wanderlust

Whoa. This video is amazing. And dark. And so very Bjork.

Click here. Let the video load first.

Friends & Me!

A few friends came to New York this past weekend and it was a great time.
Some highlights include:

• Drew singing "In A New York Minute" every day in the shower
  
• Pearl River Mart in China Town. That place is fun!
  
• Me accidentally taking Joel to an African male gay bar for an afternoon drink. They were so nice and they had a live DJ at like, 4pm! Joel thought it was funny that I completely skipped over the sentence outlining the demographic of this bar in my guide book.
  
• Every meal I ate made me so happy. Especially Veselka, a Ukranian restaurant on 2nd Ave @ 9 St.
  
• McSorley's Old Ale House, established in 1854. Half pints of light and dark ale is the only thing served at this place. 
  
• The cabby from Time Square to the East Village adjusting the radio stations based on our conversation
  
• Rockefeller Centre. A beautiful view of the city
  

The above photo is of the recruitment centre for the US Army you may have heard about, smack dab in the centre of Times Square. Very bizarre. As if the overkill corporate signage and consumerism, blaring music and swarms of pushy tourists makes you realize how badly you want to fight for your country's freedom. Sign me up!!

peace sign pants

I was at a bar last night, drinking alone on a patio. New York has reconciled that lonely-bar-drinking experience most recently deprived from my life. What a strange feeling.

No one really reads this blog. So here is my first stupid poem of the summer.


the guy with the peace sign pants
I thought it was Tyler
until I saw his peace sign
pants

alone with a stance
he looks like me
until I see his peace sign pants

but we are both drinking
cans of
2 for $5 Pabst
in our peace ass-igned pants
on this year's
first patio.



(I thought the guy looked like Tyler Ramsey from Band of Horses....until I saw his peace sign pants.)

anywhere but here.

x-processed hula

I am currently in New York, alone, and aimlessly roaming. I haven't really experienced aimlessness since a very small amount of time I decided to venture out alone in Japan, back in November of 2007. Before that, it was in Europe where I really felt......alone. Isolated from people who were so casually going about their way!

I can't believe that in this random street in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, I have people bidding me adieu, smiling, standing by the iron gates. I can barely get anyone in Toronto to look me in the eye at mutual recognition of random funny moments, seconds of irritation, and hours of sitting in waiting rooms, concert lines, and on subway platforms.

But I guess that's just the way it is. But it makes me feel at home here, seeing neighbourhood friends meet and hug and kiss on the corner. And the bakeries and cafes are filled with friendly people, neighbours to all their customers.

I have discovered a few cool things here:
1. my sense of direction is maturing with age.
2. Carol Shields' The Stone Diaries on a stone step. FREE!
3. Picked up an EP today by Fleet Foxes "Sun Giant" at a cool record shop (almost as cool as soundscapes, but not quite, except that they have vinyl....which leads to
4. Picked up a vinyl from Now-Again Records label at the same place called "Cold Heat: Heavy Funk Rarities", which I've only ever checked out online but I loved the looks of this label and figured anything on it was gold.
5. New York is filled with people that make me want to laugh. It's probably because everyone seems so happy right now...which probably has something to do with the weather.
6. Another cool band called Felice Brothers. Very awesome. Sort of Justin Rutledge-ish and Bob Dylan-esque.

Check em all out.

parrots and fish

Tyra in Times Square

In seven days I will be unpacking clothes and cameras from a suitcase into the shelves and closets of my home away from home. For two and a half weeks - Brooklyn, New York will be inflicting its massive confusion on my grid-locked-Toronto-city-street mind. I've seen the street view on Google Satellite and....it looks like a street should. But I've been doing my research and can't believe the massive amounts of things to do there. I can't believe that in my research, I found an entire website dedicated to piano sheet music cover art devoted to Brooklyn! Who knew?! My work is apparently in the fur district and there is some sort of cult on the floor above the office. During certain times of the day you can hear very passionate chanting.

Since March my life has so quickly clicked on and I feel pretty awesome. It's invigorating and tiring at the same time, yet everything is falling as if it should and inevitably would. Like a dress, hemmed a foot and a half from the floor. A good height, so not to drag.

The album arrangements are pretty much finalized and transcriptions are being handed out like popsicles in the summer. Once May comes the album will be dripping with horns clearing their throats and strings crying out for their supper.

Some cool things I will do in New York:
-go to a bunch of museums, including PS1 gallery's exhibit "Feminist Revolution". This awesome photographer Martha Rosler's work will be displayed.
-attend one of Jolie Holland's April residency shows. And also maybe go see She & Him, Tyler Ramsey (from Band of Horses), and Kelley Stoltz
-acquire my newly amazon purchased Holga and Diana cameras and violate innocent passerbys with my candid inspector gadget skills.
-shop, obviously. Or dream of shopping.
-vintage! shop again!
-hopefully see "Chicago" on broadway
-drink in Williamsburg
-visit cemeteries.
-go see Tyra's talk show. Wait...or is she in Chicago?

Okay, which reminds me of five minutes of her show that I happened to catch one week. She had an audience full of women wearing only their bras and pants. There were fashion shows featuring flat chested women's before pictures next to their boob lifting magic makeovers. Down the runway you go! As well, an 'Up next' excerpt of Tyra jumping on a one man trampoline saying "See how they're flapping around, this is not acceptable. I want a sports bra that works. Come back after the break when we burn our bras", at which point they cut to a giant barrel in an alleyway with flames crawling over the edge.

Very strange. It seems like anyone can have a talk show these dayzzzzzzzzzzzuh.