Susan Jacobson

I hope you-all had a great Thanksgiving! shenidbhayroo made my day by sending me photos of Elmo in mid-leap - remarkable because Elmo does not do much leaping. Notice how the tail instinctively assumes an aerodynamic position to aid in flight.



I saw the Classical Spectacular at the Albert Hall earlier this week. We really need something like this in the United States. It's a program of popular classical and patriotic music accompanied by indoor fireworks, a laser light show, flag waving and cannon. Lights and laser accompanied things like Pachelbel's Canon, O Sole Mio, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, and Semper Fidelis, of all things. (I was disappointed that a hairy foot did not descend upon the Royal London Philharmonic at the end.) Actual cannon shot off by the Welsh Guards accompanied the 1812 Overture, which was very exciting. Everyone got two paper flags to wave during Pomp and Circumstance (aka Land of Hope and Glory) and Rule Brittania. And if you think just the octogenarian set attends these things - you would be wrong. There was a box full of drunken frat boys sitting directly opposite me, standing on their chairs and waving flags. It really was spectacular. You can get a sense of the event from this video of Pomp and Circumstance from the last night of the Proms in 2007. Remember - the flag-waving is not inspired by a patriotic holiday, but rather a musical event.



The students and I toured the BBC and Bloomberg this week, and celebrated Thanksgiving on Wednesday evening. The BBC was interesting - they got to fool around with the chroma key. Bloomberg was really interesting - they have tried to re-create a high-energy American firm in London, and have mostly succeeded. Our Thanksgiving feast was quite disappointing (we opted for a "buffet," which I think means "hors d'ouevres" here), but we had a room all to ourselves and the students busted out in a group dance-a-thon for the last hour or so, so a good time was had by all. Amazingly, the men are much better - and more enthusiastic - dancers than the women. ( See more photos from the Albert Hall. )