View from London

Well it's been a long time since I posted to my blog, almost 3 months in fact. In that stretch of time a lot has happened. I moved to London in the beginning of January and started music lessons at the London Music School. Learning to play at least one melodic instrument has been a lifelong dream of mine and the short keyboard and Midi Technology courses I took from January to March were enormously rewarding! Despite having attempted a couple of times many years ago to learn either piano or guitar, I never really caught on. Chalk it up to a good teacher this time (thanks to Gary Baldwin), but I finally got it! I mean I really understand how the musical scale works now and how to read music, construct chords, etc. I'm at a basic, basic level, but I understand the theory, and can see the path before me. It's all about practice, practice, practice.... I also used Cubase and Reason a lot in my midi class so looking forward to eventually laying some tracks down.

London itself has been quite interesting. Aside from being one of the most expensive places I've ever lived, I've found it very stimulating. Living in cheap cities like Prague and Budapest was great, but there wasn't a whole lot going on, I didn't speak the language, and at the end of the day I didn't do much other than drink beer and soak in baths. In London, I've actually been more inspired to get more work done, mostly out of necessity (ie, the need to survive economically!) To give you an idea of how expensive London is, I went to see a movie a few weeks at a theater near Picadilly Square and the ticket cost £9. That's $18 US at the current exchange rate! I thought $7.50 was expensive!!! BTW, the movie I saw was David Lynch's new drama "Inland Empire". I really liked this movie, which seems more like a museum installation than a commercial release.

So anyway, my US$ income is worth less and less, even though it continues to grow. I've been getting new clients for my SEO work and haven't been having any problems with working remotely. Thank god for the internet! Now I'm going out and seeking work and it seems to be coming in, so things are moving once again I'm somehow managing to keep afloat financially. Interestingly enough, I've found a great circle of Spanish friends here in London so it turns out I'm practicing my Spanish even more than I did in Barcelona.

London is an amazing potpourri of languages and cultures. It's also grown to be Europe's largest and most important city, surpassing even New York in economic clout. It now stands to take the reign as the capital of the 21st century. Much like New York at the turn of the last century, immigrants have turned London into a vast melting pot and brought with them the wealth that will drive the economy into the next century. It's amazing to see the change that's taken place here over the last 20 years, but this place is really booming. I often times wish it were more British though; too many times I feel more like I'm in Bangalore, Warsaw or Moscow than in England.