CORONA DEL MAR TODAY

CdM Today Reader’s Olympics Spectator Digest

By Gianna, Dee and Dee Kerrison

The family sits this morning at our local cafe having breakfast of croissants, hot chocolate and double cup cappuccinos, wet with skinny milk. Local resident is curious about our stay here and very happy we are enjoying ourselves. She offers to help even when our son inquires about the MI-5 building. Though she says she can’t help him get into the building, she slyly mentions, “That you should be worried if I could get you in!” She is around 75 or 80 of slim build and dry wit.

Cheering for GB!

We had tickets for volleyball and watched Italy beat Bulgaria in a tight competition. It was thrilling. What was even a better experience was cheering for Great Britain or GB with the throngs of fans in Earl’s Court! Although they lost to Argentina in three straight sets, my greatest triumph was to sing, “We Are The Champions” by Queen at the top of my lungs while Dee Sr. looked on in quiet disbelief! He has never been a fan of Queen (more a Barry White fan) and singing with thousands of fans was a great way to soothe the defeat.

“Mind the Gap”

Our latest family debate is which city has the best train system best – New York, Paris or London. Our cynical New Yorker has been quibbling about the London Tubes since arriving in the fair city. While there are more folks helping than you can imagine, it is a bit confusing for this expatriate New Yorker who lives in Corona del Mar. The Tubes are clean, run pretty much on time and though not a quiet as their Parisian counterpart, nothing quite compares to the efficiency of the New York subway. The high decibel, ear deafening New York Subway has the best grid system anywhere. Not an impartial bone in his lovely body here!

Tomorrow is Taekwondo!

A Different View of London

My lovely husband has a fervent artistic side that must be quenched in every city we visit. Our son and I happily go along knowing it will be fun as sidekicks. London’s uber cool East End has a street art scene that rivals Los Angeles and some say New York. Upon meeting our guide, we traveled sections of the city with a group of 20-30 art lovers. Young, older generation, teenagers and a couple with baby in tow, we scurried and viewed street art from sidewalk to skyscraper walls.

As I smartly positioned myself to see the obvious green termite emblazoned on a building, I was shocked to see the first piece of art was painted on a ‘wad of smushed gum on a sidewalk by artist Ben Wilson! Proof is in the photo with a sneaker pointing to the much decorated wad. Ben has thousands of these through out the city. You need only to look closely!

We saw a graffiti homage to the Olympics such as the Gold medal winning “fastest man alive” Usain Bolt lightning bolt pose and street artist Pure Evil’s “Stolen Olympic Ring” protesting the commercialism and materialistic nature of today’s Olympics.

Once we left the tour, we had a family photo taken by new artist Caroll Taveras who opened her celebrated PHOTO STUDIO project in the UK. The not-for-profit art project is focused on documenting communities around the world. We were photographed with a large format view camera which was once popular in small town portrait studios in the first half of the twentieth century. Sorry no digital image to share! PHOTO STUDIO is a welcome counterpoint to today’s digital images.

The Kerrison family lives in Corona del Mar, and Dee Kerrison will be a Corona del Mar High School freshman in September. They have agreed to supply Olympic spectator updates as often as possible during their trip to London to see the games.

Photos courtesy of the Kerrison family.