Acculturating.

How much cultural activity can one person pursue in one day? I took this picture outside the National Theatre today--standing in pretty much the same place from which I'd taken the one I showed you Monday--after I'd done my manuscript research in my favorite library, and after I'd seen Corin Redgrave perform Oscar Wilde's De Profundis (as edited and prepared for the stage by Wilde's grandson). Ninety minutes after I took this picture, I was sitting about fifteen feet away from Guy Maddin, listening to him talk about his filmmaking career--and even a little bit about his new film, which I'll see tomorrow. On the train ride home, I transcribed the four pages of notes I took while he talked.

And then I was back home.

And every single thing I'd done today counted as being on the job, because every single thing was either for an upcoming conference or for an ongoing writing project or for an upcoming course--or some combination of at least two of those things. "Do you get a bit of a lie-in tomorrow morning?" my cab driver asked as we sped through the midnight-empty streets of Cambridge. Oh, do I.

I learned something important in Piccadilly today:


Fortunately, even if there's only one sale, there are still many CCTV cameras. I count three in this picture--and those are only the ones out in plain view. I suppose if you name a company "The Money Corporation"--or, you know, if you're just in charge of any British company or building or streetscape--you spend some time thinking about security.