Day 5: The Backup Plan, AKA The HMV/Virgin Megastore Megahaul

Sorry this took so long, real life (AKA my friends laziness and procrastination) kicked in. I'm trying to get back on track, but I'll be out of town to visit my mom for mother's day this weekend, so don't hold me to it. Not that it would matter if you did anyway. Sorry. Okay! Day 5! Rock on!

Day 5 was decidedly less sunny than day 4. This was to be expected, but was a downer nonetheless. Originally, this would have been the day I took a train down to Winchester to see visit one of my friends. Alas, he couldn't get the day off from work, so the backup plan was to go see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. This begins at 11 a.m. It's done daily during the late spring and summer months, so you'd figure there wouldn't be too many people mucking up the works, right?

Wrong. The place was a fucking madhouse.



Needless to say, we didn't stick around long. We saw a little bit of the guards playing music and crap, but it just didn't seem worth it to stand in the rain with 3,000 other people just for that. So we moved on, taking one more photo before leaving...



These are the gates just behind the crowds. I guess when you have a giant empire, you can afford to build gold-plated gates like this. Then again, I guess you can do it even when you're just a figurehead ripe for tabloid fodder. Who knew?

Those would be the last pictures I took that day. I wanted to kind of wander and enjoy the city, not really caring about documenting all of it. This would end up being my shopping day. This would also be my "wander around with headphones on, listening to cool music in cool places" day. Try listening to Dead Can Dance's Aion or Massive Attack's 100th Window while walking through an art gallery (preferably one with artwork from the 13-17th centuries.) Listen to Portishead while riding the tube. Listen to some Quantic while roaming the streets. It's fun. It's kind of like how people tell you that watching 2001 is SO MUCH BETTER DUDE when you're stoned or on acid or something. Except my way is completely legal. Somehow, I just made that sound less fun. Ok, you downloaded the songs ILLEGALLY, you rebel, you. Feel cooler? I hope so.

Anyway, I eventually made my way to the Virgin Megastore, which is like a gigantic mecca of a music place in the Piccadilly Circus area. It's got four floors worth of music and DVD goodies. They had a 5 for £30 sale going on, which equates to about $12 a CD. This is a damn good price for over there, especially when you're grabbing limited edition stuff that costs like $30 to get in the US. I promptly took advantage of that deal, though I will admit I took a little TOO much advantage of it. I walked out of there with 12 albums and £85 less than I walked in with. Do the math. After this I went to the HMV to see if there was anything there that I couldn't find at the Megastore, and surprisingly enough, I found 5 more discs that I had been looking for. Even better was the fact that the Another Late Night series was buy one, get one free there. Score! Much better than paying £15 apiece for them. Still not cheap, but about the cheapest I was ever going to find them. Also found a 6-disc downtempo compilation thing that I couldn't pass up for £10. Walked out of there with 5 more albums for the collection and £40 less than I walked in with. Again, do the math. Here's the official list for you to either respect or point and laugh at. Your choice...

• Another Late Night: Fila Brazillia
• Another Late Night: Howie B.
• Another Late Night: Rae & Christian
• Another Late Night: Zero 7
• The Beta Band - The Three E.P.'s
• The Cut Up Boys - The Mash Up Mix
• De La Soul - 3 Feet High And Rising (2 disc special edition)
• David Gray - Flesh
• Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights
• Kid Koala - Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
• Kid Koala - Some Of My Best Friends Are DJs
• New Order - Substance
• New Order - (the rest of)
• Pulp - Hits (UK edition)
• The Quantic Soul Orchestra - Stampede
• Queens of the Stone Age - Rated R (UK 2-disc special edition)
• The Ultimate Chillout Album (6 discs)

In total? $250 spent, 17 albums, 26 discs total. Craziness.

Also went to see a movie that day, since it only seemed right to see a British film in a British theater. I went to see Bullet Boy, the story of a boy whose older brother has just been released from prison and the parallels that begin to appear between the two of them. It was nothing special, and certainly not worth the $19 I spent to see it. Yes, you read that price correctly. It did have a soundtrack by Massive Attack, which is a plus for me. I'll review it for the JAXFIFE site eventually. But then again, we know how good I am about keeping up with my own blog, so no promises there, I'm thinking.

Not the best day, not the worst day, but certainly the most expensive day. I didn't even get into how much food and drink cost me that day. Scary.

Coming eventually (I make no promises anymore):
Day 6: More Timely Info From Maki About The Trip He Took Last Month Already