No more mullet. Now just floppy on top.

So I’m sitting at my desk at home and listening to a Time Life infomercial for power ballads of the 70’s and 80’s. The announcers, one of whom was in REO Speedwagon, are absolutely atrocious, and at one point the ditzy middle-aged woman gushes, “3 words – ultimate power ballads…perfect.”

Boston, you shouldn’t feel alone in having violence overshadow an otherwise lovely weekend; there has been something like 6 stabbings in London in the past week alone. I have picked up a lot of knowledge in the last decade watching crime shows, but one theory that flies out the window when trying to solve a crime in London is that stabbings are personal. In the nearly 6 months I’ve been here, maybe I’ve heard about 1 or 2 shootings, but stabbings have totalled over 20, I’m sure. People are stabbed because knives are the weapon of choice, not because people are seeking vengeance on someone they know. I suppose, like Sydney, gun crime in London is kept at a minimum due to stricter gun laws and less access. But a kid stabbing two Niketown security guards on Oxford Street at 7pm on a Saturday night? That is just frightening. Boris is calling for a “crack-down” on knife crimes in Britain, but with the weapons so readily available just by walking into your own kitchen, I’m not sure how they propose to spearhead this so-called crack-down.

Anyway, on a lighter note, this weekend was one of my favourites in London. Usually I’m pretty good at finding most events going on in Boston during the summer, but in a big city like London, you’ll be lucky to hear about half of the things taking place. This past weekend I managed to check out four events, all of which I’ll be posting pictures from in the next couple of days.

In any case, I have started my “countdown of things” until I leave. I now have two weeks, one weekend, one Corporate Challenge race, £40 in my wallet with hopefully no more trips to the ATM, one taping of a BBC television show, and three sleeves of cookies to eat.

A cross-dressing nun called Transister

Kanye West, here’s an update for you. The word ‘invisible’ does not rhyme with the word ‘invincible.’ (Another update? You are neither.)

I love to see a grown man walking down Oxford Street eating a Belgian waffle with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. I love even more to see that same grown man’s chin, nose, and cheeks covered in ice cream as if he were a 3-year-old with no inhibitions about shovelling dessert into his face. Wear that ice cream proud, sir.

Walking down the busiest street in the world filled with flocks of tourists is usually a painful experience for me. But studying (i.e. laughing at) human beings’ behavior in their natural habitat (i.e. within proximity to schlock-y stores and Chinese takeaway stands) more than makes up for it. Like when that one girl bumped shoulders with that other woman and she kept walking but quite obviously mumbled ‘bitch’ under her breath.

Lisa to Apple employee Pearce: “Is there any way to add songs to a current playlist on an iPod?”
Pearce: “Can you move to the iPod station over here? I’m not allowed to move from this spot.”
Lisa: “Okaaaaaay.” (Moves 1 foot to the right)
Pearce: “So, what can I do for you?”
Lisa: “I want to know if it’s possible to add an artist to a current playlist on an iPod.”
Pearce: “If you click the center button, it will play the selected artist.”
Lisa: (Realizing I need to put this in his terms so that maybe he’ll start answering the questions I’m asking) “Okay, say I’m listening to COLDPLAY but I want to also listen to THE BEATLES. How would I do that?”
Pearce: “Ah, okay. Well, say you’re listening to X&Y…that’s an album by Coldplay…if you click Play, it will play all the songs from that album. If you click on The Beatles, it will play Beatles songs.”
Lisa: (Thinking “Oh my God, my mother knows more about iPods than this man”) “Is there any way to create a playlist that crosses artists though?”
Pearce: “Sure, on iTunes you can create playlists. If you want to create a playlist for a party, you can choose the songs you want to hear and set them as your ‘Party Playlist’.”
Lisa: (About to shove the iPod up his British nose) “Right. I know about creating playlists on iTunes. But can I do that on an actual iPod?”
Pearce: “Oh on an iPod? No. You can’t do that.”

This weekend was the Glastonbury music festival. It’s about as big here as Woodstock was in America, except it happens every year. I suppose you could compare it to Bonnaroo these days, but with more people, normally more rain and mud, and more skinny jeans. Saturday afternoon I caught Amy Winehouse’s performance on BBC2. Okay. Here’s the thing. I used to feel sorry for this chick. She has genuine talent and put out a couple good albums, but the media won’t let up on her for a second just because of a few mere things like crack pipes, anorexia, domestic violence, and an incarcerated husband. But I really thought she was undeservedly being crapped on. Until I watched this show. Holy moly that girl has issues! I’m sure you heard about the highlight of her performance when she repeatedly punched a fan (in her defense, they are claiming he grabbed one of her knockers). But what you may not have heard about is Amy:
- Calling Kanye West a cunt
- Fiddling non-stop (and non-soberly) with the hem of her dress
- Shoving her boobs back into her strapless dress after each song
- Asking the audience to let her know if one of her “tits pops out”
- Holding up her beehive hairdo so that it wouldn’t fall over
- Running at pretty high speeds across the stage in heels that were not made for a 95-pound drunk girl
- Flubbing her entrance on “Rehab,” stopping the band, and starting over again
- Confessing that Blake used to beat her with a cricket bat

All in all, it was a pretty decent set.