scotch mist

Our third, and final, day in Edinburgh rolled in with a cloud of rain. I knew we were in for it when I woke up around 6 am to hear the patter outside our hotel room window. And then, as the city woke up, the splash of the trucks and buses rolling through puddles on the street. I'm amazed we haven't had more rain, to be honest, as I always expect it in Edinburgh. So it wasn't a shock, really. The students, to my surprise, seemed excited by it. "This is the weather I was hoping for," they said. It was a nice break from the heat of London, I guess.

We gathered as a group and headed to Edinburgh Castle. My Tom's, despite being the most comfortable walking shoes I've ever brought to Europe, were pretty slick on the wet pavement. I slid my way up the hill.

Once inside the castle, we gathered in the cafe for a little breakfast. It's pretty in there

- every window looks out over the city and we got a beautiful misty view on every side. We toured the different exhibits, with special looks at the World War One rooms; this year marks the 100th anniversary of Britain's involvement in the Great War. The boys toured the castle while I waited in the courtyard and snapped some photos in the great hall. The weather had let up by now and it was just gray and hazy - maybe the perfect weather to see Edinburgh Castle in. It felt like the Mists of Avalon or something.

Afterwards, a handful of us visited the Edinburgh Woolen Museum, where we watched the tartans being made with some loud machines that made a constant clickety clack. There was a little shop inside called "Bagpipes Galore!" which was just a sad little one room affair with a sullen employee and little of the enthusiasm of the shop name. It became a cry throughout the day, though. "Bagpipes galore!"

Miles and I attended an afternoon performance of Paradise Lost, a one man version of Milton's epic poem. Performed by Paul Van Dyck, a Canadian artist who used projections, puppets, and his own torso to tell the story. I was impressed by his ability to recite the entire thing - it's an hour of verse. I was also impressed by the naked Adam and Eve puppets. who were strangely expressive and eventually a little sexy (not my thing.) I enjoyed this piece; I thought I might get bored after a while, but this guy had so much energy and his usage of props, projections, and sound kept things moving. I especially liked his massive angel wings, made from draped white fabric.

Next the guys and I went to see Once Upon a Forest, which is a new documentary from Luc Jacquet, who directed March of the Penguins. This one is about trees - just trees. In the Amazon. And I thought it was fascinating. He chronicles the amazing things that trees experience as they develop through generations and centuries of growth. They use animations and computer graphics to show what's happening inside of the bark and deep down in the roots. I thought it was beautiful and I learned a lot. Poor Miles, a noted lepidopterophobic, was traumatized by all the butterflies, though. It's a real thing with him.

We capped the night with the Military Tattoo. I've seen it now six or seven times and I know the basic drill. But it doesn't really seem to get old. I anticipate the new countries represented each year; this year it was Australia, New Zealand, India, South Africa, and Malta. There were a few surprises: at one point a guy dressed as a giant red parrot on 6 foot stilts came out and flapped around the arena. And then, perhaps more surprising, a band of African Zulu warriors, replete with topless women, bounded around and stamped to giant drums, pausing only to do the splits. My students joked that, though I had warned them prior to London that the plays we saw might contain nudity, they had to wait until our final night to actually see some. Overall, the tattoo was rousing and fun and there's never a shortage of bagpipes.

We walked along home along Prince's Street - Under the lights of the castle. Home to pack - our taxi leaves at 4:30am!

Since we're done with shows for the year, I thought a lot about everything I've seen and decided to award my 2014 London Tony's. These are called the Tophers. Here's what I would award:



Best New Play: Let the Right One In, Apollo Theatre

Best New Musical: no new musicals this year.

Best Revival of a Play: Skylight, Wyndham's Theatre

Best Revival of a Musical: Porgy and Bess, Regent's Park Open Air Theatre

Best Perfomance by an Actor (Play): Graham Butler, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

Best Performance by an Actress (Play): Helen McRory, Medea

Best Performance by an Actor (Musical): Rufus Bonds, Jr., Porgy and Bess

Best Performance by an Actress (Musical): Eva Noblezada, Miss Saigon

Featured Actor (Play): Mathew Beard, Skylight

Featured Actress (Play): Gina McKee, Richard III

Featured Actor (Musical): Jon Jon Briones, Miss Saigon

Featured Actress (Musical): Jade Ewan, Porgy and Bess

Best Direction of a Play: Declan Donnellan, Shakespeare in Love

Best Direction of a Musical: Timothy Shaeder, Porgy and Bess

Best Choreography: Steven Hoggett, Let the Right One In

Best Scenic Design: Tom Scutt, Medea

Best Costume Design: Nick Ormerod, Shakespeare in Love

Best Lighting Design: David Plater, Bring Up the Bodies

top o' the world

Day two in Edinburgh, and it hit me this morning that I'm living with two teenage boys who are physically incapable of getting tired. Honestly. I'll say, "hey guys. Let's take a quick nap here in the park." And they'll say "You can sleep when you're dead, old man." And I guess they're right. So I made them climb Arthur's Seat.

Actually, we did a few things first: breakfast at Gregg's, a stop at Gryphon venues, and then more stops in a number of stores along the Haymarket. I always like to stop in W. Armstrong & Son, just to see if they have anything cool in there. Turns out they have a lot of things cool in there, none of which I can pull off at 42. Miles and Joseph were awed by that place, but seemed much more interested in this one:

After stopping in a number of kilt stores along the Mile (nobody sells the Clark tartan; I'm sorry but you may never see me in a kilt after all) we made it to the foot of Arthur's Seat and began the epic ascent.

Edinburgh has been reintroducing these beautiful purple flowers all along the hike. They look like thistle from far away, but they aren't. I thought they were really pretty. The entire mountain shimmered in heather and purple flowers.

The view from the top is always spectacular. And, biggest surprise of all, Miles and Joseph completely dropped at the peak and fell into a slumber from which I feared they would never awake, though I didn't mind because I got to read my awesome book up there. And feel the wind on my face. And take pictures of other tourists for them. And think about my life.

Once we came down off of the Seat, I made the boys go into OINK, which is one of those places where you eat a hog sandwich carved straight from the hog. The boys were horrified, and went on a hunger strike. But my sandwich was delicious. They chose to go to Subway again, for only their 43rd time.

Opening performance of Hamlet and Ophelia Go Swimming went fantastically. I was hugely proud of the cast. They had a really big audience for their first show at the festival - it was an exciting surprise. Including a mysterious reviewer: let's hope the show gets some good ink! It certainly deserves it. I was super proud of them.

The boys and I went to see Shhhhhh....An Improvised Silent Movie performed by a group of Italian actors. It was pretty ridiculous and pretty awesome. It reminded me a lot of Thrillionaires; they create an hour long film using a title provided by the audience. Everything is improvised and, in this case, silent. A player piano is all you hear. And every so often you get a placard on the scrim to remind you what's going on. It's all happening live. It was very funny, and the boys got a kick out of it.

The city was beautiful tonight. A little storm passed through, but by about 9pm it had cleared up and the fireworks over the castle happened just when they always do. I was harassed on the street by these two hooligans, but other than that, it was a perfect evening.

I capture the castle

We made it to Edinburgh, all nineteen of us. With luggage. How is still a mystery, but I trust the forces of the universe and keep reminding myself of that old primary adage: I can do hard things.

 Granted, I should give credit to my students, who travel smart and fairly light and keep their heads about them. And I should give some credit to Virgin Atlantic, who gave us the comfiest seats with special little head flap that help you sleep. The flight was painless; up and down. And then we took edinburgh's fancy new tram into town - alighting just a half block from where we're staying. It's only taken them about twelve years to finish this tram thing - I don't even recognize the city without all of the blockades and the jackhammers of construction. It feels modern and streamlined.

Once we arrived Joseph, Miles and I had a baguette at a shop across the road called, most appropriately, baguette express. From there you can look directly into our hotel room. We're at cityroomz again - I booked a family style room for myself and the two boys and it's pretty fancy! I think our ceiling must be fifteen feet, and twelve of that is windows onto Shandwick place. We lucked out.

I accompanied the cast to Gryphon venues for their technical rehearsal. This year's show is called Hamlet and Ophelia Go Swimming; it was written and conceived by the cast and director, Topher Rasmussen. It's really a cool show - the premise is basically the demise of a relationship, as scene through the filter of Hamlet and Ophelia. And they sing the most beautiful songs with gorgeous harmonies, foot stamps, and snapping. It's been fun to watch their progression and I'm excited to see their public performances at the Fringe this week.

Alex, Kacey, Chantel and I paid a quick visit to Nando's, as you do (pebble ice.)

Then Miles, Joseph and I took a long walk up on the Royal Mile. The streets were teeming with folks gathering for the Military Tattoo. We wound our way through the throngs and found refuge in some kilt shops. Is this the year I finally buy a kilt? I need to find the Clark Tartan and then I'll consider it. I would appreciate your input. The crowds thinned further down the line and we stopped to watch all kinds of performers; raggedy musicians, jugglers, unicycles, girl groups singing "Crazy in Love," and the ubiquitous bagpipes. Finally we stopped to watch a guy decked out in a blue tuxedo. Nobody was really watching him. But as time went by a crowd amassed; and justifiably so. I've never been more entertained or fascinated by a street performer. Performing in mostly silence, with only random silly samples of music from his ipod, he clowned and mimicked and mimed in the most specific, hilarious ways. He followed people on the streets, he gave balloons to babies and then stole their food, he romanced women, and juggled a series of hats on his head. I don't know who he is, but he's a genius. We watched him for almost an hour and laughed constantly.

This evening we attended the opening party for Gryphon venues; it's a party for all of the shows performing in the venue this year. They held it at the top floor of the DoubleTree with the most stunning view of Edinburgh Castle. I had a great chat with my old friend, Kekoa - it's become our yearly hangout. And it was a lot of fun to meet actors, comics, and dancers from all over the world and connect to them as friends and artists. And even more fun when the fireworks started to explode over the castle. Beautiful night. Excited to be back at the festival!

hello and goodbye

Our last day in London. How does it come so fast? I swear I just checked in here. Time to move on!

 Miles' friend Joseph Hegstrom Pratt has joined our party, making us a gang of three. Joseph is in my home ward, and his parents, Dale and Valerie Hegstrom Pratt, run the BYU Spanish Study Abroad program. They ushered Joseph to us this morning; he was with us today in London and will be for three days in Scotland. Then we're all flying to Portugal to spend three days there with his parents. It's a parent trap! Kind of. Anyway. It was great to see Dale and Valerie and we had a fun talk about the perils and frustrations of running these study abroad programs. But we also recognize how very, very lucky we are to get to do it.

We picked up Joseph and took him to buy a cheapo phone from the Carphone Warehouse. By way of Subway. Which tastes so incredibly bland - is is this bad in the states, too? It's been a while. But Joseph livened things up with his magic tricks! Pick a card.

We walked through Kensington Gardens where a pug party was in progress. There were about 25 pugs running around, fighting, rolling in the dirt, and licking people's legs. It was entertaining.

We dropped off Joseph's luggage, and, because I promised his mother I would, embarked on a day in the city to keep him awake. He was a good sport about it, and I didn't really notice him dragging his feet. Occasionally he reminded us that he hadn't slept in over 30 hours, but we kept on walking! One time he claimed he was "going blind" but I assured him he wasn't.

We first hit the Natural History Museum. Miles and Joseph joked and made fun of the exhibits, but then carefully looked at each one. Ah, to be sixteen! Remember when it wasn't cool to like things? Even if you liked them? Miles and Joseph took a tunnel ride through the center of the earth, and they made it very dramatic (which I really enjoyed.)

After the museum, we hit every store I could think of that a teenaged boy would love:

The Conran Shop: Full of cool, modern furniture, lighting, and art - but with a basement full of handmade toys!

FOPP: the shop Miles discovered on day two. Joseph bought a Japanese anime DVD. I admired a Civil Wars LP and almost bought it. Almost.

Forbidden Planet: Yes, we were here yesterday. But I did promise Miles we would return. So we did. And I sat on a step across the street and read my book while the boys looked and browsed and bought a few nerdy posters. I told them they could stay in there as long as they wanted, and whoo-boy! Did they!

( I should mention that I made a purchase myself: this sweet Batman mask for Hugh.)

The Design Centre: It's full of graphic art and supplies. We entered a contest where you had to draw your own picture in 30 seconds. Our results are posted above my head.

Orbital Comics: More comic books!

TokyoToys: A store full of....you guessed it...toys from Tokyo! That was a solid thirty minutes.

Hamleys: The largest toy store in London. Most of the stuff was too juvenile for the boys, but I got a little excited about all of the classic London soldiers, double-decker buses, and tube trains. I snuck a picture when the boys weren't looking and couldn't judge me.

The Vintage Magazine Store: A classic. Movie memorabilia, campy cards, loony t-shirt. When will the madness stop? Never, I tell you, never!

Wagamama: This one was for me.

We took the bus home, primarily so Joseph could have that experience but also because it really does drop us off closer to our flat than the tube does. And then we packed up. Miles packs his suitcase in about three minutes. I can only pray that he got everything in there. And I walked Miles and Joseph to the student flats, where they are spending the night (on a couch!) I'll pick them up at 7:00 tomorrow morning to catch our flight to Scotland. And so it's goodbye to South Kensington for another year. And one day closer to being home again. Why am I so sad, though?

it's a mystery

Miles and I headed to Hampstead Heath this morning to say hello to my friend Jeff Parkin. Jeff has been here since June with his family; he's the director of the BYU film study abroad program. I know Jeff chiefly because he's practically my neighbor, but also because he directed the Pretty Darn Funny web series starring my wife and, occasionally, me. We met at the Holly Bush pub in Hampstead. It's a great place, because it's tucked away on Holly Hill and you really see mostly locals there. And the food is great, even though the little round tables are so small that you have to constantly watch your plate for tipping. The Holly Bush is sort of famous for it's fireplace; I guess in the winter people gather in there to warm up. But since I am always here in the dead of summer I've never witnessed that. Anyway, we had a fun lunch with Jeff. I love hearing his theories about film and theatre and life itself. He took his son to a Kanye concert. He's a way cooler dad than I am.

We saw a matinee of Shakespeare in Love today and glory be, I thought it was fantastic. I wasn't sure what to expect. The film is a long time favorite of mine, and you just don't know how these things will translate. But the director is Domonic Dromgoole, who is the artistic director of the Globe, and you could instantly tell. The show felt authentic and, had there not been an Oscar winning film, you would have assumed it always existed as a play. It's funny, passionate, and moving. The script is just about perfect. And the performances were so heartfelt and committed. You sort of fell in love with everybody. I hope Shakespeare in Love plays for a long time - it should be a London institution, like The Mousetrap. Loved it.

We had a few hours before our evening show, and we didn't feel like coming back to the flat. So everyone went their separate ways. Miles and I grouped with Amber, Chantel, Kailey, Kacey, and Caleb and explored Covent Garden. We haven't spent much time here during this trip, so it was nice to see a few places I like before we leave. I always love going to Benjamin Pollack's toy shop - it speaks to the inner theatre nerd in me. We all admired the puppets and creepy doll heads and toy theatres and kind of wanted to buy everything. I broke down and bought Margaret a paper doll cat, and I bought Phoebe an Alice in Wonderland shadow box. The gentleman working at the counter seemed keenly interested in the shadow box and kept giving me pointers on how to use it. Eventually it was revealed that he had actually designed it! I geeked out and took his picture. They make toys! People design and make toys! It's not just robots in Taiwan! What a thrill.

We walked through Covent Garden a bit more; we tried to find the ice cream store that uses breast milk but to no avail. Chantel was bummed - she had dared me to eat it. And I need money. We headed over to Neal's Yard, that colorful little hipster nook, and took a few photos including this one, in which everyone tried to look cool.

We also stopped by the Neal's Yard Cheese shop, which smells amazing or horrific, depending on your nose. The guy behind the counter was from Exeter so I kept him talking about all things Exeter while he absently kept feeding us pieces of cheese. Man, is there anything better than fresh cheese? Cut from a giant wheel?

We stopped by a hipster t-shirt store, and then a place called Mysteries, which is one of those new agey stores with lots of crystals and ladies who need bras. We didn't buy anything at Mysteries, but we did talk about horoscopes in some depth. Miles is a Taurus and I'm a Leo. Isn't it fascinating what we chose for our intermission snack tonight at the play? See above.

Finally we spent a little time at Forbidden Planet: Your Cult Entertainment Superstore. This may be the nerdiest establishment of all time, but Miles went bananaz in there. As did some of our group. So many, many action figures, so many many video games, so little time. So little money. I promised Miles we would come back tomorrow. Reminder to self: bring a book.

Following a well deserved Chipotle (we deserved because we walked! Walking is hard.) we saw an evening performance of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Everyone's been looking forward to this one - they had to read it for class - and it didn't disappoint. It's a sweet story about a boy with pretty severe autism who somehow finds his way from a country town to downtown London to find his missing mother. The staging is pretty spectacular: the walls and floor are digital, and they light up and jut out randomly to show the way the lead character sees the world. It's really staged so beautifully. And the script is funny and touching. Miles declared this his favorite play. Certainly it's in my top five this year. I particularly loved the ending, after the curtain call, when the lead character comes out and solves an incredibly difficult math equation for those lucky patrons who stayed behind. The crowd goes wild, like a rock concert.