A very sad and great day all in all, my last day of classes in college, at least for the foreseeable future. I woke up, very late, so late in fact that I only would have had 25 minutes to be in class, so I threw my stuff on, went down to the bus stop to get to the Central line as fast as possible. When I arrived at the stop though, it was not moving and there seemed to be no sign that it would any time soon. So, with that in mind, I rushed down to Portobello road, and hurried toward Notting Hill Gate. This was all grand and everything, but when I did arrive there, I learned to my utter dismay (well perhaps not utter, but dismay all the same) that the central line wasn’t running, meaning I had to go on a very circuitous route to school (literally). I jumped onto the Circle line to King’s Cross, and switched to the Piccadilly, and from there found my self ambling toward school after getting off at Russell Square. I finally arrived in class, 45 minutes late! After I was there, I was happy to be there as always, and it was great to be in advertising as it is definitely the most interesting course, in terms of novelty I have had this term. Anyway, we reviewed a lot and learned how advertising agencies make their money.
After this course, I basically hung out, and bought a Subway sandwich, but that and my drink cost me £9.30 a total rip off!! Food is expensive in London, make no mistake, but you can get by cheaply if you know what you’re doing. Well, after this, I came back to school and they had a little workshop about going home and back to the States. This made me think pretty heavily about things and put me in a sombre mood. As a result I wrote a journal entry in my JasOdin journal that reflected my thoughts on the idea to a large extent. Also included in this entry was my thoughts on this being my last day of classes, so that was all good. I guess it helped with my mood that I was listening to my glorious new Rammstein CD, a true marvel and brilliant opus by my estimation!! Well after basically not getting the work done during this period that I had hoped to, I concluded my little break by going to the Kenyan embassy and retrieving my loverly passport, complete with a shiny new visa stamped in from the High Commission of Kenya. Well, after doing this, I went back to school and started my final course, of college and my education of 17 and a half years or so (give or take a bit). It was quite crazy to be in that situation, but there I was.
Well, the course was basically about the life and times, so to speak of Benjamin Britten, one of England’s 20th century composers. I was always interested to hear more of his works, seeing as he wrote the wonderful Young Person’s Guide to the Symphony, which I owned and loved... still do as well. We listened to a bit of his most famous work, War Requiem, about World War I. We also listened to the cantata we would be listening to that night, called Saint Nicolas. We watched a little video on his life, and it talked about his homosexuality, as well as his desire to be with little boys, but not sexually per se... like Michael Jackson, I don’t think he quite realised his impact or appearance of actions to the outside world. Well, thus concluded my class, and for the last time, here is my report about the concert, which I basically waited for and found myself for the third time walking by Sloan Square to Cadogan Hall, and here is how it went:
7 December 2005: At Cadogan Hall
Tonight we visited Cadogan Hall for the third time since the term began, but this time we were in the gallery, which I feel was a better place to be than before as it gave a far better view of the symphony. They began by playing a piece by Britten called Soirees Musicales which was all orchestral, and I felt it was really quite nice, with good rhythm and melody. Following this piece we listened to several choir pieces, all of which were very church-like, and quite good, especially since most of the mere sung more by children. These pieces included Videte miraculum (or Look, all of you, at the miracle) by Tallis, which was okay; Hymn to the Virgin, by Britten, which was very well performed and a nice song as well, written by Britten when he was 16 years old, amazing! There was also Ave Maria, by Mendelssohn, one of my favourite composers, and finally Zion Hört by Bach, which is always one of the better pieces or so I feel, the title means God listens or hears (I think). After this they played three Christmas tunes, of which two I knew: they played Ding Dong Merrily on high, one of my favourite Christmas songs actually, then they played one I didn’t know called Sand Day Carol, which was actually really very good, so I should try to get it, all about the berries of holly and how they represent Christ’s birth or life... a mix of pagan and Christian tradition quite neat, and they ended the first half with Hark the Harold, which was great to sing along with (as we were encouraged to). After a twenty minute interval, they played a cantata by Britten called St. Nicolas, which was really very good, and I thought fairly well done. I really got the introduction and Nicolas and the Pickled Boys in my head, it was wonderful. They person playing Nicolas sang a bit quickly through his lines, but still was good I thought, and it was a wonderful concert to end with.
After the concert, the prof gave me his CD for this last piece and I recorded it to my computer when I returned home, and it was all good. When I did get home, I called Matt as it was his birthday, and it was great to hear from him. We talked for a while, but it reminds me of the power of the Valknot to talk to him and Marc! Ahh, my blessed Valknot! Anyway, after that, I worked a bit on the computer, and waited for the next day which, is coming up shortly! Almost caught up now!