GRABBINGSAND

i thought i had emerged from the experience unscathed, but it would appear that the jet lag has ceased its lagging behind and has caught up with me. regardless, i have endeavored to get most of the london photos posted before i fall off of this chair and into my bed. go take a look.

UPDATE: you can also take a look at some london movies, but make sure you follow instructions.

hey. my site has been deemed by erraticfrog. cool.

the flight back is longer than the flight over. something to do with tailwinds and the rotation of the earth and so on. the flight back is ever more grueling, as it lacks the good anticipation of the flight over. twice i almost found a way to get some sleep in the uncomfortable upright position demanded by my economy class seat, and twice my timing had it that i started to doze right as the attendants launched yet another parade of starch-laden pre-packaged food. then you have the obsessive card-shuffler two rows up, the whining toddler down the way that hates her seatbelt, and the repetitive sneezer somewhere back behind.

it was great to be there. it is good to be home. i could do without the part in-between.

i have to go through about 200 photos and a stack of collected paper and cardboard, but pictures and movies and assorted other things will be posted in the next couple of days.

the brit equivalent of the academy awards is tonight. or rather, it was tonight. earlier this evening. anyway, we happen’d to pop out of the leicester square tube station right into the middle of a mass of humans all gathered against barricades across from the leicester odeon. looking up at the burger king’s second story window, their wasn’t a bit of glass lacking a nose pressed hard against it, all of them straining to see the incoming limos and trying to catch a glimpse of anyone remotely famous. we pressed in as close as we could, but i couldn’t see a thing past the bright television camera lights and the press tents. there was a guy standing atop a sizable postbox. i asked if he had seen a single celebrity and he hadn’t. however, we did hear a crescendoing chant of “RUSSELL!” which might have meant that mr crowe had just arrived. though perhaps some folks were just showing their appreciation for the shortest member of fat albert’s gang.

best quote from the event? two guys quickly rounded the corner behind the throng and shot up the nearest sidestreet, yelling:

“It’s just like the Oscars - only crap!”

i love these people.

or rather, this is me, typing inaudibly on an imac from my brother’s house about a half an hour outside of london. i will post more about this whole trip when i get home, and i am writing down things as they happen so i can keep track, but some things merit mentioning.

london is windy, perhaps a bit chilly, but the weather here is just like the weather ought to be at home, like the weather at home would be if the meteorological psyche of atlanta wasn’t so incredibly bipolar. i am staying in hampstead and i love it. it feels a bit like morningside, but better. if i could afford to live here, i would move in a heartbeat. the sidewalks are littered with euro-model volkswagons, vespas, smart-cars and motorcycles, like the bmw motorbike parked in front of our hotel last night. yellow. gorgeous. but you would have to be beyond wealthy to reside in hampstead.

the tate modern is amazing. transformed in the past few years from a massive power station into a museum of modern art, it sits across the thames from st. paul’s cathedral like two opposing temples of faith. electricity - the god of the industrial age - replaced with culture and information - our modern demigods - looking across at the representation of faith on earth, one of the few structures that survived the blitzes during world war two. and linking them is the millenium bridge, with people streaming like pilgrims from one side to the other and back again.

london just feels right. not the least bit threatening. i felt no fear in 1992, and i feel none today. more later.

the car will be around to pick me up in an hour or so. one of the benefits of friends in movie promotion: inexpensive limo service. the car will collect all of our party then wheel us down to hartsfield atlanta, where we will then experience the joy of federally-funded security checkpoints and baggage inspection. eventually, we will find our way to the cycling people-mover trams, the ones with the distinctive voice warning us that the doors are, in fact, closing and that, yes, the train is stopping, and, oh, the next stop is concourse e — or b — or c. as distinctive and memorable as the disembodied voice is, enunciation and clarity are not strong points. concourse e. the international concourse. and then we sit, we wait. i might pick up a magazine or a pack of gum, but sooner or later we will board the plane and taxi along our merry way.

nine hours later, we will arrive in london. it’s that easy.

today’s weather in atlanta — HI: 69F LO: 34F
tomorrow’s weather in london — HI: 53F LO: 42F

i will try to check email when i can, and i might even do an update or two from abroad. be good while i am gone. play nice.

click to check.

before i go to bed, i had to post something about the last time i went across the atlantic. less than 44 hours to take-off ….

i meant to do this last week, but forgot somehow. anyway. i was digging around and i found my oscar picks for 1999 (i was not too far off the mark that year), so here are my oscar picks for 2001. if they appear a bit jaded, well, perhaps they are. many 2001 movies were overlooked that deserved more nominations: memento being perhaps the most maligned.

there. restored to its original state. mostly. thanks for the assists, one and all.