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Lord of the London IMAX

22 Aug 2009

A friend of mine said yesterday, “Meaghan, you’re a smart girl but sometimes you do some very strange* things.”

This was in response to my announcement of weekend plans which include possibly the “strangest” choice of activity to date. Yes, today, as of 11:59pm, I will be sitting in the London BFI IMAX theatre, settling in with a couple of friends to watch approximately 10 hours of video footage, namely the three Lord of the Rings films back to back.

I went through a fairly intense stage of Tolkien fandom around the time the trilogy was released the first time in theatres and I have many fond memories of large groups of high school girls camping out at the Shoreline Centruy theatre in Mountain View California for midnight showings of the fantasy flicks. In a rather spontaneous burst of nostalgia, when I saw the BFI offering about two months ago, I thought ‘why not?’, got some friends on board and booked tickets.

Now, a number of weeks later, I’m beginning to question my rash decision to dive into the most epic of movie all-nighters imaginable. But regardless of whether I end up sleeping through the stories or coming out the other side a gibbiling mess speaking half in Elvish and half asleep, I’m quite looking forward to tomorrow morning, stepping out of the Southbank theatre to an all but empty Thames Walk and still being here in London on my own adventure. And possibly grabbing some elevensies.

*Chances are high that this was a quick edit from the preferred adjective “stupid.”

London Eats: Navajo Joe’s in Covent Garden

12 Aug 2009

Although I’ve never lived in New York, I often imagine there are a number of similarities between London and NYC. In particular, in a city of this size and diversity, it’s generally assumed that you can get anything – anything at all – as long as you know where to look.

I have been looking for decent Tex-Mex style food in London and I must not be looking in the right places. Wahaca, a London-based traditional Mexican style restaurant, definitely has the spices and flavours covered and is the closest I’ve tasted but in an effort to find something a bit more in line with just north-of-the-border food, I rounded up my friend Kate and new acquaintance Adam to try the overly themed Navajo Joe’s restaurant in Covent Garden.

Ostensibly a Native American themed Mexican restaurant (right, we’re already off to a good start), they suggest on their website “don’t let our name fool you. Although our history is traditionally rooted in south-western cuisine, we’ve evolved over time into offering some of the most forward thinking, refreshingly accessible food in Covent Garden.”

Unsure what that meant but in the mood for polenta, buffalo wings, quesadillas, and a hell of a lot of chipotle we took our seats in front of perhaps the most schizophrenic menu since The Cheesecake Factory opened. There were our BBQ chicken wings and nachos under the starters menu – accompanied by asparagus tempura with truffle hollandaise, seared steak teriyaki and crispy duck with hoi sin sauce. Those were some worldly Native Americans putting together this menu.

Their main plates looked equally ridiculous under the bull’s skull on the wall and southwestern themed décor. Blackened duck with bak choi, ginger salmon, char-grilled peri peri chicken… even the southwestern favourites section featured an asparagus and oyster mushroom enchilada with sugar snap peas and goat’s cheese.

While we were debating what percent of the American south west would know what an oyster mushroom was, our drinks arrived and a couple of potent margaritas later we were feeling a bit more kindly towards the menu (or at least very hungry and quite ready for something off said menu to arrive). We started with mini platters of four cheese nachos, stuffed tempura jalepenos, coxina chicken with lime dressing and plates of the BBQ chicken wings and mozzarella and sundried tomato quesadillas with pesto dressing. It was a good spread and although that sounds like quite a bit of food, portion-wise it was a good starter mix for the three of us. Surprisingly, it was the quesidillas that proved table favourite with the jalapenos coming second. The wings, sticky and sweet, still felt more like something they’d run in from Chinatown, a couple of blocks away, than the searing hot buffalo wings we were craving.

For the mains, we had all ordered the fajitas and a rather uninspiring stone plate of mostly onions and a bit of meat arrive about 30 minutes after our starters had been cleared. These guys were not scoring points for presentation with a couple of tin cups of toppings (cheese, guacamole, sour cream and salsa) accompanying our bare serving plates and onion-laden meals. The food was good, and chipotle heavy as desired but we were soon left with, between us, about three to four marinated onions on a plate – this is after making an effort to eat a lot of them with our meal. This is definitely not a meal for a date and frankly a pretty lousy way to make the plate look more full. We were offered a dessert menu but, in search of a real American flavour, we opted for the Ben and Jerry’s down the road.

Navajo Joe’s restaurant was a pretty depressing display of the most minimal effort in menu and maximum in cheesy decorating for an attempt at a Mexican restaurant in one of the most tourist-laden parts of London. I’m sure it does quite well. I had a fantastic night out with my friends, got a pretty tasty dinner in the process but if I ever decide that I want another Tex-Mex meal here in London, I’m just going to have to keep looking.

Navajo Joe’s
www.navajojoe.co.uk

34 King Street
London, WC2
020 72404008

And the Rain Rain Rain Came Down Down Down

6 Aug 2009

The most popular conversation topic in London, I’ve discovered, is without a doubt the weather. While the stereotype in the US is that the weather is a topic reserved for idle chatter between people who either don’t know each other or are prone to offend each other, this is serious business here in London. There’s the good weather conversations and the bad weather conversations which are usually fairly straightforward. But then there are there are the advanced topics of weather discourse where one might pull out stats and superlatives. “It’s rained for the last 37 days which has accounted for a total of 6.9 inches of rainfall,” one might say. “This weather is so muggy it feels like you’re walking through jello,” another might reply. Suffice it to say, weather talk is always worth a listen.

But while I may be won over by the conversation topic, I am certainly not feeling any warm fuzzies towards the actual subject of the conversation. July passed in a haze of dreary rainclouds while August was ushered in by a muggy mist. A few sunny days quickly gave way to torrential downpours which I became closely acquainted with during my mile-long walk through said rain this evening on my way home.

The joke is that a British summer looks something like India’s monsoon season and I would be hard pressed to argue. But while I may not have gone native in my ability to quietly gripe about the weather and carry on as if I were still in sunny California, at least I have gone native in my ability to speak about the weather like it was the most important thing on earth.

Open Day at the Holland Park Opera

3 Aug 2009

A little over a week ago I took a walk over to my local and possibly favourite London park, Holland Park for a little fresh air. I’ve posted about Holland Park before but had still, disappointingly, not made it to the Holland Park Opera, a covered open air theatre in the centre of the park. Yet not long after I had camped myself in the middle of a rose garden I heard the unmistakable sounds of an orchestra and a woman in a viking helmet – it was the Holland Park Opera open house and the doors had been thrown open to allow the likes of me, and the neighbourhood children, into the opera to see demonstrations of performances, old costumes, behind the scenes on the site and (this was more exciting for the children than for me) the in-costume star of Angelina Ballerina.

I had missed most of the singing but was quite impressed by the costumes on display as well as the theatre itself. As I write this, I’m reminded that I only have another day or two to see the last of this season’s performances so it seems a bit unlikely I’ll get the full Holland Park Opera experience but in comparison to what was to come on the open house day that may be ok.

After a tour of the opera house and grounds, I heard the distinct sound of an orchestra warming up. I took a seat right at the front of the theatre while the orchestra prepared, unsure of what to expect. It seemed they were a bit apprehensive themselves and the reason became clear when a line of two dozen children appeared out of the wings, led by a grinning conductor. It seemed that I had also missed out on a conducting lesson and now, the mini maestros were ready for their thirty seconds of fame while they picked one of three songs (Overture for William Tell, the Can Can or Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro) in which to conduct the rest of the orchestra.

A minor amount of chaos ensued. The highly trained orchestra, much to the delight of the children conducting and the spectators, followed along precisely with the amateur conductors – meaning that rarely did the piece actually stay on tempo or sound much like the familiar composition it was supposed to be. Everyone was having a fantastic time although none seemingly so much as the main conductor himself who looked positively thrilled.

It was a fantastic afternoon and although I didn’t get a chance to lead the orchestra myself, I’m so happy to have been a small part of the Holland Park Opera open house and see first hand the amazing arts facilities I have just beyond my front door.

Mika and iTunes Live 2009 at the Roundhouse

1 Aug 2009

The iTunes Live music festival at the Roundhouse sees a series of top name artists performing throughout the month of July. Tickets are free – provided you can win them from the random drawing – and on 31 July for the last concert in the series, I had a chance to go see Mika live.

Possibly one of the most twee pop singers of the age, Mika is all kinds of ear candy with a range like Freddy Mercury and a series of self-affirming feel good songs that are just as likely to make you want to dance around on rainbows as drown some kittens depending on your tastes. The people in my office certainly tended to fall in the later group and got a kick out of harassing me for my fangirl feelings towards the pop star but after convincing my friend Kate to come along with me I was on my way to the Roundhouse in London for the intimate show.

We arrived just after the first act, which was fine by me, and managed to work our way to the centre of the room for Mika’s opening performance, a brand new song and his first new single in quite some time.  The entire concert was televised on ITV and here is a sneak peek of his new single (Bonus points if you can spot me in the crowd! Don’t look too hard, I couldn’t find me either.):

Mika is about as camp and theatrical as a performer can get – which fits perfectly with his songs and fat-girl favourite “Big Girl, You are Beautiful” (well known from teenage slumber parties and the Ugly Betty soundtrack) saw a thunderstorm of glitter, strobe lights and sparkly umbrellas take over the stage. Overall it was a fantastically fun performace, a great chance to see a singer I really enjoy and a great way to end a really busy week.

Now I’m off to go dance on some rainbows.