The demise of a Supamonkey, the artistic death of a stranger and an authentic baguette

::note:: this entry is a long, but hopefully, interesting read

Friday marked a dark day in the world of Suparama. Actually, the weather was beautiful, but there was a certain sadness that lingered about in the loft. Friday was not a day where Wombat Woe (Supamonkey’s sworn enemy) had succeeded, but in reality, the day that Suparama would close its doors for the last time. This didn’t come until after I lugged box after box down five flights of stairs to the moving van that was parked out on the narrow street. They couldn’t have picked a better time to have an intern it seemed.

We left the bustling atmosphere of Soho for the much more subdued High Street Kensington area. It’s a totally different vibe here. Not far from the wealthy Chelsea neighborhood where I reside, Kensington acts a lot like its neighbor. For example, a baby grand piano is a causal part of the interior decorating at the nearest McDonalds. The tube stop isn’t just a train station either, but rather a shopping center with doors dotting the isle to tons of shops of different price levels.

Our new home is in a stark white building, rather symbolic of having a clean slate to start something new. We’ve merged with another company and the environment is quite different. With an additional eight people, the hours aren’t filled with silence like they were for my first four weeks. I spent the remainder of the day unpacking the things I had just bundled earlier that morning. I’ve become the master of moving, but not by choice. It seems that I’ve become the ever-travelling hermit, who keeps all his worldly possessions to a minimum, making it easy to move from place to place. Suparama capitalized on his, using my packing skills to their fullest.

I got off early Friday, and I did so with no complaints. I came home after a quick stint on the Tube, in which I found I was headed in the wrong direction. After reorienting myself, I enjoyed an afternoon nap to myself.

It’s been one week since Alissa’s birthday and that meant that it was time to enjoy her birthday present that I told you all about previously. Fuerzabruta proved to be an exciting adventure. Being performed in the Roundhouse, a recently renovated theatre, we found ourselves in a huge round room, standing and glancing about at the club-like ambiance. Soon enough, the show started.

I’ve been asked to describe it and to be honest, it’s quite difficult because I think it’s different for everyone. Ultimately, we’ve agreed that the entire show is an artistic expression of a man’s journey from life to death. After being shot, the main character soon begins his adventure into the afterlife. Elaborate sets, which require audience participation, decorated the area, as well as pumping music and dazzling lighting effects. Fuerzabruta, which means “brute force,” continues to awe audiences when a suspended tank drops down inches from the audiences’ heads. Four woman splash about, casually peering down at us, but they look as if they’re just having fun, not actually working. The entire event has amazing acrobatics, from woman chasing each other across the walls to the final leap our character makes at the end of the show. It truly was beautiful and worth every pound.

The weekend was off to a good start and continued as I extended my weekend to include Monday as well. I requested the day off because I was going on a journey to what has been my favorite place in the world and still remains to be challenged, Paris. Veronica, my new friend from California, is an intern this summer for Disney. After getting free park tickets, a discounted hotel fee, and one-way tickets to France, I took her up on her offer to tag along.

The French countryside is awe-inspiring. From the sprawling lavender fields to the hundreds of churches you pass on your way, you can’t help but admire the beauty. On my ride through the chunnel, I got to reflect on everything I saw the last time I visited this country and try and brush up on my French. It's a good thing I did, I used it to help us get around and sell the extra tickets we had. It's funny how something you haven't used in over three years just comes back to you like riding a bike.

After only a 2.5 hour train ride, we arrived at our destination and quickly unloaded our things at our hotel room. With higher than normal ceilings, the New York Hotel at Disneyland Paris provided to be an amazing room with what seemed to be the most comfortable bed I’ve ever slept in. That’s probably only because I’ve been sleeping on a rock for the past month, but still, I slept like a prince, my castle just beyond the park gates.

We headed back to the train station to purchase an unlimited one-day pass to the city after we exchanged some money to Euros. Our first stop put us beside the Centre Pompidou, also known as Beaubourg. I filled the girls in that this colossal structure houses the modern art museum. The building itself was built in reverse, with all the architectural elements, pipes, heating vents, stairs, etc. being built on the outside to maximize space and also to add to the design. Everything is color-coded, for example, anything in blue relates to the water system throughout the building.

The next stop on our quick tour of the city was Notre Dame Cathedral. Unlike my last visit here, this time, picture-ruining scaffolding didn’t flank the left wing. We made sure to pick-pocket-proof our belongings and enjoyed the beauty of the site. It’s an amazing place, everything being built with such attention to detail.

Soon after, we found ourselves walking towards the Louvre. This museum is the home to the Mona Lisa, but most of you already know that because of the Da Vinci Code. The enormous building provided some shade as the sun beat down profusely. It’s funny, most people consider the pyramids that mark the entrance to the gallery an eye-sore, but I find them beautiful, maybe that’s because I live 40 minutes from another pyramid designed by the same architect.

We walked a bit up the Champs-Elyse, the most famous shopping road of all time and I got a baguette, which seemed to hit the spot despite it’s price. A quick journey on the metro, we found ourselves standing beneath the Arc d’Triomphe. France’s tribute similar to our Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, stands in the center of a huge intersection, 12 lanes across. A giant French flag hung down and a memorial was just getting started while we were there.

The quick tour of Paris continued on to the most well known monument of the city, the Tour Eiffel. Standing underneath this huge entanglement of steel, you really get a sense of what an ant feels like. It was ridiculously hard to even get the entire thing in one frame of a picture. For those of you who may not know, the Eiffel Tower was never intended to be a permanent landmark. It was built a long time ago for the World’s Fair. Most citizens thought the Tower was ugly, but upon approval the Tower stayed erect even after the fair was over. Although it’s been more than one color, today the Tower is brown and provides an amazing view of the city.

Soon after, we were headed back to our hotel. The day had it’s toll on us and after getting something to eat, I found myself completely drained, not too tired though to catch a quick swim in their amazing pool.

Monday was our visit to Disneyland. I’ve never been to either of the parks back in the states, so I found myself dazzled by the elaborate theming. We picked a great day to go, the lines were ridiculously short and the weather amazing. It’s funny though, the rollercoasters here don’t quite pack the same punch that they do in America. With very few drops and what seems a never-ending stretch of turns at high speeds, we’ve come to think that the French don’t really like heights, they just prefer to go really fast. We watched a few shows, rode a few other types of rides, and enjoyed our day at the park. Characters strolled about and tons of kids were there to flock to them and have their pictures taken. I wondered what it would be like to dress up and become instant royalty in this imaginary world. I bet the people in those costumes have huge heads.

Our trip back to London was sad and frustrating. We got on the first train without ever being asked to see a ticket or going through security. I guess the French feel much more secure about the truth and integrity of their passengers than we do in America. We passed through passport control and immigration though later and soon found ourselves on the other side of the chunnel, back in the country that causes constant allergy problems.

A great weekend, I now have a renewed sense of enthusiasm…let’s hope that continues. Back to work at the new place, I’ll fill you all in later. Hope everyone had as good a time this weekend as I did.

My SupaPortfolio

A lot of you have been curious as to what I have been working on while I'm over here. I've created another blog just featuring some of my projects. You can click here to go to it, or it will remain a permanent link on the sidebar under the links section.

What I Would Give For....

These past 5 days or so...

A lot can happen in five days. I'm trying now to collect my thoughts on everything that has happened and it seems ridiculous. I guess I can never really say I'm terribly bored, even though there are points at which you hit lows, secretly craving Long John Silvers or just wanting to be able to drive yourself somewhere instead of always having to wait for a train.

Let's start with Thursday. An interesting day at work, finally! The weather here has been absolutely amazing. It must seem weird, but we've had 80 degree weather and no rain for the past week, so I've been overjoyed by the fact that I can finally wear flipflops to work. Anyways, the guys decided that we should all go out and have a liquid lunch...and they didn't mean all of us ordering some soup. We walked a couple of blocks through Soho and David bought me a pint of beer. After everyone had gotten what they wanted, I was introduced to the ladies who worked downstairs as the special events team called Destiny. They were all very nice and it was there that I got a break. Alice told me that normally they too have an intern, but work was slower than normal and they didn't get one for the summer. But she said because of my background from the Rec that if I ever had some downtime that she would love to have me work on a few projects! I was really excited because my job was growing mundane, I guess I never realized how much variety I had at my job back at school.

The ladies also gave me some ideas on what to get Alissa for her birthday. I ended up buying tickets for a show called Fuerzabruta. The preview boasts: This is an event where worlds collide. Where dreams are real and reality takes a back seat. Give in to it, let go and enjoy the spectacular ride. It's seductive, it's inventive and it's coming to town in a big, big way. It looks to be pretty cool. Click here to check out the trailer.

That evening, Alissa, Bomo and I were riding the elevator when all of a sudden it had a sudden jolt and just stopped. We all looked at each other and burst out laughing. Hysteria in a time of commotion is rather ironic, but we found it so amusing that we were actually stuck in an elevator. Quickly though, I hit a button and it jolted back to life. Our desperation and misery would just have to wait another time. Unfortunately, later that night, the elevator did have some victims who were trapped in there for quite some time.

Friday was extremely hot. Most of the day was spent packing up the agency despite the heat. Suparama is about to move to a new location and take on a new name. The $100,000 a month rent just became to pricey. So in the words of Meagen Cougill, "They got tired of the monkey and made like a banana and split."

I left early, came home, showered and prepared for Alissa's birthday extravaganza. Her actual birthday wasn't until Saturday, but the bigger night out here is Friday. We ended up going to a place called "The End." After the most complicated search of my life (they even went through every compartment of my wallet) we finally made it in and found ourselves the only ones there. But we paid $20 to get in so we weren't leaving. Got a few drinks and waited around and slowly people began to filter in. We were amused when a group of guys were break-dancing beside us. Before you knew it, the place sprung to life and for you ladies in the pit, I can classify this as my first rave.

Strobe lights, music so loud you could feel it throughout your body, alcohol and weed was all part of this place's character. Twice, someone asked me if I'd like to buy drugs from them and seemed quite shocked when I declined. We were there a little longer than I would have liked to be, but it was Alissa's birthday and she was having a good time so I didn't want to spoil her fun. I'm definitely not the raver type, but you have to try everything once and enjoy it for what it's worth.

Yesterday, we ventured to Chinatown and enjoyed the sweet and sour chicken that seemed so much better than we ever had at the Evergreen Buffet...hard to imagine, I know. After that, we all spit our separate ways, shopping on Oxford Street or going home. Later, we went and had some cake and ice cream and ate it outside in celebration of Alissa being an old geezer at 23.

While we were out, Mark called and eventually I met up with him and his friends down in Soho. Not after quite the journey getting there though. Someone had passed out on my train and we had to wait at a station until EMS arrived. In addition to the time this took, the line I was transferring to was closed so I had to make an entire new route on the spot. After weaving my way through the city, I was just about to board my last tube when out of the corner of my eye I spot Alissa and Bomo. Talk about your random coincidences. In all of London, with a population so large its outstanding, we meet at the same time on the same train unplanned. It boggled my mind, but nonetheless, I finally made it to meet Mark 25 minutes late. After apologizing profusely, we did some barhopping. Good times were had, except for the 1.5 hour long ride home. Night buses suck everyone, take advantage of your cars.

Today has been a lazy day. I went and got some subway and ate it at a park by the river. I'm starting book number two because I just recently finished one very similar to The Da Vinci Code, called Map of Bones. If you liked any of Dan Brown's books, you would like this one too. That's all for now, hope everyone is enjoying themselves...keep a look out, round two of the postcards should be going out soon.

Time Flies and Time Crawls

So it seems like when I’m enjoying myself the moment is over in a second and when I’m bored to tears, the time couldn’t drag on any slower. I guess that’s life right. This weekend was exactly that, a mix of downtime and highlights.

Bomo and myself met Mark at the fountain at Piccadilly Circus promptly at 8:30, then ventured across the street to Burger King to catch a cheap ($8 is cheap now…) meal before we met up with the rest of the group. An eternity passed by, so we ventured down the street and enjoyed a round of Fosters. Mark and I reminisced while Bomo sat there bored to tears -- he can’t complain, I bought him his drink.

Still more time passed by and we were quickly growing impatient…Bomo’s attempt to flirt with the foreign girls and Mark’s moaning helped to kill time. But before you know it, up stagger the rest of the group, with a new addition, Veronica, the girl who lives next to Alissa and Megan. She meshed rather well and is certainly welcome to tag along again.

After some drunk picture taking, we began our journey through Soho, only to loose Alissa and Mark after we crossed the first street. While the group waited on the corner, I went back looking for them and found no one familiar except for the annoying vendors passing out flyers and the homeless guy asking for money.

It was apparent we had lost them, so we shoved ahead, hoping in their drunken stupor they would end up at the same place. By some unknown force of the universe, we turned the corner of the street, began walking down it, and I noticed the bare back of a girl who had long, flowing black hair and a very distinguishable butt. Somehow, a vendor had distracted Alissa and Mark and that was the reason for our separation. Luck was on our side again as we ran into a club promoter who gave us flyers for free entrance. A great value, we were all planning on shelling out $20 to get in.

I thought the club was fun, some of the others weren’t so amused, but you only live once and have to make the most out of every moment right? We left after some drinks and cigarettes…yes I smoked a cigarette, I don’t know what I was thinking, but it won’t happen again, don’t worry. The group had the munchies so we stopped on our way back to Chelsea.

The next day I spent on my own time. Sleeping in and being lazy felt good. Later in the afternoon, I took a walk to Kensington Gardens and wrote some postcards. Don’t be offended if you don’t get one just yet, but it costs me like $1.50 to purchase and send each one so I’m doing them in increments. After that, I laid in the overgrown grass and read. The weather was gorgeous and continues to be so. Not as warm as I would like it, but it beats using that damn umbrella every day.

Alissa and I spent Sunday afternoon continuing our site seeing adventure. We went and visited St. Paul’s, the Tower Bridge, the Tower of London, and Covent Gardens. It may seem like a limited adventure, but it was time consuming and tiring – a lot of walking by both of us.

Yesterday began week two at my job, and I’m still up in arms at to whether I’m content or not. Right now I’m working on a logo for a film distributor. It’s pretty boring, I’m not going to lie, but I’m just hoping to get it over with as soon as possible so I can move on to bigger and better things.

While I was on my lunch break today, I stopped in the HMV, a store that sells movies and CD’s, similar to Sam Goodie. Seeing as today is a new release Tuesday, and I’m a Charmed freak, I went there looking to see the new box set for Season 5, which I knew was being released today back in the states. But to my surprise, Season 7 was out here! This made me thoroughly distraught - sometimes life isn’t fair. Had it not been for the $80 price tag and the fact that these DVD’s wouldn’t work in my DVD player back home, I would have snatched up the rest of the seasons. I guess I’ll just have to wait like the rest of America, although I'm hoping that the cover art for our version is much sexier.

I guess I’ll close with the fact that today is 6/6/06 and nothing bad has happened. Let’s hope it continues that way!

An Update for Bomo's Reading Pleasures

So this blog has taken on quite the following from what I’m gathering, which is good to hear. I’m glad you find my bitching, moaning, and the occasional insight into London life amusing.

On to more pressing matters. The Power Rangers have taken over my life. Isn’t it pathetic that a show that probably started 13 years ago has consumed the past two nights when I’m in one of the largest cities in the world? I know what your all thinking, but it’s too hard to pass up the chance to see Tommy do some crazy karate move or watch Kimberly in her cute little pink get-up. Last night, we partook in a two-hour extravaganza, Power Rangers: The Movie. Oh the memories! I know you know what I’m talking about: Zordon, Rita, Lord Zedd, Alpha…the character list can continue for forever. It was great times, even though Bomo was drifting in and out of consciousness and Alex sat in his chair the whole time with a distraught look on his face.

I recently thought that my favorite thing to do was drive with the windows down and the music blasting, but it’s come to my attention that you can do the same thing even when you don’t have a car. Every day on the way home from work, I pass thousands of people. I know longer consider myself a tourist because I can blend in with the natives on my course to Chelsea. It’s great to just be jamming to some tunes, in yesterday’s case, Buttons by the Pussycat Dolls, and take everything in. Add the occasional walk-in-tune step and you got yourself a good time. It’s true, there’s nothing like pretending you’re a bad ass and having everyone wonder what you’re listening to.

Tonight should be a good time. I’m sure we’ll all be exhausted, but it’s Friday and we’re bound to have a good time. We’re meeting Mark tonight and hitting the town. I’ve realized that I haven’t seen him since Christmas 2004. It’s been quite a while and should prove to be an awesome reunion. I’ll fill you all in later.

Suparama

I know you all are curious, so here it is... I began my job yesterday as did the rest of the world it seemed and at first, I must be honest, I was bored to tears. Don't worry though, it didn't make me want a career change, I just had nothing to do, literally. For about five hours, I sat and surfed the internet, and by that I mean checked my e-mail about 20 times, examined with scrutiny everyone's facebook and myspace profiles, and realized how totally boring the internet is when you don't have a purpose for using it.

After I came back from lunch I was determined to get a task from my supervisor. He's a myspace junkie, constantly looking at profiles and reading messages, rather humorous for an old man if you ask me. The rest of the guys who work there are all very friendly, but very end driven. By that I mean, they keep to themselves and accomplish what they need to get done. It's very admirable, but it made for a very boring and very lonely first day.

I probably came off a bit pushy, but I wasn't about to have an entire day go by without me doing ANYTHING. So after much pushing, my supervisor had me begin concepting some headlines and art direction for a promotional advertisement for the Suparama brand. Warner Brothers is apparently very interested in creating an animated series using Supamonkey (the graphic you see here) and the firm is creating a story line involving him, an archenemy, and a whole other lot of characters. My task was to create a poster encouraging the banishment of electric polar bears. This probably sounds very strange to you all, imagine how I felt when I had to decipher it through a thick English accent.

Today proved to be much more efficient. I printed off my ideas when I got in this morning and showed it to David, he laughed at a few, but didn't have time to evaluate it. I think that was more of a test run to see what I was capable of and hopefully I passed, proving I can handle assignments and deadlines. I spent most of the day designing 9 ad layouts for a promotional ad for the complete box set for series 1-8 of Will & Grace. Suparama does all the UK packaging of the show as well as the promotion of the product, that's where I come in. I pretty much have the layout of the ad down, but tomorrow, I've got my work cut out for me - I have to get creative and funny with my headlines...not an easy task when British humor is so different than ours. I'm excited though, and hey, I can watch the shows if I want to for inspiration, could you ask for a more unique job?

Well I can think of one more unique job... It relates to the show we've recently become reinfatuated with - Power Rangers. I'm not afraid to admit it. We've downloaded quite a few and are thoroughly enjoying watching these old school shows. It helps pass the time and always proves to be a good laugh, what more could you ask for right?

Some Photos

Alissa, Erin, and Alex on the first night out

Me, Alissa, Megan, and Bomo at Bar Soho

Megan, Bomo, Me, Alissa, and Alex at the end of the night

Megan, myself, and Bomo at Sin

The British guy Alissa was lusting after, I have no comment...