‘I’ll Be Seeing You’

I’ll Be Seeing You (1944) is the only new (new to us, anyway) Christmas movie we’ve seen so far this year, and it was a flop. Halfway through the movie, Brodacious, who was sprawled out on the couch, started making motions like he was stabbing himself in the chest. I suppose to suggest that dying a murderous death would be less painful than having to sit through this movie. I doubt there will be a second viewing of this one.

The Candlelight Sing–along

Some friends invited us to a Christmas Carol Candlelight Sing-Along at Royal Albert Hall on Sunday, which we’ve been looking forward to for a couple of reasons: who doesn’t love a carol sing-along (in candlelight, no less), and we’d never been to the venue and wanted to see what it’s like.

This was an evening we very much enjoyed. Every seat in the house (a large, beautiful hall) was taken, and to hear that many people singing Hark the Herald Angels Sing was pretty impressive. Barring The 12 Days of Christmas, which was the encore, I think every song we sang was religious. We were a little bit thrown off by Oh, Little Town of Bethlehem and It Came Upon a Midnight Clear, which are sung to different tunes over here. But we had a great time and I sang myself hoarse. In between the sing-along numbers, the Mozart Orchestra and an accompanying choir performed some pieces. The conductor and everyone in the orchestra was dressed up in period costume like Mozart—white wig, long coat and breeches included. There were also a couple of readings- one from A Christmas Carol and the other the nativity story from the New Testament. It was, altogether, a great night and the best thing we’ve done so far to celebrate the season.

The Panto

We’ve been trying to work some Christmas cheer into our busy schedules, and take advantage of some of the great things going on in London at this time of year. A friend invited us to a pantomime (panto as it’s called) and we accepted the invite and then tried to figure out exactly what we were going to. At first we were thinking it would be a play with no words, but then we decided we were thinking of mimes not pantomimes. We didn’t know quite what to expect.

So we watched the first part of the pantomime, which was Cinderella, and then Brodacious got out his mobile and Googled’ the term. We found that a pantomime is a play with stereotyped characters and a lot of audience interaction. There’s the villain, who gets lots of booing, the hero who gets the cheering, and then a lot of “oh, no you can’t” and “oh, yes you can” being shouted out by the audience throughout the story. The humor seems a bit slapstick, and the panto we were watching involved cross-dressing. The ugly stepsisters and the wicked stepmother were all men.

We talked to people afterwards, and read more about the panto. We found out it’s a very popular and long-standing British tradition at Christmas time, and the one we saw was fairly representative of the genre.

It’s interesting to see stuff like this. It influences your assessment of British people and culture.

Our Christmas Shrub

We put up our Christmas tree yesterday, and it’s been making me laugh every time I look at it. Rather than being a tree, it’s more like a Christmas shrub, wider than it is tall. This is what we get for buying it sight unseen. We just walked down the street yesterday afternoon, looking for the best deal on fresh trees, and the best deal was this random man on the corner with a pile of trees next to his tiny makeshift booth. The trees were wrapped in mesh netting, and we just picked one out of the pile and lugged it home. It wasn’t until we cut the netting off the tree and the branches unfolded that we realized we had a slight problem. Well, not a problem really, just an ugly squat of a Christmas shrub to display near our front window for a couple of weeks. Oh, and it’s also partially dead, so we can only hope it actually lasts until Christmas.  I was up early this morning reading on the couch and listening to the dead needles fall with a ping onto the tree skirt. No regrets, though. It still provides that nice Christmas–y pine smell and has added a little holiday cheer to the room.

Scandinavian summer

After having had some months to think about our summer holidays, Nerak and I have finally finished evaluating our first cruising experience. Here’s what we decided.

Cruising upsides:

Cost–notwithstanding that we got a great deal on our tickets (many thanks Mike!), cruising is a great way to see a lot on a limited budget.

Ease–perhaps the biggest upside was not having to deal with making transportation arrangements between each city, thus saving ourselves the hassle of transporting our luggage from hotel to hotel, city to city (you only have to unpack once).

Cruising downsides:

The Food–there was a lot of it, but it was mediocre, at best. The biggest disappointment in this area was that the menu was generic, and one of the best things about traveling is experiencing new and different foods.

Ship Departure Times–having to leave each city at the end of the day because of strict (and early) departure times was a real hardship. We found that we were not usually ready to re-board the ship at departure time, and once back on-board, quickly became bored with the food and entertainment options.

Lack of Cultural Immersion–another of the best things about traveling is being completely absorbed in the cultural space of the place you are visiting. However, on our cruise we were continually surrounded by Americans and American culture. It was almost like being in a Los Vegas hotel every morning, evening and night, with daytime hours spent visiting Northern Europe. We did indeed meet some nice people, but they were from New Jersey or Texas, rather than from Sweden etc…

Limited Opportunities to Do Your Own Thing–we found that it was often difficult to deviate from planned tours and activities. There was a disconcerting lack of information and transparency for those who wanted more flexibility in doing things on their own at each stop.

Definite Skew Towards an Older Audience in Entertainment and Attitudes–enough said.

Obviously, these upsides and downsides are subjective, and we did have a great holiday, but when next considering how to travel we will be taking these things into consideration. I suppose we won’t be cruising again soon, as we felt that there were too many trade–offs of the things we like about travel. Perhaps we just don’t fit the profile of those people who fall within the cruise industry’s target market.

Click on the image at top for our final summer holiday 2008 pictures.

Mumbai—Bombay

I’ve been meaning for months now to write a post about the week last March I spent carrying out ethnographic research in Mumbai. (For more about Nokia’s approach to research, see this article from the NY Times). I suppose I’d never have gotten around to it were it not for the tragic recent events that brought Mumbai again to mind. It’s sobering to think that I’ve visited at least 4 of the various locations attacked by the terrorists (most of them being high-traffic tourist destinations, after all).

One of the difficulties in writing about India is that it is so hard to get your head around the place. It really defies description. Colors, smells, tastes, the incredibly ancient and newly modern co–existing in the same space. Incredible poverty side–by–side with the wealth and power of a westernized elite class. It does your head in to experience a place of such energy and amazing contrasts. (At 19 million people, Mumbai is the 5th most populated city in the world). There’s nothing I’ve experienced in western culture that compares to the sheer scale and breadth of India; it is culturally unique.

For better prose on Mumbai than my own, I’d recommend a book called Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found, by Suketu Mehta. Although it’s a little long towards the middle, it presents an enthralling picture of an amazing world city.

Click the images at the beginning of this post for more images of Mumbai.

Christmas Movies

I’m rather a sucker for Christmas movies, and sit through even the most cheesy, sappy fare (Snow Wonder, anyone?) in the name of holiday cheer. So a couple of years ago, I conducted a little Internet “research” to find some new Christmas movies to watch through December. We Netflixed, among other movies, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. Wow. What an extravaganza—a Technicolor-style musical (every single word is sung) with Catherine Deneuve, a passel of umbrellas, and absolutely nothing to do with Christmas. Oh wait, there was a Christmas tree in the background of the final scene… Anyhow, whoever recommended this has an interesting idea of what a Christmas movie entails.

So, of course, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg has now become our standard. It has maybe permanently lowered the bar as to what qualifies as a Christmas movie. Last weekend, we happened to watch two 1970s Christmas movies: The Conversation, in which a holiday decoration could be spotted here and there throughout the movie, and The French Connection. I can’t even remember how The French Connection qualified, but it did.

I think Brodacious likes this state of affairs. Watching a Christmas movie no longer means sitting down to It’s a Wonderful Life or Miracle on 34th Street.