Cambridge

To finish off my lectures at Britain's top 3 museums (top 3 according to my professor, anyway), I went to Cambridge's Fitzwilliam Museum. I had heard that the British Museum in London was the best, followed by the Ashmolean in Oxford and then the Fitzwilliam in Cambridge. After going myself, I'd have to say that the British Museum is the best, then the Fitzwilliam, and then the Ashmolean, but it's pretty close between the last two. The British Museum blows the other two out of the water, no contest. They all are pretty amazing though. As far as cities go, I'd say London, Oxford, then Cambridge. Cambridge just didn't impress me as much, although I didn't have much time for anything else since I got to Cambridge much later than I wanted to, and it's a longer journey because you have to travel to London first. So, unfortunately I didn't take many pictures. There were, of course, some nice old churches, like this one:



This is one of Cambridge's many colleges that make up the University of Cambridge. All around the city, including at the colleges I saw, bikes lined most of the fences.



Another college, which I couldn't quite get a full picture of. Apparently it's a nice hangout for taxis.



And finally, the Fitzwilliam Museum. The building looks much like the British Museum on the outside.



I tried to get the whole front in this shot but this is the most I could get, I already had my back to a wall.



Like the Ashmolean Museum, the Fitzwilliam doesn't allow pictures inside unfortunately, except in the entryway but the British Museum does. It was very dimly lit.



I'm glad I got to go check out Cambridge at least once. It's similar to Oxford, and it's worth a trip at least once.

Zombie Time!

Finally!! I've been promising it for a while and I finally found a way to get it to work. So here it is: All the zombie videos we made! Works for me, so hopefully it will all work for you. I suppose I could give some background. Over the course of about a year, many people helped make a zombie movie. It kept changing but we kept filming, and eventually it died. This is what Scott Clarke and I finally put together in the end, although it belongs more to Scott than it does to me.

The times making these movies, and the movies for Olde Zoobynews, were some of the best I had at BYU. Good times. And MARCH MADNESS!! GO BYU!

Unfortunately, some of the scenes were lost in a Mac hard drive crash... twice. Scott has the raw footage somewhere. Still, this was what we came up with after deciding that, while this is not the "definitive version", we needed something to show everyone so that they could see what a year's worth of hard work went into (seriously, I'm amazed at how many hours so many people put in). So while further versions may still happen eventually, this is just to tide us all over until then. Enjoy.

First, the Trailer:


Night! As the zombie apocalypse reaches Provo, our brave hero returns for his ex. Occasionally seen are other people in vehicles trying to outrun the apocalypse.

Starring and Asenath Rallison, with Cavan Helps, Scott Black, Kevin Black, Mary Wagers, Emily Mathusek, Mike Law, W. Alexander Haig, Hannah something, Steve McFarland, Steve's friends, Paul Olson, Susan Kearl, and a few whose names I'll get later and update here.



Day! A few years later on the outskirts of Provo, a group of survivors has fortified themselves in the Provo Amphitheater. Two guards protecting the entrance spot a nearby group of zombies hungry for brains.

Starring Seth Huyett, Crazy Pirate Zombie Dude, Kevin Black, Scott Black, Susan Kearl, W. Alexander Haig, Paul Olson, and Paul's sideburns.



Special thanks to Greg Jeffs, Matt Heder (yeah, Jon Heder A.K.A. Napoleon Dynamite's brother), Jessica Embley, Christian Pieper, and the others whose scenes were lost but which still remain in small part in the trailer and will hopefully be edited again, along with those whose names I forgot, and to everyone who laughed at what we intended them to laugh at and not just our acting.

Oxford

A couple weeks ago I went to do some sightseeing in Oxford with some friends. Lindsay got her masters from there last year so she was able to take us into some of the colleges that we might not have otherwise. A friend of hers came down from Scotland and we discovered that I used to work with his sister for about a year at BYU. We ate a full traditional English breakfast at The Three Guineas pub in Reading before heading to Oxford. It was the first time I'd ever had it and it was really good, and for some reason the deep fat fried bread was amazing. Oxford has a lot of things to see. One of the first things we saw was an old burial mound.



Not sure what this used to be, but now it has a shop in the bottom:


And my latin's not the greatest, but under the clock it says "Fortis est Veritas" which I think means "Truth is strength".



At the entrance to Christ Church where Lewis Carroll studied and lectured while he wrote Alice in Wonderland, is this sword in the ground:



Lindsay, Grant, and Andrea inside Christ Church:



This is also in Christ Church and was used to film part of the inside of Hogwarts in the Harry Potter movies. The stairs lead into the Hall they used as Hogwarts' Great Hall. Unfortunately the Great Hall was closed the day we went:



Stained glass inside Christ Church:



Then it was on to Merton College, where J. R. R. Tolkien taught for part of his time at Oxford:



And my personal favorite, the tree at Merton College that Tolkien is said to have sat under to write:





Stained glass inside the Merton College Church:



The exit from a church C. S. Lewis used to frequent in Oxford has a couple of interesting things to see. This is the view directly from the door of the church looking at a building just a few feet away across the alley:



And this is a view of the alley from near that exit of the church (you can't see the church in the picture):



Maybe it's all a coincidence, but you'll notice the door has two fauns flanking it and a lion right on the door. Down the alley is a lamp post. It might not be true but this is said to have been the inspiration for some of C. S. Lewis' Narnia ideas.

Before we saw where C. S. Lewis taught, we met up with some more friends and went to have lunch. We tried to eat at the Eagle and Child but it was full. The Eagle and Child is where C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien and others met as members of a group called the Inklings. In the picture are Andrea, Rachel, Diego, Lindsay, Diego's brother, and Grant:



After lunch we made our way to Magdalen College, where C. S. Lewis taught. Rachel tried to get Grant to stop messing with the gate to the college but soon gave up:



I don't know if it's got the same name, but this is the church at Magdalen College:



Another view of Magdalen College:



Grant in front of the building where C. S. Lewis taught at Magdalen College. You can't see it here but the three windows to where he taught always have flowers in them:



And behind this building is a herd of deer. We think it's probably intentional that one is white:




We got to climb up the tower of University Church for a great view of the city. Here are a couple shots of the city:





There's a lot to see in Oxford, but I'll be back again. Last week I actually went again, this time for a lecture at the Ashmolean museum, one of the three main museums in England they say (the British Museum in London, the Ashmolean, and the Fitz-William in Cambridge are the three). I didn't have time to see much as the lecture took almost 3 hours and since part of it was an actual tour and discussion of the museum I didn't take pictures. On my way out I did stop by the Oxford castle and got a quick shot, and when I have more time I'm going to go and take a tour inside.