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HIGH SCHOOL MASKICAL

Since people seem to be interested in it, I figured I'd post some images from my Community Arts class today. These are from some exercises we have done over the last few weeks.

Also, since our eventual final product will be mask images, we brainstormed on titles for our project and here are some of the more memorable suggestions the kids and us came up with. Too good!

"Masks R Us"
"Masks For Us"
"Masks By Us"
"Masks About Us"
"It's Mask Time!"
"Project Liam" (suggested by Liam)
"Project Me"
"P.P." (Personal Project)
"Mask Attack!"
"Close To The Bone"
"Me, Myself, and Mask"

And my two personal favorites...
"Mask Of Zorro"
"High School Maskical"

PS: Liverpool V. Real tomorrow... DREAM COME TRUE!

Sea Life Center

Today I went to the Sea Life Center with a lovely new friend. We saw all kinds of crazy things! And we got to feed sting rays smelly dead fish, pet anemones, go in an under water shark tunnel, get lost in an amazon-themed house of mirrors, and watch this guy feed sharks while telling us all about sea life stuff. F-U-N!

Wild Beasts Win My Heart Forever

Went to Audio to see Wild Beasts play. Without a doubt one of the best shows I've seen in AGES, Wild Beasts being one of the best live bands I've seen, and I've seen lots! What a night it was, SO FULL OF WEIRDNESS! Amazingly weird. And the music was just spectacular! I loved it!





First was Le Band Extaordinaire, a band with lots of instruments going on. They were really different... multiple percussion going on, multiple horns/flutes/whatever, guitars, all kinds of fun! They were really entertaining, and good musicians.




Next was Napoleon IIIrd, and let me say: this guy was INSANE. IN SUCH AN AMAZING WAY! He sets up on stage and it's just him and two tape machines, a few synthesizers and pedals and a horn and a bunch of random stuff and his guitar. And he just made the craziest music but it was great! It was soooooooooooooo cool to watch, I wish everyone I know who likes weird music could have seen it! It was like watching him create the music as he went, recording his voice and doubling it over, adding layer upon layer, SO COOL. But yeah I think he may actually be insane. He was one of those people who when they perform their eyes go back in their head...kinda creepy.





Wild Beasts WAS ABSOLUTELY AMAZING! And sooooooo perfectly weird! Man oh man they just sealed the deal tonight. They played a ton of new stuff which was really really great, their new album will definitely be incredible! Yeah I just can't even describe how great I thought they were. They were on top of their game, they sounded amazing -- just like on the album but better (and I'm not just saying that, I really mean it)! Ugh, so much fun! The drumming was perfect too. Everything was. I can't wait till they do another tour and I can see them again!

Passion Pit + The Community

Tonight I saw a concert at Audio, it was fuuuuuuunnnnn! The first band Bear Hands actually turned out to be my favorite. I mean who isn't a sucker for multiple drummers on stage, maracas, and abnormally good looking bass players? I KNOW I AM!

Passion Pit was good but not as good as I was hoping... but honestly I think a big part of my experience was that the world's most annoying group of people EVER were infront of me so it made the music harder to enjoy :( The band was still great though!

The next band, Hockey, was pretty allright! Their music was fun but honestly I was too distracted by the lead singer looking like a dirty hipster version of Carrot Top to pay too much attention.

In other news, I had my extension study Community Arts Training again this morning and I am continuing to love that class so much! Since the kids didn't have school today due to a midterm break, we met as a class back in Brighton to discuss and figure things out. I feel like everyone was in a really good mood today and we all just had a good time! We worked together to create new project ideas and activities for the kids to do next week. And we have to lead them! It's going to be a lot of fun, I can't wait!

Spain - England Friendly

I went to watch the Spain v. England friendly last night at the pub I always go to to watch games. It was especially great since it's next to a college for people learning english so there were tons of Spainiards and other foreign people there for a really good competitive atmosphere.

Nothing like my love of the Spanish NT to make my like of the England NT fade away. Villa's goal was great, Llorente's made me swoon, and Marchena's save pretty much made my heart explode.

Tourist Time!

This has been a great weekend full of fun! Friday involved going to the cutest, oldest, Leaky-Cauldron-but-tinier-est pub with Jenny and Ramzy and then over to Millie's where we had a great time and lots of delicious food with wonderful people!

Saturday was also super fun and we went to go see Ally's friends band, Smokey Bastard play in the pub literally 20 steps away from our dorm. They were great and reminded me of the music my friends from home like a lot, folk-punk-Irish stuff.

Today Jenny and I went on a day trip to Salisbury Cathedral, Stonehenge, and Bath! It was a good long day of exploring!


Salisbury Cathedral was reaaaaaaally big and gorgeous. Our funny man tour guide Gerry told us really interesting info about it. It's the tallest spire in England at 440 feet, and also they had to move the cathedral and usually it takes 500 years (!!!!!) to build one but since they were moving it it only took 38 years (still !!!!!).



Stonehenge was COOL DUDE! Actually I'm not going to lie, I was reallllllly scared kinda because on the way there Gerry told us all that the area of Salisbury where Stonehenge is is INCREDIBLY FULL OF PARANORMAL STUFF! And if you know me at all you know my number one fears are Aliens, ghosts, and angels. SCARY STUFF! He said it's the area with the most U.F.O. sightings in all of the UK, and that there are crop circles there all the time! So what can I say, I was freaked out! But it was absolutely fascinating and I am really glad I got to see it for my self!



Bath. Is. GORGEOUS. The Roman bath houses are incredibly beautiful and old and the colors just look so pretty and nice together. It was really cool because the water is so hot that it steams! You aren't supposed to touch the water buttttttttt Jenny and I couldn't help ourselves and we stuck our fingers in and it was so nice and warm, especially on our cold rainy day! We took the funniest picture ever, and walked around and explored the awesomeness of Bath and the bath houses.

Shaping up to be another good week, but now I have a hugeeeeeee project to work on but I AM PUMPED! It's gonna be great!

Portsmouth Day Trip

Jenny and I went to Portsmouth today. However, what no one told us about Portsmouth is that there is nothing to do there!
Oh well, I still had a good time!

SNOW DAY

Today was a snow day, all of Brighton's campuses were closed. Honestly not a lot of snow from my perspective but it was a huge deal to everyone here. It was nice to see people who were thrilled about all the snow! These are just a few of the snowmen I found along the pier.

You'll Never Walk Alone

Another fun weeknd in Brighton!

Friday was a busy day, critique in the morning, then Jenny and I went out to lunch with Ally to celebrate her handing in her dissertation. Funny cause it ended up being the same restaurant we ate at in Lewes, but I never knew it was the same, I would walk past it and always say how I wanted to go in! Deliciousss. Then Jenny and I had to go finish up out letterpress so we got that out of the way. After that I met back up with Ally and 3 of her wonderful friends and we sat around in the pub and talked for a while which was nice. After that I got a delicious gooey warm chocolate cookie and then killed some time before going out for the night.

Later that night Jenny and I met up with 5 of our wonderful fun friends and classmates at a new pub, the Fishbowl. It was fun fun fun and then around 11 we went to this club called Audio on the sea front where there was this drawing battle thing. Soooo yeah it was cool there were two sets of two large canvasses, one side for two Brighton based artists and the other for two London based artists. So they had 90 minutes to draw on the canvases with big black paint markers before being judged by the audience and two judges. And first of all, 90 minutes is way too long. It's just too long in general, but how awesome would it be if it were like a speed drawing challenge? C'mon, so cool! Sadly I thought the Brighton team kinda paled in comparison to the London team. At the end, the London team ended up winning even though Brighton obviously got the crowd's vote :D Ooh and then a beat boxer came on stage and did some stuff that was really fun and cool!!! We left around 2:30 am, it was so fun!!! It's nice to be doing things that I probably wouldn't typically be doing back home in Minneapolis or Chicago.


Saturday was a fun day too, I did some shopping and got some GREAT DEALS as usual. And then due to lots of phone confusion I missed some fun times but HEY I cleaned my room instead which feels pretty great. Too bad it never lasts...

This morning was quite the adventure! Jenny heard about this thing called "Seedy Sunday" (seedy as in planting seeds, not as in "ew that area of town is so seedy and gross" haha) through her "Edible Campus" extension study class. Seedy sunday is basically a giant gathering of local Farmers from the Brighton and Hove and Lewes area, maybe anywhere in Sussex county, I'm not sure. But everyone gets together to trade seeds, sell seeds and plants, have little gardening demonstrations and talks and lectures and all kinds of things. It's like a forum for learning about all kinds of organic growing and wildlife and fun stuff like that. So it is in Hove and we decided to walk there, according to Jenny's google maps route it should have been about a half hour to an hour walk or something. So we are walking along the sea which is sooo nice and cute although it is snowing and COLD. And we have been walking a longgggg time but we just haven't seen a street that looks like the main street we're supposed to turn on. After like.... a long time we decide to ask some man on the street and he told us we basically walked WAY TOO FAR because we accidentally passed it hahahaha. So we doubled back and basically ended up walking 3 times longer than we needed to. But it was fun and an adventure so I didn't mind one bit!

Once we arrived at the Hove City Council or wherever it was, we had so much fun at Seedy Sunday! I've been looking into "Walking holidays" or basically nice long hikes that I could do in some spare time around the English countryside down here in Brighton or Lewes or Sussex anywhere basically. So we talked to a few people who had good suggestions on places to go to do those, which was great. We also talked to this lady who ha grown this really beautiful place kind of like a large igloo made of willow boughs in this forest preserve area and they hold meditation nights there and all kinds of stuff, it looks BEAUTIFUL so I can't wait for the warm weather so we can go explore over there. We also just had a good time exploring and looking at all kinds of information about healthy eating and local produce and stuff, and then at 2 we went to a panel discussion/question and answer session for the gardeners. I had no idea what anyone was talking about but it was interesting so I had a good time!

After that we walked back to Brighton (much quicker this time, haha!) and I went straight to the pub to watch the Liverpool v. Chelsea game which I have to say was probably the BEST GAME EVER I've seen since the Euros! And better than some of the games in the Euros even. GOOD GOD IT WAS SO GREAT OH MY GOSH. It was probably one of the highlights of my trip so far, I'm not going to lie. The pub was PACKED, luckily mainly with Liverpool fans, and everyone was SO INTO IT! But seriously, the game was AMAZING and I'm not just saying that because I love Liverpool FC and Fernando Torres. It was so filled with drama!!!! Lampard getting the red card and being sent off made hte pub crowd go insane, singing "Cheerioooo, cheeriooooo". I couldn't help but smile even though I have a soft spot for Lampsy (and all of Chelsea really, thanks to my dear friend Marin). Someone I couldn't tell who doing the backwards kick. Liverpool making a billion shots on target. Torres giving someone (Malouda maybe?) a little pat on the cheek and thumbs up all cheekily. JT and Torres fight. Benayoun in the corner and Bonsingwa basically kicking him down BLATANTLY. So many yellow cards! SO MUCH FUN. And then of course all the drama in the last 10 minutes! 0-0 until Torres scored an AMAZING Goal in the like.... 88th minute or something and preceded to do the funniest goal celebration EVER (as pictured in the gif above). THEN, in the 5 minutes of extra time, HE DID IT AGAINNNNNNNNNNNNN AND SCORED a GREAT header and man oh man did the place ERUPT again. People were singing and chanting and screaming and it was SO. MUCH. FUN. Now Liverpool is back up into 2nd in the league and all they have to do it beat Man United and WIN THE LEAGUE, PLEASE.


Ok I have most definitely gone on WAY too long. Sorrrr-ry. Busy week ahead, should be tons of fun!