The London Traveler

If you’ve ever wanted to watch Chinese opera, head for Sadler’s Wells, where the authentic, five hundred year old tradition of the Chinese opera is on show till 8th June.
The Peony Pavilion tells a weird love story – a girl who dies of love after meeting a young scholar in a dream, the scholar who digs her body up to restore her to life. It’s a rather odd story, in which the realistic surface of the world shatters and dreams and ghosts seem more ‘real’ than we are.
Kunqu opera is a mixed medium – in addition to the music and …read more

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The last night of legal drinking on the Tube started yesterday as a fun cocktail party.  If you kicked of the night at 6 or 7 o’clock and had half an hour’s fun, you did well.
But in great British tradition (alas), the night ended in chaos and drunken shenanigans, with fights breaking out on the trains and six stations closed by police.
More detailed coverage from the Independent  if you can stomach it!

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I’ve always envied the Queen. She has two birthdays – a real one like the rest of us, and an official one.
The reason for the official birthday is that you can pick a time when the weather is less likely to be miserable for official occasions like garden parties. But I bet she gets two lots of presents, too. And you know what? Her official birthday is always on a Saturday. Lucky lady.

The Trooping of the Colour celebrates her official birthday, and this year will be held on June 14th. The Household Division, which forms the Queen’s personal guard, will …read more

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Well, summer is here. Nearly.
The Chelsea Flower Show starts tomorrow, at the Royal Hospital, Chelsea. It’s the show that sets all the trends in the world of gardening – new kinds of garden, new themes, new plants. It’s as important to gardeners as London Fashion Week is to designers.
Themes this year will include wildlife gardening and xeriscaping – gardens for drier, hotter climates, which we’re expecting as a result of  global warming.
Tickets are sold out, though. But if you’re into peoplewatching, you can still have a lot of fun with the queue, as serious gardeners are joined by ladies in …read more

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Boris Johnson in his wisdom has banned drinking on public transport.
Now I don’t really think that drinking on the Tube is a great British tradition,  or a freedom very greatly worth defending.
But I’m still glad someone saw the opportunity for a little protest. All the more since they made it into a party.
Saturday May 31st is the last day you’ll be able to drink on the Tube. And that’s when the Final Circle Line Party will be held – from 9pm, in the last tube of the train leaving Liverpool Street clockwise.
Sounds like a really good excuse for a knees-up. …read more

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The London Festival of Architecture starts in just over a month’s time. Looking at the activities planned, it should really have its title reshuffled a bit – it’s a Festival of London Architecture.
I’m particularly keen to find out more about the Skylon – a modernist, even futuristic pylon that stood on the South Bank as part of the Festival of Britain. It was every bit as much as symbol of the 1950s – a decade in which Britain emerged from rationing and greyness, a decade of optimism and modernist enterprise – as the Dome was of the late 90s. And …read more

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18th May will see the Shoot London event taking over Tate Modern for the day.
Shoot Experience runs  photographic treasure hunts around London (and in other UK locations, like Liverpool). This one’s booked out already, though you could book yourself and friends on Shoot London Lite. You’ll follow clues around the South Bank to find ten sites, and take photographs. Teams need to be between two and four people – the more the merrier since the ticket price of £22 is per team, not per person.
And in September, Shoot Shoreditch will be back for the fourth year in a row – …read more

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Greenwich will be celebrating May Day with a special Fayre on Monday, May 5th. The grounds of the Old Royal Naval College will host morris dancing, a stiltwalking Green Man, and numerous other activities. And if you’re a carnivore there’s a hog roast, which should be tasty.
(Actually, as an occasional medieval re-enactor, I end up eating quite a lot of hog roast. For some reason, wherever you reenact, there is going to be either a ham, or a hog roast. There’s never any beef, never any lamb, and rarely chicken… as for vegetables, it appears the medieval mind probably found …read more

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The 1978 Rock against Racism event in Victoria Park was a defining moment of the 1970s. Rock bands got together to march from Trafalgar Square and protest against the increasingly active National Front.
Now, the anniversary of this event is being celebrated with another massive music festival in Victoria Park – Love Music, Hate Racism. With two outdoor stages and a big dance marquee, it will  see some of the original participants coming back to perform, as well as a truly multicultural mix of acts including bhangra and r&b as well as hip-hop, indie, reggae and funky house.
For the more serious, …read more

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This little snippet came as I was trawling the web looking for stuff on Steve Reich, the minimalist composer. The Laptop Orchestra quotes him as one of its major influences.
The Orchestra combines members of the London Sinfonietta with students from the London College of Communication. Traditional instruments mix with computer generated and managed sounds, and no one ever seems quite sure what is going to happen on the night.
So this could be an interesting experiment. Add to that visuals from VJ Pablo Fiasco and it should be an intriguing night. (Pablo pushes the boundaries of visuals – for instance projecting …read more

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