Taxi Opera, Anyone?

It seems like it's been a while since we met anywhere other than London Bridge station, but today we finally ventured elsewhere and met in Clapham, with Bob arriving by rail and me arriving by tube. It was a beautiful afternoon and we wandered on residential and high streets, going in and out of shops, gazing in windows, and generally enjoying the sunny afternoon. I liked this spindle of wires in the centre of one of the side-streets

and the sun setting over Clapham Common was a pretty sight.
We had some coffee and a snack before heading over to Studio Voltaire (an amazing arts space housed in a converted school) for the reason we were in Clapham this evening, a performance of 'if the route': the great learning of london. The performance, dubbed a "cabbies' opera," consisted of a classical quartet and five pairs of taxi drivers in-training, a mix I found intriguing before I knew anything else about the piece. During the performance, the nine men and one woman called out aspects of "The Knowledge," the rigorous memorization of some 25-30,000 streets that London taxi drivers must undergo before they can be licensed, with the quartet underscoring various aspects of the piece. Sometimes everyone spoke at once, so that you could just pick out bits and pieces of familiar street names and neighbourhoods, while at other points, one voice (playing the role of potential customer) could clearly be made out demanding a particular trip ("Take me from The Ministry of Defence to the nearest McDonalds.") and after a moment of scrunched-up thought, another voice would start calling out the rapid-fire succession of street names, complete with instructions to "follow through,"turn "right at," or turn "left at" each street until the destination was reached. All the while, the "customer" would follow the verbal route on large maps that covered the tables in front of the particpants, ensuring that the often very long, convoluted path was correct. Hypnotising, layered, full of humour, smiles, and intense concentration, the experience of listening to 'if the route' often paralleled our experience of being in London--gazing at maps trying to find the best way from place to place, while slowly becoming more aware of the rhythms of the city and taking them into account for any given journey. Making sense of this sprawling city isn't always easy, with all the people, places, noise, and signs fighting for attention, but amongst all the layers, there are many amazing discoveries to be made. After the performance, the participants received much applause and praise and we left the crowded space with London's streets on our minds.
A very different type of entertainment greeted us at Angel tube station on our way home: While there are often buskers on the platform between the two Angel escalators, this was the first time I had heard this particular "duet." With all the non-chalance of a Londoner, Bob proclaimed that he had seen them before and didn't even pause to look, but come on--a smiling vacuum cleaner playing a saxophone--clearly a photo opportunity not to be missed.