The Fray

Brendan and I went to see the Fray last Tuesday (January 24) and it was amazing!  It was at a venue that only held 350 people called Bush Hall and we were front row!  The best.

I got a pick and Brendan got a set list!

Did anyone know that he sang "Ungoldy Hour"?

The lead singer, Isaac, walking through the crowd.

He did two songs in that back corner.  Now you can see how small the room was.

Classy guy with red wine on stage haha

Rockin

More rockin

Continuing to rock

Brendan actually took this picture while I was standing in front of him there.  He was so close I wasn't sure whether or not to go for a high five?  Haha but actually I had to back up he was so close.  Crazy!

The red curtain actually just has a wall behind it haha

The two guitars the electric guitarist used and the keyboard Isaac used a bit.

The set list with some of their new/unreleased songs.  Happiness was especially great--Isaac came back out with just an acoustic guitar and played with no mics--so good!

Outside Bush Hall

Cambridge

Brendan and I took a bus provided by UCL out to Cambridge today and did the usual touristy stuff.  It's a cool town!  I definitely recommend it and, in my opinion, it was a bit more fun than Oxford. :)

A little video I made.  Hopefully I get better at making these... haha

In front of St. John's College 

St. John's College 

The Library at Trinity College

The waterway that passes through the colleges is called the River Cam.  It appeared to be about seven or eight feet deep.

Trees at the entrance to Trinity. 

A sort of city skyline of Cambridge. 

I suspect this is an original Tudor House.  Brendan says this is how he imagines old, old London looked.

Brendan on the left and on the right I'm in front of a building that was designed by the same fellow who designed the White House.  Quite similar, in'it?

King's College Chapel and the "White House" as I call it...

So many languages... but not Spanish? 

Awkard, I can't remember which college this is... 

The inside of King's College Chapel

King's Chapel again, this time from the punting boat!

It rained a bit during the tour but they provide you with umbrellas! 

This library has incredibly old documents including a first edition copy of one of Isaac Newton's works and something having to do with the author of Winnie the Pooh... I wish I could rememeber.

Our punting tour guide.  The punting tour was probably the best part of the trip!  I really enjoyed it and learning the cool stories associated with the town.

Duck. 

Punting tour! 

King's Chapel again. 

We stumbled across a market where I got two Scott Joplin CDs for a pound! 

I have never seen so many bicycles in one town.  On the right, Brendan and I started our day at the Fitzwilliam Museum where we saw suits of armor, swords, and really old coins as well as some renaissance paintings.  No photos were allowed inside and I forgot to take a picture of the cool building itself so all you get is this sign... :)

Just roaming around the colleges of Cambridge. 

...and roaming the streets as well 

 Cambridge has about thirty chapels I believe.

King's College 

So much green space in England!  This was taken on the bus on the way to Cambridge.

This is probably my favorite picture from the trip because of the story that goes with it.  As told by our tour guide, some gents at the school once pulled a wonderful prank in this building (I believe it was a dormitory) where they went around the building changing all of the fire exit signs so that they pointed in the direction of this door.  They then pulled the fire alarm and sat and watched as everyone ran out of the door and in to the river.  I suppose you can never tell if these sorts of stories are true but I choose to believe it!  Hilarious.

BBC 1 Studio

BBC Television Center!  (Left to right: Helen, Dave, Me, Beatrice)

Beatrice, Me, Helen, and Dave in front of the BBC blocks. 

BBC One advertisement 

Waiting for Helen in the cafe.  The building was like an airport!  So many stores and security of course.

Brendan recently found this website where you can enter a lottery for tickets to be apart of a studio audience for various BBC shows in the UK.  It's free to apply and if you get them, the tickets are also free!  Anyways, my friend Dave (from near Manchester) also happen to find the website and invited me to come along with him to see Pointless, a BBC 1 quiz show, today!  Brendan is hoping for tickets to Top Gear but he also got tickets to see The Voice (UK) which we're going to on Sunday.  Pointless was awesome though!  Dave, his friend Helen, my friend (from Silver Spring, MD what upp) Beatrice, and I all went and it happened to be a celebrity night.  Of course Beatrice and I had no idea who any of the stars were.  There were two sportscasters who were former football players (soccer), two weather people (one guy kept getting made fun of because apparently he once said there wasn't going to be a storm this one day and then a record breaking storm hit I guess), two people from an ice skating show who are married, and two comedian women who did some show about two old women?  Anyways, Dave knew six out of the eight right away and it was fun regardless haha.

The way the show works is they have teams of two and the host asks a question that has already been asked to 100 random people.  The people guessing have to guess an answer that the fewest people got.  For example: People were asked to name as many teams that participated in the 2011 rugby world cup as they could in a minute.  Let's say a team guesses New Zealand.  Since 93 people said New Zealand then that is their score and they are going for a low score.  If they guess something that no one answered, then it's "pointless" knowledge and they... win?  Not sure what happens then haha.  As a part of the audience we had to make a certain ahhhhhhhhhh sound each time the tower (starting at 100) went down to the score.

So anyways, one of the categories was New York City and so the contestants chose which of six questions to answer (the 100 random had to answer all of them) and when asked "Which baseball team comes from the Bronx?" only 16/100 people had answered New York Yankees!  When the score was going down, down, down, Beatrice and I were doing the ahhhhhhh and it slowly turned in to a "whhaaaaaaaaaaaaattttt???"  But then for the question "What European city was NYC originally named after?" 26/100 people said Amsterdam.  I didn't even remember that.  haha.  Dave unfortunately missed this part because he had a bloody nose and left at half time (bumping into the celebrities! haha) where he was greeted by four A&E guys (accident and emergency--like ambulance guys) haha.

In the final round the celebrities were playing for 2,500 pounds to donate to a charity of their choice.  They had three guesses for European capital cities south of London.  If they guessed a "pointless" city then they got all 2,500 but otherwise each team would get 500 pounds to donate to a charity of their choice.  They guessed Lisbon (20s), Athens (20s I think), and Valleta which is the capital of Malta.  The "tower" went down, down, down and then stopped at 1!  I feel bad for that one guy if he ends up watching the show haha.

The set was awesome though with about 200 different pieces of equipment like lights hanging from the ceiling and lasers making the backdrop look cool.  Since it wasn't being filmed live once in a while the producer or whoever would ask the host on his ear piece to say things over again.  It was funny since they looked crazy talking to someone we couldn't hear or see.  Also, we were the last four people to show up so when they ran out of the three rows of chairs on the floor they put us up in the stands behind them and we could see everything!  Unfortunately, we couldn't take any pictures inside.  It was great though--really looking forward to The Voice.

This isn't a video of the episode we went to but it's the same hosts!  Just thought you might like a taste of it.  It's kind of hard to explain some of it hah.

Coldplay Cover

I made a cover of a Coldplay song (Don't Let It Break Your Heart) and I just wanted to share it with you all.  Ever since I've set up my microphone and all this is pretty much what I've been doing!

Regent's Park

I woke up today and didn't have much to do so I decided to go for a run and take a few video clips of Regent's Park.  Then I made the video and still didn't have anything to do so I recorded a little something to go in the background.  Sorry it's blurry.  Still learning how to use the newer program and the camera.  The fireworks are from New Year's Eve.

Update: Hockey, Ramsay, Fun

This is a bit of a random post but I'm basically just procrastinating doing my Applied Electricity lab... anywho!

Been having fun with my new camera and it's cool effects.  This is Brendan planning our trip to the Barcelona and the other to the Alps!  He's on the phone with a person from the booking website.  The recording said it was 5p (pence) a minute and I said "wow I bet they'll talk really slowly."  And then they did.  lol

Trying not to fall asleep and get over jet lag while Brendan is on the phone.

I got really bored when my internet was out all of last week and decided to set up the music recording gear.  

Another thing I miss from America (well, RPI): free laundry.  More importantly, ECAV laundry service.

What I don't miss from America because I brought it with me: Vanilla Almond Special K!

 Team Photo!

Oh yeah, Team GB (Olympic Team/Great Britain Hockey players) were there.  No big deal.

Ramsay finished replacing our chairs/mattresses/bookshelves/desks!  A girl in my hall asked to store her chair in my room... so that's why I have two of them haha.