Eric Whitacre

What can I say – I’m a hopeless Anglophile. I love all things British and I love love love London.

The concert went beautifully, the choir sounded (and looked) like angels, and the cathedral was just perfect for my music. Warm, rich,Gothic reverb, but still small enough that it felt close and intimate. And it’s been around for a while:

Yes, that sign says 606. As in the seventh century. The cathedral was built in 1,100, but there’s been a church in the same spot for 1,400 years. There’s even remarkably fresh remains of a first century Roman street running underneath the building.

Here’s a shot of the cathedral from my hotel window. I love the satellite dish in the foreground:

After the concert I met a bunch of very sweet and crazy singers from Cordydd, an excellent Welsh choir who traveled from Wales to see the show:

London is filled with strange and subtle sights, so I’m always taking pictures of odd signs and events as I walk. In particular, I can’t get enough of the British attention to grammatical detail. Behold:

This was a sign in a little grocery store, and I just had to get it with my iPhone. (Almost got me arrested). Look at the lengths to which the author went to avoid a dangling preposition. Are criminals in England actually literate enough to parse this warning?

Here’s a picture from my trip last August, a very cool (and very illegal) Banksy graffiti instillation that appeared just a few hours before I walked by:

It was painted on the side of a post office, and was probably removed within the day.

And finally, a construction sign that I passed in Soho – words to live by. (Or as the Brits might say, “words by which to live.”):

Rule Britannia! Long live fair Oriana!