 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 4. Our Day to Day Calendar http://sdsulondonrocks18.blogspot.co.uk/2018/05/test-test-test-day-to-day-calendar.html 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.  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 4. Our Day to Day Calendar http://sdsulondonrocks18.blogspot.co.uk/2018/05/test-test-test-day-to-day-calendar.html 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:
|
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]  |
| 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 |
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]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
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.
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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:
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| 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.  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.
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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.):
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| 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!
. 
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. 
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| 15
June
2018 | Friday Packing Day--bon voyage!  |
16 June 2018 | Saturday That's all folks--can you believe it is over?  |
