I went to the theater district to buy tickets for shows. I figured I would watch things Tu/We/Th nights, those being my remaining time in London. I had, strangely enough, no impulse at all to see Phantom (I don't like opera), Cats (sounds dumb), Miss Saigon (so what?) or Le Mis (a man suffers his whole life for stealing a loaf of bread. Yawn.), those being the Big Four in London for quite a while now. My desires were, in order:

1: Reduced Shakespeare Companies Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridges) - 39 plays in 79 minutes! This sounded fun and funny, and I knew its what many of you at home would want me to see. It is what I am seeing tonight, so you can all be jealous except Dieter, who can quiver with anticipation, knowing he gets to see it in a few months.

2: The Iceman Cometh - This is a Eugene O' Neill play starring Kevin Spacey, the movie actor who did Usual Suspects and LA Confidential, among other things. He is supposed to be riveting. Unfortunately tickets were to be had for neither love nor money, the ticket booths said its the hottest show in London right now and people are sleeping in the streets outside the theatre for tickets. They would be happy to get me into one of the Big Four, but not this one. Oh well.

3: Art: This is a random london play which got good reviews and was supposed to be funny. I got tickets, and saw it that night (last night, Tuesday). It was neither great nor terrible, but somewhere in the huge murky realm between that most people call "O.K." If I was used to seeing plays, I would not have liked it, I am sure. As it was a novelty, I enjoyed it, but not as much as I'd hoped to. It was about 3 friends, one of whom buys a painting that consists of white diagonal lines on a white background. Despite that promising beginning and the title "Art", they dance around the various issues of art appreciation and meaning in art without ever saying anything substantial about them. Frankly, it was pretty dumb.

4: Chicago - I heard it was a good musical. May see it tomorrow night.

5: Shakespeare's Villains - This is a show which I think is just one guy doing a bunch of shakespeare bad guy bits. Sounded fun.

So i got the tickets for art for tues. night and reduced shakespeare for wed. night, and then looked for some food. Wandering through an area that appeared to be the japenese food/strip club neighborhood, I stopped at a rad sushi place called "Yo! Sushi". The seating was bar style, and around the bar circulated a track with platters of food. The little plates had colors indicating price, and you kept them stacked up to show what you owed. Whenever you wanted food, you'd just grab it off the line. There were also 2 robotic shelf things wandering around with lots of drinks on them. They would occasionally stop and robotically say things like "Please move out of my way" and "Try the japanese beer". Hilarious. And they were playing some mellow electronic music, and the decor ('cept for the cooking area inside the bar) was nice and minimalist. Presented with a little area of space and a number of props in front of me, I reverted into full obsessive-compulsive mode, constantly re-arranging my plates and trays whenever the props changed, maintaining spatial harmony and making sure my space was artistic. It was fun.

After dinner, on my way to the play, I saw an old painted over sign that said something like "Burn This Must Not Be Missed". For those not in the know, "Burn This" is a play that I was in sophomore year, directed by ebeth. So it must have played here, thats pretty cool. Unfortunately the sign was black painted over with black, so the eye could make out the letters but I doubt my camera shot will turn out. [It did].

Before the show, I met this homeless Irishman named James. He was rambling and incohate, and I asked him where to score some weed. For a little while, I thought I was tapped into the underground homeless irish information network. Fueled by a steady stream of cigarettes from a pack bought for the purpose, he and his buddies attempted to wheel and deal, finding out who was selling what that they could trust. Unfortunately, they were so messed up and unable to keep a coherent thought in their heads that after a minute of searching, they would inevitably lapse into idiocy. It was sort of like the Fresh Prince song "I think I can beat Mike Tyson" - "For a second, I looked good out there..." Eventually I gave up and went to the play.

After the play, I went to see a movie, "Sliding Doors" with Gwyneth Paltrow. It was quite a good movie, although I didn't like the ending, it was perhaps artistic and defensible, but I thought it didn't work, and even pinned down the specific reason. Still, it was amusing and worthwile.

Afterwards, for the first time in my life, I attempted to resort to a street dealer, and I got what I deserved. I obtained a bag of a leafy green substance. Once I got to somewhere it seemed safe to open and look at bags of leafy green substances, I did so, to discover, somewhat amusingly, that I had a small 35$ pouch of lettuce. Hmm. Not gonna smoke that. Discouraged, I returned home, getting in at perhaps 11 or 12.

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