Magical Mystery Tour

Driving to Liverpool from London--3 and a half hours--renting a car--driving on the left side of the road--on the wrong side of the car--with seven people--manual transmission--no one drives stick.

LIVERPOOL OR BUST '08.

-M

Trash, Treasures and Records

It has been a week and an update is needed.

The past seven days have included four thousand miles of travel, extreme jet-lag, meeting and greeting, a fair amount of alcohol consumption, bus tours, boat parties, picture taking, money spending and absolute fun.

In seven days I've learned to appreciate rainy days and mostly the sunnier ones.  It's true that it rains in London but when the sun is out it really is shinning.  The people in this city have been so far nothing but nice.  There are tons of shady characters in the night--which I clearly love and interact with them when I can.  Cabs get cheaper as my faux-British accent gets better.

I was weary about heading to this city while attached to a "program".  I thought this would hinder my exploration--which it probably has but I've still met interesting people from everywhere; so it seems.

This update is vague and pretty much an enjambment, but here are a few favorites of the week:

-Slang

-Strawberry beer

-Builders Arms (local pub)

-The Gardening Club

-jay-walking

-spiral staircases

-Coca-Cola

-chicken kebabs from Partridges

-Amy Winehouse

-Kensington Gardens

-the Indian Market

-business men doing ANYTHING to make the tube

-bagels for 20 pence/Brick Lane

-M

Hallo

I'm here:

and London Bridge is not falling down.

-M

P.S. (more to come)

My first weekend in Brooklyn, Ryan and I spent a good chunk of Saturday's wee hours dancing to Jamaican dancehall at Toro, an Asian fusion restaurant and bar. It's about a block from the edge of the East River in quant, quiet Brooklyn Heights, so when we left at 4 a.m., hungry hungry, we figured we were destined for a big bag of chips.  

Then we found the Park Plaza Restaurant, a glorified diner on the Cadman Park corner of Pineapple Walk. On Fridays and Saturdays, the place goes all-hours; it was like striking gold, if you could eat gold and it were made out of griddle cakes or buffalo chicken. Since then, the diner has been like a lucky, greasy talisman: It's also where I was leaving the night I learned about the pick-up soccer league in BH.  

It's mystical, like sweaty, sweaty clockwork, how everyone arrives at the park across the street at the same time almost every night. That's what a guy on the sidelines told me (more or less) when I asked, at least, so tonight, I went there, too. And it was GREAT. Great. Greatgreatgreatgreatgreat. 

Everyone was super duper nice, supportive, fun. And I hadn't played outside in a loooong time - probably not since I lived at home last summer - so it was like unfolding my legs/myself, or something. It's also the reason I didn't bother to pace myself - at all - and could only play for about an hour and fifteen minutes. Luckily, the teams were getting bigger throughout the game, so I didn't feel bad when I took off early. 

I'll be back, anyway - tomorrow, the next day, the day after that, etc.

I bought this book yesterday. It was a great idea until I flagged 999 things I'd like to do while in London.

-M

New York City is extraordinary. I should have figured, long before I started to write this entry (with cold Thai noodles in a plastic take-out plate on my lap, by the by), how hard it would be to invent new words and ways to explain a city that has been hyper-explained already by an impossible number of authors, essayists, actors, songwriters, people on the street, people on Taxi Cab Confessions, etc. 

So I won't explain the city at all. Surriously. Instead, I'll (try to) explain my life inside it, which started out as lonely as ever and then got better, and which has taught me (cliche cliche cliche, who gives a shit) a handful of important lessons about life, my character, the character of others and how wildly special it is to belong to a little tribe of people with hearts as big as something very, very big.

And I won't focus on the lonely-as-ever city that started to consume me in the first weeks of July either, although that city also smothered me with heat, especially underground, especially as the days passed and the walls and the ceilings of the subway apparently accumulated sunlight and mugginess like a currency and then vanquished commuters. (I'm getting better at the subway.) Instead, I'll focus on the city I'm starting to see behind the city I saw at first. 

So far, I've checked out:

- The Brooklyn Bridge (I live right near it)

- all the super tall buildings that everyone else comes to look at, too

- a lot of gorgeous cityscapes set over the water 

- DUMBO, which is also nearby, and which I lava

- Murakami at The Brooklyn Museum (I'd like him better if he didn't pretend to be an artist with integrity who makes profound statements about other artists with less integrity, and erred on the side of businessman-who-is-exceptionally-good-at-art)

- a lot of other things

So far, I've eaten: 

- a lot of pizza

- a lot of hotdogs

- a lot of pad thai

Otherwise, I'm chugging along, on the hunt still for a part-time job, or at least an internship to fill my Tuesday-through-Friday. I'm waiting to hear back on a couple of applications, and I hope I get to make an excited blog post within the next few days that says "AHHHHHHH," or something like that. 

At WNYC, I've been loving every minute, all my co-workers, all our musical (and non-musical) guests and the opportunities that have arisen for me to help out behind-the-scenes. I played a big part in writing the second half of today's show, featuring Dan Zanes, who stopped by with his wonderful Band of the Moment to play a couple of tracks from Nueva York!, his latest kids record, full of traditional Spanish songs re-imagined through rock-and-roll. They sounded A+. 

I also got to listen to Sarah Rodman, the Globe's pop music critic, get scientific about ABBA on the first half of the show. She and I used to work together, which made for a happy reunion on the phone when I called her to prep for the segment. 

Anywho, I just wanted to swing by and say, I'm alive in New York, I will be posting more frequently (and with more substance - this entry is lame, sorry), and I will start to fill you in more and more about the radio.

<3

Good news

The UK issued me a visa!

The Eye of the City is Turning Green With....Well, Sense.

From "street art" at the Tate Modern to double-decker buses, I am day by day getting more excited for London.

With some research money in my accounts and digi cam ready--I want to focus on how London stays green. Maybe most importantly what the city or individuals are doing to become sustainable.

Well, along with every kitschy thing I can think of, I just found a few days worth of video in an article by TimeOut London.

From allotment to ZWIN (zero waste initiatives), TimeOut does a great job of naming alphabetically the ways London's green culture is thriving.

Although a few consonants are missing from London's list, each city should work on their A-Z's.

-M