Bieber Fever

It’s true. David and I are Beliebers. Yes, even David. Justin's songs are so catchy! Seriously! Who hasn’t sang along to “As Long As You Love Me” or danced crazily to “Baby?” C’mon, admit it! And I know that over the past few months, Justin’s become more and more of a tool, sporting gas masks around town, wearing those horrible drop-waist pants, and taking so many pics with his shirt off that Olivia Wilde had to publicly chastise him on Twitter.

But when we got to his concert on Thursday night, it was clear that he could do no wrong in the eyes of his Beliebers. People were going crazy after the last opening act, Carly Rae Jepson. One girl near us burst into tears with anticipation. When they brought up the 10 minute count-down, every time a minute would go by, the crowd would go nuts screaming. 

We definitely felt our age when Cody Simpson came on 

and we were the only ones in the arena that weren't singing 

along to his songs (who is that guy?!).

We'd have to be living under a rock to not know Carly Rae Jepsen, though.

This guy dressed up as the Biebs was a hit!  A ton of girls wanted their pic with him, and he was happy to do it.

The press can be brutal, but I can understand how Justin has a big head. How do you stay grounded when you have millions of people practically worshipping you? You don’t go to school, you don’t ever have to make your bed or do laundry. And the pressure! To put on show after show after show, jet-setting around the world living out of a tour bus or hotel room, it’s got to be exhausting. He works harder than most other 19-year-olds I know to be a really great entertainer. 

And the concert was really entertaining! The O2 arena was transformed into a giant nightclub complete with strobe lights, a DJ, live band, and raised stage. It was pretty spectacular. And for anyone who thinks the guy doesn’t have any talent, please watch Never Say Never. The Biebs not only sings and dances, but he plays the guitar, piano, and the drums. 

Unfortunately, Justin was plagued with bad luck last week in London. First, he had the “worst” birthday ever, then he was 2 hours late to his first show, and on Thursday night, he got sick during the middle of the concert. Luckily Scooter and Jaden Smith were on-hand to let the crowd know what was going on. (By the way, I love that Jaden was there! I feel like we got a 2-for-1 deal. Bieber and Jaden, a pop star and a movie star. The best part was Jaden spent the whole concert about 10 feet away from us, dancing around the floor while his bodyguard kept a close eye out for any crazy girls trying to sneak over.)

The concert started off great, but I knew something was wrong when Justin was breathing pretty heavily after each song. At one point, he kind of fell up the stage’s stairs. And finally, in the middle of “Beauty and the Beat” he had to be helped off stage by one of his backup dancers.

Even though EMT’s were administering oxygen and telling him he needed to go to the hospital to get checked out, Justin sucked it up for the last few songs and came back to finish the concert with one of my favorites on his Believe album, “Boyfriend.” Yay! You could tell that he takes his job really seriously and didn’t want to disappoint his fans (especially after what happened earlier in the week).

I do have to give a shout-out to David, too. For my birthday last October, my wonderful husband surprised me with those two tickets to the Bieber concert, but only handed them over once I promised him that he got the second tic. ;) And not only did he come along to Bieber with me, but last year we also saw Taylor Swift together. 

And this, my friends, is how I know that David and I are not yet mature enough to have kids.

David waiting in line with Justin’s target audience. 

…On second thought, maybe we should have kids just so we have an excuse to go to these types of concerts!

Hairy Goat Photography Tour

One of David’s Christmas gifts this year was a photography class through a company called Hairy Goat Tours. Even though I’m not as into photography as he is, I went along the walking tour to learn more about the City and its history. 

The day was cold and rainy but it was a good opportunity for David’s first lesson – how to adjust your settings for sunny v. cloudy skies. I kept cover under the Royal Exchange building while David took his first shots of the area around Bank.

Mansion House, the home and office of London’s beloved mayor, Boris.

The ceiling of the Royal Exchange, London's center of commerce opened by Elizabeth I. The Exchange was destroyed by the Great Fire of 1666 and then again by a fire less than 200 years later. So the current building is the third exchange. 

Gilded doors of the Exchange

1 Poultry – a postmodern building featuring the rooftop garden we saw James Bond and the Queen fly over during the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics.

Bank of England – this building is unmarked so most people don’t realize what it is just walking past.  

Because of this, as well as the giant bronze doors, and high wall surrounding the compound, there have never been any robberies.  Our guide told us the basement is full of rows and rows of gold bars, like a library of gold.

After snapping a few photos, we walked to the Austin Friary.  The friars lived here from the late 1200’s until the dissolution by Henry VIII in 1538.  Thomas Cromwell, Henry’s doomed advisor, lived in a mansion on the grounds.  Once the friary was disbanded and Cromwell lost his head, the mansion became the Draper’s Hall.  Because of its exquisite interiors, it is often used as a substitute for Buckingham Palace in movies. The King’s Speech was filmed on-site.

Learning how to contrast shadow with the light coming through the pillars

Rain makes for really beautiful greenery photos

Next we came upon St. Helen’s Bishopgate, which dates from the 1100’s.  It was the parish church of William Shakespeare and survived not only the Great Fire, but also the Blitz, only to be damaged by two IRA bombs in the early 90’s.

The 12th century church in the shadow of the 21st century Gherkin.

Lloyd’s of London is just down the street.  It’s often called the Inside Out Building because the staircases, elevators, air ducts, and water pipes are on the outside of the building.  David learned his favorite trick of the day here, how to shoot steel.  This camera setting gives steel a really cool blue hue.

Leadenhall Market, just around the corner, dates back to the 14th century.  Originally a meat/poultry market, it stood over the old Roman forum. 

Original meat hooks no longer in use

This market was the set of Diagon Alley in the first Harry Potter film.

Near the Tower of London, there is a church called St. Dunstan in the East.  It was damaged in the Great Fire, like most other buildings in the area.  When it was repaired, Christopher Wren built a new steeple to embellish the church.  During the Blitz, the church was destroyed, yet the steeple still stands.

Today, St. Dunstan in the East is a public park.

You can still see the smoke damage on the building from the bomb.

The undamaged steeple

Our last stop was All Hallows by the Tower.  All Hallows is the oldest church in London and was established in 675.  A Saxon arch made with recycled Roman tiles can still be seen inside the sanctuary. 

William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, was born on Tower Hill and baptized in the church, and Admiral Penn (William Penn’s father) saved the church from the Great Fire by creating explosive fire breaks that demolished the surrounding buildings.  Another link the church has to America is that President John Quincy Adams was married there.

Entrance to the church was free, which was a nice surprise.  We walked right in and saw the arch and then made our way downstairs into the crypt.  The crypt supposedly holds the heart of Richard I and was a meeting place for the Knights Templar.  There’s an old Roman road roped off in the basement that’s maintained by archaeologists from the Museum of London.  In the corner, near the door, is the barrel crow’s nest from Sir Ernest Shackleton’s last voyage to Antarctica.

I was so embarrassed that we had walked past that church countless times and never been inside or known its history.  This is why after almost 3 years of living in London, I still love doing touristy things like these walks.  Just when I think I’ve seen it all, I learn something new.  And David was able to learn a lot more about his camera at the same time.  Thanks for the great gift, Mom and Dad!

Harry Potter Studio Tour

The Warner Brothers studio where the Harry Potter movies were filmed sits just north of London. About a year ago, they opened up the sets to the public. I forced myself to wait 8 months until Christmas to buy tickets, since my family really wanted to come along, but it was worth the wait!

The entire experience was magical. Warner Bros. limits the number of people that can visit each day through advanced-purchased tickets, so it wasn’t crowded at all (unlike what I hear from Harry Potter World in Orlando). Plus the staff was very helpful and friendly; we could tell they were Potterphiles like us!

The tour began in a small cinema filled with HP movie posters from all over the world. It was fun trying to guess which country the posters were from while waiting for everyone to get their ticket stamped. Once everyone was inside and seated, we watched a short film introduction from Daniel, Emma, and Rupert. When they finished, the screen lifted and we realized we were outside the double doors to the Great Hall! A couple of lucky birthday kids got the honor of opening the doors so we could start our tour.

Once inside the Great Hall, a WB employee pointed out items like Rob Pattinson’s Hufflepuff uniform, the missing ceiling, and the professor’s costumes. Then she explained that the tour is self-guided. The average time spent in the studio is around 3 hours, but they did have one person take 9 hours to get through! There were a lot of fun things for kids to do, too, like find all of the golden snitches hidden around the studio, or complete the scavenger hunt. Like kids needed that stuff anyway! They were inside Harry Potter’s world!

We had a great time at the studio walking through the sets, drinking glasses of butterbeer, and even riding broomsticks over the (green-screen) Hogwarts campus. (Unfortunately cameras were not allowed in the green screen area but I will never forget Elizabeth, my dad, and me pretending to be wizards flying over London. Dad was definitely the oldest and biggest person to get on a broom, but he had the spirit of a kid!) 

We also learned a lot about movie-making, and all of the work it took to make the 8 films.  There was so much detail that went into the movie-making process, and even though most audiences probably never knew the half of it, it shows in the quality of the films. Here are some of our favorite tidbits:

The Great Hall was decorated for the holidays with Christmas trees and puddings and even crackers for each of the houses – like this one for Syltherin.  

For the first-ever scene in the Great Hall, the cast was served real food and the floating candles in the ceiling were real.  Well… after the hot wax started burning some kids and food spoiled after days of filming, the powers-that-be decided to use fake food and candles going forward.

David and me in the Great Hall.  You can see Harry’s first school uniform to my right and his last uniform on David’s left.  He grew from a tiny boy to a young man right before our eyes!

Not all actors had their hair styled for the movies.  In fact, most wore wigs.  From Snape, to the Malfoy’s, to Dumbledore and Sirius Black… and evil Bellatrix!

All of the books in Dumbledore’s office are British phonebooks rebound to look old.

Also inside Dumbledore’s office, the labels on the vials containing people’s memories are all hand-written. 

The animals inside the jars in the Potions classroom are from the London Zoo gift shop.

The Dursley’s home at 4 Privet Drive is based off of a house in Bracknell, the city outside London also famous for being the home of Dell UK.  Instead of continuing to drive out to Bracknell to film, they reconstructed the house on-set.

There were a lot of glasses made for Harry over the years, but Daniel Radcliffe took the originals with him as a souvenir after wrapping the series.  

Rupert Grint took the original ‘4’ from the Dursley’s home.

Hagrid was an animatronic!  For shots that didn’t require close-ups, a tall rugby player wore platform shoes and padded clothing to play the giant. He also wore an animatronic head to scale with the rest of his body and act as Hagrid’s double. Aragog, Hagrid's creepy pet spider, was also animatronic.

Other things you may have thought were CGI that were actually constructed were the revolving phoenix staircase, the Chamber of Secrets door, the Gringott’s vault door, and Mad Eye Moody’s chest.

Butterbeer is only sold in two locations in the world, and the WB Studios is one of them!  The recipe is a secret, but it tasted like cream soda mixed with butterscotch and topped with a thick, marshmallow cream.  Yum!

Diagon Alley was not only filmed within the studio, but also on the streets of London.

The Knight Bus was constructed out of two London double decker buses.

The painting of a young woman on the wall of the Gryffindor common room next to the staircase is actually a young Professor McGonagall.

The boy’s dorm room beds were built during the first film. Over the years, the actors outgrew them but new beds were never made. Instead, the cameramen just avoided any shots of their feet hanging off the ends.

Each main actor had a wand made of real wood just for them.  The wands were individually crafted to reflect the character they belonged to.

In order to give the behind-the-scenes cast some on-screen time, the paintings hanging around Hogwarts (like these two next to the sword of Gryffindor) are actually of people like the producers, writers, and other crew members that worked on the movies.

Working on a series of movies like Harry Potter must be a graphic designer’s dream!  They designed everything from party invitations to the Yule Ball…

…to the candy boxes inside the Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes joke shop.  The caption below the Marauder’s Map here states that the graphic artist that produced the map hand-wrote secret messages to the Graphic Department in it.

JK Rowling’s books and the movies are so closely aligned that I didn’t even notice that the rickety, covered bridge is never mentioned in the book.  It first appeared in the Prisoner of Azkaban and was eventually destroyed during the Battle of Hogwarts.

When you think of the different types of people involved in making a movie, you think of the actors, director, stunt-doubles, extras, makeup artists… but I’d never really given much thought to all of the architects and carpenters involved in building the elaborate sets. One section of the studio tour focused solely on all of the designs and models and carpenters that carefully constructed the various homes and buildings for HP.  And the sad thing is, most of these (like the Burrow pictured above) were destroyed by the final film.

In this same area, we saw a lot of various models of Hogwarts.  But as we walked into the final part of the studio, we came upon la crème de la crème –

Hogwarts! 

A giant model of the school is housed inside the WB studio.  The greenery around the castle is all real, and there are even lights inside and shadows of students walking the halls.  Close-ups of the castle were shot here, and the Battle of Hogwarts was strategically planned around the model. 

It was the perfect way to end the tour! If you are ever in London, this is one of my new favorite attractions that I highly recommend. Come and visit so I have an excuse to go back!