My Christmas Tradition

I'm not big on traditions, generally. Around the start of December each year Shannon wants to make a list of all the Christmas things that we need to do - places to go, things to see. She's a champion list maker. I don't really care much one way or the other if we watch certain Christmas movies and TV shows (Charlie Brown, Elf, etc.) - with the exception of the Muppet Christmas Carol. I enjoy pretty much all Christmas junk food, but there's no particular one that I find vital to capturing the Christmas spirit.

There is, however, one Christmas tradition that I do keep, and that is to listen to Handel's Messiah, in its entirety on the last work day before Christmas. That's today for me this year. I've been doing this for at least a half dozen years. I've typically used up most of my vacation days for the year in the summer making long trips to Utah, so by the time we get close to Christmas, most of my co-workers are taking lots of time off leaving me in a mostly empty office. It's the perfect setting to crank up some tiny speakers and enjoy some fabulous music. There are several good recordings available on YouTube - I pretty much just pick one at random. So if you're looking for something good to listen to for a few hours you can't do much better than the Messiah, particularly around the Christmas (or Easter, or any other) season.

Sleepless Nights

I am an expert sleeper.

For as long as I can remember, I've been good - no, better than that - I've been excellent at sleeping.  It's really one of my foremost skills.  I can sleep in.  I can nap.  I fall asleep quickly, and a small to moderate sized armed conflict is required to wake me up.

But this is a week of sleepless nights, because I'm at work.  It's a crazy week.  One of the perks* of my job is occasional long night shifts.  Apparently I didn't think things through properly when choosing a career path, but this is an occupational hazard that I just have to live with.  (Maybe this is what happens when you don't do a good job of ever actually sitting down and choosing a career path!)  But, because I have a profession where the people work when the machines tell them to work, I'm up all night this week.

And it's ruined my groove.

Somehow, I can't sleep.  Last night I stayed up all night, got home around 8:30, went to bed, and woke up . . . at about 12:30.  Hmmm . . . 4 hours of sleep isn't going to cut it.  This same thing happened last time I did this.  So then I'm up, and I end up trying to take a nap just before work, but it doesn't work out so well and, yeah, tiredness ensues.  This schedule also messes up my eating patterns, which can't be helping.  For night number two, I'm contemplating going home and eating something, because maybe I'm waking up because I don't have enough energy to keep sleeping?  It's a rough life I live.  This week in particular.

Not only do I have the 12 hour over-night shifts (to be fair, I volunteered for the over night, for reasons that do make sense) but this week we're singing in the Joseph Smith Oratorio that our stake is putting on.  This Friday is the 170th anniversary of the martyrdom, and a guy named Rob Gardner wrote a nice collection of songs and narration.  It's been a lot of practicing, and this Friday and Saturday we're finally performing it.  I think we sound pretty good, though for a while I was worried about the orchestra.  Yes, there's a 25 or 30 person orchestra to go with our 40ish person choir.  It's all pretty impressive, I think, when you remember that we're all doing this in our spare time.  So, my last night shift at work will be Thursday night to Friday morning, which lets me go to the performance on Friday night.  But we're skipping the Saturday performance.

Because we're doing the oratorio, then going home, jumping in bed (who knows what my sleeping situation will have devolved to by that point) and then getting up not-too-many hours later to drive across the country.  So there's that to get ready for this week.  Packing, laundry, scheduling stops at the Spam Museum, loading up the car, prepping snacks, you know the drill.  And because Utah isn't far enough away, we're taking the scenic route there.

Mostly, this is just to say that it's a busy week.  Followed by a vacation which will be crazier than normal life, because that's how vacations are.  I just figured I should keep you all updated a bit on our insanity.  If my wife's reading this, I'll be coming straight home after the meeting, and for the rest of you, thanks for reading . . and keep your stick on the ice.

* Not a perk

Um . . . have you read the book?

Tonight for FHE, we sang "Book of Mormon Stories" for both the opening and closing song.  (Julia's choice)  This brought to light two things that I've noticed lately about the song.  First, neither Shannon nor I are too sure about the exact lyrics in the second verse.  We get the gist of it, but we're never sure if the Lamanites are "meeting", "seeking", "finding" or "other-verb-ing" others who are seeking liberty.

The other thing is, did Elizabeth Fetzer Bates ever actually read the Book of Mormon?  I mean, think about the lyrics.

"Book of Mormon stories that my teacher tells to me are about the Lamanites in ancient history."
The Book of Mormon is about the Lamanites?  Really?  I'm pretty sure it follows the Nephites quite a bit more.  The Lamanites are kinda the bad guys.  The most notable good-guy Lamanite is Samuel, and his back story is pretty much "so, this Lamanite just showed up one day and said a bunch of stuff.  We couldn't hit him with rocks, and then he left and we never heard from him again."  Maybe the cop-out here is that Sister Bates had a teacher that only liked to tell the Lamanite stories? (Samuel, Lamoni, etc.)

"Lamanites met others who were seeking liberty"
Ah, turns out it's "seeking".  Again, verse two starts with the Lamanites.  No mention of the Nephites yet.  And they met "others" who were seeking liberty.  That must mean they have met two separate groups who are seeking liberty, because the Lamanites certainly aren't one of those groups.  Unless the song is talking about the Lamanites seeking the liberty to bash in some Nephite skulls.  But that can't be it, because the Nephites aren't in this song.

vs 4: "Abinadi . . . all chained up from head to toe"
Actually, no chains in the scriptural account.  But, they are in the famous picture.

vs 8: "After Christ was crucified . . . He came forth to teach the truth"
I'm not sure why Christ's visit to the Nephites (note: not the Lamanites) is the 8th verse.  Has anyone ever gotten this far in the song?  All those primary kids hands would be numb from banging on their scriptures at the end of each line by verse 5 or 6, I think.  The crowing event - the Most Important Story of the whole book, one might say - should be somewhere in the first couple of verses, I would think.  I get that it's a big finish and all, but, really, way to bury the lead (lede?).  (The answer to this is probably that the "optional" verses were written years later by Nancy K. Daines Carter.)

Sister Bates would be turning 105 this year, so she's probably not around to answer these important questions about one of Primary's defining songs.  Obviously, La-man-ites fits in the song much better than Ne-ee-phites, so we can't make a simple swap to fix things up.  The time to fix this would have been 1969 when the song was being written.  Maybe I'll see if I can get my girls to pronounce it Ne-phi-ites . . .

Twiddling my Fingers

I started taking piano lessons when I was about 8 years old.  From the very beginning, I remember my dad telling me things like "you'll be able to play in church your whole life."

Today's topic: was this prophesy a blessing or a curse?

I started playing the piano for priesthood when I was probably about 13, and did so until I left for college, about 4 years later.  So, 1 hymn a week, 48 weeks a year for 4 years gives 192 songs.  At first, it was the same half dozen songs on a loop, but I gradually branched out, which was good for when I started going to seminary.

Despite growing up in Zion, in 4 years I never had someone else in my seminary class who would admit to playing the piano.  Statistically, it's hard to imagine that no one else in those classes could play.  (C'mon, 100 Mormons and not a single one that plays the piano?)  Well, I guess Tracy could play "I Stand All Amazed" so for one year (1 semester?) I didn't have to play that one.  Accounting for a few absences, assemblies and Tracy, we'll cut that down to 150 hymns a year for 4 years, for another 600.

As a missionary, I played in the MTC and in 4 of my 5 areas for church.  So, we'll call that 83 weeks of 3 songs a week (I don't remember rest hymns on my mission) for 249 more.  I played for the choir in one ward.  I also played for every missionary conference, musical fireside, etc for 2 years.  This number is more fuzzy, but I'm going to claim credit for another 100 songs.  Oh, and I provided the piano for 1 1/2 CDs, too, so throw on another 20 for good measure.

Amazingly, as a single guy in Provo, I almost never played the piano for anything.  It's really quite curious that I have been playing the piano more or less continuously for nearly 20 years in every single ward, branch, seminary class, whatever, except for my 3 single student wards in Provo.  Once I got married, all bets were off.  1 year as an organist: 3.5 x 48 = 168.

That was immediately followed by a year as a choir accompanist.  I'm not sure how to best count playing for the choir.  We only perform for the ward about once a month, but we have practice every week.  I only play one song per week, but I do play it over and over again.  I'm going to claim credit for 3 "songs" per week while playing for the choir.  Some of those songs are hard.  So, 40 weeks per year (choirs take weeks off occasionally) x 3 = 120.

We went to my parents house for a few months, so I got some time off before we went to St. George, where within a month or two, I was playing for the choir again.  2 years there gives 240 more songs.  At this point, special musical numbers in church are just an extra throw in that I don't even charge for.  We bought a house in St. George, and moved wards, where it took only a month or two before I was choir pianist again.  2 more years, 240 more songs.

Then we went to Michigan.  One of our very first weeks there, we went to choir, and they mentioned that the accompanist was moving, and they weren't sure who would play the piano for them.  2 or 3 weeks later, I started my next stint playing for the choir.  So, another 2.5 years and 300 songs.

(Lest people nit-pick my life story here, it was probably only 9 months in Provo, and our two stops in St. George were about 24 and 25 months, so the one and two months it took before I was called leave things a bit short of the 1 and 2 years I'm claiming.  But, we were in Michigan 2 years and 10 months, so that evens things out a bit.  Also, remember those special musical numbers I threw in for free?)

We've now landed in Illinois, where I haven't had a calling for 4 months.  (That doesn't mean that I still didn't accompany the women's half (or three quarters) of the choir, and a Shanny solo for the Christmas program.)  Well, to the surprise of almost no one (other than the choir director) I'm the new choir accompanist.

As you've been adding up all these numbers, you see that I'm now somewhere around 2,229 songs into my accompanying career in church.  Yes dad, those piano lessons have paid off.  I really don't mind playing for the choir, though it's been nice to have a break for a few months from playing.  I'll keep on playing as long as there are Bishops to keep calling me, but I do have one rule that I had to institute a number of years ago: I don't pick hymns anymore.  I've picked them all so many times.  I can play way more of them than most people know, so if you need someone to play a hymn for you, I'm glad to do it, but you pick it.

Magic Wish

Ok readers, here's your assignment: If you could magically have the skill or talent to do one specific thing, what would it be?  This assignment, of course, comes with some constraints.  First of all, it absolutely must be physically possible.  So no wishing to learn to fly, or run a marathon in 12 minutes or something ridiculous like that.  This is more of a Groundhog Day sort of thing, where you get to develop a skill overnight, but, in my magical case, you don't have to relive a single day over and over.  It's like in the blink of an eye you get to spend 1000 hours practicing something.  In the movie, Bill Murray does all sorts of stuff with his time: throw cards into a hat, ice sculpt, learn French poetry, play the piano (what else am I forgetting)?  But you only get one thing.  What would it be?  I think the exercise is more fun if you try to be as specific as possible.

To be a good sport, I'll share mine.  I think I'd magically learn to play Rhapsody in Blue on the piano.  I don't think it's outside the realm of possibility that I could learn to play it, but I think I'd need every one of those arbitrarily-chosen 1000 hours.  Obviously, I think the piece is pretty cool, or I wouldn't waste my wish on learning to play it.  If you don't have anything to listen to for the next 14 1/2 minutes, here it is on youtube.  (I'll have you know that I did listen to 2 versions, but didn't like the other one much.)  I've listened to it like 3 times tonight, and I'm not tired of it yet.

Classical music requests

At work, I've decided to listen to more music while I work, in an effort to muffle the noises from my co-workers.  I love the guys I sit by, but we can get chatty sometimes, and that doesn't make for a productive day.  They'll start talking about something (NFL fumble rates, rate of change of daylight, deepest point in the ocean, how far you can jump a snowmobile, the size of the Chinese navy, weather in Sweden, etc.*) and suddenly you're sucked into their conversation.  For some reason, I'm the guy who always just has to google it in an effort to settle the matter.

Anyway, I'm combating this with music.  Specifically, classical music.  You can find just about anything on youtube, so I'm asking you: what should I be listening to?  Composers are nice, but specific pieces are better.  I prefer long pieces (>20 minutes), other wise I listen to a song for 5 minutes and spend the next 5 trying to pick the next piece; that's not much of a productivity boost.

*Yes, those are all real topics we've discussed.  At length.  I'd say I would keep track for a month and report back on the results, but would probably be ashamed at the length of the list.

Carolina Chocolate Drops

I was first introduced to the Carolina Chocolate Drops around 6 months ago, and every now and then they pop back into my brain. I thin what I find most appealing about their music is how simple and genuine it feels. Maybe we forget sometimes that music can be created just about anywhere. Recording studios and mixing boards are not required. No re-mastering, no mixing, no reverb, no laying tracks. Just music, without all that other stuff in the way.

I don't get to play the piano very often these days; someone either needs to be held and played with, or is taking a nap. But when I do have a minute, as often as not I just sit down and start hitting keys and see what comes out. I'm never quite sure what sounds I'll find. I'm not saying it's particularly good, but its a few moments of pure creation, which isn't something that is a regular part of my day. And that's what the Carolina Chocolate Drops feel like to me. A banjo, a violin, a guitar, a kazoo, a jug. Music.

Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes

This year I missed singing "Ring Out, Wild Bells" at church. It's one of those songs that you've really only got one shot to sing each year, so you might as well do it. If you miss it once, you've got to wait a whole year longer. (Related sadness: there is but one week a year where we sing Easter hymns at church, and the hymnal has 3. "He is Risen" and "Christ the Lord is Risen Today" always get picked over "That Easter Morn" which I appreciate because it is musically unique in the hymnal.)

So, I went to look up the song to fill that void in my life. The lyrics were written by Alfred, Lord Tennyson and it turns out there are another 4 stanzas that are excluded from the hymn in the book. A few of them probably wouldn't fit as well into the song, but that doesn't mean they should be forgotten entirely. So, I present the entire piece for your consideration:

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light:
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Ring out the grief that saps the mind,
For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.

Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.

Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
The faithless coldness of the times;
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes,
But ring the fuller minstrel in.

Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.

Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.

Ring in the valiant man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.

Terror

They say that you should do something every day that terrifies you. I'm now set for about a week. Tonight I was the musical entertainment at the ward Christmas party. It was supposed to be me and Shannon, but as she is both sick and in SLC, I did it by myself. I've been sick for the last 2 weeks, and while I am generally recovered, I still have a cough, and my voice starts to disappear each night at about 8pm.

But, I did it. I played one song on the piano AND SANG, then did Mele Kalikimaka on the ukulele, and then lead everyone in the 12 Days of Christmas. I'm not sure I've ever sung a solo in front of a group bigger than about 5, let alone two numbers, on two different instruments. It wasn't perfect, there will be no calls from any recording studios, but I made it through alright. There's even video of it, but I don't think I need to see it any time soon. In fact, I don't think anyone needs to see it. Ever.

Total Eclipse. Literally.

I find that I'm usually the last person in the world to catch on to the latest cool youtube video. The people dancing down the aisle at their wedding, yeah, I was dead last. 70-year-old grandmas had it in their facebook status before it worked its way to me. Apparently I live on an island or something. Anyway, the following video only has 3.6 million views on youtube, so at least 90% of the country hasn't seen it. (Whether any of that 90% reads my blog is, of course, another question.)

The idea here is that what you are seeing in music videos doesn't always correlate well with the lyrics. So, people have been creating 'literal versions' of music videos, where the lyrics have been adjusted to represent whatever you're watching. There are a whole lot of them on youtube, with a wide range of quality. The vocal talents of the re-recordings are severely lacking on some of the videos, and obviously some videos are better suited to the project to begin with. But here is the best one that I'm aware of out there. The lyrics are on the screen so you can sing along! Well, without futher ado (thanks for laboring through all that ado!) I present the literal version of Total Eclipse of the Heart.

Hold Still

Now, I know the acapella performing segment of my readership is rather limited, but I still feel it is my duty to help inform the world.

I'm a Ben Folds fan, and apparently he's got some sort of contest going for people to sing acapella versions of his songs. There are some of the better ones on his website. (Remember, better and good have two separate and only loosely related meanings.) Watching some of them, I realized that acapella groups are:
1. Usually too big.
2. Incapable of holding still.

And it's rather distracting to watch 12 bodies wiggling, 20 guys trying to look cool, or this bevy of girls who, if you watch with the sound off, all seem to be playing on a Wii.

So please, if you're going to sing, hold still. It's not that hard. This guy does it four times!

Still Using Zebras

This blog is a bit over 2 years old, and has nearly 400 posts. Nearly all of them have been long since forgotten. However, this post from a year ago today is easily the most visited post this month. Suzanne's response on her blog seems to be equally hot. The posts are about an old Christmas song called "Santa's Using Zebras Now". And it's virtually unknown and nearly un-googlable. Googling "Santa's Using Zebras Now" gives Suzanne's blog as the first hit and mine as the 3rd. The second reference is to someone posting the lyrics which they copied off of Suzanne's comment on my cousins blog (6th google hit on the search). (I know this, because they reference the song as an "annual Blockburger favorite," a line from my her comment, but can't figure out what a 'Blockburger' is. Apparently no one has heard of those, either.)

The last two days alone have had six visitors to my blog looking for the song. They come from Greensboro, Memphis, Salt Lake, Schaumburg Ill, Lincoln, Ancorage and Washingtong. (As I was typing that sentence I just got another visitor from Riverside.)

So, if you're looking for the song, you're not alone. And you're also not alone in not being able to find a copy. Some people have offered some help on Suzanne's blog. (Maybe we all need to convince Suzanne to get over to our parents house and track the music down. It might be the world's last remaining copy!)

Chistmas Songs

Two years ago, I complained about the general low quality of Christmas music. The talent level required to get music on the radio seems to drop significantly if it is December. I don't like that. (I'm sure that this has nothing to do with any donkey songs that were re-brought to my attention recently.)

This year, I hope to bring to all of our lives some good Christmas music. If you've got songs you wish to nominate, go for it.

The first song to be high lighted is "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen / We Three Kings" by Barenaked Ladies and Sarah McLachlan. The album "Barenaked for the Holidays" is in general quite good, and this song is excellent. Two songs that are individually terrific, and interesting interpretation, a good pairing of performers, and a snappy beat.

Musical Family

Shannon and I brought extensive musical knowledge into our marriage. And I'm always amazed at how little it overlaps. (I could also write a whole post about how often one of us mentions some little trivia item that we totally expect the other to know, only to find out they have no clue what we're talking about. It goes both ways on all sorts of topics.)

Shannon gets huge bonus points for bringing Guster into my life. And she's also been the mechanism for introducing me to a lot more Ella, Etta, etc. type of music. I, on the other hand, seem to always be pulling out some piece of music from the 60s that Shannon isn't familiar with. (This is a result of our upbringing. Shannon's parents have classical music on records. My dad has the White Album in the original cellophane, and can tell you what month just about any song came out from 1964 through 1970.) It goes like this: I'll reference some song lyric which draws a blank look from her. So we youtube it and often her response is "oh, I didn't know those were the lyrics to that song." She's usually heard the songs before, but may not know the title or artist. I'm not sure that I've brought any important musical discoveries to her existance, but at least more weird organ solos.

This post was prompted by me asking Julia last night "What's your name? Who's your daddy? Is he rich like me?" This was followed by Shannon's aforementioned blank look, which lead to youtube, "Time of the Season" by the Zombies and an organ solo. So now you're up to speed. Enjoy:

Leonard Bernstein

This question has been bothering me for a few days now. Perhaps as long as a week. How can you, on one day, comment disappointedly on your husband not enjoying musicals, and then, on the very next day, not know a song that come from West Side Story? I guess maybe the answer is that if your husband actually enjoyed and watched musicals with you, you would have finally seen the Sharks and Jets do battle.

Nickel Creek - A Lighthouse's Tale

It's been a long time since I've featured any music on here. So here is some Nickel Creek (which is never, never to be confused with Nickel Back. Ever.) The song is good, but sad.

Creeque Alley

Last night one line sent Shannon and I on a music history adventure. Shannon knew exactly one line from a song: "John and Mitchy were were gettin' kinda itchy" and I new one line more: "Everyone's gettin' fat, except Mama Cass".

It turns out the song is Creeque Alley by the Mamas & the Papas and has a wealth of stories hidden in it's lyrics. We already knew that Papa John and Mama Michelle were married, but that was about it.

As I started reading the lyrics, I wasn't sure they were talking about anything interesting until I reached the line: Sebastian and Zal formed the Spoonful. And I thought, 'These people they're singing about in the song, could they be the ones who formed The Lovin' Spoonful? It turns out that the song is about John Sebastian and Zal Yanovsky who were in a band called The Mugwumps along with Denny Doherty and Cass Elliot. It turns out I know who those people are! They're Mama Cass and Papa Doherty! So half of the Mamas & the Papas and half of the Lovin' Spoonful were in a band together.

The song also makes several references to McGuinn and McGuire. Roger McGuinn was in the Byrds and Barry McGuire was a solo folk rock singer. The Mamas and the Papas certainly knew the Byrds, because Mama Michelle had an affair with one of the Byrds members.

Eventually, we discovered www.creequealley.com which has a bunch more information. We thought it was interesting, at least. Hopefully this post makes some sense, as I've written it one sentence at a time over the entire day.

South of Timbuktu

Shannon, Alex and I were recently discussing Christmas songs about animals. Alex had just introduced us to "Dominick the Donkey"and of course there is "I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas" and I guess "Christmas Don't be Late" might count [make sure to watch this video, as it's both informative and weird], because it is sung by chipmunks, at least. But some of you out there already know where I'm going with this. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to mention "Santa's Using Zebras Now". For those who don't know, this is a piece of piano sheet music that's been floating around the Blockburger home for decades now.

"Santa's Using Zebras Now" is about a kid in Africa that writes Santa a letter, but when Santa tries to go down there to give him presents, the reindeer revolt because it's too hot. (Apparently, until 1968 Santa just ignored much of the African continent.) So, Santa starts using zebras south of Timbuktu. Not surprisingly, neither Alex nor Shannon had heard of this song, so I set about googling it. As it turns out "Santa's Using Zebras Now" turns up only 17 hits on the whole internet. Maybe someone else does know the song! But no, they don't. The #1 hit on google turns out to be my cousin's blog. His last name isn't Blockburger, but he is from the Blockburger side of the family. But it's not even him that is writing about it, the reference to the song is found in a comment posted by "Cousin S" who is my sister. It turns out that the Blockburgers are the world's leading scholars on "Santa's Using Zebras Now". [And with any luck, this blog post will soon be the number 1 result on google.]

And now, for all you non-Blockburgers out there, I present perhaps the only audio copy of this song on the internet, brought to you by Mrs. Anderson's 2nd grade class: "Santa's Using Zebras Now".

Goin' Down

Here's a musical selection for you all. The sound isn't real great, but it's the best I could find on youtube. Pretty much everyone needs more Micky in their lives.

Back from Rehab

So, I guess my sabbatical is over.

Anyway, let's talk about Rehab. Specifically the new song I've heard on the radio a few times. I think it's most interesting if you experience it in the order that I did. First, we'll assume that you've heard the song on the radio. It's sung by Amy Winehouse. It's a catchy little tune as she insists that she won't go to rehab. She has a deep, rich Motown type voice, and the song almost sounds like it could be remade from that era.

Next, go watch her sing it on youtube. If you're like me, it will take the whole first viewing to reconcile the fact that that voice is coming out of that girl. It really doesn't seem to match up.

Next, watch her sing it again, and try to figure out where she's from. Between the computer monitor and the glare from the window and the little youtube window, it might take that whole second viewing to figure out if she's Hispanic, or what. But, if you pay close attention, by the end you might suspect that she's actually Jewish. (As a side note, my spell checker has only one suggestion when I type in "jewish". It's rather obvious that "jewish" ought to be "newish".)

Finally, go look up Amy Winehouse in wikipedia, giggle for a minute at the picture of her with big hair, and suddenly there it is: she's a Brit! It just boggles my mind when I listen to the song that it's sung by a newish, Jewish, Londoner.