I just feel like everyone's carrying flowers.
That was a Katie gem. And she said it totally straight faced, that was the brilliance of it.
Today was an off day in the every-other-day interview week, so I went into the city to basically just walk around. I severely misunderestimated the weather and was cold to freezing all day and had to keep ducking into shops to warm up before continuing on out in the cold cold afternoon. It's supposed to be sunny again over the weekend, but I fear the tropical weather has left us for good, leaving us to a regular London February.
Started out with a little browse at Borders, including reading the interview with Ricky in the Radio Times. Nothing really new, except that his pool is a basement pool; I suppose it would have to be an indoor pool in England and I don't know why I thought it wouldn't be, but I did sort of immediately get an image of Hearst Castle in my head. Pretty awesome. From Borders I cut over by Hairspray and went up and down all the little streets by Covent Garden and Neal's Yard. I found that elusive cheese shop, it's on Short's Garden, behind the Donmar. Speaking of the Domar, there were all sorts of autograph hounds hanging out in front of the theatre at 1:30. Sorry lads, they're already in for the 2:30 matinee. Of course that didn't stop me from peeping into Neros just in case, or thinking I saw Kelly Reilly walking up Long Acre. There was some filmic extravaganza outside Avenue Q, and some photographic one by Covent Garden station. It was quite a day for extravaganzas actually, there were just a lot of trucks unloading everywhere in anticipation of the big Valentines Day crowds.
There are so many less people out now that it's cold again. Gone are the days of crowds of sunbathers laying all about Covent Garden. I stubbornly refused to be indoors, cuz despite the cold it was still a nice day, and sat over on the wall by St. Pauls Church. Shortly after sitting down, I saw Stu getting ready for a day's work, chatting with another performer and holding two packets of crisps. Who else would it be? ["If you're just joining us, we're applauding crisp flavours!"] It's quite sweet to see the sort of fellowship of street performers; Stu finished his chat with the juggler he'd been talking to and went to help the magician who'd just finished carry his table back out of the performance area.
Not yet in his performance gear, he started by stripping-- have I missed that every time?? People were intrigued but a BIT sketched out, leading him to say: "If you'll all gather round a bit closer there, I'd feel more like a performer, less like a naked madman." Once he was dressed again in his costume, he requested the help of 'a small, cute child'. None was forthcoming, so he assured the audience, "Don't worry, there's no more nudity now we've started." A small child volunteered early on but was deemed too small, but eventually Stu had to go for the kid cuz no one else volunteered. It made sense why he was going for a 6 year old as opposed to a 4 year old when Senti (that's the child) kept dancing around and couldn't follow instructions. At some point he was introing a trick or something and Senti started pointing and shrieking 'birds!' Stu, indulgently, was like "Yeah I know!" and then looked over to my part of the crowd like "What??" Before starting one juggling trick, Senti's crazy dancing distracted him: "Senti, watch out for your laces. Dad, could you come tie her laces?... Let's see what everyone's more interested in seeing: a trick I spent three years learning, or a man tying some laces." Later there were some loud cheers from the other end of the market that threw Stu off his game for a second, til he said "I'm on satellite, there's a delay... Actually, that's my friend Nick; give us a big cheer just to wind him up!" and as the crowd did, he ran over and jokingly gave him the two finger salute. The cell phone of one of his rope-holding volunteers rang and he answered it: "We're just having a party in Covent Garden with some friends and a rope... Who am I? I'm his boyfriend." Then he hung up on her! I think she called back cuz the kid of the volunteer was on the phone almost immediately after. Hi-larious. Much like the out of control child who kept trying to steal the hat last time, this time there was a poorly supervised child incessantly ringing a bell. After about the fifth time addressing the kid, Stu said only somewhat jokingly, "Would someone near that kid... take that bell..." Later he appealed to the mother (who was quite difficult to find), who wouldn't take the bell from him, bizarrely. When he gave up on the mother and the kid rang the bell once more, he deemed the kid "a hoodie in the making". When the juggling and hat tricks were over, Stu asked everyone if they were enjoying the show so far. Everyone cheered except a couple of attitude-y teenagers in the front, who yelled "NO!" Stu shot them a look and said "Well you've watched the whole thing, so more fool you!" In the great big buildup to getting on the rope, a little douche walked through the performance area; Stu referred to him as Mr. Cool and then called after him "Do you not get enough attention at home?" Later when he was up on the rope, had dropped the crisps, got them back by picking them up with his foot, and was trying to keep the kid of the volunteer from running into the rope, he accidentally referred to Senti as a 'her' again. Several members of the crowd, now aware of the mistake, shouted out "him!", to which Stu responded, "I'm concentrating on quite a lot things right now." Good show. I quite like that he's out there regularly now, I feel like it's a free comedy show whenever I feel like going.
After that I wandered back up towards Neal Street and stopped in at the Body Shop to glam up on tester products. How fun! How have I not done this before? Wandered over by the Novello and all those little streets over there and found Treadwell Books, which has the best sign ever outside: "Browsers Encouraged. Browsing is a dying art. Keep it alive." If they only knew how much I was keeping it alive. In that vein, I browsed several bookshops, including the Oxfam one on Drury Lane, where I eavesdropped on a conversation between a woman who had put a book on hold that subsequently got sold, and the Polish volunteer cashier who just started yesterday and didn't know the manager's name or where he was. Basically it consisted of the woman going "it's not fair" (which was a bit childish I thought, for what we call in this country, a 'mature' lady) and the Polish cashier just saying she was sorry. Um, also about this bookshop, I know you might just be warming your hands, but you're not allowed to stand behind people and breathe like an unbelievable creepster.
After that I went to Pop Boutique and Apple Tree, which I love even though it's insanely expensive; also spent a long long time in Scribbler looking at the occasionally humerous cards. Wandered a bit more, got a sammich and came home to spend Valentines Day with the Hollyoaks cast, Jamie Oliver, and a documentary about child evangelists.
Jamie:
It was Summer Salads in JamieLand, and he opened by cutting up some nice iceberg lettuce, a few tomatoes ["I like to use the underripe ones. Less flavour, but that doesn't matter."), some cucumber, and then a cheesy fancy-cut tomato. He presented the plate, "There ya go! ...That goes in the bin, for the chickens." It was hysterical; at the end of the episode he had his gardener throw iceberg lettuces in the air while he shotgunned them.
Quotables:
-Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to impress you right now. [Sort of get the impression of the unspoken "Wait til I start trying to impress you. *wink*")
-Now you're thinkin 'ooh that looks nice', but I want you to ruin it, cuz we're talking about flavour, not poncey-ness.
-[chopping on a wooden crate] I'm just gonna... finely slice it on this... incredibly unhygienic board.
-Look at that; that is a right picture, that is. [So incredibly English, he is]
Oh my god, for some reason I think Keone would love this show (I'm now watching the child evangelists thing). This big black woman answers the phone "Praise the lord." The whole thing is pretty weird and sad, much like Jesus Camp.
Second interview tomorrow, that's it then. What a fucking week, I'm knackered.