Current location:	The Fourth Plinth
Current mood:	pleasantly surprised

Stand on Guard, Getting Ready for the Show
The northwest corner of Trafalgar Square in London features the Fourth Plinth, originally built in the 19th century for the purpose of erecting a statue of William IV which never actually went up. Ever since, debate has raged over what to put there (with the usual answer being "nothing"), and for the past ten years, that has led to occasional temporary art installations.

Currently, the Fourth Plinth is being taken up by an art project called One & Other, conceived by Antony Gormley, where a different applicant goes onto the Plinth every hour from July 6 to October 14. They can do whatever they want there, as long as it's legal, and they can take anything up with them, as long as they carry it themselves.

If you go to the project's official website, you can watch a live webstream of whoever is on the Plinth at the moment. (As I write this, a grammar school student is talking on her mobile phone and writing stuff on a stand she brought with her, trying to get spectators to play Hangman.) Each person's hour is archived online for posterity.

After I found out about this (which I thought was rather cool), I started poking around to find out more, and occasionally checking into the live feed to see what was going on...so you can imagine my surprise when I discovered someone I knew had already taken part!

My friend Larina Alick was the designated Plinther from 9-10 AM on September 4, and she dubbed her hour a "Demonstration of Procrastination." Larina is originally from Queensland, but I met her on my (first) trip to Melbourne, and we stayed in touch through her (first) move to London. Seeing her in this particular context had an extra bit of personal resonance, since she and I brought in the year 2000 together in Trafalgar Square.

As I mentioned, you can watch her entire hour online for yourselves. I found the whole thing very entertaining, and Larina remains as awesome as ever.