TFC: Monday Madness

six [Mon, 7-Dec]

The day began with our final day of Monday classes: The Network Metaphor and New Renaissance with Don Foresta and our check-in hour with Fred.  It was very suddenly sad once we realized we would never be seeing Fred again (we would be seeing Don the next day) — he was a great contact to have this semester in terms of exploring London, and his British Cultural Studies course was probably my favorite in terms of aligning with my interest in television and expanding my cultural horizons on it.

The afternoon was work-work-work.  It was time to get down to business in the Vassar world as we all tried to complete our finals.  I can happily say I completed my City as Material project to be presented on Tuesday and the first drafts of my papers for the other courses. Woohoo!  All that was left to do was celebrate while taking a well-deserved breather…

And that’s when I encored Monday Madness at Sticky Fingers!  After first going with Madre and having a great time with great food in a great environment, I decided it was precisely where I needed to be on my final Monday night in London, further facilitated by the fact that I am out of food.  It actually sounded so great that Avey and Mike decided to join me — once again, the company made it so enjoyable.  We strolled through our neighborhood to High Street Kensington while chatting about how soon enough these streets would be a distant memory instead of familiar stomping ground.  Upon arriving, we went British with Pimm’s Cocktails to start, followed by a round of burgers (I went with the classic Sticky Fingers Burger…and remembered how much I love red meat; Avey stayed true to her vegetarian roots with a Veggie Burger; Mike went gourmet with the blue cheese and caramelized onion rendition).  And then dessert happened.  We “dared to share” as the menu suggested and tackled the Sticky Sundae.  We also got festive with a round of shots named after Rolling Stones songs: Brown Sugar for me, Stray Cat Blues for Mike, and Jumpin’ Jack Flash for Avey.  In a nut shell: yum, yum, and yum.  I haven’t gone out to dinner with friends in incredibly long, yet another treat aspect of the outing.

We told ourselves we walked it all off on the way home………………….right.  Basically there was nothing else to do but veg out on the couch and let the phenomenon of digestion run its course.  Avey and Mike did some work while we embarked on a Kill Bill Vol. I and II marathon.  I was in a great place with work which worked out well since I could dedicate my full attention as it was my first viewing.  I absolutely loved the films, and the Monday in general!

The Final Countdown

It’s that time of the year again: the magic of the holidays temporarily tarnished with finals.  But this time, “that time of the year” includes something else: leaving London.

Tragically, my camera has broken and can’t be fixed until I’m back in the States and in possession of my warranty.  Honestly, though, there isn’t much else to be taking pictures of, or at least nothing vitally important.  This realization is one of many I’ve been having lately along the same thematic lines of “wow, I’ve really lived London” and “this experience really is drawing to a close.”  This explains why my posts have been tapering off lately; what I’ve been up to is just living life and enjoying doing it in London.  However, a milestone has been reached: the final countdown.  So, I shall document them, if for my own posterity alone.

ten [Thurs, 3-Dec]

After a productive morning of finishing my paper for The Network Metaphor, I headed to Holborn to grab tea/coffee with Megan Hess, a girl I met this summer through NYWICI who is studying in London with Syracuse University, at the Fleet River Bakery.  Chatting with Megan was great, as was the venue: free wifi and an array of real-life Brits gossiping about the grandkids over tea or busy business bees high on caffeine.  I stuck around after our meet-up and got some more work done on my British Cultural Studies paper before meeting Mike at the Holborn Underground at 5:30pm…

We headed east to Bethnal Green and the Victoria & Albert Museum of Childhood for their adult late night.  As we stared at artifacts from childhoods past drinking our complimentary glass of wine, I couldn’t help but be reminded of the crossroads I’ve come to in my life — straddling the line somewhere between adulthood and childhood, the same one as home and here.  In 10 short days I’ll be back to being underage and under the [more direct] care of madre and Vassar.  It’s definitely going to be a strange time of adjustment, but the strangest part thus far has been me negotiating with myself how I feel about it all.  This experience has dually reminded me of how I am growing up and how I still very much love being young.  I guess each phase in life has its own pros and cons…the problem is I just don’t know which phase I’m exactly in at the moment, and it’s interesting to have two of them coordinate with two different countries I have lived in.

Afterward, we emerged at Holborn again instead of directly transferring from the Central to Piccadilly Line to stop for some pub grub at The Prince of Wales (one of the many!).  We showed our London Pride by ordering two pints of it to accompany my order of chips and Mike’s Big Ben Burger.  The equally festive Christmas décor and music made one of my favorite London experiences even more magical.  And again, I was reminded — no more pubs or pints in 10 days!  Oiy…I am going to miss it…

We headed home and topped off the night with a screening of Romeo + Juliet and our holiday night cap indulgence.  Nothing like some Leonardo DiCaprio and Bailey’s with Harrod’s Christmas Blend Coffee to call it a night with…

The Land of Academia

So, I am officially one degree of separation away from Raymond Williams, a major cultural/media theorist.  I went to another BFI Researchers’ Tales lecture tonight featuring Ian Christie and a study he conducted on the cultural impact of UK film from 1946 – 2006.  I loved engaging with what was being covered in his lecture, an account of the thoughts behind decisions made in the process of the study, but the true highlight was getting the chance to chat with Christie over wine & nibbles afterward.  The best part was holding my own in conversation with such an esteemed film academic; he actually found my thoughts on new media valid AND interesting!  Upon mentioning Raymond Williams, Christie slippantly mentioned how he worked with him.  The television/media/cultural studies student in me couldn’t let this slide (especially after studying him this morning in my British Cultural Studies course) — I instantly seized the opportunity to have him elaborate on the man, the methodology, and the experience of collaborating with him.

I knew he was British and based in Europe, like so many of the theorists I study, but little did I know I would get so close to him/them while studying abroad!  Ian Christie was brilliant, and it was truly an honor to meet and chat with him.  Yay academic discussion!  Now there’s a story to take back across the pond….

British Cultural Studies: Nationwide

I really enjoyed this week’s lesson since it connected so strongly to my favorite aspect of media/cultural studies.  Through the lense of semiotic theory we discussed on a study conducted by David Morley using BBC’s Nationwide as its text for analysis.  Nationwide is basically the British equivalent of the Today show, a news magazine program[me] that aired from 1963 to 1981, but in evening primetime, on BBC1…obviously I’m intrigued!

This is precisely what I was hoping for from this class: taking the same theories I’ve already become familiar with and applying them to British examples as a way of being able to draw parallels while exploring another culture’s approach/affects.  I have read Encoding, decoding every semester thus far, and I am not complaining.  I love the text, probably because of how much it relates to my interest in television, most specifically the roles of and relationship between producers and receivers.

Looks like I have a new programme to investigate…thank goodness for the internet archives!

Academics (oh right) – Week B

Monday, 9:45am – 12:45pm: British Cultural Studies – Frederik Lesage @ FIE

Our first session was dedicated to discussing the meaning of culture, its construction, and approaches to studying it.  We met up with many old friends — Raymond Williams, Louis Althusser, Stuart Hall — and although comforting to learn that I’m in on the media/cultural studies scene, I am hoping that the course resists turning into a repeat of Media Theory (Spring ’09) and starts directly connecting to British culture in general.  As the session moved into a seminar discussion from the lecture, I realized that having those common theorists to reference is a necessary step in comparing two cultures from an academic approach.  And hey, I’d rather have to re-familiarize myself with articles and theorists for a course than navigate completely foreign, dense text

Ethnography – Fred encouraged us to take an ethnographic approach to our time here, and I realized that I [luckily] already have.  I suppose this is the best way to articulate my approach to the semester abroad; I’ve been dutifully filling my Moleskine City File journal, taking in-the-moment perspective photos, and keeping this blog — three media that I engage with several times on a daily basis (and that have physically traveled with me through the city).

Monday, 6 – 7pm: Internship Meeting – Frederik Lesage @ FIE

We recapped the first week of our internship and decided on a new activity to participate in.  Every week we will all decide on a certain event that we can attend, explore, and discuss the following week.  Our first assignment: Open House London.  I’ll definitely be checking that out this weekend, just need to decided which one…

Tuesday, 10am – 1pm: Networked Media Arts in London: The Maps and the Territories – Ruth Catlow @ FIE

We began with an exercise in identity construction: taking four post-its, we wrote our name and three statements about ourselves, one being a lie.  How well do you know me?  1) I sang the National Anthem at the Cole Brothers Circus when it came to Staten Island; 2) I was born in a NYC cab; 3) My first name is shared with both of my grandmothers.  Ok…you probably know it’s #2, but my professor has no idea who I am!  The exercise made me realize how well the 7 of us have gotten to know each other over the past two weeks, since most of us knew what the others were lying about.  It’s great to know we are forging such extensive relationships that will [hopefully] translate into heading back across the pond.  Next, we constructed a list of the ways people are connected, ranging from material to immaterial manifestations — again, this reminded me of how connected we are becoming just from sharing this experience together.  We moved into an overview of network structures, and Ruth was very interested to hear which technologies we were utilizing in our everyday lives.  All of us realized just how dependent we are on technologies and networks: a sign of the hypermediated times!

Ruth also set up a blog for us to document and interact with during the semester (http://www.furtherfield.org/malmate/) and a Twitter account (http://twitter.com/malmate), both of which we will use for our first assignment.  Each of us was given a media art to investigate, and I was assigned Peckham Space for the fortnight!