Today was a free day. Free as far as my time is concerned. London is very expensive. Someone told me you have to forget trying to equate prices in dollars. You see a hamburger is 8.40, and you think that is a little expensive for just a hamburger. But if you realize it's the price in pounds and, at about two dollars to the pound, you are paying about $17.00 for that burger your head spins. You just have to say do I want the 8.40 burger or the 5.00 salad, you starve thinking about ten dollar salads on actors per Diem.

It is free to walk around and see the sites, and most Museums are as well. Free museums, what a civilly cultural thing to do. The Parliament building is beautiful and I snapped this picture of the statue of Richard I, Richard the Lion Hearted. This is about as close as you can get.  I think they beefed up security for the George Bush visit.  The black fence in the picture is the usual perimeter, but there are massive black barriers ten feet further out now. They are temporary, but obviously strong enough to stop a truck.  I didn't take any pictures because it just looks too ugly next to the beauty of the old building.  

It is interesting how the Brits see our President. I think they are just as ready for him to leave office as us Americans.  There were massive demonstrations while Bush was here.  Some think the government over reacted and was harsh on those who just wanted to point out the numbers of deaths from this war.  Here they show coffins arriving from the war on the evening news, and add to the body count nightly.

Tomorrow begins a lot of publicity. At one meeting I will speak with a reporter who is actually a ventriloquist. She even works with a Monkey. I think the idea is to have a monkey to monkey interview for the article.  Andrew is doing a lot of on line promotion.  There was a really great email blast that went out today.  It was a limited time two for one ticket promo.  It was called an "early bird" special with Nethernore as the proclaiming iconic image.  It was fun.

I am anxious to get the show on its feet. We are sharing stage with another show, don't know how that is going to work.  They fly our set and double hang lights. Their set folds back and hides behind ours. We do the early show and "Bob's Girls" (a sexy new musical according to their ads) do a late show.  We wanted the early slot since we have more time to reset the stage. When the smaller stages are working this summer, there will be four different shows going on in the same building.  The smaller stages are really like comedy clubs, with less than a hundred people sitting at small tables.  At any rate, there will be other actors and performers around so it won't get lonely.  This is going to be a very interesting journey for this show on so many levels.

As you were,

Jay