Silly London

The final chapter, horray! Anyway, this chapter talks about modern-day London. The chapter discusses the different opinions of Londoners; from people who believe that the growing Islamic community is dangerous, that the transportation system is horrid and the crime rate too high, to people who believe that the city has never been better or brighter. I'm looking forward to going there to find things out for myself; I'm sick of merely reading people's opinions about things I'm about to see. I want to see them for myself! The author distastes the Americanization of London and gives several examples as to why he dislikes them. I guess I can understand where he's coming from; I think that I would find it annoying if my city's administration was replacing classic places with new, foreign, uninteresting places.

London Cosmopolis

The first few paragraphs of this chapter are very interesting to me. The author discusses the many different people he encounters throughout the day; all who have different ethnical backgrounds, but are still considered Londoners. I think that this is amazing. I know that this is what America is supposed to be, too, but I have not encountered a whole lot of very different people in my life yet. Most of the people that I have met have been from English, German, Norweign, and Irish decent. I'm greatly looking forward to going to this large city with it's huge melting pot of culture. I can't wait to dip my toes in it, so to speak.
I also had no idea about the number of riots that took place around the city in the 1980s. There was a lot of racial tension throughout London and the topic of immigration was often to blame for these numerous riots, injuries, destruction, and deaths.

London: The End of the Bowler Hat

I had no idea how influential the bowler hat was to London. Apparently during the 1950s and 60s, the bowler hat was symbol of the upper working class. Nearly every man who worked in an office wore identical clothes: a dark suit, a bowler hat to match, and always carried an umbrella. This chapter discusses the many changes between the 1950s and 1980s; including the changes in fashion, technology and the banking system. With the birth of new technology (such as the computer), Londoners no longer felt the need for hard work. Money was able to be made quickly and vastly, thanks to technology. London businesses were slowly being taken over by conglomerations. This to me seems to be more important to the history of London than the rebuilding after WWII. The author seems to think that the glory of the austectic London was destroyed in the modernized rebuilding process. I, however, think that these larger businesses taking over the smaller ones was probably more damaging. It seems to have destroyed the spirit of London more; it slowly took away bits of the city's identity.

Postwar London

This chapter obviously discusses what London did after WWII. It begins by talking about some of the great comedies produced by Ealing Studios after the war, most of which center around homely, cheerful criminals. Also, it discusses the 1951 Festival of Britain, which was a celebration of all things British. This Festival was a way to boost morale fot Brits and begin the ultimate planning process for rebuilding the city. There is also a brief history of what was happening in the government at this time; Attlee's Labour administration was replaced by Whinston Churchill once again. After Churchhill's reluctant retirement in 1955, the Prime Minister became Sir Anthony Eden. The end of the chapter talks about how London then became a place with a desire to do both good and bad; after this period of time, London proved that it had both very good and very bad people. This chapter was probably the easiest for me to read; it seemed to flow the best.

Wartime London: 1939-1945

Hebert Mason's famous photograph of St. Paul's Cathedral being bombed by Germans on December 29-30, 1940.

World War II is one of my favorite subjects to study. I don't know why, but this war has always fascinated me above all the others. I can't even imagine what it must have been like to live in London during this time; it was bombed continusouly nearly every night for months, maybe even years. This chapter did make me proud of London, however; it showed an immense amount of pride from the author and gave me pride, too. It's a wonder that London survived these air raids at all; with the number of bombs dropped nightly, you would think that even a large city would eventually be forced to surrender what little was left of it....but once again, the author ruins a beautiful thing. Apparently all that came out of WWII for London was that the city was rebuilt by criminals. I'm not much of an optimist myself, but come on!

The chapter continues to talk about what Londoners did during this time of war, the Prime Ministers of the time, and quoting author after author about this time.

1900-1939 London

Having taken a very long pause between blog entries, I'm hoping that these remaining will not be a complete disaster. Once again, it's difficult for me to follow the author so I had a hard time trying to get back into the swing of things...
The autho begins this chapter by talking about the life and work of British politician Herbert Morrison. This man was prominate in London politics for a long time, but gave up his parlimentary seat to focus on something called the LLC (the definition of this was not mentioned until after he had used the abbreviated form about 6 times). One of his largest accomplishments was to create a little mock roadway system for children of the White Hart Land Estate. Apparently, however, this area has currently fallen to ruin, as can be seen by the author's obvious distaste for the area currently; stating that, "Anyone...today is more likely to encounter a sex maniac released into the community, or a heroin addic shooting up..."
I'm hoping to sometime approach something in this book that would make me want to go to London. The author always starts off by talking about some wonderful piece of history, but then soon destroys it by inserting his opinion of the area today. This book just frustrates me in general.

Mamet: The Generation That Would Like to Stay in School & Scholarship

The next few chapters were about Mamet's feelings on graduate school and other such programs. I am fond of Mamet's opinions on graduate school. I have considered going to one in the past, but the idea of higher student loans has kind of killed it for me. Also, I don't believe it is necessary to do so to become an actor. I'm not looking to become the most well-trained actor of all time. To quote Mamet, "Formal education for the player is not only harmful, but useless." I think that this is true, because after struggling to read through just one of Stanislavski's books, I was deeply confused about HOW to act. I was trying to pick things out of that book to help me better myself while acting. And all I got out of it was CONFUSION. I can in no way make sense of the Stanislavski method...it's too complex for me.
I believe that some people are born with a specific talent or "gift"...I don't really think that a ton of formal training is going to help you if you don't have that natural instinct of how to act. I do not believe that people have to go to school to play sports. That seems highly useless. Perhaps this idea is because I do not like a challenge, and I'm willing to admit that. However, I will take challenges when it comes to roles...such as when I played Cassius. I was very scared of that part of a while, but once I finally got over a few hurdles, I was able to better connect with him.