right. soooo yesterday i did a bit more aimless wandering and got to the Globe Theatre very cool, ive got pics to post so no worries. the our guide i had couldt have been better his accent was so stereotypical englishman i couldnt help but give a little chuckle at that. so he took me and the group i was in around first talking about how the theatre is only 9 years old and built about 20m away rfom the original siet so instead of making the people who live their homeless they settled on the site it is at now. another very cool thing was that it was all built old school. no power tools and built all traditional the way buildings back then were made. and in the plaster the white bits between the beams they used goats hair instead of the traditional sheep?? ah i forget but they said it was hard to find long haired versions of the animals they used to use so they settled on goat hair. so we sat in the seats lowest to the ground not the groundlings mind you and had a look around. all the sound effects are still LIVE though the thunder trap at the top of the pillars. i thought that was so cool. and apperantly thats how the first globe burned down. during the play king henry VIII ?? (god my facts are shit right now) they put out a cannon during the war scene and all the bits of fodder like paper and whatever else shot out of the cannon and onto the thatched roof and within an hour the globe was no more. also the new globe is the first building to be built with a thatched roof after the king banned them after the great fire.
we also stood near the stage as groundlings then went up to the second floor and sat there. apperantly the floor of the globe used to be hazelnut shells. to help get rid of the stink or something? dammit i forget. but the guide said during the excavation they found lots of hazelnut shells thinking hazelnuts were like a type of popcorn. but they realised that one of the main ingredients in soap at the time as hazelnut oil so thats why they think the hazelnuts shells were to help get rid of the stench that the groundlings left behind.
the guide also said that the plays have only been stopped 3 times because of the groundlings. one time a group of boys started playing soccer, another time a guy went completely insane and started hitting people all over the place and he got dragged out in a wheel chair and the last time romeo had just killed himself and a women shouted “help help my son has fainted” and romeo meraculously came from the dead and sat right up to help i guess.
overall a VERY cool but shout tour only about 40 minutes if i could see a show there i would but they dont start until May bummer. i bought a mask at the globe and when i got back to the hostel i put it on. i remember john madill saying every mask has a personality. mine certainly does. i dont know him well enough but i know its a him…and he has a sort of dark michevious aire about him. theres something with him and music too because of the paoer the maker decided to use it has music notes on it. ill have to sit in the dark one night and get to know him better. hes a bird of some sort too because of the long hooked beak.
to get to the globe i had to cross the thames. WHAT A RIVER. i was so blown away by it i dont know why. its so huge and turbulent as well. a bit murkey but thats alright. im not overly sure what i was expecting but obviously it wasnt that. i also saw the tower bridge waaaay down the line, it loks very impressive.
after the globe i had something to eat and then got on a bus. i found myself in lambeth. an i drove by the three stags pub! i nearly shit myself. i didnt think it would still be around.
backstory: the three stags is the last place charlie chaplin saw his father alive. his father, like most vaudeville actors at the time, turned into a major alcoholic. i MUST go back there and take a better picture and have a drink. and if i can find the pad charlie and his brother sydney bought that will be cool too.
within that bus trip i drove by the parliament buildings HUGE and big ben clock tower of course….i was a little dissapointed. i thought it was bigger. i guess thats tv for you makes things look more impressive than they really are. today i think im going to tour westminster abbey and see another show. im not sure which one…whichever has the best seat i think. maybe mary poppins that whould be fun. only sad part is it wont be dick van dyke 😦 hes my favorite.
Jamie Johansen 