Stars, Hyde Park, Arse-numbing Chill

I saw Stars last night at KOKO, a really cool theater in Camden. The opening act was some random guy with a tiny synth and a drum kit, and he tried (and failed) to loop tracks and get the audience interested. We weren't. The second act before Stars was a strange Canadian band that totally rocked the place. The singer was wearing painter's coveralls and made the most ridiculous faces and gestures while playing lead guitar. They had a tribute song to EZE and everyone sort of alternated between swaying around and then nodding heads along to the music.

Stars started off with "Ageless Beauty", and frankly, I was disappointed. The place was sold out, but it seemed like the audience wasn't really there to dance or move around. The sound was also a bit thrown off, with the keyboard coming over waaay too loud, while the drums weren't strong enough. Sad. The band is known for being "melodramatic" indie rock, so there was much squinting, arm gesticulating, and bizarrely, they kept throwing fresh flowers off the stage into the crowd. By the end of the show, a lot of the girls had flowers stuck over ears and the whole place smelled like crushed petals.

My favorite part was when they played "Take Me To The Riot", mostly because I completely lost my shit and just danced. Of course, the only other person rocking out was the drunk Texan guy behind us, who made sure to high-five me afterwards. He was hysterical, and obviously having the time of his life. Every time a good song would start, he'd just moan or scream out, "Oh God!" in appreciation, not even saying "Oh golly, I love this song", or anything like that.

During the agonizingly slow, sad songs they insisted on playing, the blue lights on the ceiling would shine on the disco ball. Then, the tiny little squares of flickering light would rotate over the three levels of the venue, and bounce off the ornate ceiling. It was really, really beautiful.



In other news, I sat through an extremely awkward Marketing class this morning. Right at the beginning, a man stood up and introduced himself. Apparently, he comes from BU's Boston campus to check out the situation here in London, and figure out how to diversify the population taking the semester. He wanted to encourage more guys, as well as "ethnic people", to come and live in London for the semester. Then, after he sat down, my professor began her lecture on how marketers must group people by stereotypical demographics, in order to determine how they will act. She finished by saying how all people who fit into specific types can be grouped and predicted.



After emailing my Mom about how lazy I sometimes was after the 4-hour long classes I have, I decided to leave my flat and do something worthwhile. Me and my camera went to Hyde Park, just down the street, and I took some pictures. I've been having problems with my photos being too dark on the "P" setting, but not liking how plain they are in the "no flash" setting. Soo, I wandered around and tried to use "M", manual, to my advantage. Though I say so myself, I think I got some cool shots. Shadows and standing pools of water are everywhere in London, and I got a lot of them. I noticed a pattern after a while: everything was sort of fairy-tale-y and spooky. There was a teensy bit of mist, some of the trees are gnarled and black, with no leaves or moss, and I found the Peter Pan statue, which is covered with fairies and woodland creatures.

Hyde Park is also a Heaven for dogs: people let their pets off the leashes, and then everybody runs around and has a jolly good time. At the ends of the park, you see owners calling their dogs and the dogs pretending not to hear. It's very sweet.



It's getting a big chilly, too. I'm hoping, if it does NEED to get cold, that it least it doesn't start this raining nonsense again. It really kills my will to get out of bed when I have to wear crummy old shoes, not worry about my hair or my jacket, and run from building to building.