Croissant, baguette, Gerard Depardieu...

FRANCE!

Internet has been impossible to find, despite the guide book saying that "internet cafes abound in Paris". Fuckers. I'm on a French keyboard and everything is different so if there are any typing errors, I apologise.

Ok. So we finished up in London, so long, farewell, bye bye. Train to Luton airport, roughly a two hour trip, according to the lady at the train station. We settled in with our books and some food - we stocked up on creamed rice and yoghurt for the journey; and got extra to take with us to France (it was so cheap, we figured it would be a good way to save money). We almost didn't make it though. Jes cleverly thought to look up from her book just as we pulled into the station, saying "Er, I think we should get off here". I don't know how long we would have travelled for before thinking maybe we had gone too far, or where we would have ended up, but we got lucky. In fact, that was the start of the lucky day!

At the airport we saw the fat guy who was in Sliders, that was pretty lucky. Then we decided to spend all our coins on sandwiches, and they equalled 5 pounds, and combined Jes and I had 5 pounds and 2 pence. Lucky lucky. Our luck ran out a bit when, because of the laws about liquid in carry-on luggage, they made us eat all the yoghurt and creamed rice. Jes and I are sitting on the designated "eating bench", drinking yoghurts straight from the tub cos we had no spoons, and then we had to skull our waters, and this nice German man was laughing at us and encouraging us to keep drinking. Tummies did not feel so good after that. The flight was 55 minutes, which is less time than it takes me to drive to Trent's house, and that was a bit fucked.

The hostel is dirty and gross, and Jes and I had to have a beer the second we arrived, and we both promised each other we'd save 5 euro for a bedtime beer each day, just so we can sleep more soundly. Paris is so expensive, too, it's getting us down a bit. We got kebabs last night and it cost us about 800 Australian dollars, and we didn't even get that many chips. Oh well. We have breakfast under the Eiffell Tower some mornings, and we've been to Notre Dame and Sacre Couer and the Arc de Triumphe and along the Champs Elysses with all the rich leathered women and their pooches in Louis Vuitton carrier bags. We went to the gay pride festival that was on, Jes' 88 year old great aunt who we met suggested we go, and it was hilarious and lovely, all utopia-esque with little lezzies and their little IVF babies running around. Jes and I wandered a bit further and decided to stop and have a drink before heading for the hostel which was like a 3 hour walk away. The bar lady made us a Mojito and a Margarita, and they were so so so strong, we literally had a sip and fell over drunk. I'm not even exaggerating. We didn't finish them, and went home to make pasta, but not before weeing in a park because the toilets was broke.

OH! There's more stuff but internet is over now and this keyboard has fried my brain. Today: Louvre and cemetary.

xd

Risotto, travel plans and Wicked.

Jes and I went to see 'Wicked' yesterday. Amazing, of course. I think maybe the US productions were stronger - better acting or something, and the English accents were a little offputting to begin with, too - but I still cried, it was still amazing, and Jes loved it too. We got some shitty seats for 25pounds, and we sat quite a long way away, but it was stil terrific. At the interval the line for the girls' toilets was insane - it snaked back on itself like 11 times - and Jes needed to pee real bad, so I went into the men's toilets and scoped the situation out, hanging out by the hand dryer, waiting for all the lads to clear out. When it was empty, I grabbed Jes and she used the cubicle. After she was done, though, as we were walking out, a group of schoolboys walked in and she kinda smiled at them and they all started giggling hilariously. They probably thought we'd just had sex or something.

People here are not big on awareness of personal space. You try to squeeze past them - they won't move to help you, of course - and then as you say 'Sorry!', they'll glare at you. What?? Surely anyone who has just apologised to you is aware they're inconveniencing you SLIGHTLY and so you just say 'No, that's fine', right? Right? Fuckin Brits. It got real hot after the show yesterday, especially on the non-air-conditioned Tube, it was so gross and sticky.

Before the show, we met up - Jes went in early to get our tickets - and had sandwhiches we brought from home, tuna and mayo and avocado and tomato. It was so nice, sitting in the park. And then we had cheese and crackers. And then we went back to Eat and got some Banoffee pie. If we were here any longer, that shit would be the death of us, literally. We'd spend all our money on it, and then die from the cream that would be running through our veins.

The night before, Georgia made up a beautiful risotto with roasted veggies from the deli, and then we went to a local pub and had a few beers. It was a really nice night, just the four of us, hanging out. Another of the girls' friends, Vanessa, joined us much later in the evening straight from the airport - she's been staying with us since, but is leaving today, like us. Once Zoe arrived, which was yesterday, the once four-person house had in it Beth, Georgia, me, Jes, Wes, Ray, Vanessa and Zoe. Crazy talk! But it's a lovely little family vibe, everyone bustling around the kitchen, watching movies, chatting and laughing and being stupid. Dinner time was a bit chaotic, a lot of yelling over the top of each other, but we worked around it in the end.

Jes and I sat down last night to have a serious chat about whether we were going to skip Paris and stay in London - we are SO comfortable here - but Jes just sat there picking her nose. We decided that we DO love London, but it's too expensive to fuck around with the bookings we've made at this point. Instead, we might skip Switzerland, and stay in Europe for another week - Tom Waits is playing in Prague on the 22nd of July - and then come back to London after that, which means I might come home like a week or 10 days later, if I can afford it, and if I can change my flights. And if Jes stops picking her nose. She's a fiend.

Flying to Paris tonight. We're so sad to leave here, but it's PARIS. Very exciting. Of course, we haven't confirmed our hostel booking, and we arrive at like 10pm, so the trains will be all broken and we'll get a cab that costs 300euro, then the hostel will have cancelled our booking, and it will be midnight, and we'll be stuck in Paris on the street, and we'll have panic attacks and die. So looking forward to that.

Seeing Nicki in Paris, and Alyssa too I think. Friendly faces wherever we go!
xd

Parties, Lezzies and Snot

I've been in London for just over a week now, away from home for about three. And there's still five to go!

London has been so good for my brain and my body, I think, I've really loved being here again. Since Jes got in, we've done a lot of fun stuff. I picked her up from Heathrow, running from the Tube because I was SURE I was going to be late and she would be there waiting and furious. As it was, she was held up at customs, and didn't come out for ages. Seeing her little head bobbing out from the doors was wonderful.

Friday, her first full day here, we went to Trafalgar Square, to the National Gallery. We met up with some of Jes' friends who were in town, and did the gallery with them. There were Van Gogh's and the Rembrandts and all the stuff on Jesus. I don't think I much fancy German or Flemish paintings, I really don't. They all look a bit odd. Italians just do it better, to be quite honest - they get the proportions right, the colours right, everything looks much healthier and normal.

Friday night, we caught the train out to Reading to see Simon Amstell (a comedian). The train took us just over an hour, and we managed to find the theatre without any issues. Amstell was hilarious and adorable and terribly inappropriate. His thing is that he says 'wrong' stuff - Madeline McCann jokes, Kylie cancer jokes, yada yada yada - and it's often quite distasteful, but he's hilarious when he does it, and he takes the piss out of himself too which I guess helps. Anyway, he was great. A lot of Brits seem to hate him. What WAS kinda refreshing is seeing this little skinny white gay Jew up on-stage talking about his past relationships in a non-gay context. As in, he was joking about partners and stupid sex stuff, and it wasn't made special for the fact that it was with a boy, it just was. I don't think you hear a lot of that in the mainstream, especially not from someone who is on TV the way that Amstell is, hosting a very popular show. The train home was interesting. The races had been on, so everyone was getting trains about, all drunk, all tarted up. The girls were prime candidates for that 'Ladette to Lady' finishing-school TV show, where they turn tramps into ladies in four weeks. Trashy ho's, the lot of them. And one couple were having a very public break up, she was crying like there was no tomorrow, sobbing so loudly I think it woke Jes up at one point.

Saturday morning was Portobello Rd markets with Jes' friend Anthony. We got off at Notting Hill Gate and wandered up towards the markets, through the antiques part and through the fresh produce part - I got a big donut which was tasty tasty from this cake stall with HEAPS, literal heaps, piles, mountains, of cakes and donuts and pastries and slices. It was like a treasure cave. It was very nice to be back at the markets, they were very familiar, and weird to remember where stuff was! We had lunch at Grain Shop, and ate it in Mau Mau Bar down the road over a beer. So good. People say you can't get good food in London, that's it's all stodgy shit, but if you hunt it down, you can find some good stuff. Grain Shop is all really good hippie shit, lots of lentils and stuff, all vegan/vegetarian.

Saturday night there was a bit of a crazy party at Beth and Georgia's place, which started small and got quite large. There was a guy there who reckons he was in 'Once', the film, in the background, and he played 'Falling Slowly' on his guitar and did a pretty good job of it too! We didn't get to bed until very late, and as a result missed the Camden markets. We did venture out for the Spitalfields markets, but decided halfway it was too far to go, so instead we wandered around Covent Garden, and then went to meet some of my friends from Interplay, Suzanne and Elinor and Natalie. It was so lovely to see them, just to sit in the park in the sunshine and have a chat with some friendly faces for a few hours. You do get a bit sick of being an observer after a while, a 'tourist', it's all a bit draining and boring. You look around and think, 'I should be absorbing all of this' but then you're tired and have a headache and your feet are sore and, really, you can't be at 100% all the time. So this catchup was a nice little interlude or something. We wandered back to Victoria station via Buckingham Palace and Jes got all fired up about colonialism. They have big archways, actually, surrounding the palace, that bear the names of all the different places they're colonised. Australia is there, with a kangaroo and a sheep as the symbols of our nation. That night, Beth made tasty noodles and we fell asleep watching 'Enchanted'. LAME.

Monday, yesterday, Jes, George and I hit the TATE Modern. Loved it. Picassos and Mondrians and Lichtensteins ... really sweet shit. You can wander and stare at that stuff for hours, and we did, until we got heaps hungry and went to find food. There is a massive sandwhich culture in this country, which gets Jes very excited. Me too. She suggested that we would be terrible travelling buddies, as we both get so aroused by food. We spend half the time looking at food and thinking how good it would be to have it in our tummies. So for lunch we went to EAT which is one of the many chains of sandwhich shops around here. Pret-a-Manger is pretyy much sandwhich heaven, but EAT was pretty good too. The girls got hippie shit, falafel wraps and roasted veggies, I got a BLT (yay bacon!) and a little Banoffee pie which was WOW. It's basically a banana and toffee pie, banana custard laced with toffee on a biscuit base. All three of us had some, and Jes acutally had to go inside and LOOK at the other ones in the case because she wanted to have more so bad. We're terrible. After the TATE we hit Oxford Circus - Topshop, H&M, Urban Outfitters and Primark left us very tired and our feet very sore and out wallets very empty. I got a pair of jeans, which I needed anyway, but they were £75 which is a little terrifying, but not much more than you'd pay at home. Then after alll that shopping and wandering and people-watching, we went to see Tegan and Sara at the Shepherd's Bush Empire. I figured it was just going to be a whole lot of whiny lesbian music, and it was. So many lezzies all in the one place! This scalper out the front, this little Jamaican dude, was like "Where is all the men? Why is there so many ladies, where is all the men?" No-one could bring themselves to tell him where the men were.

Today is... I don't know. Internet. Then George is going to make us some lunch, or brunch. It's still early. I think I'll head into the city later and go to the Globe, maybe try to get some Wicked tickets. I have a cold, my throat is all sore, and my snot is green. And there's a lot of it. And my head is all groggy and cloudy. I don't know, I just want to sleep and not move anywhere at all. But I'll push through!

Thursday to Paris. More of George & Beth's friends arrive tonight, so the house is going to get more cramped - there's six of us in a four person space right now, and tonight there'll be seven, and tomorrow nine. I think. Excellent...

Love you all.
x

Brooklyn, delays & LDN

Just a quick one, no photos today.

Went to the party in Brooklyn. I decided I WASN'T going to go, then was sitting reading my Time Out NY at eating pot noodles at about 8pm, and thought - y'know what? It's New York, for God's sake. So I took the subway out to Brooklyn at about 9.30 and met Krista at her place. Brooklyn seemed a lot 'cooler', even just from the geezers getting on the train. Like a less gentrified Soho/Village/Chelsea. Very Melbourne. But in a good way. So I met up with Krista and her cat - so much fur, wow - and we had a wine and chatted about life and plays and New York and Interplay. Then we got a car service to the party. The driver had no idea where he was going, and kept demanding that Krista look at her iPhone to get directions - "Look at your GPS, look at your GPS!" - and charged us like $8 more than he was meant to. Whatever. We were glad to get there alive after all his shenanigans.

Party was in an apartment, not sure whose, but it was busy and sweaty and cool. We had some champagne and chatted, talked to some people. One girl got all up in my face about being Australian, questioning my accent, saying I didn't 'look' Australian - bitch, you didn't look stupid, but shit. Stayed there til the wee hours, then jumped back in a car and back to the hostel. Wasn't brave enough to tackle the Subway in the early hours, even though Krista assured me it would be safe. I had no credit, and no-one could understand my accent, so even if I did cry for help, no-one would get it.

Friday I did a MASSIVE walk down 5th Ave, checked out the toy stores and the Apple store and a whole bunch of other stuff I can't remember. Feet very sore. It was stupidly hot again, but then there was a thunderstorm - stuck in the middle of Central Park, no trees, drenched - but then the sun came out again and it was 40 degrees. Nice.

London: flight delayed 2.5 hours. Hardly slept at all. Off the flight, grabbed my bags, jumped on the Tube - still 10 quid left on my Oyster card!! Hilarious! Had arranged to meet Beth at Earl's Court, and while I waited, I went and bought a SIM card for my phone - new number is 0750 401 7037 - and set that up. So good to see Beth's stupid head running across the road to greet me. We went for a few wines and met up with Georgia, her housemate and Aussiemate and one of mum's old students (she taught them both English). George went to work and Beth and I went home to eat spag bol and watch DVDs. I was heaps tired from the flight still, and was pretty much dead by 11. It doesn't get dark til crazy late here, like 10pm and there's still light. But it feels so comfortable and home-like. I'm so glad to be here! Everything's familiar and lovely.

Yesterday I caught up with Inga for lunch - Inga worked on Reception with me at the hotel in Gloucester Rd. Again, lovely. Her friend Nancy came, and she works at the hotel now, as a Concierge. We got nachos and steak - real food is real different to 2 minute noodles! - and cider and just chatted for ages, and then took a walk to the Hyde Park and sat in the sun. So lovely. Stopped by the hotel and saw Pat and Susana, which was lovely too. Pat came out after work and we all went for a drink. It all just clicked back in place, there was only a few minutes of the awkward I-haven't-seen-you-for-two-years shit, and then BAM! Back into it. Good times.

After all that, met George and Beth again at the Troubadour (which is fast becoming a habit - twice in two days. And twice in two days there have been crazies wandering around out the front, the first one thinking Beth had "nice legs, nice long legs, real nice legs yeah"). We got talking to this guy whose band was playing there and he tried to convince us to go down and watch, and we just... didn't. We had dip and chips instead. He was nice enough, though.

Feeling very weird at the moment. Mitch, my Labrador, is a bit sick at home, and he's going to the doctors tomorrow morning to work out if they're going to do a very expensive operation on him. I'm scared he's going to die and I'm not going to be there. I don't even think I can comprehend what I would do if that happened. He is my best friend, y'know? I'm sure I treat him like shit a whole lot and he resents me for it, but he's been in our family since I was little. He walked me and my cousins to primary school every day, he's gone on holidays with us, he's run away and come back again, he's never growled in his life, EVER, he's just slept and played and sometimes pooed on the carpet. We still have an extension cable that's kinda stained from a runny poo he did on it one night when he had an upset tummy and we were all sleeping. Crazy puppy. I don't even want to think about it because I'm already a bit teary just writing this. Idiot. I kept laughing, saying, Oh haha, Mitch better not die while I'm away! I even TOLD him, I said, DON'T. But he's a bit deaf, I don't think I said it loud enough. Maybe I'll Facebook him.

Tomorrow's Jes. She must've left already, or be getting ready too. I'm collecting her from the airport circa 2.30pm. We're in Reading on Friday, seeing Simon Amstell's stand-up show, and then hopefully the markets this weekend, and Beth and Georgia are having a partay this Saturday night, which'll be funtimes!

That's about it. Georgia just came back with groceries. I'm off, then!

Love to all.
Text me!!!!

xd

Art, Soho and trashy souvenirs

Starting with Thursday and working up to today...

Had lunch with Erin on Thursday at this little Indian place near the school where she teaches. I walked her back there afterwards, and she took me inside and showed me around, the corridors, the classrooms. I'll say it again - just like on TV. After that I wandered down to the Met (the Metropolitan Museum of Art) to check that out. I was trying to work out the difference between a museum and a gallery, but apparently the terms here are interchangeable. They mean the same thing. I always thought a gallery was for art, a museum for dinosaur bones. So I went to the Met. Huge, massive building, reall beautiful inside and out, and right on the park, you kind of wander out from the trees and it's right there on 'Museum Mile'. They have a special exhibition on right now of superhero costumes and the fashion that is inspired by it. So they had a whole lot of really cool costumes - Iron Man's real one (the actual one worn in the film), and Catwoman and Superman and the new Batman and the blue chick from X-Men who John Stamos' ex-wife played, her costume too. And then all the high fashion couture shit next to it. I know these things aren't necessarily meant to be worn, that they're just as costume-like as the costumes themselves, but goddamn. Why? Pants are pants and should have cylinders, right? So that your legs can go in them? Not weird angles and shoulderpads on your knees and a little cuckoo clock where your zipper should be. Shut up.

I saw lots of old European art, baby Jesus and Mary were around a lot, very popular those two. The modern stuff was really cool though, the Picassos and the Pollocks yada yada yada. Love just being around crazy shit like that, it makes you think more or something. Wanker!

That night I went to see Iron Man at the movies. Well. I bought the ticket ok, no dramas there. I thought I'd get some popcorn and a Coke. I forget that 'large' here means, like, human-sized, so the large popcorn and Coke (which ordinarily I could probably get close to finishing, especially if I was in a fattyfatfat mood and/or hungry and/or just fat) was RIDICULOUS. I'm talking a paper grocery bag-sized thing of popcorn and a Coke the size of a KFC bucket of chicken. So I'm trying to juggle this grocery bag and this bucket of soda, and of course, because I don't know the order of things, I didn't realise there was a 'bar' to the side, where one could add butter/caramel/salt to your popcorn, and where you also picked up your napkins and straws. So I'm so preoccupied trying to get to the cinema and take my seat without dropping shit that I don't realise I'm straw-less until I've sat down. That's fine, whatever, I'll just take off the lid and drink from the cup/bucket. So I sit in the second last row, thinking that this will be the best place for me to not be seen by anyone - everyone will sit in front of me, therefore won't see how I'm trying to eat all this popcorn and slurp all this Coke without a straw. Except EVERYONE sits in the row behind me. So I'm alone, in the second last row, everyone behind me, everyone looking at and judging me. I was pretty good for the most part, I think, I managed to not spill any Coke or drop too much popcorn. I was very self-conscious for the whole film, though. Of course, I only managed to drink about a litre and a half of Coke, so it was still pretty full by the end - I would've taken it home with me except I had no straw and no lid, so I had to leave it there. The next morning I woke up with the most terrible popcorn hangover. You know how it is. Salty salty popcorn slowly sucks all the moisture from your body overnight so that when you wake in the morning you're all shrivelled and prune-like and your head feels like it's been sat on a lot. I kinda stumbled through the morning, slowly regaining consciousness. Then went to the MoMA.

The Museum of Modern Art is, as the name suggests, ALL modern art. It was fuckin sweet. I loved it so much. Six floors of wanky modern art, large-scale light installations, video installations, everything. It was ace. There was a special exhibition on there, too, called Take Your Time - the main foyer of which was lit by flourescent yellow lights (see picture). The photo doesn't really do it justice, but basically, the effect of the light made everything - your vision - black and white. It was fuckin weird. You came up the escalators into a colourless world. People walked past you in grey, their faces and clothes grey. It was like those photos you see where the saturation has been removed entirely. It was so scary. And then you'd see into the next room, lit normally, all bright and colourful, but your own arm is till grey. Spooky spooky, but everyone was loving it!

In the foyer they have this massive void in the air, going up about three or four floors, so it's like a big air tunnel thing with balconies you can look out into it from (was that even a sentence?) and hanging in there is this installation, a big fan, like a fan you use in Summer to cool yourself with, on a big rope, swinging around and around. Watch the video below. Hilarious. I don't think the kid is part of it, though I wish he was.

They had a whole lot of Andy Warhol stuff, all the soup cans the a Marilyn and a Mao, and a room of Pollocks (some of the same 'group' of ones that the Met has). It was so weird seeing the 'real' ones, up close and personal. This image, especially, the Marilyn one, is so famous. I guess that's the point.

Part of the permanent exhibition includes architecture and design, so they have a whole floor of modern furniture and stuff - a giant plastic bag that folds up into a bumbag that homeless people can unpack, wrap one end around a vent coming out of a building, and it inflates into a little bubble house to sleep in overnight. Crazy chairs made of bubbles, chaise lounges made of wire, walls made of felt, lamps in the shape of pills - really '21st century', modern stuff. It's all a bit fun, really. Particularly when you read the 500 word explanation and realise that someone has a very real justification for making this stuff.


After the MoMA, I went for a wander down that end of town, said my goodbyes to 5th Avenue etc. I went to the New York Public Library (I had total Sex and the City movie flashbacks!) and then via the Empire State to Grand Central Station (left), which was fuckin beautiful. It's like the entrance hall to a palace or a museum or something, massive high ceiling all painted and lots of beautiful chandeliers. People running everywhere, of course, total chaos, particularly at 6pm or whatever time it was when I got there. The Empire State is kind of to one side of it, so there's this beautiful photo op with the two of them together.

Nice night last night, just chilling at the hostel. I finally realised that this place has a kitchen, buried in the dungeon, so made myself some pot noodles and read my book on the terrace (also a new discovery - who would've though having a bit of an explore could yield so many benefits??) and chatted to some other people. Very civilised and lovely. There was a DJ playing in the foyer, but everyone just looked too fucked to even consider dancing or hip-hopping or doing the rap or whatever it is you're meant to do with a DJ. Wiped out.

Today I got the Subway down to Chinatown and wandered through the street markets in Soho, looking for tacky souvenirs that are about a fifth of the price that they are in Times Square. Cheapskate much? Came back up into midtown walking through Greenwich Village and Chelsea. So many arty faggy wanky people ... it was like being back in Melbourne! It's a lovely area, the village, it's very green and quiet and chilled. There was a big Indian food and culture festival going on, which was cool to wander through and get free watermelon from. This crazy white lady had an argument with an African American woman about something - whitey was yelling about there being seven-foot hookahs (as in, water pipes/nargiles, not Pretty Woman) over on the East side, and what kind of American was that, what kind of Christian consciousness was that, where was God, huh, that wouldn't have happened in '96! Then the black lady told her to come back over here so I can throw paint all over you, I can paint your whole face! Lady. HAH! In the markets, I overheard this lady - and you have to say this out loud in your thickets, strongest New York cliche accent, because that's how it was delivered - on the phone to someone, and she said, "Look, I'm sure it looks nice, but I just can't see you in a dog collar, sweetheart!". Mother to daughter? Wife to husband? Wife to wife? Master to slave? Interesting.

Heat/humidity has crept back up today. Heading upstairs now to pack my clothes ready for 11am checkout tomorrow. Sunburn is peeling, I look like I have leprosy. Considering the state of the shower this morning, I probably do have leprosy. I did manage to get a pair of thongs and a t-shirt today, though, from Old Navy - eight dollars! Very exciting. Old Navy is like classy Target, H&M is nicer still - bought me some pyjama pants there yesterday. I love that place so much. It's why I'm going back to Europe, pretty much.

Krista, another Interplay girl, who also lives in NY, has just got back into town and has invited me to a party in Brooklyn tonight, hosted by her friends who are video installation artists. I'm really keen to go, but I don't know whether I'm going to be able to get back up here to 103rd. I'm having a Miranda moment - to Brooklyn or not to Brooklyn? Only time will tell...

xd

PS. I have photos but for some reason only some of them want to upload. I don't know anymore. Use your imagination, cut out pictures from magazines and put my face on the bodies, it's really all exactly as you imagine it to be. There are heaps more from Salvation Mountain at my flickr account, www.flickr.com/photos/dangiovannoni/sets .

PPS. I don't know if I told you - I went to and ate at the Seinfeld diner! The real one! Tom's Restaurant! I took a photo from the front, you can actually SEE IT. It's all different inside, obviously, because it wasn't shot there, but the outside! I had lunch there, too, a wrap and fries and a soda. Tiiiight. (For the record, 'tight' is hip American slang for 'cool'. It's like 'fetch' for 2008. I say it because I want to FEEL American, y'know? I want to BE one of these people. Same reason I'm invading Iraq tomorrow, and eating grilled cheese right now. Too much? Pfft.)

World Trade Centre, Ellis Island and Lady Liberty

Yesterday I jumped back on the hop-on hop-off bus and took it downtown this time. I jumped off at the World Trade Centre site, and spent some time wandering around there. It's basically just a massive construction site, cranes and scaffolding everywhere. You peek through the wire and there's a big hole and lots of workmen doing their thing. One of the giant cranes says something like "Helping rebuild the Freedom Tower" on it, and a big American flag plastered all over it. The flags are big here, everywhere you go you see flags. Lots of people taking photos. There's a walkway you have to cross to get to the other side of the road, and when on it you get a better view of the whole scene - the photo is on the left. From there you get a real sense of what is missing. It's this enormous gap, basically, where you know these two massive buildings once stood. The site itself isn't particularly affecting - it's too busy, there are too many people just going about their business for it to be a really 'still' experience, as least for me - but once you see the hole, then you kinda start thinking. Even walking there, when I couldn't actually see the site itself, I was thinking, 'This whole area would have been covered in smoke and dust and ash'. All the buildings, the sandwhich shops and the dry cleaners, they were the shops and the streets we saw on TV, covered in brown. It was a little spooky.

Then I walked down to Battery Park, where the ferry for Liberty & Ellis Islands leaves from. It's quite pretty down there, by the water. A park with lots of greenery, and some shade, and some benches and grass to sit on. They've also got a statue there, a big globe sculpture that used to be down at the WTC site, but which managed to 'survive'. It's pretty beaten up, but there's an eternal flame burning in front of it. The plaque says "it endures as an icon of hope and the indestructible spirit of this country".


I stopped at that point and had an icy pole and a drink of water. The weather was gross beyond belief. The line for the ferries were huge, too, I couldn't believe it. I decided to wait and see if they got any smaller, which they did, eventually.

Then I got the ferry out to Ellis Island, skipping Liberty Island - I didn't think it was worth it, to wander around at the base of the statue, unable to see it because you're so close ... plus it really didn't interest me. Ellis Island was fucking incredible, though, despite the huge number of people there. I took the audio tour through all the rooms and up the staircases and through the corridors - the most interesting room was the Registry Room, this massive hall where they used to process all the migrants. (Ellis Island is an island just off Manhattan that any migrants coming in off ships had to stop at in order to be processed. The buildings there now act as a museum. Yep.) Anyway. I stood there and thought about how my nonno's grandfather and my nonna's father both came through here, were both 'processed' here, and how terrifying it must have been. Not speaking any English, not knowing what the fuck was going to happen, but having the guts to get on a boat and go to a different country in search of something better. It made me put all my own homesickness and dirty-shower woes in perspective (the showers are pretty dirty, though, I'm pretty sure I have some gross tinea shit growing on my feet now - Jes, bring shower thongs).

The photo above is the view of the Manhattan skyline from Ellis Island, through the windows of the Registry Room. Imagine the feeling of being so close to your destination - it's literally JUST THERE - but also not knowing whether you're going to get to go over there or not. They were subject to all kinds of health checks and shit ... if they were puffing when the got to the top of the stairs, they were checked extra carefully to make sure they weren't going to bringing in any diseases, and to make sure they were strong enough to work and wouldn't become dependant on the State. I wouldn't have made it through - I was puffing like a bitch by the time I got to the top of the stairs.

The Statue of Liberty kind of stands there, watching over the whole thing, flags waving all around her on the island. She's actually enormous, so huge. Her feet are the size of a house or something, a really small house. It's been so surreal seeing all these 'iconic' New York figures up close and in the flesh - there's this weird detachment that happens, and I've said this already here, but you feel like you've seen it before because you HAVE, just on TV a whole bunch, never in real life. It takes some of the fun out of it, maybe.

Anyway. New York is growing on me. I'm better at wandering around alone. I have a few good bagel places to visit and get lunch. I don't know if mentioned this already - saw Sex and the City on Monday night. So good to see the girls again! I really liked it, it's a total fantasy story and completely absurd but it was great. Last night I saw Boeing Boeing, which wasn't amazing - I don't think I can do farce. The crowd went nuts though. I only saw it because Christine Baranski is in it, and she was unreal! This grumpy French maid ... just hilarious. Tonight is Wicked, tomorrow and Friday I might try and see some 'plays', off-Broadway stuff (even off-off-Broadway!). Top Girls kinda whet my appetite for some 'proper' theatre. Wanker.

Tomorrow I'm having lunch with Erin, and going to see some art. Hopefully. I'll get around to it eventually, it's just a matter of fitting it all in! I want to do the following things before I leave - the Met, MoMA, Grand Central, Empire State, United Nations building, Greenwich Village (I've already been there but I really liked it and want to go back to do some more wandering).

That's all, I'm done! Sunday evening I fly out for London.

xd

New York, New York

So I've been here a few days now. Moved out of Erin's place this morning and have checked into a big hostel, which is actually not too bad - clean rooms, a big internet cafe, payphones, it's all here. Hostels are great that way, I think, because you kind of get everything you need in one place, it actually does act as a 'home away from home'. Sort of.

Went and saw Spring Awakening yesterday, a 'rock musical' that won a Tony or something last year - hugely popular, I managed to get one of the student rush tickets which are about 25 bucks, compared to the 100 or so that everyone else pays. You buy it the morning of the show, and it's first in best dressed. I ended up having a seat in one of those rich-people booths, on the side of the theatre - from which you can only see half the stage. The usher was nice, though, and moved me into the second row of the Dress Circle, into some restricted leg room seats... shit, my knees are still recovering. I'm seeing Wicked on Wednesday night - it was totally sold out, basically, and the only 'rush' they have is the lottery, the same one I got in back in LA, but I didn't want to risk it in case I missed out. Wicked in New York was one of the big things I wanted to do, so I forked out 100 bucks and got the last seat on Wednesday night, in the middle of the front row of the Dress Circle. Nice nice nice.

Today I jumped on one of those sightseeing buses - they're great, they take you everywhere! And you can jump on and off at your leisure. I did a big loop through Harlem, which I've already kinda explored because that's near where Erin was living, but I saw the Apollo theatre, which was pretty tight. Got off at the Guggenheim to check that shit out ... of course, they're renovating it, so the whole permanent collection is out of action. All they had was a childrens art exhibition. Lovely. So I wandered down to the Met, thinking I could at least see SOME art today ... that's closed on Mondays. So at that point I kinda figured, ok, it's 2 o'clock, it's 1000 degrees and the humidity is gross, and I was hoping to be in a cool gallery by now ... I'm going to go sleep in Central Park. Which is what I did. I got an icy pole and lay in the sun (hello sunburn!) for a bit and just snoozed. I saw my first NY squirrel, too, clambering up the tree next to me! We made eye contact and he was staring me down, and as I reached for my camera he took off, screaming 'No paparazzi!'.

Central Park, aside, I guess, from being filled with crack addicts and crazies at night time, is actually really beautiful. To have this massive green space in the middle of a city that is just SO much about the 'city' and the business and the tall buildings and the no visible sky anywhere, is a total relief. You can wander for hours and only once or twice catch the sound of cars or buses or police and ambulance sirens - that's something you hear ALL the time, in fact I can hear one right now! Constantly, 24x7, sirens. And there are cops everywhere! Traffic cops, normal cops, whatever, just cops. Watching, eating hot dogs, chatting.

Yesterday I did a big walk around the Times Square area, went up the Rockefeller and checked out the city view from the observation deck, saw Radio City, all the tourist crap. It was cool.

Tonight I'm thinking maybe, if it's still not too hot outside, I'm going to wander up to the Seinfeld diner and check that out. Then possibly see the Sex and the City movie, depending on how far the nearest cinema is. The heat really kills moving around, it's horrible! You just want to lie in your underpants somewhere really well air conditioned and not think about anything ever again.

My internet is going to kick me off in 30 seconds.

Love you all, miss you heaps.

xd

Salvation Mountain, Hollywood, New York

There's a lot to catch you up on!

I'll do it in order, starting a few days ago.

Allison, Alyssa and I drove out to Salvation Mountain on Thursday, which is about a three hour drive from Long Beach, way into the desert. It was a killa drive, sandstorms and crazy wind and no visibility ... it was scary shit at some points! Salvation Mountain is basically this big mountain that this dude, Leonard, has set up as a 'shrine' to Jesus, I guess. He covers the earth on the mountain with this clay-like substance called adobe, which hardens after time, and then he paints it. Check it out:

So you drive for HOURS, and there's no colour, no life, no nothing in the desert - literally just a trailer park, and then a little town which is the exact same town that you'd see in any horror film, the town that the van full of young kids stop at on their way to the campground to pick up some beers, and the locals look at them and spit their chewing tobacco and there's flies and silence, and then the store is all dark and low-ceilinged and it's about 100 degrees ... that was the town that we passed through to get there, and then all of a sudden, like a mirage or something, this mountain appears, all colourful and amazing. It was so stunning. You can walk on it and climb it, and Leonard was there and gave us a bit of a tour, and then got us to help him make up some adobe. It was so tight.

Me and Allison on the 'yellow brick road', which leads up the mountain.

Here you can see the stark contrast to the desert surrounding it.

I have 1000 more photos, none of them do this place justice. Incredible.

So that was Wednsday. That night, Stacy, Allison, Kate and I went to this bar called Red Room, near their house. We just had a few drinks, this girl there told me I should go to Oregon, and she kept telling me, then we sang songs in the car and went home...

Stace, Kate and Allison...

Thursday I hit Hollywood Blvd, walked the Walk of Fame, all that shit. It was all very nice, but actually a bit tacky and gross. Had fun at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, taking photos of all the hand- and footprints of the celebz! On the left there are the Harry Potter kids, but there's also Shirley Temple and Matt Damon and Brad Pitt and George Clooney and Meryl Streep ... is that the gayest collection of names you've ever read? Shithouse.

Managed to somehow score a $25 front row ticket to Wicked, in the lottery. Right in the front, dead centre ... it blew me away. I still get tingles just thinking about it! Amazing show, going to try and see it again in New York (where I am now) and in London, too, with Jes.

Friday I flew to New York, leaving behind the LA girls. I can't even explain how good it was to be with them and see them again. It's hard being so far away from your own world, but these girls were so incredibly warm and welcoming and just really cool.

So, now I'm in NY. Haven't seen a whole lot yet, the big week starts tomorrow. I did, however, see two shows yesterday - Dangerous Liaisons with Laura Linney (really great, very enjoyable) and Top Girls with Martha Plimpton and Marisa Tomei (good, too, but the British accents were so unbelievably bad that it was really offputting). Today hopefully going to see Spring Awakening, tomorrow the Sex and the City movie, and then a play pretty much every night for the rest of the week! I'm staying with Erin, who I met at Interplay, and she's showing me around. But I'm checking into a hostel tomorrow, so I'm going to be flying solo for a little bit! Yesterday we wandered around the top part of Greenwhich Village in between shows, and went to Magnolia bakery, with the amazing cupcakes - so good. Erin's in Hamilton Heights, just near Harlem - very diverse, noisy, but a really cool vibe.

Heading to NikeTown now, to scope some clothes out for my brother. Tomorrow is hostel checkin, walking through Central Park, and possibly the Guggenheim!

Sorry if this is boring. Missing all you guys quite a bit, really.

xd

Chicken and Waffles...

The Hollywood sign!

What I've eaten since arriving:
2 x tacos
1 x rice and veggies
1 x oatmeal
1 x In-n-Out burger, fries, root beer
1 x Bud Lite
1 x Dodger dog

Aside from the hippie shit, it seems all this country offers are burgers and dogs. I'm sure that's not the case, but having only been here 2 days, that's what's sticking out. There are fast food places ... everywhere. And not just Maccas and KFC and Burger King - oh, no. In fact, I've only seen one or two of each. There is all KINDS of shit - drive-thru Chinese, drive-thru donuts, one thousand burger places, drive-thru tacos, drive-thru chicken, it's all here.

Last night, on the way home from the baseball (more on that in a minute), we passed a big place called Popeye's, offering 'Chicken and Biscuits!'. I laughed, of course, because what the fuck? Chicken and biscuits? Who thought that those two things went together well? The girls asked what I was laughing at and I told them and they were all a little confused. "Yeah, dogg, after some chicken you just want a nice biscuit, with a little butter on it". What? Obviously I kept probing ... American biscuits turn out to be, like, bread. Or something. Flaky, buttery bread. Which makes more sense with chicken, I guess. But then Alyssa informed me that, although in that instance the Chicken-and-Biscuits combination did make sense, there was a place that sold 'Chicken and Waffles!' Chicken being chicken, and waffles being waffles. No translation necessary.



So yesterday was checking out LA - didn't get to Hollywood Blvd (that's tomorrow), but did see a whole bunch of other cool shit. We went to the Getty Museum, which is built up in the hills, and you have to park at the bottom and get a tram up. They had an exhibition of Californian video installation artists, which was interesting.

Me and Allison on the tram up to the Getty.

Then we had lunch at In-n-Out, which was kinda hilarious. The only things they have on the menu are: cheeseburger, hamburger, soda, shakes, fries. That's it. It's totally old-skool, and everything's made fresh on site. The potatoes are cut up every morning and not frozen. The fries come in a little tray. And the burgers taste 'fresh'. It actually wasn't too bad, for burgers - I wanted to giggle every time I ate my chips (fries) and dipped them in my little cup of ketchup, and took a sip of my root beer ... you can't help but feel like it's a movie. I know that sounds so dumb, but it's true!

After lunch we hit Griffith Park and the observatory on top of it, and from there you can see over all of LA. The observatory is the place in Rebel Without a Cause where James Dean's character gets stabbed ... there's a big (ugly) statue of his head and a little plaque. Because it's all built on top of a hill, you've got a 360degree view, which is really stunning - you can even see up to the Hollywood sign! The smog was really shitty yesterday, though, so the pictures aren't great. The whole city just kinda has this grey smoke hovering over its head at all times. It tends to lift toward the end of the day, but the heat's been trapped in all day and it's kinda yuck.

Last night was the Dodger's match, out at Dodger Stadium. Just because I'm on the other side of the world doesn't mean I'm going to enjoy sport any more than I do at home. Having said that, it was fascinating. I was in this weird state of excitement at seeing and experiencing something new, but it also felt really familiar. That's partly to do with the 'vibe' you get at a big stadium match, of any sort I guess - there are people and kids and yelling and sometimes its boring so no-one's watching. The game moves really slowly, though, or at least it did last night. Foul balls here and stupid pitches there, and then once something interesting happens, everyone runs off and has a break. I honestly believe the game was designed so that the spectator can consume as much food and beer as possible. Food is a massive component to the whole experience. I guess it's the equivalent to our pie-and-Coke at the footy - but here there's so much more on offer! You get beer in big cups, and then Dodger dogs (hot dogs), and nachos in big plastic containers (with the grossest melted cheese you've ever seen and tasted ever in the history of forever), and big helmets full of popcorn so you can wear the helmet after you've eaten, and cotton candy, and BUCKETS OF ICE CREAM. Seriously, little buckets. Just smaller than Sara-Lee sized. People sit there and eat the whole thing. It's amazing.



The girls are at work this morning, so I'm here at Portfolio again, having my coffee and writing all this up. It's good, quite comfortable, and nice for someone who is alone, because you can feel like you're part of some little community, even though no-one's interacting with each other. The girls' friend, Kate, who I met the other night, is coming by in a little bit and we're going to have lunch together. Then I'm meeting Allison and Alyssa and their friend Bill, and we're driving out to Salvation Mountain. It's a few hours out of town, and in the desert, so I'm not really sure what to expect. Very exciting, though. I've been looking forward to this for ages! I'm starting to form some ideas about this place, from what little I've seen and experienced. There's a lot of poverty, a lot of shitty and gross areas, and I guess that's the same with every city, but I don't think many cities offer the same kind of 'hope' that LA does, few other places have the kind of weight that LA does - when I think of LA I think of Hollywood, and the OC, and summer, and beaches. That's the myth, I guess, the image it tries to project. Then you see the smog and the gangs and the graffiti and the Mexicans and the poverty. Alyssa told me this great story, which I think maybe starts to sum the whole place up, if you can do that. At the beginning of the 20th Century, whoever was in charge of LA at the time wanted people to start moving here, so they planted a whole lot of palm trees to give the illusion of it being a tropical destination, by the beach. The place was, in fact, a fucking desert, with lots of hills and sand. You see the remains of that on the outskirts, like out near the Hollywood sign, in Hollywoodland (the name of the housing development on the hill where the sign is) and even at the Getty, there's a big cactus garden. The palm trees are still here, though.

Ok. Lunch, the mountain, and then tomorrow the Blvd, with all the Hollywood stars and the Kodak theatre and all that shit. I fly out of here Friday morning, land in New York on Friday evening, about 5.30pm my time. New York is only 14 hours behind Melbourne, compared to LA's 17.

So good to read all your comments ... xd

PS. I don't know if the video below will work ... it's me filming the LA streets out of Alyssa's car window. Let me know if it shows up. I'll take more video, proper ones. x

Long Beach and Soy Lattes...

So I'm here!

Currently staying in Long Beach, California, with Alyssa and Allison, who I met whilst in Europe in 2006. They have this cute little place, a one-bedroom apartment - they sleep in a bunk! - and I've got a 'cot' in there with them.

The flight over was fine, the usual amount of uncomfortable. I was at the back of the plane, where it starts to curve in, so where I was sitting there were 2 seats where there usually should have been 3, so I had a bit of extra room on the window side to stick my legs out. You don't realise how good it is to stretch your legs out fully until you can't do it for fourteen hours! I watched some movies - '27 Dresses' was pretty much the greatest thing I've ever seen in my life, as it involved no commitment on my behalf. I tried to watch a few others that were a little too cerebral and I just fell asleep. But then I watched 'Summer Heights High' and 'Frontline' and something with Jamie Oliver - that was all fine, really good short snippets, and when you watch 5 episodes, all of a sudden you've killed 2.5 hours!

The queue (they call it a 'line', here - I kept talking about queues and the girls had no idea what I was on about) at LAX to go through customs was crazy, probably about an hours wait just to get passports checked and be quizzed about your intentions. What do you do at home? How long are you staying? Who are you staying with? On and on and on. The only saving grace was that Delta - THE Delta Goodrem - was in line behind me. She was on the flight from Sydney that came in after ours, and she must have been first off, because I was last off my flight, so we connected in the queue/line. I looked up and saw this bitch in fancy clothes and kinda went "Whatever, who wears that on a plane?" I still had crumbs and omelette on me from breakfast, mind you. Then I did a double take and realised who it was. She was standing and talking in a very public way, her eyes not connecting with any of the plebs, but her head up and shoulders back so we could allll see who she was. Nice.

Speaking of nice. There was this American woman on the plane, sitting just across from me. Spent half the flight laughing out loud to what ever she was watching, about ten times louder than she needed to. Everyone's sleeping and she's cackling away like it's the last time she'll ever laugh again. The first time I heard it, it woke me with such ferocity that I thought the plane was going down. Her conversations were loud, too. Everyone's gotta hear.

Yesterday the girls took me to lunch (that's them over on the side - Allison with the lollypop, Stacey's blonde, and Alyssa just graduated from College last week). We went to this little mexican place, and we got tacos and Coronas and the service was amazing, people just DOTE on you. Then I sorted my phone situation out - I have a number, it's 562-279-4641 - and then we went out to San Pedro, which is kinda a poorer district where lots of Mexicans live, and we went to see the Korean Bell and sat on the hill, which has ocean views on three sides ... beautiful. Excecpt the smog kinda prevents you from seeing anything too far into the distance. It's so smoggy! The pollution here is terrible, and kinda sits on top of the city, trapping in the heat. So even if it's not sunny, you feel sticky. It seems to get better as the day progresses, though.





That's us at the Korean Bell.


Last night the girls made mushrooms and rice and asparagus for dinner (they're vegetarians) and their friend Kate came over to eat with us. We watched Planet Earth documentaries and freaked out at elephants being eaten by lions and had some sangria and talked about crocodiles. It was ace. Later on, their friends Bill and Lindsay came over.Today we're going to go hang out in LA, on the Walk of Fame with all the Hollywood stars and shit, and then we're going to see a baseball match, the Dodgers and some other team. That's really exciting me - chilli dogs and beers in cups and peanuts and nacho hats! Tomorrow I think we're going to Salvation Mountain in the afternoon, and then Thursday we might go to Disneyland or do some other stuff. I fly out for New York on Friday.

I'm writing this from a little coffee shop called Portfolio, and it's like an indie Starbucks. All the coffees are still at least a litre of milk, and the emphasis seems to be on milk rather than coffee itself. I just got a latte, and it's not bad. I got a small and it's still the size of my face. Everyone is pretty much here by themselves, on their laptops or cell phones, but in this incredible performative way - whilst they're all alone, no-one's really 'alone' in that they're in their own world. There's a lot of 'presenting' hapenning, loud conversations on phones or very grand sweeps of the hair as arty looking people try to express frustration at their writer's block without words. Everyone's writing a screenplay, probably.

I should go, but I'll finish just by saying that it really is like being in a film or something. All the cliche images of LA exist - the really wide roads running along the water, the streetlights that hang over in the middle of the lanes, the hanging street signs, the palm trees, the muted pastel colours ... it's bizarre. The supermarket next to the girls' apartment is like Officeworks or something, warehouse-sized with enormous displays for odd things. Like, a sausage meat aisle. A whole freakin aisle for sausage meat. And cheese! I pointed at it and laughed and the girls said "Haven't you ever had cheddar before?" and I insisted that I had, but it was just a nice normal colour, not fluro fuckin orange.

Nothing too outrageous has hapenned yet, but I live in hope. Text me, ya bums!

xd