Better than bombarding your inbox: Busy Times; Kenz Exhibits

Song of the Day: Cavalier, James Vincent McMorrow

London Stuff: We're growing food underground here - like, way underground - in WWII bomb shelters (hat tip: Tina Rucker).

Kenz and I have been like two ships passing in the night these past two weeks. I'm facing various work deadlines and she's busting tail to get ready for her final year show. On top of that, each of us has begun to say "yes" to as many things as possible, both living in the shadow of a countdown clock.

We do, still, have the weekends, but they've gotten just as busy. We've booked roughly one play or art exhibit for each weekend through June. It's great on paper, but I think it has left both of us perpetually drained.

Dom & I met up for dinner last Wednesday.

Jason & I met up for lunch last Friday.

He and I then went to Borough market for him to get some cheese; we were met with this line for the single ATM.

About those plays: Kenz and I went to The Old Vic to see Other Desert Cities last Saturday. This 'season', The Old Vic is doing theatre in the round, which is a welcome change. This is one of our favorite theaters; it's located in south London (12 minutes from our house) but has all the talent of a West End theatre. It was neat to see how they'd changed a proscenium stage into the new, circular design. I failed to take a sneaky picture, but we'll have two more opportunities to do so before it's all said and done. We already have tix to two more shows in June.

Kenz was excited to grub afterward.

South London has a funny way of celebrating Easter Sunday. Or, should I say, the college kids in south London have a specific way of celebrating April 20th, which happened to fall on Easter Sunday this year. I was on my way home and ran across groups of questionably-costumed characters, lined up for a club entrance.

That evening, I met up with Owen to go see what will likely be the most violent film of 2014: The Raid 2. He and I met up early, went for a stroll around Leicester Square, and proceeded to gut laugh at the absurdity of the film. It was a fantastic boy's night.

Nelson's column foregrounding Big Ben.

Leicester Square

We ran into a movie being filmed.

We debated whether or not to gamble at the Hippodrome Casino...for about 30 seconds.

One of Kenz's school friends, Ragna, is from Denmark. She is who Kenz was visiting in Copenhagen last month. A talented artist, Ragna won the Danish Embassy Art Prize, which means her work will be featured in the embassy until this time next year. It's quite an honor and we were excited to attend her private viewing on Wednesday night.

This was the only picture I felt comfortable taking (because I was all alone).

One of the Danish officials gave a speech at the beginning of the event, wherein he revealed that Ragna's grandfather was the architect of the embassy. Embarrassed but classy, Ragna had a perpetual blush all night as she mixed and mingled with her family, friends, and countless embassy guests.

Ragna, Alejandra, Annie, and Kenz

Speaking of art, Kenz has been making progress on her own work:

She's reworking the ergonomics on the chair mould.

And finally getting the last bits of plaster off her bronze casts.

She still has some trimming to do, but they're coming out nicely.

This week, they had a professional photographer come to the studio in order to take pictures for their final exhibition. The photos will be a part of the exhibition catalogue. For the past two months, Kenz and her friends have been scurrying around town trying to find sponsors for the catalogue. They have a fundraising website, complete with rewards for benchmark donations (for those interested, you can find it here). It's pretty exciting to see bits of everyone's work, having been to their first and second-year shows; Kenz and her classmates show marked progression over the past three years. I'm looking forward to June 14th.

One of Kenz's pieces (I think the chair is going to extend onto the wall, but don't quote me).

Kenz is exhibiting at the Hotel Elephant Gallery this weekend, and I'm about to head out the door to her private viewing this evening. She won't be showing everything that she's been working on, but it'll be enough to satiate my excitement/curiosity until June.