your next-door neighbor institution, for cineTREK™ 5!  What, you ask, does a Museum of Natural History have to do with London Eyes or the "I"?  Consider this--as one of London's oldest curatorial establishment, it was the Museum of Natural History (read a brief history here) that invented the idea of the contemporary museum and many of the things they do in fashioning exhibits impacts on museums and galleries across the world. In other words, the grandfather of museum and museum-culture, through a kind of prestige-gravity impacts the way other media forms frame or capture "knowledge." I would argue that Instagram, for instance, with its convention of positioning image over caption, owes more to museums like the Museum of Natural History, than say to "telegrams" where the medium stole its name. 

This is a free-form exhibition/cineTREK, I will say a little bit once we get in the doors, but then let you get wander in the immensity of its collections. If you choose to write about this outing, focus on an exhibit or pair of exhibits that connect somehow to your field of interests/curiosity. Don't publish your blogger piece without pictures drawn from your visit.  You can end your visit to the museum by 11:40am in order to grab lunch and prepare for your afternoon class with Professor Makey.




1:30pm to 3pm

CLASS @ FIE with Professor John Makey --Class on Sustainability in the BEATRIX POTTER ROOM!





3-5:30 Field Trip to British Museum

We will meet up wherever Professor Makey tells us to as we venture off to the London barrio called Bloomsbury--noted lair of Virginia Woolf, and other talented Modernist writers and artists. Whilst this field-trip is a part of your British Life and Culture class, I want to also give you the opportunity to double dip and blog about some aspect of this adventure as well.  This particular writing assignment requires a little research and imagination. First I want you to prowl around the British Museum and find an artifact (1 or 2 is fine) that really moves you or speaks to you. Photograph both the artifact and the didactic, the information card that tells you about this object.

Your writing assignment will be to come up with the writing of a better didactic.  Using outside research (for the love of god use something with MORE depth/editorial edge than wikipedia), complose a replacement didactic worthy of placement in the British Museum.  Deadline for this blog posting? Monday, May 28, 2018, midnight.



24 May, Thursday

10:00am- 12:00noon
Class on Parliament, Politics and Monarchy
Beatrix Potter Room
John Makey

13:00 - 16:00
Co-curricular Activity to the Tower of London
John Makey will tell you where to gather for this outing.



It is now Thursday night and I hop up to your stoop in front of 123 Queen's Gate to see if there are any cool lovers of French culture and cinema in your flats!  Your apartments are located a hop, skip, and jump away from the center of Francophilia-ville in London--The French Embassy, French schools, French bookstores, and an institute dedicated to French culture are closer to you than FIE is: Ciné Lumière!

Tonight's movie is NOT for the faint at heart as advance word on Coralie Forgeat's REVENGE speaks of a "strikingly hypnotic thriller." Peter Foy, in Criminal Element says this of Forgeat's debut:

Revenge isn’t a film for everyone. It’s unabashedly gory, and those that value more subtle conjectures in cinema won’t be finding this particularly rich. What it is, however, is a well-meaning and unpretentious throwback film that marks the debut for a remarkable new filmmaking talent. Similar to what fellow French filmmaker Julia Ducournau did in her debut film, Raw, Fargeat has applied arthouse features to a well-worn genre format and turned out a piece that’s far deeper than its blood-soaked surface might suggest. Here’s hoping that her craft will only evolve from here, because if rape-revenge films are more relevant than ever right now, then female directors are even more so.

The movie starts at 9pm so I will be at your door at 8:40pm as it is so close to your house! Anyone 25 years old or younger pays only £5 so the only one SOL is yours truly! I don't know if tickets will sell out so drop by the box office and save yourself the online fees.  Or click here.

What to write about? You are free to pursue your own interests here, but if your review does not show you have read at least two pieces by Anthony Lane, (this piece on Soderbergh's UNSANE is particularly arch and apt) and have incorporated some of his cinema-sophistication, it might not go so great for thee!  So when I say read, I mean REALLY read, to the point where you become a kind of Lane-mimic, employing his essay-structure but only with YOUR ideas, YOUR vision. This is due Sunday, June 4th, at midnight. At a loss for how to frame/support your view of Forgeat's instant classic? Go on the internets and read and then incorporate (attributing not by footnote by by hyperlink) material from interviews with Forgeat or articles about Forgeat all over the interwebs (and your private Facebook London Rocks site).
25 May, Friday


What a glorious day! Courtesy of FIE and Professor Makey we will be riding a train to the heart and soul of English University Culture: OXFORD UNIVERSITY (Fans of Cambridge University relax--they are pretty damn good also).

OK, here are the logistics! We leave your front steps at 123 Queensgate at 8:30am sharp for our brief ride over to Paddington Station.  From there we will dash from the Underground to the Train station proper to find our carriage to Oxford, England!  Save for lunch, where you are on your own, this entire outing won't cost you and extra penny!


During our tour of Oxford, the every-handy Professor Makey has arranged for a visit to the Great Hall @ Christ Church's College--where the one and only Harry Potter was filmed. More on that info here.


What to write about? What not too--one of the more engaging pieces you might write would take one of the chapters from Guy Dubord's SOCIETY OF THE SPECTACLE and twist/adapt it into a piece probing the differences and similarities between US universitities and Oxford. Oh, and be sure NOT to have your pieces for my class mirror (repeat, auto-plagiarize) anything you might be authoring in a vignette for Professor Makey!  You can do it! Due at midnight Thursday, June 7 @ midnight.
26 May, 2018  | Saturday


Enjoy your weekend OFF!
27 May, 2018 | Sunday


Enjoy your day off! We hit it hard again next week!


Last MINUTE cineTREK



Last minute cineTREK today! I am bored to tears in my flat from having worked all day so I am going to treat myself to a screening of Wes Anderson's ISLE OF DOGS at the Prince Charles Theatre --right next to the Leicester Theatre where we saw Shitfaced Shakespeare. No meet up/rendevous as I am walking there, just say hi to me at the theatre after the show--I will stand where I stood and chatted with you briefly after the Merchant of Venice... 6:15pm show
28 May, 2018 | Monday





It is a brilliant Monday morning at 9:15am, as we meet on the steps of 123 Queen's Gate for our ride out to Blackfriars station on the Circle or District lines. Our mission? The amazing Tate Modern, a museum we will visit today, but one surely you will return to.  It is the Eye of Eyes, the artistic epicenter of Modern and contemporary art (not the same thing) for the planet.  We will try to brave the crowds for a quick dash to their tower with its magnificent views (and voyeuristic treats), then move on to a brief tour of some of my favorite pieces, and then we will commence with the wandering.

Folks who blog about this cineTREK™ should select TWO works of art that, to your eye, and your mind, contradict each other--you are welcome to bring outside research materials to assist you but they must come from peer-reviewed, scholarly sources on JSTOR or Project Muse and be properly cited (MLA or Chicago or APA, your choice)--some idea you pilfer from wikipedia or a bright 7nth grader essay you found online (don't smirk, it happens) should be discarded as beneath you.  If you don't want to bring two works of art, two artists, into conflict, you are also welcome to write about a work you stumble across in the Tate Modern in any way you see fit.  In either case, do please be sure to include a picture of the work you are talking about, and its artist, in your blog posting. Deadline: Friday, June 8, 2018 at midnight.





Fringe Theatre at the ARCOLA with a DH Lawrence play! Grab your ticket now as they will sell out soon! It is a long journey, so we will leave the steps of your flat at 6:30pm for the ride out to Dalston Junction.

https://www.arcolatheatre.com/event/the-daughter-in-law/

You have one of three challenges to perform should you write about this outing: 1. Contrast the setting/locale/vibe of the Arcola Theatre with that of the Leicester Theatre (where we went to see The Merchant of Venice).  Stay away from unsubstantiated generalizations and focus on specific differences you catalogue--including information on locale, actors, lighting, architecture, what have you. OR 2. Find a review of the show online and dispute some of its conclusions. OR 3. Do some online sleuthing about one of the actors and write up a piece on how this production factors in their career development.
29 May, 2018 | Tuesday

11:00 - 13:00
Class on Multiculturalism Oscar Wilde Room
John Makey


Co-curricular Activity to Brick Lane + the Mithraeum
John Makey





We are back out to the Cine Lumiere for a London premiere of the the Double Lover (Amant double). We will leave the steps of your flat at 8:20 as the show starts at 8:40pm. Buy tickets soon as it is sure to sell out! I can't guarantee there will be less gore than in REVENGE, but I think it's safe to say that Françoise Ozon's film moves in a different direction than Coralie Forgeat! From the promo:
Marine Vacth (Jeune et Jolie) plays Chloé, a young woman who falls in love with her psychoanalyst, Paul (Jérémie Renier). When they decide to move in together, everything seems perfect, until a series of discoveries lead her to suspect that he may be living a double life. A whirlwind of heightened senses and amped-up drama, François Ozon’s Amant Double is a filthy and flamboyant thriller.
The Director, Françoise Ozon, will be at the screening--be sure to dress nicely and leave the fluffy slippers at home! ;-)




REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW

Just a reminder...
1. Our PUBLIC facebook page where I will post group pictures and you can share with familia/friends/etc

2. Our PRIVATE GROUP page where I post most of the time

3. Our course description for Eye/I on London which lays down the working rules/laws of the class for Anth 439 CompLit 470 Engl 493 and MALAS 600A

5. Where you post your writing assignments

30 May, 2018 | Wednesday

10:00 - 12 :00 Mid-semester test + Class on UK media and preparation for newspaper exercise Oscar Wilde Room | John Makey


13.00 Depart for Kew Gardens Co-curricular Activity |
John Makey




click to enlarge

I have no idea when you will be leaving from Kew Gardens back into the city, but I will leave the outside of your flat at 5:20 to make our way out to BFI for the 6:10 screening of this classic film.  If you want to meet me out there, make sure to let me know you are at the theatre so I can write your name down on the roster.

One of the things the British Film Institute charges itself with is curating and maintaining a catalogue of screenings devoted to world cinema--so that it not only attends to British film but film produced all over the planet; in this way, BFI emerges as a self-appointed guardian of London I's/Eyes! Tonight, film curator Geoff Edwards hosts and introduces a screening of Claude Sautet's criminal classic from 1960 CLASSE TOUS RISQUES--tickets and more on the film here.  Here's more on the film from BFI:

"Written by José Giovanni (Le Trou, Le Deuxième souffle), Sautet’s superb crime drama follows a fugitive gangster (Ventura), sentenced to death in Italy, who heads to France to settle some scores and carry out one last job that will enable him to retire. A taut, tense tale of suspicion, loyalty and betrayal, it transcends thriller conventions thanks to Sautet’s attention to telling details."

If you write about tonight, your challenge will be to find something written about the film online with which you DISAGREE.  Your 500 word challenge will be to attack the position of the other writer and propose, instead, your own reading/interpretation in its place.  Be sure to link/include what you find online that you are challenging.

31 May, 2018 | Thursday
12:00 - 14:00
Class on London as a Global City Oscar Wilde Room
John Makey

After your British Life and Culture class we will depart for Co-curricular Activity to Southall, including a Sikh gurdwara.






FIE Summer Reception
Thursday 31st May | 6pm-8pm

Join us for free dinner and drinks at our summer reception next week! Weather permitting, we'll be outside on the beautiful roof terrace at Baden Powell House. This is a wonderful chance to relax and meet fellow FIE students from: College of Charleston | College of Saint Benedict & Saint John’s University | Drexel University | Elon University |  Knox College | Lawrence University | Purdue University | San Diego State University | The Citadel Military College of South Carolina | University of Florida | University Of Wisconsin | Vanderbilt University

1 June 2018 | Friday



Ok, it's Friday morning, and not that early, we will leave the steps of your flat, 123 Queen's Gate, at 10:40am SHARP for the ride over to the Shakespeare's Globe for our Shakespeare tour--this is a BLC required field trip tied intimately to our HAMLET production we will be seeing on the weekend! So the event begins with an 11:30am Globe Theatre workshop... and, later this same afternoon...



Later that day, we make our way out for a 2pm Museum of London BLC tour!

NOTE: Media critique due date.
2 June 2018 | Saturday
 

Tomorrow morning's cineTREK looks good so far--if the weather plays nice (check this page tomorrow morning, Saturday, for confirmation around 10am). We will leave the steps of your flat at 10:45 for our ride to northeast London.  Primrose Hill offers some of the most beautiful panoramic views of all London and is a destination site in the North of London for anyone with a love affair for this magic city. 
 


From Primrose Hill we will prowl the backstreets of the Chalk Farm barrio of London, working our ways via canal to Camden Town.  In Camden Town I will let you roam free in the greatest alternative/artsy/edge-city shopping cluster in all London. I will give you two hours or so of freedom there before we end the day at the Holly Bush--my favorite "hidden" pub in Hampstead. Camden Town was the epicenter of the worldwide Punk movement. Punks were more than youths acting out--punk redefined music, aesthetics, and politics in the years after the Vietnam War. Camden remains a site suffused with alternative cultures/communities.

 
Our final cineTREK of the day is to the Holly Bush pub--I always add at least one pub outing to London Rocks as pub culture is a key part of being a Londoner. A pub is not, repeat, is not merely "a bar." Pub is short for Public House, and, in essence, pub culture plays a fundamental role sustaining, maintaining, and forwarding both progressive and conservative elements of British culture.  Our venture today will be to the Holly Bush in Hampstead, just north of Primrose Hill. Like all cineTREKs, our pub trip at the end is optional, so no worries if you want to stay longer in Camden. Your call! If you choose to write about the Holly Bush, please fill the blanks and post your writing by Sunday, June 10, 2018 @ midnight:

A Pub is Not a Bar: [you invent the subtitle]

Our recent cineTREK out to the Holly Bush in Hampstead resulted in a storm of revelations, including _____________________, ___________,
and __________________. As I don't have the time or space to focus on all three, I will turn my critical attention to ______________________.

....complete the prompt as you see fit...

3 June 2018 | Sunday

More to come, but will have three cineTREKs™ today:

   
Anglican Church Services at St. Paul's



It can be argued that all spectacle, all theater, all performance, began when clusters of our peculiar species, mostly hairless primates, took to worshipping together.  In a sense then, all performed art owes a debt to religious spectacle.  That's the idea today as we venture out to St. Paul's Cathedral for a choral mass. You need not be Christian to attend, though, of course, everyone is welcome to as well--St. Paul's is the "Vatican" of the Anglican faith, the branch of the Catholic church when King Henry VIII took to divorcing (and beheading) wives with all the alacrity of, dare I say it, the Donald!

We will leave at 10:10 sharp from the steps of Hyde Park Gate for the ride out to St. Paul's and the 11:30am services--we are leaving a bit early to get a good seat near the choir and to allow you, in groups, saving each other's seats, to get a chance to explore the grandest "theatre" of spirituality this side of the Vatican.

Do please dress appropriately for this event as we are attending a mass.

If you choose to write about this outing on the blog--focus on the idea of spectacle.  A-level grades will go to writers who work to incorporate ideas/findings you have come across in Barthes, Berger, or DuBord that you have adapted.  Writing due date: Sunday, June 10, at 6pm.

The Tate Britain

2. Boat trip to and tour of the Tate Britain (including the Freud/Bacon show)... This cineTREK may be a tad expensive as we have to pay the £8+ for the boat from the Tate Modern to the the Tate Britain + the admission for the Freud/Bacon show. For those of you who took the poll online on our Facebook group page, the entire trip will be free.  Of course all London Rocks-heads are welcome to come along for the ride!

After our visit to St. Paul's, we will jump into the Thames--jump onto a boat in the Thames--for a quick River ferry journey over to the staid, older cousing of the Tate Modern, the Tate Britain, "Home of British Art from 1500 to the Present Day!"

During the day today take a picture that shows you have read the following piece by Susan Sontag:
I ask that you read this brief excerpt from Susan Sontag's ON PHOTOGRAPHY.  Your blog posting will be a piece of writing that shares the photo but also shows you did some careful thinking about Sontag's essay! Due Monday, June 11nth @ 6pm.

You are also welcome to write a piece focused on two pieces of art in the Tate Britain that, for you, represent two extremes in theme, composition, form, or focus.



What a glorious day--you spend the morning @ St. Paul's and early afternoon at the Tate Britain and then, in the evening, we are off to the heart of London, the Southbank, for the Globe Theatre, a magnificent recreation of the original globe that Bill "the Bard" Shakespeare built and made infamous with his plays that make Black Mirror look like child's play. Tonight, we experience HAMLET at 6:30pm.  I will be outside your flat at 5:15 (note change), sharp, to rendevous and squire you via the underground to the house that Shakespeare built.  NOTE THAT THIS IS ONE OF OUR FEW REQUIRED CINETREKS as FIE has footed the bill so that half of us can sit and half of us can stand as "groundlings"--more on this to follow. At the interval (we call it intermission) we will trade seats and those who have suffered will sit and those that have sat will suffer!

Blog prompt: must be posted by Sunday June 10, at midnight.

Directed by and starring ____________________, Shakespeare's Globe's staging of Hamlet, asks much of the average theatre-goer: 1. ____________; 2._____________________; and
3. ___________________________. The paragraphs that follow will focus on ______
___________________________________
______________________. In the end, it will become apparent that _________________drove
this particular production and that _____________________ ... {complete your essay}
4 June 2018 | Monday


Wake up sleepyheads! It's time for another FREE cineTREK as we bounce off from the steps of Paul--the cafe just to the left of the North entrance of South Kensington Tube Station at 9:30am (*!) for a quick tour of the National Gallery--the UK's most comprehensive collection of painting and fine art.  Rivaled only by the Lourve in Paris, the National Gallery promises to knock your eyes out.  As you have a 12 noon class with Professor Makey, ours will be a quick class/tour of the museum, with me taking you to two or three of my favorite works and then me letting you dash off to find a painting/painter whose work you feel captures a particular emotion. Here is your writing prompt, due posted online by Monday, June 11, 2018 at midnight.  In the prompt below, fill in the blanks with your content and then finish the writing as you see fit.

[insert your words here] at the National Gallery, London: [insert a catchy subtitle here]

Famously, the French scientist and philosopher Pascal wrote that "the heart has its reason that Reason cannot know."  What he meant by that was that the emotions have a language, a manner, a 'melody' maybe, that is at odds with the cold calculations of mathematics and logic. Whilst I was walking the corridors of the National Gallery, I was drawn instantly to __________________, a painting/sculpture by ___________________ who practiced his fine alchemy of art in ________[country]________________.

[paste picture of the work of art you yourself take
at the gallery here ]

At once, in the painting/sculpture, one sees [artist's name] attempt to ________________ the viewer--achieving what amounts to ____________________________________.

But let's look closer...

[insert detail/closeup from the painting/sculpture]

Ok, you write the rest!

*! I will be at Paul from 8:40 to 9:25 for anyone who wants to discuss the Hamlet play!






12noon to 3pm (note correction of end-time!)
Vignettes assignment due date and class on Britain and Europe --> Alfred Hitchcock Room, John Makey






Led by Graduate Student Sara Avery

Borough Market: “Not only is it UK's best-known — it's one of the most famous food markets in the world.” It has existed for more than 1000 years in some shape or form and has been strategically positioned across London Bridge so that city folk had an opportunity to cross over, using what used to be the only bridge that went over the Thames. Through the medieval market, the 16th and 17th centuries, death and rebirth, the wholesale era, and the renaissance, Borough Market has gone through major cultural shifts that adapts to London’s fast-paced culture. “It's survived for so many centuries because a 1754 Act of Parliament ruled that it would remain "an estate for the use and benefit" of the local community ‘forever.’” 

On the topic of sustainability, “there's a strong commitment to the environment: as much as possible is recycled, rainwater is collected to feed the plants, and low-energy lighting is used.” 

Additionally, today was the one year anniversary of the terrorist attack that took place on London Bridge and Borough Market. This reshaped the way Londoners view Borough Market and it now has a new important meaning on top of the history of London. The vehicle ramming on London Bridge and the stabbing throughout Borough Market killed 8 people and injured 48. This gave new meaning to the Market and it has become such an important spectacle in the shaping of society. 

Some quick research to bring you up to speed

5 June 2018 | Tuesday

11:00 - 13:00
Final class and exam Vivienne Westwood Room John Makey







Ok! It is 1pm and we meet in the Gloucester Road Tube Station Lobby so as to depart on our East End Co-curricular Activity with a stop at Olympic Park and a brief look at some awesome #streetart.  Our adventure ends with a brewery tour and then pizza at the Crate Brewery, with Professors John Makey & William Nericcio

And note that it
is time for us to bid our stalwart Professor, my partner in crime, John Makey off with a proper sendoff as we celebrate the end of the classroom portion of British Life and Culture--only the Hampton Court tour tomorrow forms part of your BLC curriculum.



Why Crate Brewery & Pizzeria!? Think about this: without beer, the English empire would have never ascended to the place it holds in planetary history--if you don't believe the hype, click here and here. And though our home of San Diego can now rightly claim the mantle of Best Brewing City in the Solar System, there is something to be said about taking a tour of a brewing facility here in London, as the American craft beer explosion alters the terrain of British breweries!



Write a blog-posting that compares the craft beer culture of San Diego with that which you encounter on this tour--if you are not up on our San Diego craft beer renaissance, read up on it online. Due Monday June 11, 2018 at midnight.                           
6 June 2018 | Wednesday





It is a wonderful Wednesday morning and we brave the wilds of London for a BLC required trip out to Hampton Court.  We will meet at your flat stairs at 9:00am sharp for the long tube ride to Wimbledon--and then our short overground train out to Hampton. FIE has thoughtfully included admission to the infamous Hampton Court Maze along with admission to the palace. As I am impersonating John Makey today, I may give a couple of brief presentations on the site, but odds are I may just let you run free to prowl the grounds--background info on Hampton Court is here.  Note, there are no time requirements for your stay today, so you are free to leave as early as 11:30 as I understand some of you are traveling.


Writing prompt: 1]. Attack, Defend, Warp, or Reshape the following proposition in 500 words or less: "Hampton Court Palace is a propaganda weapon for the British ruling class."  OR 2]. Design your own writing prompt. Writing must be posted online by midnight, Wednesday June 13, 2018.



Tonight is a night of wet wonder as we head out to UDDERBELLY / UNDERBELLY for SOAP!!! We will meet just outside the main entrance of Underbelly at 7pm sharp as I have to pick up the tickets that FIE purchased at 'will call'--don't be late as I might not be able to find you to get you your ticket!!!! 

HOW TO GET THERE? Take the tube to Embankment, cross the Thames and go to your LEFT--the opposite of where we would go for the British Film Institute. See the map here. What the critics are saying:
Water, water everywhere as the slick, wet, headliner German Circus SOAP, splashes into The Spiegeltent at Underbelly Festival Southbank until Saturday 16 June 2018.

Hot, wet, funny and very sexy, SOAP is a breath-taking fusion of world-class acrobatics and water – bath time will never be the same again!to create a splash-filled and riotously fun new spectacular; as the seriously crazy and multi-talented international cast splish-splash through aerial, trapeze, juggling, mop ballets and a spectacular rainy finale – in, on, above and around bathtubs filled with….water! Plus SOAP‘s silly slippery comedy, including their cheeky female clown.

SOAP’s live music and electric soundtrack includes: The Doors, Sia, Tool, Gnarls Barkley, Goldfrapp, Beethoven, Mozart and The Beatles – and singing live, is the Soap Opera Diva (Jennifer Lindshield – Carnegie Hall, NYC) – taking singing in the bath to a whole new level!


Writing Prompt, Due Tuesday, June 12 at midnight.

Soap @ Udderbelly: {Fill in your own subtitle}

Picture a circus and what do you see? Elephants? Clowns? Trapeze Artists? Now picture a circus obsessed with water, filled with moisture, slippery with H20, and you begin to get a sense of Soap.  Soap, conceived and choreographed by Markus Pabst and Maximillian Rambaek, opens with _____________________________ and closes with _______________________________. Between these two acts are sandwiched _________________________________________ ... complete the essay...






A Special cineTREK led by MALAS Graduate Student, Ismael Pohlert to the Warner Brothers Studio Tour for Harry Potter. Here's Ismael's description: "The tour is an immersing experience that will trigger and enhance our nostalgic feelings of childhood. The studio tour allows us to enter the world of Harry Potter through the eyes of its directors, as well as the author. JK Rowling wrote the HarryPotter books in the 90’s and sparked a magical following. The live sets, themed foods/drinks, and interactive media will allow our dreams to become reality and to understand how these "dreams" are the result of hard, collaborative work of artists, set-designers, lighting specialists, actors, and more. The cineTREK, finally invites us to experience the magic of the Harry Potter universe and be engulfed in an illusive spectacle."
7 June 2018 | Thursday

Owing to a scheduling mistake (and a miscommunication between FIE and myself), I have planned TWO cineTREKs for the same time tonight!!!



A night of wonder for you who dig design, fashion, aesthetics, marketing, celebrity, and creativity.  We are off to see a screening of a new documentary McQUEEN--a biopic on the life and times and zeitgeist that was Alexander McQueen--few tickets are left so go for it now if you have a hankering.  Dress well, as the Director, Ian Bonhôte, and other members of the production crew and friends of Alexander McQueen will be there for the presentation. I cannot attend this presentation owing to the time conflict with SOAP, but if you elect to go please send me a selfie of you at the event and a snapshot of your ticket.

Writing prompt: 1} What function does fashion have for culture? Using the readings of John Berger (as in weaving in direct quotes from his essays that are required reading for this class) connect some aspect of your screening to author a piece on fashion, culture, and, of course: Film.  It's a cool thing when one medium (in this case cinema) looks at another (high fashion).   OR 2} Probe the psychology of Alexander McQueen; is there a connection between his art, his design, and his life pathway?

Ticket Link






Tonight is a night of wet wonder as we head out to UDDERBELLY / UNDERBELLY for SOAP!!! We will meet just outside the main entrance of Underbelly at 7pm sharp as I have to pick up the tickets that FIE purchased at 'will call'--don't be late as I might not be able to find you to get you your ticket!!!! 

HOW TO GET THERE? Take the tube to Embankment, cross the Thames and go to your right!!!!--the opposite of where we would go for the British Film Institute. See the map here. What the critics are saying:
Water, water everywhere as the slick, wet, headliner German Circus SOAP, splashes into The Spiegeltent at Underbelly Festival Southbank until Saturday 16 June 2018.

Hot, wet, funny and very sexy, SOAP is a breath-taking fusion of world-class acrobatics and water – bath time will never be the same again!to create a splash-filled and riotously fun new spectacular; as the seriously crazy and multi-talented international cast splish-splash through aerial, trapeze, juggling, mop ballets and a spectacular rainy finale – in, on, above and around bathtubs filled with….water! Plus SOAP‘s silly slippery comedy, including their cheeky female clown.

SOAP’s live music and electric soundtrack includes: The Doors, Sia, Tool, Gnarls Barkley, Goldfrapp, Beethoven, Mozart and The Beatles – and singing live, is the Soap Opera Diva (Jennifer Lindshield – Carnegie Hall, NYC) – taking singing in the bath to a whole new level!


Writing Prompt, Due Tuesday, June 12 at midnight.

Soap @ Udderbelly: {Fill in your own subtitle}

Picture a circus and what do you see? Elephants? Clowns? Trapeze Artists? Now picture a circus obsessed with water, filled with moisture, slippery with H20, and you begin to get a sense of Soap.  Soap, conceived and choreographed by Markus Pabst and Maximillian Rambaek, opens with _____________________________ and closes with _______________________________. Between these two acts are sandwiched _________________________________________ ... complete the essay...
8 June 2018 | Friday

Free Day! Enjoy your travels/wandering



For those of you who stay in London... it's



We wake up bright and early and leave the steps of your flat at 123 Queen's Gate at 9:30 am for our walk up to Kensington High Street to London's New Design Museum for their Hope to Nope Exhibition (£8.20 for students)

With Street Art, Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook, the world has never been so immersed in pictures--visual cultural studies evolves alongside this photographic tsunami at a breakneck pace.  We will prowl the museum, but key in on this particular exhibition as it summarizes, in a real way, what our London Eye/I course has been aiming to communicate/achieve.

An added plus? The museum is right in front of my favorite park in London: Holland Park!!!  Wait till you see their playground! Epic!

Writing Prompt--compare/contrast ANY specific piece/work/artifact you see at the museum with a piece of street art/graffiti you find on the streets of London.  Be sure to document the comparison with your own photography. 






You asked for it, you got it, A FREE cineTREK--every Friday, the Royal College of Music sponsors a free concert at St. Mary Abbot's Church (located across the street from Wholefoods!).  Those of you who wish, can walk with me from the Design Museum or just meet there.  Be sure to say hi to me so that I can note your
attendance.

If you choose to write anything about this experience be sure to post it
by Wednesday, June 13, 2018 by midnight.

click to enlarge

9 June 2018 | Saturday

Free Day! Enjoy your travels/wandering

10 June 2018 | Sunday

Free Day! Enjoy your travels/wandering






It is Sunday at 1:40 that we bounce from your doorstep at 123 Queen's Gate to hop onto our District/Circle Line underground for our last trip out to BFI, the British Film Institute. Today, at 2:30pm (in case you want to meet us in the theatre), we sample Charles Vidor's amazing collaboration with Glenn Ford and Rita Hayworth, GILDA. Where AMANT DOUBLE featured a bizarre psycho-sexual Menage-a-trois, so too does Gilda--amazingly daring for its time.  Keep your eye on the special relationship between its three main players.  Listen attentively to the dialogue as well--what sounds cheezy and witty on the surface masks a deep meditation on longing, identity, deception, and desire.

For your writing prompt, finish the following sentence, following up with 500 words of brilliance!

Charles Vidor's GILDA introduces us to a world of ___________________ and _________________. Most striking of all are the scenes that focus on __________________________.  Let me walk you through a couple of my speculations...

11 June 2018 | Monday

It is Monday, the beginning of our last week here in London, and our cineTREK tonight is one of the best ever (and most expensive!).  Additionally, the play, KILLER JOE, is disturbing, adult, and gripping--with a visceral performance by Orlando Bloom and his company. So, you were warned. Tickets here!  They are going fast.

I don't expect many of you will be joining me owing to the outrageous price of the tickets, but do let me know via email if you are going--in any event, no chauffeur service from the steps of 123 Queen's Gate to the theatre tonight! It is easy to fine Trafalgar Studio's here near the Embankment tube station.

Curious? Find out more about KILLER JOE playwright Tracy Letts--one of the stars of Lady Bird here.

If you choose to write about KILLER JOE, write a 500 word piece that analyzes/contrasts two moments in the production that you view to be definitive/provocative.  Speculate as to playwright Letts motives in authoring this piece and Bloom's rationale for starring in this London production.  Due Wednesday, June 13, 2018 by midnight.

Mon 11 Jun 2018 19:30, aka 7:30pm

Orlando Bloom (The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Hobbit trilogy, the Pirates of the Caribbean series) stars as a cop who moonlights as a killer-for-hire in the multi-award-winning Tracy Letts' blackly comic thriller, Killer Joe. He is joined by Sophie Cookson (Netflix series Gypsy, Kingsman: The Secret Service, Kingsman: The Golden Circle), Adam Gillen (Amadeus, Benidorm), Neve McIntosh (The Replacement, Doctor Who) and Steffan Rhodri (This House, Gavin & Stacey, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I).

The Smith family hatch a plan to murder their estranged matriarch for her insurance money. They hire Joe Cooper, a police detective and part-time contract killer, to do the job. But once he enters their trailer home and comes face to face with their innocent daughter, the plan spirals out of control...

A tense, gut-twisting thriller, Killer Joe, directed by Simon Evans (The Dazzle and Bug at Found111, The Best Man) asks where the moral line is drawn in the fight for survival.

Please note: the production will contain adult themes, nudity, loud gun shots, flashing lights, haze and smoking onstage. 16+ recommended. Latecomers may be admitted at a suitable break, but late admission cannot be guaranteed until the interval.

To book for the captioned performance, please email trafalgarbox@trafalgarentertainment.com to book, putting Captioned Performance in the subject line.

Photo credit: Marc Brenner.

12 June 2018 | Tuesday




It is Tuesday night and we head on out for a night of conversation and comedy to the Camden Comedy Club for a live episode of THE GUILTY FEMINIST!

I will meet you at the theatre as I will be coming from another part of town!

Get your tickets soon here as they will sell-out! £5 is all it costs for some of London's top femme comics and friends! Tickets here. More on Guilty Feminist podcasts and more here.

As for writing, you are open to invent your own angle/thesis/hook, but it should incorporate direct specific references and quotes to what unfolds before us at the Camden Comedy Club. Short turnaround on the deadline as we leave Saturday--Thursday, June 14 @noon.



13 June 2018 | Wednesday

It is 6:30pm and I am once again on your doorstep of 123 Queens Gate to lead you to theatre... this late-breaking cineTREK introduces us to what can be thought of a Theater-Noir! Like Crime Noir and Film Noir, these are dark productions--dark in the sense of bleak, but dark as well in that they burrow into the psyche, into the depths of the soul.  We are walking north of your flat to Notting Hill Gate and the Coronet Printroom's twin productions of Lars Norén's short plays ACT and TERMINAL 3.  Here's the blurb from their web site (tickets are here too, but prepare to spend a long time getting through their system--I actually had to shift from Safari to Firefox to get it to work.):

A double-bill of hard-hitting and deceptively simple short plays from Lars Norén, often considered Sweden’s greatest contemporary writer. Directed by Anthony Neilson (StitchingThe Wonderful World of Dissocia, and most recently The Prudes at Royal Court), one of the most extraordinary – and controversial – dramatists working today.

Reimagined in a near future USA in the aftermath of a second civil war, Act is a prescient interrogation of faith, conscience and atrocity and what is excusable during war. In a hospital examination room, a doctor assesses a female prisoner, accused of being a terrorist and now on hunger strike.

Then, storylines intertwine in Terminal 3 – a young couple await the birth of their first child, while in the same place two people wait to identify the body of their dead son. How does the birth – and death – of a child affect the lives and relationships of the parents?

Lars Norén, playwright, poet and novelist, is often considered to be the greatest living Swedish writer. He’s an influential writer in the dark realist tradition of Scandinavian writing – an heir to August Strindberg, and a precursor to the bleak landscapes of Nordic noir.

14 June 2018 | Thursday

Reminder, all revisions/blog postings are due to be posted and/or emailed to my by noon TODAY!





Anna Deavere Smith is one of America's finest stage and TV actors--catch her today at 2:30 in the Royal Court Theatre! Just go for the show--no no need or time to write about this one!

Drawn from interviews with more than 250 students, parents, teachers and staff caught up in America’s poverty to prison pipeline, Anna Deavere Smith’s Obie-Award-winning solo performance shines a light on a lost generation of American youth and exposes a justice system that pushes youth of colour living in poverty out of the classroom and into prison.

Best known for her role in The West Wing, the award-winning playwright and actor uses her singular brand of theatre to explore issues of community, character, and diversity. In 2012 she was awarded the National Humanities Medal by President Barack Obama who praised her for her talent to ‘open up minds and nourish souls, and help us understand what it means to be human’.

Anna Deavere Smith returns to the Royal Court Theatre’s stage for her first London appearance in over 25 years.



.

It is our last and final day in London and the final cineTREK farewell party of the semester.  First off we will venture from your steps of 123 Queen's Gate for the last time at 6:40pm to arrive at our 7:30pm appointment with the JACK THE RIPPER London Walks tour at Tower Hill--! Note: the tour is £8 with the student concession. 

After the tour, we will gather at the Ten Bells pub--where allegedly Jack used to drink (yikes!)--for a farewell toast.  After that, if you are up for it, we will cap the night and our trip to London with a visit to Gordon's Wine Bar.

15 June 2018 | Friday

Packing Day--bon voyage!

16 June 2018 | Saturday

That's all folks--can you believe it is over?