Well, London is now over with, which means my practicums are done. DONE!!! DONE!!! Thank god. I'm feeling kinda burned out and am now looking forward to 5 weeks vacation. That's not to say that I didn't enjoy the practicums. They were fantastic experiences that may turn into paid work later down the road… Don't want to jinx myself, but the BBC is a possibility.
This week at the BBC was excellent. I met most of the Information Architecture staff and got to learn a lot about what it is that they do, what projects they're working on, why the BBC is a great place to work, etc. I even got to demonstrate my 
taxonomic skills by controlling some vocabulary and other things (you don't need to know what that was about). I sat for a couple of hours with the guy they've brought in to name the genre and subject categories for the new media player that the BBC is developing. Very nerdy stuff, but people are paid good money (better than librarians) to do it. And who wouldn't want work that compels you to ask questions like: should it be labelled 'cinema' or 'film' or 'movies'??? Remember, paid more than librarians. For those of you who are not asleep, i'll briefly mention that i got a tour through the content management system and checked out the new software they're using for content object modelling. Isn't that exciting. And I drank so much tea there. Fair trade stuff – only the best for Beeb staffers. And i was taken out for lunch at the BBC canteen, where the food was perhaps the best low-budget food in all of London (seared tuna on salad fo £4.50). Though it didn't match the quality or splendor of TimeWarner's cafeteria.
All in all, the BBC was a great place to spend some time. And it certainly would be an even better place to work. Everyone I met was friendly and very gracious. Great hosts. And tea.
I spent a lot of time wandering the streets of London during my stay here and I covered a lot of ground. My longest day started in the Docklands, which is designed to look as bland and soul-less as any large North American city's downtown. And when buildings had names like Canada Wharf Place, I could have sworn I was in boring ol' Vancouver all over again. You know how it looks: large steel and glass skyscrapers, wind funneling down the streets, a sense that people inhabit the space, but you don't actually see any of them, cliched little pubs and cafes along the waterfront… ok, so i didn't spend a lot of time in the Docklands and i'm sure it's a great place to visit, but it's a sad and ironic sign of what's to come in London. Especially with the redevelopment that will be (and is) occurring in East London in preparation for the 2012 Olympics. Now that's not to say that i'm a lover of Quaint Britannia, characterized with enough victorian gothic architecture and little brick buildings to last a life time…
After the Docklands, I took the tube to Westminster and checked out Parliament, the Abbey, Big Ben, and the London Eye. I didn't have to walk more than 100 metres to take photos of them all. I wanted to take a picture of Winston Churchill, but a bunch of Azerbaijanis were protesting in front of the statue, impeding my ability to get a good shot. How inconsiderate. Especially given the fact that Britain has nothing to do with Azerbijan and its allegedly repressive regime. That is, this is what i overheard an American (or Canadian) couple moaning about as we stood near ol' winnie. How inconsiderate, indeed. I walked down Whitehall, checked out the militarized Downing Street and saw some people taking photos of mounted horse guards. I crossed the Waterloo bridge and visited a used book fair adjacent to the BFI's National Theatre and a French market. The food looked amazing, herb-crusted sausage, garlic chevre, and chocolate. Sadly, the market 
was very expensive (£ x 2), so i kept on strolling down to the admission free Tate Modern. The museum has an eclectic collection of modern art, and i was there just in time for the exhibition of pieces that have been sitting down in the basement for the past decade or so. As with all modern art, some works were better than others. Stand-outs include the works of one photographer (don't have my notebook) who uses a long lens from a helicopter and shoots photos that are blurred around the edges and make people look like tiny figurines. It's hard to tell whether his photos are models are real. After the Tate, crossed the recently-repaired Millennium Bridge (which was closed for a while cause it swung too much), through the bank district with the intention of seeing Richard Rogers' Lloyd's Bank Building and Norman Foster's Gherkin. Wow. Much more inventive and creative than any of the buildings in the Docklands. Rogers' building is famous for wearing its innards on its exterior (pipes, elevators, etc.) and Foster's building is slightly controversial because it looks like a giant penis in the landscape. Oh well, can't win them all.
Since moving to Paddington on Sunday, I've been able to enjoy London a lot more. I've gone on many relaxing walks through Hyde Park on the way to work, seeing the Royal Albert Hall and Albert Memorial. I walked to the Victoria and Albert Museum to see a comprehensive exhibition on European modernism. I went to the British Library to see the Magna Carta. It's old. And I walked and walked around other places too. But now I'm tired, so i'm outta here. Hope I'm not boring y'all stiff. Next up: Amsterdam.
nerdlinger in a blue suit 
Leave a comment