2012

No not 2024, companion film to "In the Mood for Love," both good Hong Kong films I desperately need to see, but 2012, as in London2012. Take that NYC, Paris, Madrid, and Moscow. You see, the majority of London's 2012 Olympic bid centers around an area of the city just north and east of me, with the closest large train/tube station (King's Cross) due for a major overhaul to accommodate the plans. At the moment, King's Cross is my least favourite of the big stations (Waterloo, Liverpool, Victoria, and Paddington are the others, at least in my book), but I love EC and NE London.

I've been waiting ages to see The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Wes Anderson's latest cerebral effort following in the long shadows of Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums. Well, I'm still waiting. No Bill Murray/Owen Wislon/Jeff Goldblum/etc comedic respite for me quite yet. London cinema tickets are horribly expensive at about US$14+ for student rates--except on Mondays, when you can find places selling tickets for under US$10, sometimes even under US$8. So that was the plan, but the "Screen on the Green" had a power outage and was shut down for the night. Pity, since my original plans had me simply remaining down in the Docklands area late at work and hopping over right afterwards.

But I began this post espousing this quadrants merits. So the Screen on the Green is in the heart of Angel, up towards Islington proper and beyond Finsbury. Think of it as two "neighbourhoods" past where I live these days. Well Angel is my kind of town. Lots of classy ethnic eateries (including a Brazilian churasqueria steakhouse!) at a moderate price, stylish but moderate shops, cultural diversions, and some upbeat but not over the top nightlife. Fantastic for the budding BoBo. Unfortunately, save for a few espresso shops, most everything was closed by the time I was there, but that left me to meander around in my own thoughts as I was gently pelted by giant fluffy white flakes of snow (as I have been for the past 3 days--none of it has stuck to the ground though).

I ended up wandering into one of London's probably two Border's bookstores, intent on picking up a copy of Nick Hornsby's High Fidelity. I don't know anything about the author's quality, but just like John Cusack who picked up his novel and made a fabulous movie of it, his works strike a bit of a nerve. Something right about it all, perhaps how much he seems to tie things to music. Well, I imagine I should read a work or two first....

My eye also caught another title next to Hornsby's small collection: Atomised. Looking it up later after becoming quite enthralled by the synopsis, I found out that it's a work translated from the French and out of print in the states. It's the work of a brooding French existentialist intellectual, pontificating on basic values that are all too often lost in today's commoditzed world. After being so captivated by the write ups, I again was struck by the Amazon reviewers describing it as a bit of a failure in the USA because it so jarred with the selfish personal success over all else (including other people) motif pervasive in American society. I'll be picking this up at a later date, doubtless, as this seems to be the missing link explaining the gaps between my psyche and where I feel the rest of America is. This is truly a poor poor write up explaining all this....but it is late.

All in all, it was a night of elated feelings, even though I can't begin to explain the half of why.