When I was 11 Tiger Woods anihilated everyone in the 2000 US Open. He completely dominated the entire tournament and finished the round at -12. The guy in second finished at +3. I remember watching that tournament with my dad and it was the final piece that got me hooked on Tiger. That major was his 3rd, and it started his streak where he held every major title at once, the closest anyone has come to a Grand Slam in the sport (he won the masters in 2001 instead of 2000).

This being the time where I started playing golf, Tiger Woods became a no-brainer idol for me. He was 25. Still considered young to the rest of the world, he was still more than double my age. I was constantly in awe of the way he would draw crowds in by creating an electricity on the course. I grew up watching Tiger dominate the golf world, and it helped me stay motivated to better my own game. I never really had the opportunity to make it to the pros and be a dominant force like Tiger was, but I had some respectable rounds.

In the last 11 years, Tiger has had his ups and downs, but now he’s now a 36 year old man. This weekend, Rory McIlroy, a 22 year old golfer from Northern Ireland, possessed the same domination Tiger showed 11 years ago. Rory has been a force this weekend, and has done it with a quiet modesty you have to respect. The performance also comes after his Sunday blow up in the Masters two months ago. It was hard not to feel sorry for Rory after the Masters: He had his worse day ever on the course during the biggest round of his life, and it was still better than any round of golf I’ve ever shot.

When Rory ended up in the lead after the first day of the US Open Thursday, I started to look up to the guy. He came out with the same tenacity he showed for 54 holes at Augusta, and immediately made it clear he was not going to fade into oblivion after choking at the Masters. Maybe he would be my new idol.

Then I realized something: he was the same age as me. He had done so much more in 22 years than I have. Then I thought back to UConn’s incredible tournament run in Men’s Basketball this March, and how I really looked up to Kemba Walker. HE IS A YEAR YOUNGER THAN ME. I’ve finally reached the point in my life where the young, impressive athletes in the sporting world are my age. Derrick Rose just won the NBA MVP this year at 22. It’s not just sports either: Michael Cera, Emma Stone, Daniel Radcliffe and Ellen Page are all a year within my age.

While it’s depressing for a moment to think about how these people have completely outperformed me so far in life, the next thought that comes into my head is can they be a role model or idol? I mean, technically they’ve done things that I find impressive and want to strive for, but they don’t have that seniority factor that I feel is a prerequisite for role model status. Technically these amazing athletes and actors are peers, and I can be envious of them, but I feel like I have to find a new set of people in their late 20s and early 30s to start looking up to.

But maybe I can look up to someone younger than me or someone my age. It’s not a secret that I will only get older, and there will be less and less people I can look up to that are younger than me. At some point the new idol may be someone younger that you wish you could have been. Or someone who has a personality or style element that you saw in yourself at a younger age. With Rory’s case, I could strive to have the appreciativeness he has for what he’s been a part of. It’s definitely something to strive for. And if he can do it, so can I. I mean, we’re the same age, so we’re basically similar.

Anyways, this morning I tweeted the following: “Going to a farm this morning. Bringing my red and white plaid shirt and recreational drugs to turn it into another type of pharm.”

The only reason I tweeted this was because I had mentioned it to someone here with me in London when I thought of it, and he said it was the funniest thing I had said the whole trip. I wasn’t in love with it, but it did have a good pun, which I always enjoy, so I posted it. As a quick explanation, people will take pills at locations and call it pharming (like pharmacy and farming). I’ve never done any drugs before, I just was making a joke.

Never have I thought people would get offended by my humor, not because of it’s offensive content, but because it’s not funny. If someone is getting pissed at me because I am not funny enough for them, they shouldn’t be looking at me for humorous writing. My writing is sometimes humorous, but mostly it’s self-deprecating and dry. If you want humorous writing check out anything by Paul Feig or Augusten Burroughs.

As far as being bored by my writing, you’re not required to read what I write. At the end of the day, I really enjoy writing. I hated it until Junior year of high school when I wrote my first script. Then I started reading a lot. The combination of these two things got me so interested in characters and story that I haven’t looked back since. It’s really only been a few years that I’ve been seriously writing, and I don’t expect to be incredible at it, and while it’s kind of that pipedream of what I’d ultimately want to do, there are still many other things I’m interested in and will probably be doing in my life. Regardless of what I do though, writing is going to continuously be a part of my life now.

In no way am I ever going to be turned off my one person having a negative opinion to my writing and my writing style. In general, I’m a pretty weird guy and have a weird sense of humor, so in no way do I think what I write appeals to everyone, but I have had people tell me they like it. So I publish things for them. If you’re bored by my writing then just stop reading. No one is forcing you to.

The thing I laughed hardest to in this e-mail was that this person considered him or herself a ‘good friend in real life.’ At the end of the day, I want to be better at everything I do, especially writing and comedic writing. People who know me well know this. I often will run jokes I think of by my friends to ask them for their opinions. I do the same with ideas for blog articles. A lot of times people will say ‘I don’t really get it’ or ‘it could be better’ and I love that. I’d much rather know what doesn’t work right away then spend a bunch of time working on something that people won’t enjoy. I’d like to think my close friends know they can tell me whatever without me getting upset or offended.

If you’re going to send me an anonymous e-mail, at least tell me what doesn’t work. Or even some examples of things that you liked so I can look at those some more. Really though, I’m probably not going to pay much attention to advice from someone who won’t even say who they are.

What are your thoughts blog readers? What are things you like? What could you have less of? I’ll take any and all suggestions, although it’s going to be hard for me to not make bad puns. You’ll have to live with me making those forever.

This never really consciously happens. I just happen to be on a kick of some band during a certain time in my life and immediately associate the two things with each other. Boom, married. I listened to Death Cab For Cutie’s Codes and Keys after a week of being in London, and I immediately fell in love with it. It instantly became my album of the trip. I was listening to it all the time. On long tube rides. Before bed. Really any time I could listen to music I was listening to this album.

Then, I started to think about it, and the more and more I listened to it, the more this album fit perfectly to my time in London. Not only did the music match the mood here, but the songs and lyrics fit with the city as well. Here’s a break down of every song on the list and it’s connection to London:

1. Home Is A Fire – This song speaks a lot to the history of London, specifically the Great Fire. Although it happened in 1666, it’s still a huge part of the culture here. Here is part of the lyrics: “Home, home is a fire, A burning reminder, Of where we belong.” For London, they still very much bring up the fire, and you see it, with things like ‘way out’ signs everywhere you go.

2. Codes and Keys – The end of this song repeats the phrase ‘we are alive.’ It’s ironic because London has a lot of dead bodies from build up over the years, so really there’s not a lot of people that are alive. But at the same time, London has 10% of the entire population of England in 1% of the area of the country. So I guess there are a lot of people alive here also.

3. Some Boys – This song talks about boys and things that they do. I am a boy and do things. So obviously this pertains to me.

4. Doors Unlocked and Opened – So every album has to have a least favorite song. Sorry Doors Unlocked and Opened, you win this award.

5. You Are A Tourist – Obviously the title of this one is easy enough to interpret. I am a tourist in London. But there’s a really cool line in the song that goes ‘define your destination, there’s so many different places to call home.’ I’ve always kind of felt like this. At this point, it’s really hard to define what my home is. I’ve spent the majority of my last 4 years in Boston, but during that period I’ve also called New Hampshire, New Orleans, New Jersey, London, and in a few weeks, Los Angeles my home at one point or another. There’s something neat about having multiple places to call your home.

6. Unobstructed Views – This song starts with a really neat instrumental. It’s also the part of the album that I start thinking is perfect for walking around the city. The instrumental portion leads itself well to that.

7. Monday Morning – When I listen to this song, I imagine a music video from the 60s in black and white taking place in London. It’s hard to describe why this makes me think of this, but I think the song just lends itself to it. The music just has this vintage feel to it.

8. Portable Television – This song sings about being taken away from the technology in life. While we’re still very much connected here in London, there are still times where I am without technology or the internet, and it’s kind of nice…and then you’ll get lost or need to use e-mail and are connected again.

9. Underneath the Sycamore – Again, this is another song where the music and sound makes me think of something. With this, it’s great music for riding down european roads on some sort of motorbike.

10. St. Peter’s Cathedral – There are so many old, historic buildings around London, and although St. Peter’s Cathedral isn’t in London, London is still full of old buildings that have a ton of history. Whenever I hear this song it’s a reminder to look up and appreciate the architecture around me.

11. Stay Young, Go Dancing – This song is just a lot of fun, which is what my entire time in London has been.

The reason I found this so interesting is because of something called The Black Cab Sessions. These sessions feature artists and bands playing a song in the back of a black cab as it drives around London. I first saw these sessions well before I came to London and was amazed at how they were able to both being playing instruments while having someone film in the back of a tiny cab. The second I got into one of these cabs, I instantly understood. This little bit of ingenuity not only makes it possible for people to have lots of space in the back of cabs coming back from pubs at night, but it also allows artists to play in the cabs with their instruments, without being pressed for space. A tip of my hat to you, guy who came up with the design for black cabs.

Check out one of my favorite black cab sessions, Bon Iver:

Bon Iver from Black Cab Sessions on Vimeo.

What I found was something cooler than I could have ever imagined.

I remember about 5 years ago when my friend first turned me onto Banksy. His computer desktop background was street art of a homeless man on the street holding a sign that said the words “Keep your coins, I want change.” It was such a poetic phrase that has stuck with me for a long time, and right then and there I became a Banksy fan.

My next big dose of Banksy came with the documentary Exit Through The Gift Shop. The initial hype of the movie made me incorrectly think this was a movie following Banksy around as he was putting up graffiti. This instantly peaked my interest, considering Banksy had never appeared on camera and his identity had never been known. Of course, I quickly found out the movie featured Banksy, but was more about his cameraman, and when Banksy appeared in the movie he wore a hood and talked with voice modulation.

Now I was in London, Banksy’s home turf, and I needed to find some of his art in the wild. Conveniently, someone made this map, which had google map locations of all his art spotted in the area. I took a few friends and went to one of the bigger groupings of points on the map, figuring that if some were painted over we’d still have a chance to see a few of them. After some bad luck initially, we walked down a tunnel and found more graffiti art than I had ever seen before.

The Tunnel, as it’s named, is a stretch of road under an overpass where graffiti is legally permitted in the city. By doing this, London has less graffiti around the city and graffiti artists have a way to showcase their work. The tunnel was full of art and it was extraordinary. There were even a few guys making art as we were walking through. I can’t really describe it in writing as well as I could show it, so here are a few pictures:

I haven’t given up on finding Banksy art yet, but at least I found something worth seeing.

You can also have pride for multiple things. Pride for your country. Your state. Your sports teams. Religion. Ethnicity. Nationality. Naturally, people want to be to proud of being a part of something. Unfortunately, this pride can lead to violence. With the Red Sox and Yankees (or maybe Liverpool and Manchester United), it’s usually just a lot of trash talking that may lead to some brawls. With Christianity and Islam, it’s led to years and years of bloody wars.

One of the main themes in the additional readings professor Barker gave us was that of Scottish pride and the potential of breaking off to form their own, independent country. Of course this makes sense, especially with the uprisings in African and Middle Eastern countries of late, but people should take a step back for a second and see what they’re doing.

I’ve always thought that the only way war would stop between citizens of Earth is that if people from an alien planet showed up on our planet. Regardless of whether they attacked us or not, people would have to start banding together as citizens of Earth, something for which pride doesn’t really exist for right now. At the end of the day, we’re all humans, and people should have pride in that.

I probably take these connections a little too far though. Since I have been in London, I have used both TV and movie references to connect a lot of the cultural experiences I’ve had here so far. Here is a list of all the ones I can remember:

- Came out of arrivals at Heathrow airport, said to the people with me, “it’s like were in Love Actually but no one is here to embrace us.”
- Walked by Trafalgar Square, the only reason I knew it was the scene in European Vacation in which Chevy Chase can’t get out of the traffic circle and keeps pointing out landmarks (“Hey look kids, there’s Big Ben, and there’s Parliament”).
- Was able to explain to people the game of Snooker only because I watched “The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret.”
- Assume every English male in a track jacket is a part of GSE, or another hooligan group, because of the movie Green Street Hooligans.
- When someone wanted to know what alopecia was, I said, “You know, like Stan Sitwell in Arrested Development”
- Experienced my first club and connected it to Skins, assigning people in my group to different characters from the show.
- When I found out their were Night Buses in London, I immediately thought of the Knight Bus in Harry Potter and thought of how sly J.K. Rowling was (yes, book first, but still was a movie).

I really am a child brought up on television, and I’m sure there are many more examples, but I was not logging them as they were happening, so these are just the ones I remember. I’m sure there will be plenty more as well, but it’s interesting to see how much of my knowledge of Britain is from their media culture.

Recently I’ve noticed that most of these stories have come from a podcast called Radiolab. If you don’t know Radiolab, it is my #2 recommendation for something people should check out (#1 is Parks and Recreation). If you say you’re not someone who listens to podcasts, it’s like saying you’re someone who doesn’t watch TV or read: there are thousands of different podcasts ranging in a wide variety of topics and you can almost always find something you like, you just have to know what you like.

What Radiolab does is take very basic ideas and themes, like Falling, Sleep, and Words, and goes into 3 or so stories that explore this topic in different ways and usually end in you having your mind blown.

Now you may be thinking, what does this have to do with London? Or maybe you’re wondering how you’ve wasted another minute of your life reading this blog, so I’ll skip to the point. Yesterday I went to the British Library, and in this library is a Treasures gallery that’s filled with important documents from history: The Magna Carta, The original Gutenberg Bible, Beatles lyrics written on napkins. As I was perusing this gallery, I came across two pages from the Gospel of John in the Bible that were found at a dump site in the middle of Egypt.

Suddenly, my mind went into Radiolab mode. In their episode Detective Stories, they talked about two guys who came across a small, ancient dump in Egypt that had be covered by sand for a long time. And by small I mean there were thousands of historical documents found that date back over 1000 years. It just so happened that these two pages on display came from this dump, named the Oxyrhynchus Papyrus.

Me, being one who gets excited quickly about this kind of stuff, immediately turned to my friend who I felt would also geek out at this stuff, and began telling him the story. Now, this gallery was quiet in comparison to the rest of the museum, and really all you could hear were a few people whispering. Although I started whispering this story to my friend, my excitement over the subject quickly got me talking at a normal volume.

Apparently this didn’t fly with a woman next to us who was now looking at the exact same document I was talking about. She interrupted me mid-sentence and said, at a sound level higher than I was talking, “Do you realize that no one in here is talking as loud as you are?”

Obviously I felt bad and apologized, but the fact that she had to raise her voice to make her point just made it seem like she wanted to make everyone else in there know she was pissed. Which didn’t really work since everyone else around were just people from our group.

Anyway, the moral of the story is that Radiolab is awesome and has some real life connections. Also that I’m a huge nerd.

You can listen to the Radiolab story about what else they found in the dump by clicking this link: http://www.radiolab.org/2007/sep/10/the-greatest-hits-of-ancient-garbage/

Today, I was that person. And I hated it.

Our first full day in London left us going on a quick walking tour of touristy parts of the city: Buckingham Palace, Big Ben and the Parlament, Trafalgar Square. I really felt like the biggest tourist in an area where tourists rule. And it wasn’t just that I was taking pictures of the normal touristy attractions. It’s that I was moving around with a group of 25 people.

I’ll admit I hate making people unhappy or uncomfortable. And I hate making a scene. And when you walk around in a group of 25 people it’s hard to not get people pissed off or upset. And you definitely make a scene when you’re in a group of 25 people, regardless of the situation.

The worst of it was definitely dinner last night. We wanted to eat together as a group, but our area of London doesn’t really offer accommodations for that many people. Instead we forced our way into a pub, filled the restaurant, and found out their kitchen wasn’t open. At first I bought it, but after seeing their menu in chalk on the wall, I’m fairly sure they told us that just so we wouldn’t stay there.

It’s not that I don’t love being around a big group, I think that can be a fun situation. It’s just hard to travel in a pack that big in a large city. And I really don’t mind being a tourist walking around with a big camera and taking pictures of touristy things, but I do mind drawing the attention of everyone in the area while doing so.

At an individual level, we’re all just nice people who are a little bit loud, but as a group we’re a big, unruly mob.

For the next 5 weeks I will be operating and posting in this blog from London. Most to all of these posts will be London related and will probably be terrible commentaries on normal, mundane things about London, the people, and the culture. You probably should ignore this blog for the next month or so if:
- You hate London, and everything about it
- You hate jokes, especially puns
- You’ve been ignoring this blog for the past 4 years

If none of the above pertains to you, you may get something out of this blog. I hope you do if that’s the case.