For a date of 8-8, it didn’t seem that lucky (Chinese culture likes 8s right?) Well I suppose work went well, so for me it was alright. I was continuing the research from last week, looking up material for the tv pilot. Also took the time to go to lunch across the street with some of my coworkers (though I suppose it’s not exactly “co” since I’m an intern and not an employee? Maybe?) – had a pretty good tuna sandwich, the food was pretty good, though the service was only alright… But it was great to sit down with the others and talk with them in a more informal matter.
Today’s stock market. Yikes. Had a tab open on my computer, and would refresh the page every so often – down a few hundred already when the president made his speech, though it didn’t seem to be much better. 630 points down. That’s unbelievable – I thought going down over 500 last week was crazy, I don’t even know what to think about today. Though I suppose things will get better with time, it’s just a question of how long we’re going to take to get out…and so far, the downgrade of our credit rating hasn’t seemed to motivate the political parties in publicly taking steps together…time will tell.
And the riots in London. Hits close to home now. It’s scary really, recognizing the places they mention on BBC News, which I’ve been streaming for a good portion of the day, hearing about places we were mere weeks ago. I’ve been glued to my screen with the incredible riveting images of the rioting, fires, people smashing buses with food, what seems like chaos in the streets, police down the streets (or lack of them) – unbelievable images coming out of there. Seen riot police in old news footage (from a long time ago), or in movies, but seeing them now is a frightening indicator of the situation. I found out about the events over the weekend by chance, looking at some UK news sites – I haven’t heard any mainstream US media coverage until today. Though I would rather read the UK coverage, to get the location and other details (which aren’t really needed in the US reports, besides saying “around London”). Though I do feel that if similar things were happening in certain places in the US, news helicopters would have more of a presence in multiple locales, while it seems like there is less helicopter access in London (at least for BBC) – though they do fly in circles more there, while US helicopters seems to hover more – makes for some interesting camera angles and pans. Interesting to see some pictures on the BBC streaming online video, of the calm of the police/government officials on one side of a splitscreen juxtaposed with live pictures of the violence going on outside. Though I’d be interested to know more about the root causes – just youth and criminals looking for something to do, or if this is representative of deeper problems… But it was quite unsettling to see the videos of Clapham Junction being looted – especially considering how often we were going through there. Also looking at the National Rail twitter feed, updating every few minutes about station closures – and recognizing stations – a surreal experience. The Debenhams – I have a picture of the department store, we were right across the street from there. We walked right past the costume store being burned. Imagining what it would be like if we were there right now (though from this infographic, there haven’t been events out by where we were in Roehampton/Putney). Scary and surreal. Hope everyone we know there is safe. I’m tempted to stay up a few more hours to get morning news coverage from London, but I should sleep soon…I’ll get updates tomorrow.
Today’s stock market. Yikes. Had a tab open on my computer, and would refresh the page every so often – down a few hundred already when the president made his speech, though it didn’t seem to be much better. 630 points down. That’s unbelievable – I thought going down over 500 last week was crazy, I don’t even know what to think about today. Though I suppose things will get better with time, it’s just a question of how long we’re going to take to get out…and so far, the downgrade of our credit rating hasn’t seemed to motivate the political parties in publicly taking steps together…time will tell.
And the riots in London. Hits close to home now. It’s scary really, recognizing the places they mention on BBC News, which I’ve been streaming for a good portion of the day, hearing about places we were mere weeks ago. I’ve been glued to my screen with the incredible riveting images of the rioting, fires, people smashing buses with food, what seems like chaos in the streets, police down the streets (or lack of them) – unbelievable images coming out of there. Seen riot police in old news footage (from a long time ago), or in movies, but seeing them now is a frightening indicator of the situation. I found out about the events over the weekend by chance, looking at some UK news sites – I haven’t heard any mainstream US media coverage until today. Though I would rather read the UK coverage, to get the location and other details (which aren’t really needed in the US reports, besides saying “around London”). Though I do feel that if similar things were happening in certain places in the US, news helicopters would have more of a presence in multiple locales, while it seems like there is less helicopter access in London (at least for BBC) – though they do fly in circles more there, while US helicopters seems to hover more – makes for some interesting camera angles and pans. Interesting to see some pictures on the BBC streaming online video, of the calm of the police/government officials on one side of a splitscreen juxtaposed with live pictures of the violence going on outside. Though I’d be interested to know more about the root causes – just youth and criminals looking for something to do, or if this is representative of deeper problems… But it was quite unsettling to see the videos of Clapham Junction being looted – especially considering how often we were going through there. Also looking at the National Rail twitter feed, updating every few minutes about station closures – and recognizing stations – a surreal experience. The Debenhams – I have a picture of the department store, we were right across the street from there. We walked right past the costume store being burned. Imagining what it would be like if we were there right now (though from this infographic, there haven’t been events out by where we were in Roehampton/Putney). Scary and surreal. Hope everyone we know there is safe. I’m tempted to stay up a few more hours to get morning news coverage from London, but I should sleep soon…I’ll get updates tomorrow.
This was Debenhams in Clapham Junction a few weeks ago when we were there...below are videos from tonight in the same area. The building on fire in one of the videos is just a little ways to the left from where I'm standing taking the photo.
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