26.06.12 (Becoming a Groupie, Cambridge, UK)

26.06.12 (recap: Cambridge, UK) - Here are five things that I've learned during the week I've been in England.

1) Working with manuscripts can be brutally difficult. Today at the Parker Library, while working with MS 139, I discovered that one essay I've written and presented at a conference back in 2011 was based on an edition of the Historia Regum attributed to Simeon of Durham that wasn't worth its salt; my argument, however thoughtful, was completely wrong, and Arnold's edition is rubbish. My suggestion to students who want to work with manuscripts? Don't trust editions alone: look at the manuscripts for yourselves. Hard lessons learned are really hard lessons sometimes.

2) Cambridge has one of the best bookstores anywhere.

While sitting and working in the Parker Library, I met James, a researcher who studies at Oxford and is in Cambridge for a few weeks. He's researching the polychronicon, a manuscript by Ranulf Higden composed it in the early fourteenth century. At 12:30, James has me as his guest in the Corpus Christi Dining Hall, a large chapel-like room with hanging chandeliers that serves some pretty terrible cafeteria food.

The dining hall looks like this, but with people (this is not my image, they don't let you take photos in there):

We eat and chat about medieval literature and books, and then James says he's going to the bookstore. I decide to tag along.

G. David Bookseller's is hidden down the narrow St. Edward's Passage. I come so very close to spending seventy-five quid on a first-edition copy of Lolita. As much as it pains me to say this: it's not worth it. I need my money to survive. Browsing their copies of basically everything from the Oxford University Press and then at a fine collection of first editions, this bookstore gives me some serious nerd-chills. If you go, check out their antiquarian books section. It's marvelous! They have an excellent selection of reduced-price books too.

This is James, who I met at the Parker Library and he showed me David's. Here he is looking scholarly.

3) If you sit in a pub in England long enough, people will start to talk to you.

After the somewhat disparaging day at Parker Library (minus the pretty cool side-trip to the bookstore), I decide to go to the Portland Arms and have a few pints. I was there maybe half an hour sipping on the cheapest, wateriest three-percent alcohol by volume ale I could get my hands on (actually they were basically out of everything, so my choice was made for me) when a group of fellows start talking to me about where I'm from. Since I've arrived in the UK, I've been going it solo, and I guess there's a part of me that worries about being taken for granted by someone eager to get the best of an American. Fortunately for me, I happen to run into some quality people who are here to support their friends' band.

It's five quid to get into the venue. Here are some photographs...

Not sure what this band's name was, but they were pretty good.

Bev Killers, killing.

4) As far as the US goes people from the UK think Seattle's alright. Suzanne Paul at the Parker Library half-seriously called it "that civilized part of America."  We chat for a pretty long time after the show. As the night grows dark, the group of friends congregate in a small thoroughfare out the back of the Portland Arms. Johnny Caribou (who makes the point that he's fifty-two and still awesome) and I talk about the groups he's seen live, the Clash, Sex Pistols, Bowie... The man is a living legend who has experienced all of this great music during the golden age of rock and roll.

Everyone's a bit sloshed in this photograph. The woman in the bottom right was the drummer of Bev Kills, and the snapping young fellow in the blazer and glasses is Johnny Caribou. Johnny Caribou knows everyone, and was introducing me to each person in the pub. The woman with the red hair is Ashley and that's her beau behind her in the white tee. 

This is Ahron, self-proclaimed advocate of the States. He's spent some time in New Jersey, Houston, and Seattle.

This is Matt, he's engaged to the drummer of Bev Kills. He  proposed to his lady on-stage at this very pub.

Ahron and Ashley were clearly having a counting contest, but only got to 'one.'

Didn't catch this bloke's name, but everyone seemed to think he had a third nipple. He's showing me against his will. I hope he's not sorry that this pic made it onto the internet.

I'm told that there will be another gig here on the 6th of July. I might have become a groupie.

5) It only takes a week to get into the swing of things.