Hamlet 1

My guidebook said that the best time to see Buckingham Palace is at 11:30 for the changing of the guard. I decided to go yesterday morning (December 23rd), and made that the first thing I did. I arrived at 10:45, which turned out to be a very good time to get there. A crowd of people that was spread around the gate was just then being organized behind barriers. I chose somewhere to stand arbitrarily, and as luck would have it, it was one of the best seats in the house (actually standing room outside the gates). Also, I found out that December 23rd was a good day to see the changing of the guard; in addition to being Festivus, it was the last changing of the guard before Christmas (and before I leave). I didn’t get bored during the 45 minute wait, because I was to intrigued by the police officer who had the unfortunate job of crowd control. He had to tell hundreds of people where they couldn’t walk, and where they couldn’t stop walking. Each one wanted to be the exception to the rule. He, thus, had to explain that if one person breaks the rule, then soon everyone will, and we’ll have a problem. I felt bad for him. I had done a similar job at the Film Festival, and always assumed that someone whose uniform says “police” instead of “volunteer” would get more respect. Apparently, the uniform was not enough. The best way to get a crowd’s respect is to be on horseback. They seemed to respect the horse’s authority. The changing of the guard was fun. It reminded me of the Palio of Siena. I started to think about the Buckingham Palace Guard and Swiss Guard. These are both jobs filled with tradition that tourists travel long distances to watch. I thought about whether anything like that exists in the US. As far as I know, no part of our military is a tourist attraction. I’ve never been to Fort Knox or the White House, but I don’t think that people go there to see the guards. The closest equivalent we have would be Disneyland.

After seeing the palace, I wandered around London for a few hours. I had already been to about 10 bookstores looking for a Peter Schiff book. I decided that it couldn’t hurt to try one more, and there I found The Little Book of Bull Moves in Bear Markets. I’m excited to read it. Peter Schiff will save our economy if we let him.

I walked by the Novello Theater, where The Royal Shakespeare Company was performing Hamlet 1: Prince of Denmark. On a whim, I walked inside, asked if they had any tickets left, and bought one. This was already my favorite Shakespeare play, and I had never seen it performed before. On top of that, it was an incredible production. It was by far the best Shakespeare performance I have ever seen. The queen was a bit of a Debby Downer, but other than that, everything about the show was amazing. Some of the lines didn’t sound like they were in the original script, but they worked very well:

“Polonius, make it so:
Madness in great ones must not unwatch'd go.”

“He kills your father and you fall back.
Your sister dies for him and you fall back. Not again.
The line must be drawn here! This far and no further!
You must make him pay for what he’s done!”

Over all, I loved the play. All of the actors were perfect, especially Patrick Stewart as Claudius. I can’t wait to see the sequel.