we planned an evening using living social vouchers - dinner and a show. getting to the restaurant was an unexpected fiasco. in addition to the tube closures, for which we were fully prepared, there was an organized protest from hyde park (just outside our place) and i'm guessing it went to westminster. we ended up walking most of thw way which took about an hour and ruined my shoes.
our walk directly intersecetd with the march up regents street. the route through mayfair to soho was disappointing - spray-painted anarchy signs, shattered store-front windows...those stores and structures had nothing to do with (or at most, indirectly influenced) the budget cuts. the irony of the protest is that which police on every corner through the west end and all the damage costs, the government as well as businesses need to pay out more in overtime labor and insurance deductibles that inevitably take from the same purse used to pay out entitlements.
dinner was only so-so so i won't mention the name.
the show, however, was fantastic. we had middle row, center seats, so a perfect view. it was a monologue about the life of woody guthrie, mixed with his music performed by 4 artists. into the first song, jason looked over at me with a sigh of contentment, "american music..." i'm not a fan of folk music and jason wasn't familiar with woody's repetoire, but it was done so beautifully and when put into context, whether or not you agree with the politics, songs like dust storm disaster performed by helen russell make it hauntingly difficult to pass as mere art...real people lived that life.
so in addition to a glimpse into the contemporary of john steinbeck, the cast along with 5+ artists gathered in the theater lobby immediately following the show for a hootenanny. the crew was amazing...their ears and eyes attuned to identifying chords and the progress, following another's improvization. it was a grand time of head bopping, toe tapping and hand clapping.
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