45 Days in London: Day 36

D-Neg, Selfridges, 39 Steps

I spent the morning once again doing...Laundry. Only this time I got the bright idea to hand-wash a few items, and only use the machines to dry. I also machine-washed a load of clothes, and hung them all over the apartment to drip-dry. Probably saved us twenty bucks!

This afternoon we got to tour an Oscar award-winning special effects house, called Double Negative. (D-Neg, to insiders). They are one of the biggest VFX houses in the UK, and Christopher Nolan uses them pretty much exclusively. One of Jeff's students, Keanan Cantrell, works there. He invited us and the students in for a look at their workspaces and their studio reel. some of it was top secret and we had to sign NDAs (non-disclosure agreements).

Check out this link to Keanan's own reel—you'll be amazed!

http://vimeo.com/92573669

And you can see his credits here, most notably Avatar:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3157056/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1

After that we did a little shopping on Oxford Street and Regent Street. We'd heard quite a bit about
Selfridges, London's other department store, and decided to take a peek. It's not as opulent as Harrod's, but almost as pricey. (The architecture reminded us of the flagship Marshall Fields store in Chicago. We found out later that Mr. Selfridge originally worked for Marshall Fields.) Selfridges is also made famous by the BBC drama Mr. Selfridge.

I have to add that Mr. Cool looks great in the lower left. Seriously, he could be a fashion model. (I'm not biased in the least.)  :)

In the evening we saw The 39 Steps, a spoof on a whole string of Hitchcock movies. I think I've seen this play a few too many times, because it failed to excite me the way most of the other productions we've seen did. Still, it was excellently done. And what's not to love about this theatre, this town, and Alfred Hitchcock? Plus, Piccadilly Circus is always a blast at night!