Why South Dakota? I'm at the Cheyenne River Youth Project, in the town of Eagle Butte on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation of the Lakota people, aka 'The Rez'. Why am I here for Christmas? Well I'll get to that.
The journey here stared yesterday at 5am when I woke up and found out my flight hadn't been cancelled, against all odds. Alton's roommate Tyler drove me to Detroit airport, which took over an hour when it usually takes 35 mins on account of snow on the I-94 reducing traffic to 1.5-2.5 lanes of largely freestyle traffic. At one point we pulled to the freeway shoulder to scrape ice off the wipers. So getting to the airport and checking in was quite a relief.
A relief quickly curtailed by news that my flight to Minneapolis would be departing so late that I'd definitely miss my connection to Pierre, SD. So I sat in the NorthWest lounge, which I'd paid $50 for the convenience of admission, checked my email and munched on what turned out to be a very expensive bagel. Then the first of many Chrismas miracles: the incoming flight arrived earlier than they thought and my flight was rescheduled such that I'd have plenty of time to make the connection.
We boarded, backed out and then sat on the de-icing pad for 15 minutes. Then we taxid over to que up for spray-deicing...a 15 minute wait followed by a 15 minute spraydown with glycol to get ice off the wings (essential for flying apparently) and then a 15 minute taxi to the runway. Now I'm reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance not just because it's a good book but to calm me down. Turbulence during the flight is not as bad as over the Southern Alps on the way to Hokitika but the rest of the plane is freaking out.
We land at 11.10am and my next flight is due to leave at 11.50 - heaps of time! Unfortunately there is nobody out there to wave us into the gate so I start to get nervous again. Finally, once we make it to the gate I exit gracefully and swiftly, run down to the lounge to check in with Julie at the Rez, and then run back to my plane. The way people look at me it's like they've never seen anybody do it before. Anyway I make it to the gate momentarily before boarding begins, and meet Winifred, an Irish woman also heading out here. Even in the US, as your final destination decreases in size and gets closer, degrees of separation decrease exponentially. We board, and the hunters (obvious by the fact they WEAR THEIR CAMO ON THE PLANE!) behind me are heading to a peasant farm owned by a guy that knows the South Dakota musician living in NYC sitting beside them.
Then the captain asks us to get back off the plane - a routine maintenance check needs to be performed on some unnamed widget. So we get back off and wait for 20 mins before reboarding. It's nice though, as a young family who otherwise would have missed it can make the flight, and the next one is 10 hours later. Once we're back on board we take off without incident for a brief stopover in Watertown, SD before heading onto Pierre, capital of South Dakota. We land there in almost white-out conditions, undergo deicing and are ready to take off when a discrepancy is discovered in the passenger numbers, even though people only left the plane. We sit there in growing heat (prop plane systems don't work fully without the engines or a ground electrical unit) while the pilots argue with NorthWest HQ about the reality of the situation versus what their booking computer says. Eventually they work it out and 40 minutes later we've touched down in Pierre, almost on time after a thoroughly comical series of delays.
Winny and I were met by Alex and Angela from the center, and we go shopping in Walmart (great food selection, and cheap compared to Ann Arbor!) before the two hour drive to Eagle Butte. The roads are clear of snow and traffic and we get acquainted and caught up on the recent goings on at the Rez. Winifred has been here five times previously, though this is her first Christmas. She came initially to do something a little different and to engage her interest in Native American culture, and now is drawn back at semi-regular intervals by the bonds developed.
So how did I come to be here of all places? The simple answer is that Andy volunteered here over the summer, and bought 20 tickets in a quilt raffle for me, which I promptly won. The quilt is amazing and to say thanks I sponsored one of the Santa letters (of which I've been packed dozens over the past few days) as part of the Christmas toy drive. Andy heard about this and at the end of a letter wrote: "PS - I think it's awesome you're sponsoring a Santa letter. I hear Christmas is a pretty magical time out on the Rez and would probably bring guys like us to our knees." When I read that, I had been thinking of what to do for Christmas, and that remark seeded the plan I'm now on. I emailed Andy, asked if it would be appropriate to ask Julie if they needed any help out here over the Christmas break, and things proceeded from there.
Why am I here? The cynic in me says I'm exorcising some kind of white liberal guilt at not having volunteered on Christmas before, and not having worked with an indigenous community in my own country. The opportunist says this was simply the first 'offer' I had for Christmas while the too-polite Kiwi retorts that I simply didn't want to impose on anybody for Christmas and so found some way of avoiding awkward 'what are you doing for the break' questions from American friends. The traveler says I jumped at the opportunity to do something different, while the scholar says I'm here to learn something about the culture of the First Americans. The son, relative and friend in me says I wanted to be with other people who are away from home for Christmas.
I really don't know what the real reason is, surely some convex combination of all the above.
Regardless, I'm really happy to be here, even though the air outside freezes your nostril hairs on the 30 metre walk from the accommodation in the Main Center to the Teen Center where the packing is. The staff and other volunteers are friendly, welcoming and inquisitive, and I've been working hard wrapping presents all day today. We address every present "from Santa" and it is humbling to imagine how excited they will make the kids on Thursday.
Sunday, 21 December 2008
Tuesday, 7 October 2008
Sunday, 14 September 2008
Tuesday, 9 September 2008
The home straight - part two
After NYC I went to Portland (this is now 18 August we're talkin about) for the Fulbright Orientation at Portland State University. I had been looking forward to experiencing Portland, the indie music capital of the world according to some, but sadly did not get out to see any music. The programme was jam-packed with various briefings during the daytime, with scheduled events for two of the three nights. On the third the only gig on was way out east somewhere. The vibe of the place was really nice though, very laid back (yes the east-coast/west-coast division is noticeable) and people walk about 50% slower than NYC. My fellow Fulbrighters were from all over the world, meeting them all was pretty cool, and I was sad to miss the leaving dinner.
I left the leaving dinner early so I could get to Seattle to hang out with Grant. Almost didn't make it...but managed to beg the check-in staff to let me do a late check-in and the tiny prop plane was so empty that I got on just fine. Grant and I had a good stroll around downtown Seattle, drank plenty of beers of varying qualities at various establishments, and generally yakked on about a lot of our usual topics: sport, politics, music etc. This was all capped off by seeing the Count Basie Orchestra (minus the Count of course) live in concert at a jazz club there. Simply the best jazz band I've ever seen - they were so tight and the arrangements were great. Well worth the money.
After Seattle I began my voyage to Michigan, this time via Phoenix, Arizona (again, cheap flights in the US take you on crazy routes). Just after we landed my seat neighbour got a call from his mom saying "your connecting flight to Detroit has been cancelled" which sent the passengers around him on that same flight (myself included) into panic stations. Thankfully on exiting the plane we found the flight had only been delayed 1.5 hours, not in fact cancelled. So after walking all around Barry Goldwater Terminal at Phoenix airport I finally settled on some fast-food mexican that was actually not too bad, and sat down to wait. The flight out to Detroit left when they said it would, and so I got to Rob and Jana's house in Ann Arbor too late for the bulk of the farewell party they were hosting for a colleague, but just in time for a cold beer and some decompression. It was great to arrive in my new home of Ann Arbor AND be in familiar surroundings with nice people who knew me already (Rob taught me last year and I also stayed with them in April when I visited for recruitment weekend).
The next day I had my first US driving lesson and passed with flying colours - switching isn't really that difficult. Then on Monday math camp started (an exercise to brush up on high-school maths in advance of Michigan's legendarily rigorous political science mathematics training) and Rob and Jana left for a conference, so I had the place to myself, apart from their cat Lola who I was charged with looking after. The week went well, the math wasn't too challenging, and the all-important process of bonding with my incoming class ('cohort') began.
My cohort is full of great people. Within a few days of math camp we'd already made plans to 'tailgate' (that's boot party/bbq) before Saturday's football game, and organised a labour day bbq. And drinking after math camp, etc etc. I'll say it again - my cohort is full of great people, many of whom will become very important friends over the coming years I'm sure.
Saturday August 30 was my first football game - Michigan vs Utah. The stadium here is crazy, it seats about 110,000 people (yeah you read that right) at the moment, and probably more after the renovations are complete. I spent the first 30 minutes once we found our seats just speechless in awe of the spectacle. The amount of people and their collective energy, the marching band that moves up and down the field in a perfect M shape, and then the madness of American football itself. After only a few minutes I was already yelling at our quarterbacks to THROW BETTER PASSES MORE QUICKLY OTHERWISE YOU GET TACKLED. In the end we lost narrowly after a brave final-quarter comeback. Michigan takes football seriously (we're the winningest program in the country don't you know) but this season could be mostly about 'transition'...
When we got back home from football, Andy was waiting at our house, just having got in from Toronto. We immediately went back to Rob's house for the last night of house-sitting, drank duty free and played pool. Like all mediocre players, we improved as the night wore on and more topics of conversation were covered. Andy stuck round for the first week of classes and again it was good to have familiar faces (and accents) while making some pretty large adjustments to a new life. Two Sundays ago I handed Rob and Jana's keys back and moved properly into my house on Iroquois Place. It's really really nice, and my roommates (aka flatmates/housemates) Tim and Alex are cool guys, and very patient with my incessant questions about the intricacies of American Football!
Other than that, there's really not a lot else to report. Classes are going great, I'm managing to keep up fine and make intelligent contributions to the discussion here and there, and I'm actually looking forward to some more work piling on.
Not sure what will happen to this blog now that my travels are over and I'm starting to get busier, but if anybody reading this wants to get in touch with me, you know how. My new laptop will arrive in a few weeks and from then I'll be on Skype relatively often.
Ciao for now, thanks for reading.
Shaun
PS - remaining photos coming soon...
I left the leaving dinner early so I could get to Seattle to hang out with Grant. Almost didn't make it...but managed to beg the check-in staff to let me do a late check-in and the tiny prop plane was so empty that I got on just fine. Grant and I had a good stroll around downtown Seattle, drank plenty of beers of varying qualities at various establishments, and generally yakked on about a lot of our usual topics: sport, politics, music etc. This was all capped off by seeing the Count Basie Orchestra (minus the Count of course) live in concert at a jazz club there. Simply the best jazz band I've ever seen - they were so tight and the arrangements were great. Well worth the money.
After Seattle I began my voyage to Michigan, this time via Phoenix, Arizona (again, cheap flights in the US take you on crazy routes). Just after we landed my seat neighbour got a call from his mom saying "your connecting flight to Detroit has been cancelled" which sent the passengers around him on that same flight (myself included) into panic stations. Thankfully on exiting the plane we found the flight had only been delayed 1.5 hours, not in fact cancelled. So after walking all around Barry Goldwater Terminal at Phoenix airport I finally settled on some fast-food mexican that was actually not too bad, and sat down to wait. The flight out to Detroit left when they said it would, and so I got to Rob and Jana's house in Ann Arbor too late for the bulk of the farewell party they were hosting for a colleague, but just in time for a cold beer and some decompression. It was great to arrive in my new home of Ann Arbor AND be in familiar surroundings with nice people who knew me already (Rob taught me last year and I also stayed with them in April when I visited for recruitment weekend).
The next day I had my first US driving lesson and passed with flying colours - switching isn't really that difficult. Then on Monday math camp started (an exercise to brush up on high-school maths in advance of Michigan's legendarily rigorous political science mathematics training) and Rob and Jana left for a conference, so I had the place to myself, apart from their cat Lola who I was charged with looking after. The week went well, the math wasn't too challenging, and the all-important process of bonding with my incoming class ('cohort') began.
My cohort is full of great people. Within a few days of math camp we'd already made plans to 'tailgate' (that's boot party/bbq) before Saturday's football game, and organised a labour day bbq. And drinking after math camp, etc etc. I'll say it again - my cohort is full of great people, many of whom will become very important friends over the coming years I'm sure.
Saturday August 30 was my first football game - Michigan vs Utah. The stadium here is crazy, it seats about 110,000 people (yeah you read that right) at the moment, and probably more after the renovations are complete. I spent the first 30 minutes once we found our seats just speechless in awe of the spectacle. The amount of people and their collective energy, the marching band that moves up and down the field in a perfect M shape, and then the madness of American football itself. After only a few minutes I was already yelling at our quarterbacks to THROW BETTER PASSES MORE QUICKLY OTHERWISE YOU GET TACKLED. In the end we lost narrowly after a brave final-quarter comeback. Michigan takes football seriously (we're the winningest program in the country don't you know) but this season could be mostly about 'transition'...
When we got back home from football, Andy was waiting at our house, just having got in from Toronto. We immediately went back to Rob's house for the last night of house-sitting, drank duty free and played pool. Like all mediocre players, we improved as the night wore on and more topics of conversation were covered. Andy stuck round for the first week of classes and again it was good to have familiar faces (and accents) while making some pretty large adjustments to a new life. Two Sundays ago I handed Rob and Jana's keys back and moved properly into my house on Iroquois Place. It's really really nice, and my roommates (aka flatmates/housemates) Tim and Alex are cool guys, and very patient with my incessant questions about the intricacies of American Football!
Other than that, there's really not a lot else to report. Classes are going great, I'm managing to keep up fine and make intelligent contributions to the discussion here and there, and I'm actually looking forward to some more work piling on.
Not sure what will happen to this blog now that my travels are over and I'm starting to get busier, but if anybody reading this wants to get in touch with me, you know how. My new laptop will arrive in a few weeks and from then I'll be on Skype relatively often.
Ciao for now, thanks for reading.
Shaun
PS - remaining photos coming soon...
Saturday, 30 August 2008
Wednesday, 27 August 2008
The home straight - part one
With memories of NYC specifics fading fast the accuracy of the below cannot be guaranteed...
Last time I posted Andy and I were about to head out to Mercury Lounge, with high hopes. Again we couldn't quite understand how the shows are meant to hang together. I don't remember any of the bands and I don't really care (what could beat the Shackletons?) So we went round looking for a bar called Whiskey Ward. Here's a testimony to NYC's friendliness: we went up to a bloke on the street, they kind of guy who you probably wouldn't talk to on a street in many places, and asked him. No, he said, but I'll find out. Pulls out his phone, googles the place, and directs us round the corner. Awesome.
Saturday we reprised our running escapades up Park Avenue, this time starting from further downtown, up round Grand Central and into the Park again. Many more New Yorkers out and it was just as cool a feeling to dominate the streets with feet and tyres, Andy and I both were absolutely stuffed by the end of it though. Luckily we got back to the hostel in Chelsea just in time to see NZ's very good run at the rowing. We're not overly patriotic people, but we were yelling at the tv screen as the Evers-Swindell's approached the line. Headed out to Brooklyn again that night and caught a wee bit of quite a nice (but in no ways dangerous or revolutionary) band that was playing at a cool venue in back of a record store. After that another authentic NYC experience: seeing a heap of cops blocking off Bedford Avenue with a helicopter circling overhead. We dived into the subway and headed to Cake Shop for redemption. The band was called Hidden Power, just a bunch of crazy kids from Queens who didn't care what the scene thought they were or should be, they were there to have fun. And they had floor toms out the front for us to hit while we danced, and we're their number one fans now. http://www.myspace.com/hiddenpowernyc
Sunday...last day. Oatmeal again for breakfast...so cheap and healthy. Then we went...I don't know where. Oh that's right to Roosevelt Island which sits in the East River. It used to be an asylum/quarantine but now people are flocking there to live. I can see why...the peace and quiet, only a few hundred metres from Manhattan, was palpable. Last night in NYC and we had to repent again musically...where else but Cake Shop? And another great band called Boat were playing the end of their set. Then there was a break so we talked to Boat from Seattle, and they were cool and we're number one fans now. (Pattern complete). Some of them are teachers and heading back to school soon so this was near the end of their tour. http://www.myspace.com/boatmusic
Monday was sad and happy...leaving NYC and the fine company of Andy, and also happy to leave the place well before I got sick of it. Got on the old subway out to Queen's then a bus rest of way to La Guardia to catch my flight to Portland, Oregon for Fulbright Orientation.
Last time I posted Andy and I were about to head out to Mercury Lounge, with high hopes. Again we couldn't quite understand how the shows are meant to hang together. I don't remember any of the bands and I don't really care (what could beat the Shackletons?) So we went round looking for a bar called Whiskey Ward. Here's a testimony to NYC's friendliness: we went up to a bloke on the street, they kind of guy who you probably wouldn't talk to on a street in many places, and asked him. No, he said, but I'll find out. Pulls out his phone, googles the place, and directs us round the corner. Awesome.
Saturday we reprised our running escapades up Park Avenue, this time starting from further downtown, up round Grand Central and into the Park again. Many more New Yorkers out and it was just as cool a feeling to dominate the streets with feet and tyres, Andy and I both were absolutely stuffed by the end of it though. Luckily we got back to the hostel in Chelsea just in time to see NZ's very good run at the rowing. We're not overly patriotic people, but we were yelling at the tv screen as the Evers-Swindell's approached the line. Headed out to Brooklyn again that night and caught a wee bit of quite a nice (but in no ways dangerous or revolutionary) band that was playing at a cool venue in back of a record store. After that another authentic NYC experience: seeing a heap of cops blocking off Bedford Avenue with a helicopter circling overhead. We dived into the subway and headed to Cake Shop for redemption. The band was called Hidden Power, just a bunch of crazy kids from Queens who didn't care what the scene thought they were or should be, they were there to have fun. And they had floor toms out the front for us to hit while we danced, and we're their number one fans now. http://www.myspace.com/hiddenpowernyc
Sunday...last day. Oatmeal again for breakfast...so cheap and healthy. Then we went...I don't know where. Oh that's right to Roosevelt Island which sits in the East River. It used to be an asylum/quarantine but now people are flocking there to live. I can see why...the peace and quiet, only a few hundred metres from Manhattan, was palpable. Last night in NYC and we had to repent again musically...where else but Cake Shop? And another great band called Boat were playing the end of their set. Then there was a break so we talked to Boat from Seattle, and they were cool and we're number one fans now. (Pattern complete). Some of them are teachers and heading back to school soon so this was near the end of their tour. http://www.myspace.com/boatmusic
Monday was sad and happy...leaving NYC and the fine company of Andy, and also happy to leave the place well before I got sick of it. Got on the old subway out to Queen's then a bus rest of way to La Guardia to catch my flight to Portland, Oregon for Fulbright Orientation.
Monday, 25 August 2008
Arrived!
A post about the home straight since NYC will come later on, but for now some more photos of Europe:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=28567&l=167c1&id=703999762
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=28567&l=167c1&id=703999762
Saturday, 16 August 2008
New York Cares
New York Cares is a volunteering campaign by the city which features black & white photos of famous New Yorkers (Whoopi Goldberg, Jimmy Smits) encouraging citizens to give up some of their time. It's also a lyric by Interpol. Everywhere you go in NYC you find things you vaguely recognise but never understood, until now. This is a "short" summary of what we have done, realised and discovered since Andy's report on Saturday.
Saturday
First up for the evening we went to Katz's diner on Houston for an authentic NY Reuben sandwich. Yes it cost US$15, but it had about half a cow worth of pastrami and it tasted amazing. After that we popped along to the performance in the urban park by the artist John who had cycled from San Francisco. Needless to say, it was unusual. It involved planned improvisations with various gathered/garden objects, a lot of water and risk of electrocution. It also involved the rest of the audience probably thinking we're missionaries: saying you're from Christ Church seems to have that effect on people so now we just say Wellington.
After the performance we went down Houston St to Mercury Lounge. That's where the Strokes and Beirut cut their chops and made a name for themselves, so we felt sufficiently infused with history. Best $10 we had spent in NYC. We arrived to the start of the set by a band up from Pennsylvania called The Shackletons (cool name huh?). They got both Andy and I moving (nobody else dances in NYC, its not cool enough) and pretty quickly won us over with a very indie, very NYC-tinged, very rocking sound. After their set we talked to the lead singer for ages and pulled out the line "we don't have XYZ like you guys back home" for the first of many times. It worked, we got their album, signed, for next to nothing, and instantly attained number one fan status. We think that bands in the US are so good at what they do because there actually is a chance they could make it one day, and The Shackletons were a great example. Remember that name and this tip... Click here for their MySpace page if you're interested in the music. Rest of the lineup was trash, Shackletons killed!
Sunday
Sunday we spent out at Shea Stadium in Queens partaking in a time-honoured NY tradition: watching the New York Mets lose (quite badly, to the Florida Marlins). Nevertheless, the tickets were cheap(ish) and it was an outstandingly American experience, what with planes taking off from La Guardia right overhead, and the 7th-innings stretch (break) where they bust out God Bless America. After that we had good chinese food on Lexington Avenue and arranged our adventures for the next day...
Monday
We got up early and left the Y with the intention of catching a train to Bethel, Connecticut, to have a farewell lunch with a friend of Andy's from "the res"(ervation) in South Dakota. Sadly, after much to-ing and fro-ing in organisation the previous night (including battling with four separate payphones) we got to the station a half-hour the morning train left. So no Connecticut, back to an internet cafe to book some more accommodation for the rest of our stay, which SOMEHOW worked out just fine. Went to the Museum of Modern Art in the afternoon, which is a great building with a great collection. Some of it I really really liked, and I could easily have spent $10,000 in the gallery store afterwards...
Went back to our hostel and "invented" Extreme Table Tennis in the basement bar, where anything goes. Then it was music experience #3, again on the Lower East Side. Every local we'd talked to had been telling us "you gotta go to Pianos and Cake Shop", so we tried Pianos. At $8 for entrance to the music area we thought what the hell? and it was hell. The next day Andy described the NYC bands we saw as "the two worst bands in the world" - I don't think they would get on a stage back in NZ. We were starting to think that perhaps the shine was wearing off NYC...until
Tuesday
I can't recall what we did during the day, but in the evening we headed out to the Alligator (I think) bar in Brooklyn for free pizza with your pitcher of beer. Needless to say it was very good. Then we wandered round Brooklyn for a bit before heading over to the Lower East Side (LES), this time avoiding Pianos like the plague and heading to Cake Shop instead. By day its a Cake Shop, by night the basement opens for your entertainment. And how entertaining it was! 5 musicians, all very good at what they did. Fruit Machine are from Jacksonville, Florida are a punk band with some serious chops. They duelled (song for song) with a friend of theirs who raps along to her laptop, the lyrics cannot be repeated in this setting but were hilarious. Powerful Power is a Japanese-American solo guitar dude who is probably the best guitar player Andy and I have seen up that close, and his songs were great too.
Then it was Ghosty from Kansas City, Missouri, who I'd heard of courtesy of RDU. They played a great set of catchy SIP (Sunshine Indie Pop) that got the New York crowd going (as much as they do move, which is not really at all). After that was Bears from Cleveland who were so great that I bought the CD. We were dancing hard for this last band and they noticed. Because a ring of exclusion formed around us that no New Yorker dared enter... After the gig, yes, "we don't have bands like you guys back home, you should totally come to NZ some time" and again, instant super-fan status just by talking to the bands. We were sooo buzzing after that experience on the subway back about 2-3am, it was our highest high since The Shackletons.
Wednesday
Laundry day - glamourous times round the corner from our hostel in Chelsea. At one point Andy, walking back from buying us some water, almost walked into a store of questionable taste...but didn't. Then it was off to meet Sam, a contact of one of Shaun's former bosses, who has worked on political campaigns and is now in PR for a New York. We had a great chat about NZ and US politics. Sam took us to a FANTASTIC burger place underneath a hotel lobby near 6th Ave, called Burger Joint. After being constantly overwhelmed by the America of Choice (what sort of bread do you want, what sauce, you want a pickle, blah blah blah) their menu of "Hamburger, Cheeseburger, tomato, onions, lettuce, if it's not on here we don't sell it" was a god-send and it deserves its reputation for the best non-gourmet burgers in Manhattan. Plus the chocolate milkshake tasted like the old McD's chocolate thickshake, only it was made in front of me from milk and icecream only. Hmmm.
Finally cooked our first meal that evening, and then did something else you can only do in NYC - go to the Village Vanguard. That's the venue where Bill Evans recorded one of his most famous albums live, with Scott La Faro on bass just before he died too young. On that stage has stood everybody who is anybody in the world of jazz. Unfortunately that act that night wasn't as jazzy as we were hoping, was more jazz-infused singer-songwriter stuff, but was nevertheless very very well done. Went to the Green Room afterwards and said "we don't have..." you get the picture.
Thursday
Which brings us to yesterday and last night. During the day we took the Long Island Railroad out to Stony Brook University to meet Joel, a good friend of Rob's from their student days. His dissertation was in a pretty closely related area to what I'm interested in right now and he had some wise words of encouragement for my first year. Definitely worth the two hours trip each way (I think LIRR is some of the slowest railroad in the world).
Another shocking music experience last night, this time over in Brooklyn, where its apparently all at these days. The place was called The Trash Bar and we should have taken the hint, but the headline act's music sounded OK through the hostel computer's rubbish speaker so we decided to take the punt. First up was Very Early 90s Riff Rock with Anti-Establishment Lyrics - so bad they cleared the room after one song. Disillusioned, we went and got an outstanding cream cheese bagel for $1 down the road. Returned to the crime scene just in time to see the headliners, who Andy described as a band doing an ironic style-over-substance thing, but without any style as well. Left after one "song"...wow. So the score so far is:
- great bands playing in NYC but from elsewhere 5+
- native NYC bands that suck 5+
Friday (today)
Earlier today we went to the Bronx to see Yankee Stadium, possibly so that we could say we've been to all four of New York's major boroughs. Saw some really top skateboarding in front of the courthouse, indy kickflips over flights of stairs and everything. Then wandered round Harlem again and tried to go to a famous diner which was closed, so split and came back to the hostel for dinner.
Tonight we head back to Mercury Lounge hoping for some more magic. And after that I'll have only two nights left in New York!
Saturday
First up for the evening we went to Katz's diner on Houston for an authentic NY Reuben sandwich. Yes it cost US$15, but it had about half a cow worth of pastrami and it tasted amazing. After that we popped along to the performance in the urban park by the artist John who had cycled from San Francisco. Needless to say, it was unusual. It involved planned improvisations with various gathered/garden objects, a lot of water and risk of electrocution. It also involved the rest of the audience probably thinking we're missionaries: saying you're from Christ Church seems to have that effect on people so now we just say Wellington.
After the performance we went down Houston St to Mercury Lounge. That's where the Strokes and Beirut cut their chops and made a name for themselves, so we felt sufficiently infused with history. Best $10 we had spent in NYC. We arrived to the start of the set by a band up from Pennsylvania called The Shackletons (cool name huh?). They got both Andy and I moving (nobody else dances in NYC, its not cool enough) and pretty quickly won us over with a very indie, very NYC-tinged, very rocking sound. After their set we talked to the lead singer for ages and pulled out the line "we don't have XYZ like you guys back home" for the first of many times. It worked, we got their album, signed, for next to nothing, and instantly attained number one fan status. We think that bands in the US are so good at what they do because there actually is a chance they could make it one day, and The Shackletons were a great example. Remember that name and this tip... Click here for their MySpace page if you're interested in the music. Rest of the lineup was trash, Shackletons killed!
Sunday
Sunday we spent out at Shea Stadium in Queens partaking in a time-honoured NY tradition: watching the New York Mets lose (quite badly, to the Florida Marlins). Nevertheless, the tickets were cheap(ish) and it was an outstandingly American experience, what with planes taking off from La Guardia right overhead, and the 7th-innings stretch (break) where they bust out God Bless America. After that we had good chinese food on Lexington Avenue and arranged our adventures for the next day...
Monday
We got up early and left the Y with the intention of catching a train to Bethel, Connecticut, to have a farewell lunch with a friend of Andy's from "the res"(ervation) in South Dakota. Sadly, after much to-ing and fro-ing in organisation the previous night (including battling with four separate payphones) we got to the station a half-hour the morning train left. So no Connecticut, back to an internet cafe to book some more accommodation for the rest of our stay, which SOMEHOW worked out just fine. Went to the Museum of Modern Art in the afternoon, which is a great building with a great collection. Some of it I really really liked, and I could easily have spent $10,000 in the gallery store afterwards...
Went back to our hostel and "invented" Extreme Table Tennis in the basement bar, where anything goes. Then it was music experience #3, again on the Lower East Side. Every local we'd talked to had been telling us "you gotta go to Pianos and Cake Shop", so we tried Pianos. At $8 for entrance to the music area we thought what the hell? and it was hell. The next day Andy described the NYC bands we saw as "the two worst bands in the world" - I don't think they would get on a stage back in NZ. We were starting to think that perhaps the shine was wearing off NYC...until
Tuesday
I can't recall what we did during the day, but in the evening we headed out to the Alligator (I think) bar in Brooklyn for free pizza with your pitcher of beer. Needless to say it was very good. Then we wandered round Brooklyn for a bit before heading over to the Lower East Side (LES), this time avoiding Pianos like the plague and heading to Cake Shop instead. By day its a Cake Shop, by night the basement opens for your entertainment. And how entertaining it was! 5 musicians, all very good at what they did. Fruit Machine are from Jacksonville, Florida are a punk band with some serious chops. They duelled (song for song) with a friend of theirs who raps along to her laptop, the lyrics cannot be repeated in this setting but were hilarious. Powerful Power is a Japanese-American solo guitar dude who is probably the best guitar player Andy and I have seen up that close, and his songs were great too.
Then it was Ghosty from Kansas City, Missouri, who I'd heard of courtesy of RDU. They played a great set of catchy SIP (Sunshine Indie Pop) that got the New York crowd going (as much as they do move, which is not really at all). After that was Bears from Cleveland who were so great that I bought the CD. We were dancing hard for this last band and they noticed. Because a ring of exclusion formed around us that no New Yorker dared enter... After the gig, yes, "we don't have bands like you guys back home, you should totally come to NZ some time" and again, instant super-fan status just by talking to the bands. We were sooo buzzing after that experience on the subway back about 2-3am, it was our highest high since The Shackletons.
Wednesday
Laundry day - glamourous times round the corner from our hostel in Chelsea. At one point Andy, walking back from buying us some water, almost walked into a store of questionable taste...but didn't. Then it was off to meet Sam, a contact of one of Shaun's former bosses, who has worked on political campaigns and is now in PR for a New York. We had a great chat about NZ and US politics. Sam took us to a FANTASTIC burger place underneath a hotel lobby near 6th Ave, called Burger Joint. After being constantly overwhelmed by the America of Choice (what sort of bread do you want, what sauce, you want a pickle, blah blah blah) their menu of "Hamburger, Cheeseburger, tomato, onions, lettuce, if it's not on here we don't sell it" was a god-send and it deserves its reputation for the best non-gourmet burgers in Manhattan. Plus the chocolate milkshake tasted like the old McD's chocolate thickshake, only it was made in front of me from milk and icecream only. Hmmm.
Finally cooked our first meal that evening, and then did something else you can only do in NYC - go to the Village Vanguard. That's the venue where Bill Evans recorded one of his most famous albums live, with Scott La Faro on bass just before he died too young. On that stage has stood everybody who is anybody in the world of jazz. Unfortunately that act that night wasn't as jazzy as we were hoping, was more jazz-infused singer-songwriter stuff, but was nevertheless very very well done. Went to the Green Room afterwards and said "we don't have..." you get the picture.
Thursday
Which brings us to yesterday and last night. During the day we took the Long Island Railroad out to Stony Brook University to meet Joel, a good friend of Rob's from their student days. His dissertation was in a pretty closely related area to what I'm interested in right now and he had some wise words of encouragement for my first year. Definitely worth the two hours trip each way (I think LIRR is some of the slowest railroad in the world).
Another shocking music experience last night, this time over in Brooklyn, where its apparently all at these days. The place was called The Trash Bar and we should have taken the hint, but the headline act's music sounded OK through the hostel computer's rubbish speaker so we decided to take the punt. First up was Very Early 90s Riff Rock with Anti-Establishment Lyrics - so bad they cleared the room after one song. Disillusioned, we went and got an outstanding cream cheese bagel for $1 down the road. Returned to the crime scene just in time to see the headliners, who Andy described as a band doing an ironic style-over-substance thing, but without any style as well. Left after one "song"...wow. So the score so far is:
- great bands playing in NYC but from elsewhere 5+
- native NYC bands that suck 5+
Friday (today)
Earlier today we went to the Bronx to see Yankee Stadium, possibly so that we could say we've been to all four of New York's major boroughs. Saw some really top skateboarding in front of the courthouse, indy kickflips over flights of stairs and everything. Then wandered round Harlem again and tried to go to a famous diner which was closed, so split and came back to the hostel for dinner.
Tonight we head back to Mercury Lounge hoping for some more magic. And after that I'll have only two nights left in New York!
Monday, 11 August 2008
Stealing from Andy is really OK
In the interests of getting somewhere back near writing about the same week that I'm in, I'll steal from Andy's recent group email. Steal the entire thing in fact. Thinking of staying in NYC for all of next week too, there is just too much to do here.
From: Andrew Horwood
To: Everyone
Subject: It's fun to stay at the YMCA
Howdy,
No, I'm not gay. I just like Wayne's World.
It's not long since my last groupie but things are going so fast here that I had to write another. If you haven't worked it out, this is also my diary.
I shuffled through the city (Manhattan) on August 6. I'm staying with Shaun (from Huge in Japan) which is excellent, as you'd imagine. We both arrived late at night on the 6th so we drank some beers in our rooms and caught up on Europe/SoDak. The YMCA is a weird hostel as it has many small, single rooms.
On the 7th we hit the ground running. We went to the United Nations building which was unremarkable. Then we went up the Empire State building which was worth the wait in line and the US$19 fee. We got some kai and took the subway top Harlem which is an amazing neighbourhood. We were the only white people on foot (the rest were in a double decker bus). The place oozes black-ness. I expected it to be like Compton or Inglewood (in LA) but it was just a funky soul party. We walked past the Appollo theatre and saw a store that sold full on check pimp suits for US$100! We resisted but if I wasn't living out of a backpack...You can get your hair braided 'African' style and but local indie rap on the streets. It is an alive neighbourhood and I felt as safe and welcome there as I have everywhere else in Manhattan. Manhattan seems like red carpet sometimes. When we arrive at the subway station, the train arrives. When we arrive at an intersection, the lights change our way. I want to use the red carpet metaphor in a song to go up against other Manhattan songs ('My Blue Manhattan' comes to mind). If you beat me to this then good for you.
After Harlem we went to the Lincoln Centre, outdoor arena for some free live jazz from a French trio (gat, bs, drm) and flamenco dancing which was part opera, part tap, part ballet and all passion. It was good and the price was right. We finished our eventful day by hitting Times Square, that houses advertisements more than Moorehouse Ave hosts car yards or Manchester St is home to prosties. It is possibly the only thing more retina burning than the Bang! Bang! Eche! myspace page.
Yesterday we met up with a friend of Shaun's who is off to Geneva to work for the World Health Organisation. We strolled around Greenwich village (which is full of homosexuals and places to eat), then headed to the Lower East side which is the Indie district. This is where the Strokes cut their teeth and Ryan Adams makes many references to it in his work (Houston and 3rd, etc). We stumbled upon an urban community park in which we met an artist who biked from San Fransisco (respect). We are going to party with him tonight. He sort of lives in the Park which is maintained by members of a volunteer group. It is not large, maybe 8m by 12m, but it is an urban oasis. We talked to him for a while and Shaun tried to control the karaoke machine he had plugged in that was delivering feedback and not much else. I had a go on his clarinet which he got for free, intending to teach himself. The whole thing was a little surreal.
Then we caught the ferry over to Liberty Park, NJ, to see Radiohead, the New Pornographers and Andrew Bird at the All Points West festival. There were other acts but we were there for those 3 reasons. The crowd was large but still. Radiohead to 2 encores, totalling 8 songs but none of the Americans clapped loud enough to deserve them. The festival was interestingly white. I did not see one black person there. America is very segregated like that. All the security staff were black. I have never seen a whitey shining a black man's shoes. I have never seen a woman getting her shoes shined.
Today we ran around Central Park which was cool, particularly because we stumbled upon a new event in which the streets were closed for runners and cyclists to promote healthy living. We didn't know that when we jumped the fence and started running with them though... I felt like Manhattan was not only made of red carpet but was parting like the red sea. Now that's hospitality. I heart NY.
There are a few homeless people on the streets but not as many as I expected. In order to feel good about ourselves, we have bought some apples which we carry around, giving out to those who are begging. This negates the common objection to financial benevolence: "oh, they'll just spend it on booze."
Peace,
Andy
From: Andrew Horwood
To: Everyone
Subject: It's fun to stay at the YMCA
Howdy,
No, I'm not gay. I just like Wayne's World.
It's not long since my last groupie but things are going so fast here that I had to write another. If you haven't worked it out, this is also my diary.
I shuffled through the city (Manhattan) on August 6. I'm staying with Shaun (from Huge in Japan) which is excellent, as you'd imagine. We both arrived late at night on the 6th so we drank some beers in our rooms and caught up on Europe/SoDak. The YMCA is a weird hostel as it has many small, single rooms.
On the 7th we hit the ground running. We went to the United Nations building which was unremarkable. Then we went up the Empire State building which was worth the wait in line and the US$19 fee. We got some kai and took the subway top Harlem which is an amazing neighbourhood. We were the only white people on foot (the rest were in a double decker bus). The place oozes black-ness. I expected it to be like Compton or Inglewood (in LA) but it was just a funky soul party. We walked past the Appollo theatre and saw a store that sold full on check pimp suits for US$100! We resisted but if I wasn't living out of a backpack...You can get your hair braided 'African' style and but local indie rap on the streets. It is an alive neighbourhood and I felt as safe and welcome there as I have everywhere else in Manhattan. Manhattan seems like red carpet sometimes. When we arrive at the subway station, the train arrives. When we arrive at an intersection, the lights change our way. I want to use the red carpet metaphor in a song to go up against other Manhattan songs ('My Blue Manhattan' comes to mind). If you beat me to this then good for you.
After Harlem we went to the Lincoln Centre, outdoor arena for some free live jazz from a French trio (gat, bs, drm) and flamenco dancing which was part opera, part tap, part ballet and all passion. It was good and the price was right. We finished our eventful day by hitting Times Square, that houses advertisements more than Moorehouse Ave hosts car yards or Manchester St is home to prosties. It is possibly the only thing more retina burning than the Bang! Bang! Eche! myspace page.
Yesterday we met up with a friend of Shaun's who is off to Geneva to work for the World Health Organisation. We strolled around Greenwich village (which is full of homosexuals and places to eat), then headed to the Lower East side which is the Indie district. This is where the Strokes cut their teeth and Ryan Adams makes many references to it in his work (Houston and 3rd, etc). We stumbled upon an urban community park in which we met an artist who biked from San Fransisco (respect). We are going to party with him tonight. He sort of lives in the Park which is maintained by members of a volunteer group. It is not large, maybe 8m by 12m, but it is an urban oasis. We talked to him for a while and Shaun tried to control the karaoke machine he had plugged in that was delivering feedback and not much else. I had a go on his clarinet which he got for free, intending to teach himself. The whole thing was a little surreal.
Then we caught the ferry over to Liberty Park, NJ, to see Radiohead, the New Pornographers and Andrew Bird at the All Points West festival. There were other acts but we were there for those 3 reasons. The crowd was large but still. Radiohead to 2 encores, totalling 8 songs but none of the Americans clapped loud enough to deserve them. The festival was interestingly white. I did not see one black person there. America is very segregated like that. All the security staff were black. I have never seen a whitey shining a black man's shoes. I have never seen a woman getting her shoes shined.
Today we ran around Central Park which was cool, particularly because we stumbled upon a new event in which the streets were closed for runners and cyclists to promote healthy living. We didn't know that when we jumped the fence and started running with them though... I felt like Manhattan was not only made of red carpet but was parting like the red sea. Now that's hospitality. I heart NY.
There are a few homeless people on the streets but not as many as I expected. In order to feel good about ourselves, we have bought some apples which we carry around, giving out to those who are begging. This negates the common objection to financial benevolence: "oh, they'll just spend it on booze."
Peace,
Andy
Sunday, 10 August 2008
Leaving Paris and the Green Island
So now I'm one week behind on the blogging...but when you're in New York City and the sun is shining you don't want to spend time on a computer. This post will be quite short then...
Last Sunday I snuck out early to go to the last remaining Paris Museum on my todo list, Musee d'Orsay. Another impressive building, another impressive building with an amazing collection. D'Orsay is the home of the impressionists (Van Gogh, Monet, et al), and they were predictably good. Like every other gallery (the theme continues) I seemed to like the minor artists more than the big guns. Speaking of guns, my favourite painting was of a French street (done in classic impressionist pastelly style) with a dead soldier, woman and child in the foreground, powerful stuff.
After that I raced back on the Metro to Pere Lachaise cemetery, and did what every rock n roll fan is bound to do in Paris, visit Jim Morrison's grave. We found it eventually, he didn't rise up or anything. Then it was back to base to get my bag, say au revoir to Kieran and Menna, and get the train to Charles De Gaulle airport.
Really nice Easyjet flight to Belfast, which was COLD and GREY and a little BORING. Got boozed with hostel people on the first night which made it all better. Monday I got on the bus to (London)derry, scene of much of the violence of the Troubles, including Bloody Sunday. I've never actually been anywhere properly dangerous, and Derry is the place of been where there has been the most recent danger. But now its very safe to walk round both Poorer/Catholic/Republican and Richer/Protestant/Loyalist neighbourhoods and look at the murals. More commentary will follow with photos, but it was a good experience.
Next day took the bus through Armagh, (where some of the McGirrs are from) to Dublin. Armagh was cold, but nice. Dublin was a little boring and samey. I'd like to go back to Ireland with more time, and a rental car to see the countryside, the best part of the place.
Last Sunday I snuck out early to go to the last remaining Paris Museum on my todo list, Musee d'Orsay. Another impressive building, another impressive building with an amazing collection. D'Orsay is the home of the impressionists (Van Gogh, Monet, et al), and they were predictably good. Like every other gallery (the theme continues) I seemed to like the minor artists more than the big guns. Speaking of guns, my favourite painting was of a French street (done in classic impressionist pastelly style) with a dead soldier, woman and child in the foreground, powerful stuff.
After that I raced back on the Metro to Pere Lachaise cemetery, and did what every rock n roll fan is bound to do in Paris, visit Jim Morrison's grave. We found it eventually, he didn't rise up or anything. Then it was back to base to get my bag, say au revoir to Kieran and Menna, and get the train to Charles De Gaulle airport.
Really nice Easyjet flight to Belfast, which was COLD and GREY and a little BORING. Got boozed with hostel people on the first night which made it all better. Monday I got on the bus to (London)derry, scene of much of the violence of the Troubles, including Bloody Sunday. I've never actually been anywhere properly dangerous, and Derry is the place of been where there has been the most recent danger. But now its very safe to walk round both Poorer/Catholic/Republican and Richer/Protestant/Loyalist neighbourhoods and look at the murals. More commentary will follow with photos, but it was a good experience.
Next day took the bus through Armagh, (where some of the McGirrs are from) to Dublin. Armagh was cold, but nice. Dublin was a little boring and samey. I'd like to go back to Ireland with more time, and a rental car to see the countryside, the best part of the place.
Wednesday, 6 August 2008
Paris days 2 & 3
Just found out Kieran and Menna got robbed of a bag at the station leaving Paris yesterday. Of course it had to be the bag with passports, camera etc, so they're stuck in Paris until new passports are issued. Makes me wonder about all the times I've put a bag down for just a few moments while i adjust something, and how lucky i am not to have anything nicked. Kind of taints the whole experience for me, but I'll continue reporting anyhow.
After the big catchup on sleep it took a while to get going Friday morning. When we finally did, we got on the tourist bus again, this time for a proper look at the Arc. You'll see what i mean from the photos, but suffice to say a lot of French history is recorded there.
After that we strolled down towards the Eiffel, but along a non-main road. It always pleases me just how quickly anything tacky fades when you get more than 50m from a tourist route in any major European city. Came across a frozen yoghurt stand outside a cafe packed with Parisians, near the Seine. When we got to the tower the queue for lifts was predictably long. I decided i would enjoy the walk halfway up, and see about as much from there as from the very top. Kieran and Menna wanted the real McCoy, were happy to queue for it, and were happy with it. I was happy with my 670 steps (did i count them? Hell no...they're marked off at intervals) and it also meant i got down about 3 hours before they.
In that time i walked up towards Ecole Militaire along Champ de Mars, grabbed another supermarket lunch, ate it outside Hotel des Invalides, then went to Musee Rodin.
August Rodin was one of the most influential 19th century sculptors (don't quote me as i don't have wikipedia on my phone!), and all his most famous works are at the Museum. Including The Burghers of Calais, The Kiss, Orpheus, and my favourite, Le Penseur (The Thinker). The best thing was that most works also had their predecessor studies in marble or clay exhibited, so you could see the evolution of each work, sometimes over several years. Exhibiting this way helps document the practice of, and i think humanise the work of, the greats. They were selling casts of his major works in the shop, but the price tags (€150-650) put me off!
The other museums were mostly shut by that time, so i met up with Menna and Kieran at the Louvre for a quick run-through of the majors. Free entry for 'youth' (under 26) on Wednesdays and Fridays after 6pm! There was plenty more classically-themed sculpture (the French love that stuff), plenty of artifacts from ancient Mesopotamia (now mostly Iraq) and Egypt. It was the largest display of archaeological stuff I've ever seen, and i felt pretty dodgey looking at it in a French museum. It's all very nice that Western publics have access, but that stuff should really be progressively returned to where it was, and lets not dress it up in khakis and a silly hat, mostly stolen from.
Then it was to Aphrodite (Venus de Milo), some French large format paintings, including Napoleon crowning his empress (can't remember artist or full title), and of course La Joconde (Mona Lisa). I think its hilarious the the Louvre's two most famous works are both generally known by other names. Not sure who the joke is on though...
After a few hours of browsing and gazing we were stuffed so headed back for a nice pizzeria dinner (very French! But cheap...) before bed.
Next day, saturday, i headed to the Georges Pompidou centre, which among other things houses the Museum of Modern Art. Commentary of that really has to go with the pictures, but there was plenty of good stuff to see, including several good Pollocks, and a few more artists for me to follow up on, mostly minor surrealists that i liked.
As the weather had cleared a little by the time i was done, i took a gamble and headed out to Versailles. Couldn't get in to the Palace because it was closing early that day, but i was more interested in the architecture and gardens anyway, which are free to wander round. It really all is bloody impressive in every respect, and its great the Republic held onto it after the former occupants vacated. It was reasonably quiet at the end of the day and very, very peaceful strolling.
In the evening i met back up with M & K at the height of Parisian cuisine, the Hard Rock Cafe, and then had a horrendously expensive beer back near our place. And that, my friends, was most of Paris!
Tuesday, 5 August 2008
Paris day 1
I'm writing this on a bus from Belfast up to (London)Derry. After Europe (yes i exclude the isles), Ireland is visceral, edgy and dirty. For example, this bus seat has chewing gum stuck to the seat in front. Reminds me of home.
Anyway, Paris! I spent wednesday back in Riseley/Bedford. Menna, her friend Katie and i tried to be cheap sods and go to the local swimming pool using tokens off the kelloggs box. When we got there, the buggers had a sign up saying 'only applies to children with a paying adult'. So we paid and swam anyway, fighting our way through hordes of elderly patrons in the 7 lanes that weren't roped off, or slow people in the one that was. Then there was the nasty one who a) had a go for us being in her way and b) had a go for us getting too far out of the way next time.
Back at the ranch that evening we packed for Paris and turned up to Bedford station at 2.30am. Shit that was a fun ride into London... At St Pancras we boarded the Eurostar, which really is a dream. Plus it bloody goes underwater for a bit...brilliant! I may have even slept. Got to Gare du Nord at 8ish and had a cheap breakfast in the vicinity before checking into hotel nearby. Then it was time to hit the sights.
Jumped on an open-air tourist bus that i thought would be crap but wasn't. Ok the pre-recorded commentary was rubbish ("there are over 6000kms of roads in Paris" wow thanks man) but it was nice to be sitting above the traffic but still experience the atmosphere of the street. Sounds cheesey, i know. And it was a ripoff, but it was a pleasant way to get round.
More detailed, humorous and possibly fabricated commentary of the sights will come later with the photos, but for now here's another list thing.
- Cathedrale Notre-Dame: impressive, i kept saying it like an american, people who can't turn off the flash or shut the hell up in churches really piss me off, should have yelled at them in faux Italian or something
- Lunches de supermarche: the only way to not burn money in europe is to avoid eating. At any kind of establishment. With the ready availability of supermarkets in Paris i reinstated if tradition Joe and i followed at camp. Fruit, salad, liquid. €3 yeeha!
- Bastille: a mildly unimpressive statue in the middle of a hilarious roundabout commemorating some kind of revolution or something. When will the French get over their Republicanism? I resisted the urge to remind them that about 20 minutes after libertee, egalitee, fraternitee, they embraced a ruthless dictator who made himself emperor then tried to take over all of Europe.
- Place de la Concorde: was expecting to see a fast plane parked up here but was sadly disappointe. Until i looked round and realised that its pretty much the centre of the republic. With an ever better roundabout, awesome.
- Champs Elysee: Anglo-consumerism is the latest conqueror to march relatively unhindered through the Arc, and set up camp here. Slightly more than mildly offensive, somewhat less than downright outrageous. I guess the French need somewhere to buy touristy tat as well as tourists.
- Arc de Triomphe: large, another excellent roundabout.
Then got the metro back to do battle, once again, with a large service organisation in French. Last time it was La Poste in Lausanne, this time Western Union. I don't know about you but I've always viewed WU with skepticism, what with their claims of zapping money across the globe like that (snaps fingers). I'd managed to transfer half of my downpayment on the rental via their NZ website off my credit card, relatively easy. But for complicated reasons the rest had to be done a la Francais. Take a ticket, then this non-employee gives me a form to fill out with the amount, recipient etc. Lucky for me most of the other customers weren't so good at French either. See, Western Union takes care of most of the non-corporate cash transfers of migrant workers, aka remittances. A humbling experience indeed to be worrying about securing my lease while my fellow customers are worrying about whether they earned enough this month to support a family back home. When i got to the counter i tried to credit card it again, but they don't do it. So managed to communicate a la Gesticulation that i needed to know how much cash to bring back to equal X US dollars. Walked up to the ATM, withdrew a shitload, walked/ran back to WU without getting mugged and it all went fine from there. The non employee guy and i chuckled, he had a prayer book so i think he just stands there most days doing customer information/crowd-queue control. I hope they give him a sandwich at lunch. Obviously after all that i was stuffed so went back to hotel and slept for 12+ hours. That was day 1 in paris, and i already had a great feeling about the city.
Friday, 1 August 2008
London
That night after Cambridge (Sunday) I went to London to stay with Alaina and Sam in Wembley Park. It was great to see them having made the successful move over earlier in the year, and they are ticking along nicely. As they work and almost live at a Garden Centre, they have a big backyard which is great for making bonfires, so we did, had a few ciders, and watched suspicious looking cars drive down the road to the reservoir to to dodgey things there at night.
Next day (Monday) they had off, so we all took the Tube into town. God I love Metros, not just because they are a great way to get around, but for the individual character each city's has. London's character is 'stifling hot' - overall I had bloody marvellous weather the whole time in the UK. We had lunch at the second English pub we found nearish Baker St (the one we wanted appeared to be recently derelict) and then I set off alone for a bit of a walking tour: Green Park, Buck Palace, The Mall, St James Park, Parliament and the Abbey, then across to Southbank for a bit. All very impressive old chap.
Then I somehow managed to get to Oxford Circus at rush hour to meet Shaun (no typo) who I worked with a bit on census in 2006. He is now back working at Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (Playstation team), project managing the production of top-secret projects for Sony. Needless to say the discussion was nerdy, but aided by several beers (my higher-earning london people always taking pity on this poor traveler despite his protests and proffered cash) we pretty quickly got on to solving the problems of the universe. Then I took the tube back to Wembley (innate sense of mapless navigation functioning perfectly) and went to bed/couch.
Next morning (Tuesday) it was up and at em, sort of, for the Tate Modern, predictably the highlight of my very short and underfunded time in London. Special thanks to all my friends who have visted and raved about it for years, not even the fact there was NO BLOODY PROPER LARGE SCALE EXHIBIT IN THE TURBINE HALL could dampen my enthusiasm. Seriously, it was good, and I got a lot of names of artists new and old I need to see more of.
After my Southbank experience I wandered round St Pauls then tubed to Trafalger Square area to catch up with a fellow Fulbrighter, Olivia, who works for MFAT there currently. NZ House is so classic, kind of garish, kind of nothing, but very tall and dominating the fine works around it. After afternoon tea I tried my hand at rush-hour Underground to get across to Harrods, and did just fine thankyouverymuch. There met Gareth, who flatted with Dan for bit when we were all blissfully un-/partially-employed in the winter of 2006. Went to a cool pub in Notting Hill, which was super-trendy about 100 years ago. Now its Shoreditch, but people debate that. What is clear is the coolness travels east across the suburbs of London...interesting.
Overall my time in London was very nice. Next time I'd like more time, a lot more money (i couldn't stop multiplying to NZ $ and freakin out) and a super-central location. Maybe a cushy summer research posting to LSE then? I see a theme emerging slowly here...
Next day (Monday) they had off, so we all took the Tube into town. God I love Metros, not just because they are a great way to get around, but for the individual character each city's has. London's character is 'stifling hot' - overall I had bloody marvellous weather the whole time in the UK. We had lunch at the second English pub we found nearish Baker St (the one we wanted appeared to be recently derelict) and then I set off alone for a bit of a walking tour: Green Park, Buck Palace, The Mall, St James Park, Parliament and the Abbey, then across to Southbank for a bit. All very impressive old chap.
Then I somehow managed to get to Oxford Circus at rush hour to meet Shaun (no typo) who I worked with a bit on census in 2006. He is now back working at Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (Playstation team), project managing the production of top-secret projects for Sony. Needless to say the discussion was nerdy, but aided by several beers (my higher-earning london people always taking pity on this poor traveler despite his protests and proffered cash) we pretty quickly got on to solving the problems of the universe. Then I took the tube back to Wembley (innate sense of mapless navigation functioning perfectly) and went to bed/couch.
Next morning (Tuesday) it was up and at em, sort of, for the Tate Modern, predictably the highlight of my very short and underfunded time in London. Special thanks to all my friends who have visted and raved about it for years, not even the fact there was NO BLOODY PROPER LARGE SCALE EXHIBIT IN THE TURBINE HALL could dampen my enthusiasm. Seriously, it was good, and I got a lot of names of artists new and old I need to see more of.
After my Southbank experience I wandered round St Pauls then tubed to Trafalger Square area to catch up with a fellow Fulbrighter, Olivia, who works for MFAT there currently. NZ House is so classic, kind of garish, kind of nothing, but very tall and dominating the fine works around it. After afternoon tea I tried my hand at rush-hour Underground to get across to Harrods, and did just fine thankyouverymuch. There met Gareth, who flatted with Dan for bit when we were all blissfully un-/partially-employed in the winter of 2006. Went to a cool pub in Notting Hill, which was super-trendy about 100 years ago. Now its Shoreditch, but people debate that. What is clear is the coolness travels east across the suburbs of London...interesting.
Overall my time in London was very nice. Next time I'd like more time, a lot more money (i couldn't stop multiplying to NZ $ and freakin out) and a super-central location. Maybe a cushy summer research posting to LSE then? I see a theme emerging slowly here...
Thursday, 31 July 2008
The rest of Riseley
On Friday I began my recovery/rest/relaxation time in Riseley. Slept in, dealt with emails etc (ugh), then headed to the big smoke of Bedford to stroll around the shopping area. It is quite a nice quaint little town. Then down to the river, all very English and reminiscent of several places in NZ. There we watched people row Norse-themed boats incompetently on a little pond, while eating icecream and laughing at them. Then to the 'American Diner' for lunch, which was actually very good despite the poetically cheesey surroundings.
Friday night was spent out and about, first to an outstandingly authentic English pub called the Wellington Arms. It has a sign outside saying: "REAL ALE PUB. NO FOSTERS!! NO STELLA!! NO CARLING!! NO CRAP!" Needless to say the beers were hand-pulled and ever so slightly warm. Then Kieran and I met up with Menna and her mates at some other place in town.
Saturday was more cricket, me again on the Riseley team, this time in the full 40-over game against an all-Pakistani side. They bowled first and really shook our openers, dismissing them cheaply. By the time I got in I was facing spinners, and had quite a lot of fun! Only scored three runs before being caught out after stupidly playing at a bouncing ball, but did stay in for about 20-30 minutes and the highest-scorer in our partnership was actually extras (wides, byes, no balls). They chased the target down easy in the afternoon sun, but not after some good wickets were taken and I was worked hard (also enjoyable) in the covers. After our defeat we went to a barbecue in the village where good times were had, including dj sets and getting told off at about 10pm by a village grump, classic.
Sunday we visited Cambridge, about 45 minutes drive from Riseley. You park outside town at the Park & Ride, then take a huge double-decker bus into the middle of town...arriving after a few crazy turns at intersections that required the reversing of several other buses. Despite all the touristy touches (no less than a dozen people asked us if we wanted to go punting...all the punting seemed to be punt-your-own though...) the town has retained some character, and then you get to the Colleges and they truly are as they've always been. Pristine lawns and really nice stone architecture, and sooooooo quiet. Cushy summer research fellowship in 2010 here I come...
Friday night was spent out and about, first to an outstandingly authentic English pub called the Wellington Arms. It has a sign outside saying: "REAL ALE PUB. NO FOSTERS!! NO STELLA!! NO CARLING!! NO CRAP!" Needless to say the beers were hand-pulled and ever so slightly warm. Then Kieran and I met up with Menna and her mates at some other place in town.
Saturday was more cricket, me again on the Riseley team, this time in the full 40-over game against an all-Pakistani side. They bowled first and really shook our openers, dismissing them cheaply. By the time I got in I was facing spinners, and had quite a lot of fun! Only scored three runs before being caught out after stupidly playing at a bouncing ball, but did stay in for about 20-30 minutes and the highest-scorer in our partnership was actually extras (wides, byes, no balls). They chased the target down easy in the afternoon sun, but not after some good wickets were taken and I was worked hard (also enjoyable) in the covers. After our defeat we went to a barbecue in the village where good times were had, including dj sets and getting told off at about 10pm by a village grump, classic.
Sunday we visited Cambridge, about 45 minutes drive from Riseley. You park outside town at the Park & Ride, then take a huge double-decker bus into the middle of town...arriving after a few crazy turns at intersections that required the reversing of several other buses. Despite all the touristy touches (no less than a dozen people asked us if we wanted to go punting...all the punting seemed to be punt-your-own though...) the town has retained some character, and then you get to the Colleges and they truly are as they've always been. Pristine lawns and really nice stone architecture, and sooooooo quiet. Cushy summer research fellowship in 2010 here I come...
Friday, 25 July 2008
Photos of Europe, Part One
So now I'm finally up to date with the writing, and now the photos too.
Photos available here (you don't need to be on facebook to see them):
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=24879&l=3a09d&id=703999762
Let me know if it's not working for you...
Shaun
Photos available here (you don't need to be on facebook to see them):
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=24879&l=3a09d&id=703999762
Let me know if it's not working for you...
Shaun
Barcelona, London Luton, and cricket in Riseley
The morning of our full day in Barcelona (Tuesday 22nd) we decided to devote it to some Gaudi, after transferring hostels (by time we booked demand was very high). Second hostel was in same chain, Sant Jordi, and possibly even better than the other one given it was purpose-built.
Caught the Metro across town to the Vallarca stop and made the climb to Park Guell. Except most of the street that you climb up has been escalatorised! We were glad that there is at least a few hundred metres of walking though, makes the views more rewarding. The park was built from 1900 to 1914, was designed by Gaudi and financed by a wealthy guy (Count Guell) who had commissioned Gaudi's first works. Guell wanted to create a serene garden city in Barcelona, with 60 plots on which your house could occupy only a smallish fraction. In classic Iberian vision-exceeds-execution fashion, construction stopped in 1914 after only three plots had been sold. The silver lining though is that now it is a public space, with some cool architecture (see photos coming up) and great views out across Barcelona.
After walking back down we caught the metro to the Sagrada Familia, the other great Gaudi unfinished work. He designed it, and work has been underway almost continuously since 1882. It's supposed to have 18 towers at the end but they've got plenty to go to finish it in the target year of 2026. Its a highly polarising building. The scale and grandeur are certainly impressive, and I love the modernista influence in places. But it is quite over the top, and very scatter-brained. I hope to see it again, completed, and make another personal judgement then.
That evening we returned to the hostel and cooked a proper meal of pasta (having subsisted on fruit, tuna sandwiches, and salad for the entire festival) and then got boozed at the hostel with others. Alex and Irene from the Venice hostel randomly turned up, I've never spoken so much Russian in my recent life as I have on this trip!
Another too-early wakeup call on Wednesday morning to get to the train station by Metro, to catch the bus to Reus airport (one of two 'Barcelona' airports Ryanair flies out of). Thank goodness we didn't just wait out the front of the station, as the bus left from a mostly-obscured stop that you can't see on exiting the station. Luckily we got the bus for the earlier Ryanair flight, which saved us some stress when traffic made the journey 2 hours instead of 1.5.
So we played 500 in the carpark of this tinny little regional airport underneath a tree, packed and re-packed our stuffs, and went to check-in. Joe came in 1kg over allowance (€15), and I came in 0.5 under! This was despite having picked up a 3kg tent - i did it by putting everything heavy into my hand luggage, it's the Ryanair way! The flight ended up being delayed an hour, which through out Kieran's pickup at the London Luton end.
Then when we landed the queue for non-EU passports took about 45 minutes, and after some probing questions, that had all taken so long that our bags were nowhere to be seen. Because Luton is a hellhole budget airline airport, there were of course no airline staff round, so we just had to watch all four baggage carousels until, finally our bags appeared. Relief! Then Joe met his sister and we parted ways on different trains, Joe for London and me for Bedford, where I saw Kieran for the first time in at least two years.
He drove me to the quaint village of Riseley, which as Menna (Kieran's girlfriend) calls it, is 'gateway to the whops'. But it is a great wee place, got the walking tour round the village yesterday from Menna (she grew up here) and saw houses built in the 1400s and 1500s and a Norman church from the 1100s - amazing! The night I arrived, I'd been in the village two minutes before Kieran pulled over to say hello to some cricketing mates, and I was instantly recruited into the team.
The game was last night on the village green. We had 3 players plus 4 ring-ins, against Henlow's B-team of 11 men. They smashed 124 off 16 overs, but not before a few nice dismissals. Kieran was keeping and got a great single-handed catch down leg side, while I caught the captain out at backward square leg for a golden duck! Nobody was more surprised than I... Our batting performance was atrocious, all out for 21, so we lost handsomely. Then over to the pub for an excellent steak burger to put us all to sleep.
Caught the Metro across town to the Vallarca stop and made the climb to Park Guell. Except most of the street that you climb up has been escalatorised! We were glad that there is at least a few hundred metres of walking though, makes the views more rewarding. The park was built from 1900 to 1914, was designed by Gaudi and financed by a wealthy guy (Count Guell) who had commissioned Gaudi's first works. Guell wanted to create a serene garden city in Barcelona, with 60 plots on which your house could occupy only a smallish fraction. In classic Iberian vision-exceeds-execution fashion, construction stopped in 1914 after only three plots had been sold. The silver lining though is that now it is a public space, with some cool architecture (see photos coming up) and great views out across Barcelona.
After walking back down we caught the metro to the Sagrada Familia, the other great Gaudi unfinished work. He designed it, and work has been underway almost continuously since 1882. It's supposed to have 18 towers at the end but they've got plenty to go to finish it in the target year of 2026. Its a highly polarising building. The scale and grandeur are certainly impressive, and I love the modernista influence in places. But it is quite over the top, and very scatter-brained. I hope to see it again, completed, and make another personal judgement then.
That evening we returned to the hostel and cooked a proper meal of pasta (having subsisted on fruit, tuna sandwiches, and salad for the entire festival) and then got boozed at the hostel with others. Alex and Irene from the Venice hostel randomly turned up, I've never spoken so much Russian in my recent life as I have on this trip!
Another too-early wakeup call on Wednesday morning to get to the train station by Metro, to catch the bus to Reus airport (one of two 'Barcelona' airports Ryanair flies out of). Thank goodness we didn't just wait out the front of the station, as the bus left from a mostly-obscured stop that you can't see on exiting the station. Luckily we got the bus for the earlier Ryanair flight, which saved us some stress when traffic made the journey 2 hours instead of 1.5.
So we played 500 in the carpark of this tinny little regional airport underneath a tree, packed and re-packed our stuffs, and went to check-in. Joe came in 1kg over allowance (€15), and I came in 0.5 under! This was despite having picked up a 3kg tent - i did it by putting everything heavy into my hand luggage, it's the Ryanair way! The flight ended up being delayed an hour, which through out Kieran's pickup at the London Luton end.
Then when we landed the queue for non-EU passports took about 45 minutes, and after some probing questions, that had all taken so long that our bags were nowhere to be seen. Because Luton is a hellhole budget airline airport, there were of course no airline staff round, so we just had to watch all four baggage carousels until, finally our bags appeared. Relief! Then Joe met his sister and we parted ways on different trains, Joe for London and me for Bedford, where I saw Kieran for the first time in at least two years.
He drove me to the quaint village of Riseley, which as Menna (Kieran's girlfriend) calls it, is 'gateway to the whops'. But it is a great wee place, got the walking tour round the village yesterday from Menna (she grew up here) and saw houses built in the 1400s and 1500s and a Norman church from the 1100s - amazing! The night I arrived, I'd been in the village two minutes before Kieran pulled over to say hello to some cricketing mates, and I was instantly recruited into the team.
The game was last night on the village green. We had 3 players plus 4 ring-ins, against Henlow's B-team of 11 men. They smashed 124 off 16 overs, but not before a few nice dismissals. Kieran was keeping and got a great single-handed catch down leg side, while I caught the captain out at backward square leg for a golden duck! Nobody was more surprised than I... Our batting performance was atrocious, all out for 21, so we lost handsomely. Then over to the pub for an excellent steak burger to put us all to sleep.
FIB day 4 and the dramatic escape from Benicassim
Sunday we went to the beach as usual, via discovering that one of the supermarkets was closed on Sundays, and the other had closed before we got there. Never mind, paid higher prices somewhere else...
Before the nights proceedings we met Joe's girlfriend Joelle's friends from London, Marcia and Renee. Classic case of 3 degrees - they'd studied in, or knew, the Canterbury polisci department. And they fed and watered us very well.
Sunday (highlights in bold)
The National - so great to finally see them live. They were in the big tent which totally could have backfired (it almost did due to persistent technical difficulties on that stage) but they pulled it off. The music isn't naturally crowd-moving, but it did succeed and the performance, especially by the vocalist Matt Berninger, was compelling.
Leonard Cohen - wasn't expecting to stick around for all of this, but the show turned out to be quite charming despite the inherent cheesiness of an ultra-polished session band. Played a good mix of the hits (Hallelujah, So Long Marianne) and some that I didn't recognise but did enjoy.
Micah P Hinson - according to Joe his recordings are great, live his three-piece was a little 1998 Rockquest.
Richard Hawley - great old-school rock and roll, full stop. Told us we were the best festival crowd they'd ever played, and for once I believed somebody saying that.
Justice (Live) - absolute madness in and around the big tent, we stayed for about five or six songs including their iconic remix of "Never Be Alone" by Simian.
Morrissey - a disappointment. I'm a big Smiths fan, and for I'm not sure what reason, I always came down on the Johnny Marr side of the band's messy breakup. Maybe it's because I'm a guitarist that loves the way he played on those records, or maybe just because he's not a tosser. Steven is a tosser and his banter (anti-techno, pro-vegetarian, possibly a dash of racism in there), while electrifying the English, was groan-worthy for the rest of us.
After that we went back to camp to drink some more wine, then hit the hay. 7 am wakeup call, packed up our stuff, walked to the station. Thank god for overcast and cool temperatures. Reason for so early was that 20,000 people try to leave Benicassim the day after the festival (camping continues for another 3 days), half each for Barcelona and Valencia, and even though this was the 14th FIB, renfe (Spanish train company) hasn't got the idea that YOU NEED TO PUT ON MORE TRAINS TO COPE WITH DEMAND!!!
We were first in the queue and lucky to have a door right in front of us when the train stopped. After much pushing and jostling Joe and I both managed seats, but the rest of the train filled up completely. The doors kept trying to close and stopping when people were in the way. Eventually the unlucky ones had to step off, resign themselves to the fact they would miss their flights, and we were underway. I felt bad for the Spanish people who then couldn't get on the train later down the line - we FIBers represented at that time the very worst of unsustainable tourism. When we got to L'Aldea an hour later, we piled onto the platform and then onto another regional train 20 minutes later. This one was less full, but filled up to practically overflowing as we approached Barcelona. Talked to some English guys about horse racing.
Arriving at Barcelona Sants 3.5 hours after we left Benicassim was basically a miracle, Joe and I had little idea how we'd managed to arrive both together and safely. The Metro to our hostel was a dream, and the hostel was pretty nice too. After a nap we got some pastries from the place downstairs and some beers from the hostel, and took a walk down the main avenues towards the water, and back again to sleep.
Before the nights proceedings we met Joe's girlfriend Joelle's friends from London, Marcia and Renee. Classic case of 3 degrees - they'd studied in, or knew, the Canterbury polisci department. And they fed and watered us very well.
Sunday (highlights in bold)
The National - so great to finally see them live. They were in the big tent which totally could have backfired (it almost did due to persistent technical difficulties on that stage) but they pulled it off. The music isn't naturally crowd-moving, but it did succeed and the performance, especially by the vocalist Matt Berninger, was compelling.
Leonard Cohen - wasn't expecting to stick around for all of this, but the show turned out to be quite charming despite the inherent cheesiness of an ultra-polished session band. Played a good mix of the hits (Hallelujah, So Long Marianne) and some that I didn't recognise but did enjoy.
Micah P Hinson - according to Joe his recordings are great, live his three-piece was a little 1998 Rockquest.
Richard Hawley - great old-school rock and roll, full stop. Told us we were the best festival crowd they'd ever played, and for once I believed somebody saying that.
Justice (Live) - absolute madness in and around the big tent, we stayed for about five or six songs including their iconic remix of "Never Be Alone" by Simian.
Morrissey - a disappointment. I'm a big Smiths fan, and for I'm not sure what reason, I always came down on the Johnny Marr side of the band's messy breakup. Maybe it's because I'm a guitarist that loves the way he played on those records, or maybe just because he's not a tosser. Steven is a tosser and his banter (anti-techno, pro-vegetarian, possibly a dash of racism in there), while electrifying the English, was groan-worthy for the rest of us.
After that we went back to camp to drink some more wine, then hit the hay. 7 am wakeup call, packed up our stuff, walked to the station. Thank god for overcast and cool temperatures. Reason for so early was that 20,000 people try to leave Benicassim the day after the festival (camping continues for another 3 days), half each for Barcelona and Valencia, and even though this was the 14th FIB, renfe (Spanish train company) hasn't got the idea that YOU NEED TO PUT ON MORE TRAINS TO COPE WITH DEMAND!!!
We were first in the queue and lucky to have a door right in front of us when the train stopped. After much pushing and jostling Joe and I both managed seats, but the rest of the train filled up completely. The doors kept trying to close and stopping when people were in the way. Eventually the unlucky ones had to step off, resign themselves to the fact they would miss their flights, and we were underway. I felt bad for the Spanish people who then couldn't get on the train later down the line - we FIBers represented at that time the very worst of unsustainable tourism. When we got to L'Aldea an hour later, we piled onto the platform and then onto another regional train 20 minutes later. This one was less full, but filled up to practically overflowing as we approached Barcelona. Talked to some English guys about horse racing.
Arriving at Barcelona Sants 3.5 hours after we left Benicassim was basically a miracle, Joe and I had little idea how we'd managed to arrive both together and safely. The Metro to our hostel was a dream, and the hostel was pretty nice too. After a nap we got some pastries from the place downstairs and some beers from the hostel, and took a walk down the main avenues towards the water, and back again to sleep.
Sunday, 20 July 2008
FIB days 1, 2 & 3
I'll cover the day-time activities at the festival in one go:
9:30am - wake up sweating
10am - head to beach via supermarket for water and food
11:30am - arrive beach, try get shade
11:30-5pm - swim, rest
5pm - head back to camp via supermarket and salad tv dinner in the square
8pm - arrive at camp, cold shower, hit the €1.30 red wine
9pm - head into festival venue
So who have I seen and what did I think? Highlights are in bold...
Thursday
Nada Surf - got the crowd going but nothing spectacular
Sigur Ros - 8 rows from front. One of my must-sees at FIB. Did well to please a festival crowd that wanted "all the hits" (such as they are) but that cost their set the cohesiveness evident in their albums. Now I really want to see them in a setting of their own choosing, playing an album start to finish.
Black Lips - 5-10 rows from front. Dirty dirty punky rock, favourites of Vice Magazine. Massive mosh pit fun with goodnatured pushing and shoving. Joe lost (and regained) both a shoe and his glasses.
Battles - pushed through to 5 rows from front. Amazing set. Most there didn't get them, we did and it was awesome. Unbelievable that this music can be played live.
Friday
Babyshambles - the 50,000 brits here all went to see Pete, and we didn't.
El Guincho - great boogie to this spanish guy from the canaries who mixes electronica with live drumming and crazy singing.
New York Dolls - saw half a song, way past it, and they sound nothing like interpol.
Hot Chip - 5 rows from front in the biggest dance tent ive ever seen. Hit after hit, so nice to see geeks making music and having thousands of people in the palms of their hands. Crazy crazy dancing and facepaint with 'our gang'
My Bloody Valentine - must be broke, they reformed just to play 'Loveless' to the gathered faithful. It was their first and last album, and was so good it both defined 90s shoegaze indie and destroyed the band. Hearing it live was a bit depressing so only listened to a few songs.
Danton Eeprom - another amazing dancey time in the big tent, this time with time to move and breath. Minimal techy house, pulled off live with aplomb and not a downbeat in sight.
Saturday (last night)
Brian Jonestown Massacre - nothing happening, stuck in the 1990s. Don't recommend attending the chch gig unless you like their recordings.
American Music Club - ok, but soft and a bit Counting Crows for my taste.
My Morning Jacket - 3 rows from front, great set for the fans (not that many hence easy to get close). New stuff not so sure, old stuff magic.
Raconteurs - 5 rows, and a let down. Pushed out past people who were severely pissed that we were getting out of their way...weird.
More from Barcelona when we get there tomorrow...
9:30am - wake up sweating
10am - head to beach via supermarket for water and food
11:30am - arrive beach, try get shade
11:30-5pm - swim, rest
5pm - head back to camp via supermarket and salad tv dinner in the square
8pm - arrive at camp, cold shower, hit the €1.30 red wine
9pm - head into festival venue
So who have I seen and what did I think? Highlights are in bold...
Thursday
Nada Surf - got the crowd going but nothing spectacular
Sigur Ros - 8 rows from front. One of my must-sees at FIB. Did well to please a festival crowd that wanted "all the hits" (such as they are) but that cost their set the cohesiveness evident in their albums. Now I really want to see them in a setting of their own choosing, playing an album start to finish.
Black Lips - 5-10 rows from front. Dirty dirty punky rock, favourites of Vice Magazine. Massive mosh pit fun with goodnatured pushing and shoving. Joe lost (and regained) both a shoe and his glasses.
Battles - pushed through to 5 rows from front. Amazing set. Most there didn't get them, we did and it was awesome. Unbelievable that this music can be played live.
Friday
Babyshambles - the 50,000 brits here all went to see Pete, and we didn't.
El Guincho - great boogie to this spanish guy from the canaries who mixes electronica with live drumming and crazy singing.
New York Dolls - saw half a song, way past it, and they sound nothing like interpol.
Hot Chip - 5 rows from front in the biggest dance tent ive ever seen. Hit after hit, so nice to see geeks making music and having thousands of people in the palms of their hands. Crazy crazy dancing and facepaint with 'our gang'
My Bloody Valentine - must be broke, they reformed just to play 'Loveless' to the gathered faithful. It was their first and last album, and was so good it both defined 90s shoegaze indie and destroyed the band. Hearing it live was a bit depressing so only listened to a few songs.
Danton Eeprom - another amazing dancey time in the big tent, this time with time to move and breath. Minimal techy house, pulled off live with aplomb and not a downbeat in sight.
Saturday (last night)
Brian Jonestown Massacre - nothing happening, stuck in the 1990s. Don't recommend attending the chch gig unless you like their recordings.
American Music Club - ok, but soft and a bit Counting Crows for my taste.
My Morning Jacket - 3 rows from front, great set for the fans (not that many hence easy to get close). New stuff not so sure, old stuff magic.
Raconteurs - 5 rows, and a let down. Pushed out past people who were severely pissed that we were getting out of their way...weird.
More from Barcelona when we get there tomorrow...
Friday, 18 July 2008
Ryanair, Valencia and getting to Benicassim
The Ryanair experience begins on their crazy website, which has so many advertisements its hard to trust it when you put your credit card details in. It continues at the airport...one feels in the middle of one of those popular late-90s UK airport show. Thankfully I was 2 kgs under so no troubles checking in...but almost everyone else was having to put on three jumpers, seven belts, and put shoes into their carry-on luggage.
You get to the plane by bus...packed in like sardines. Everyone is in a gigantic hurry to get the best seats (whatever they are) as seating is not pre-assigned. Kudos to Ryanair for an amazing business model: low fares on face value, pay-for luggage, and no assigned seating means they save on fuel, plus everyone RUNS to get on the plane. That helps them get away on time. On the plane the advertising onslaught continues, and the seats don't recline. But having said all that, they get you there on time.
Valencia airport is wondeful, and the metro is soooo good, one of the best i've taken yet. It doesnt yet go into the old city but will soon, so there was a wee bit of a hike to the hostel to meet Joe. Another great hostel experience, heaps of character and super-helpful staff. They told us where to buy a cheap tent for the festival, and it was done within the hour. Joe and I got on swimmingly, like always. Went out to one of the oldest family-owned tapas bars in the city, which was delicious and great, then along to Flamenco night at Radio City (again on recommendation of hostel). To be perfectly honest, we were there to see spanish women dancing in frilly skirts. Instead we got four sweaty men in the band, and an even sweatier man doing the dancing. Impressive but a let-down nonetheless. Then we wandered back to the hostel with the two other kiwis in our room (!!!), both Londonites.
Next morning we went and bough train tickets and some groceries, and a croissant for €0.50 from the amazing market across the street. Its under cover and has at least 100 stalls. I think its instead of a supermarket, because they really only have 7/11 type stores in the city. Valencia was great, is very alive all the time with narrow winding streets and heaps of bars. I hope to visit again with more time.
In the queue for the train we met a classic american guy, a trainee pilot from Atlanta, Georgia who talks like a wannabe gansta. Through security (side-effect of Madrid 05 bombings) and onto the train, called the 'Talgo' service. I think Talgo means "built in the 1980s, not particularly comfortable or fast, but quite expensive anyway¨. An hour later we were at Benicassim station and it was (only) 40-50 minutes walking/standing to get to our campsite. But we got there eventually, set up our tent (three person highly necessary with all our stuff), realised we were way underprepared compared to kiwi camping (when you have a car-load of stuff...) and buggered off to town. Thats also quite a hike, about 25-30 minutes, but worth it for the beach.
Dodgey camping food for dinner - sandwiches with tuna, cheese tomato, and the best cheap red wine you've ever tasted for €1.28 a bottle. Ow!!! We tried to sleep but were kept up by our neighbours, who I almost correctly picked as from Blackpool (id said manchester based on accents and music playing) who were drinking until about 4pm. But managed to get a few weeks at least before RAIN (!!!) woke us up at about 7am. Thank god we bought a decent tent and didn't just rough it.
The best thing about Benicassim as a town is that there is NOTHING to do except write emails, buy and eat food, and sit on the beach and look at continental european girls. Presumably due to the temperature (im sure its not been below 20 at night and 35 during the day) the music starts at 8pm and goes through to 4am. Its hell i tell ya...
I'm writing this after one night of festival music, so am still a few days behind on the blogging, but will report later today on night one (Sigur Ros and Battles...)
You get to the plane by bus...packed in like sardines. Everyone is in a gigantic hurry to get the best seats (whatever they are) as seating is not pre-assigned. Kudos to Ryanair for an amazing business model: low fares on face value, pay-for luggage, and no assigned seating means they save on fuel, plus everyone RUNS to get on the plane. That helps them get away on time. On the plane the advertising onslaught continues, and the seats don't recline. But having said all that, they get you there on time.
Valencia airport is wondeful, and the metro is soooo good, one of the best i've taken yet. It doesnt yet go into the old city but will soon, so there was a wee bit of a hike to the hostel to meet Joe. Another great hostel experience, heaps of character and super-helpful staff. They told us where to buy a cheap tent for the festival, and it was done within the hour. Joe and I got on swimmingly, like always. Went out to one of the oldest family-owned tapas bars in the city, which was delicious and great, then along to Flamenco night at Radio City (again on recommendation of hostel). To be perfectly honest, we were there to see spanish women dancing in frilly skirts. Instead we got four sweaty men in the band, and an even sweatier man doing the dancing. Impressive but a let-down nonetheless. Then we wandered back to the hostel with the two other kiwis in our room (!!!), both Londonites.
Next morning we went and bough train tickets and some groceries, and a croissant for €0.50 from the amazing market across the street. Its under cover and has at least 100 stalls. I think its instead of a supermarket, because they really only have 7/11 type stores in the city. Valencia was great, is very alive all the time with narrow winding streets and heaps of bars. I hope to visit again with more time.
In the queue for the train we met a classic american guy, a trainee pilot from Atlanta, Georgia who talks like a wannabe gansta. Through security (side-effect of Madrid 05 bombings) and onto the train, called the 'Talgo' service. I think Talgo means "built in the 1980s, not particularly comfortable or fast, but quite expensive anyway¨. An hour later we were at Benicassim station and it was (only) 40-50 minutes walking/standing to get to our campsite. But we got there eventually, set up our tent (three person highly necessary with all our stuff), realised we were way underprepared compared to kiwi camping (when you have a car-load of stuff...) and buggered off to town. Thats also quite a hike, about 25-30 minutes, but worth it for the beach.
Dodgey camping food for dinner - sandwiches with tuna, cheese tomato, and the best cheap red wine you've ever tasted for €1.28 a bottle. Ow!!! We tried to sleep but were kept up by our neighbours, who I almost correctly picked as from Blackpool (id said manchester based on accents and music playing) who were drinking until about 4pm. But managed to get a few weeks at least before RAIN (!!!) woke us up at about 7am. Thank god we bought a decent tent and didn't just rough it.
The best thing about Benicassim as a town is that there is NOTHING to do except write emails, buy and eat food, and sit on the beach and look at continental european girls. Presumably due to the temperature (im sure its not been below 20 at night and 35 during the day) the music starts at 8pm and goes through to 4am. Its hell i tell ya...
I'm writing this after one night of festival music, so am still a few days behind on the blogging, but will report later today on night one (Sigur Ros and Battles...)
Thursday, 17 July 2008
Firenze
I arrived to Florence on Sunday evening after another good train ride through the Tuscan countryside. Train travel is so nice: no security checks required, and no waiting around at the station at either end.
Florence struck me immediately as a very different city to Venice...aka "things are happening that aren't tourism" - most of the people around at that time of evening are Italians living their lives.
Walked the 20 mins to where google maps said my hostel would be, only to get lost again. In venice it's several names for each street, in florence it's two sequences of numbers for each street, black and red. I had just told google '104' and that had defaulted to 104-red, a few blocks down from 104-black. But when i found it, Ostello D'Gallo Oro was amazing. A friendly 'ciao bello' on entering, and just the most laid-back atmosphere. The room was great, with shared bathroom and a balcony. Met Baz from Perth, who is on 13 weeks long service leave after working 7 years as an IT project manager for the WA state goverment. I told him that our labour laws had been somewhat more liberalised in the 90s and we joked about life as public servants. Also did the whyPhD/whyAcademia/whyUSA spiel for about the 200th time in the last three months. Getting those business/life story cards printed any day now... The hostel also had free internet, free distilled water, and free breakfast - ace!
I woke up early monday morning hoping to hit the galleries, only to discover monday is the city's attractions' day off...bugger. So Monday was church day, visited about 4-5 cathedrals in the central city, Duomo excluded (big queues by time i got there). The buildings were amazing. I'm not a big fan of renaissance art, because of the repetitive subject matter, nor am i religious, but something about those buildings made my spine tingle. Probably just the cool temperature.
After churches, the Palazzo Vecchio (where David stood until the late 1800s, there's now a copy there), and being mistaken several times for an Italian (highest compliment for a tourist, prob something to do with my facial hair, sunglasses and two necklaces), i crossed the Arno river on one of the 'new' bridges. All but the Ponto Vecchio were destroyed by the retreating germans in 1944.
Then up the hill to Pallazo Michaelangelo, which has a view over Florence that i think is better than the city itself. Terracotta roofs, punctuated by church domes and towers, with the hills of Tuscany behind. Also up there was some kind of Korean wedding party: couldn't quite work out if there were multiple brides and grooms because everyone was to the nines, and the locals and tourists alike were fascinated. A short walk later i was at the highest church above the city, and then continued around the hills on Galileo Galilee drive. Loads of cars but no pedestrians so i had the pavement and flora to myself. Then it was down through some nice gardens, also to myself apart from the aforementioned wedding party(s), and back into the city.
After about 4-5 hours walking in the heat i needed a good rest back at base, but not before meeting the two kiwis (!!!) in my room, both cops in South Auckland who reckon John Keys will be good for the police and fuel prices. I said i hoped he could deliver on what he's promised the Police Association...which is probably nothing and everything yet. Popped to the pizzeria down the road with other roommate Christian from Austria, a political science student, so thats what we talked about.
Tuesday morning i slept in, took a last stroll round the neighbourhood, realised once and for all that the real Tuscany (and Italy) must be outside the cities, despite their obvious beauty, and got on the train to Pisa airport. Might have got to tower and back, but decided it safer to leave that sight for another day.
Arrividerci Italy, i'll be back asap for some closer inspection!
Tuesday, 15 July 2008
Venezia
The transition from Swiss Alps to Italian Alps was predictably noticeable. Carbinieri checked (the existence of) passports while the engine was changed up front. We were running behind schedule after the first italian stop, because italian stops are one cigarette in length, not the swiss two minutes.
Changed train in Milan, an industrial wasteland as everybody says. Forgot to weigh bananas in the fruit area of supermarket so had my first yelling-at experience at the checkout. Train to Venice was unremarkable: hills, villas, the odd turret.
Arriving into venice is as spectacular as it must have been for the past 500 years. These days across the causeway, but if you think of Shakespeare and ignore the parked cruise ships you can almost see the fleets arrived with spices from the east.
Despite my hostel being just across the canal from station, it still took 20 mins to find. Streets in Venice have a few different names with multiple doors at one number. Eventually got it, and what a hostel it was. €35 gets you air conditioning in your room, fridge, great bathroom, and a real bed. Met Americans Dave (just finished PhD molecular genetics) and Daniel (masters biomedical science, just finished military service in Taiwan) and we went for dinner at a good cheap place where the pasta fresca is cooking in front of you with ample oil...delicious.
Back at hostel we met Americans Alex and Irene, originally from Ukraine and Belarus, now in LA doing programming and family therapy. And Laura, an Aussie over from London just for the weekend. Walked around for ages trying to find a not-too-trendy not-too-touristy bar. Ended up at an Irish pub! Alex outdrank me 3 to 2, proving he was in fact Ukrainian.
The next morning Daniel, Dave, Laura and i began our super-trek around Venice, taking in all the sights and trying to avoid other tourists as much as possible. Alex and Irene had given us the name of a mysterious photographer/boatdriver called silvio, who'd taken them on a three-hour boat tour for €100 total, cf the same each for a slow-as 40 minute gondola ride.
Sadly when we found the spot we got a thunderstorm and downpour instead of Silvio. So we soldiered on towards San Marco and weren't disappointed by the spectacle. By now pretty hungry, lunch was at a small corner cafe serving great foccaccia sandwiches for €3.50. Then across the street for the darkest chocolate icecream ever. The old adage stands true: trust the locals' choices and you can't go wrong...the tourist traps are so obvious. They're the ones with 'menu turistico' on the board outside. The locals are obvious, anybody with a newspaper and/or walking stick and no camera. I wonder what they must think of their city's invasion by the rest of Europe (and the world).
Several times we railed against the presence of so many tourists. But thats like railing against all the other cars on the road. In the end a night and a day in Venice was the perfect length of stay. I'd visit again, but outside peak season.
We got back to the hostel about 3pm, then up the road for a quick beer before jumping on the train to Florence.
Saturday, 12 July 2008
Postscript Geneve
Just done the geneve-lausanne route for 4th time, this time on the way to Milan.
My roommates last night were classic: two brit schoolkids on some kind of UN trip, and two mexicans youngins on a tour round europe. Brit 1 was talkative...after school he wants to go travelling, to New Zealand to 'stay with a Maori tribe' . We then all played Texas Hold'em (the most luck-ridden of all the pokers) and though youthful exuberance won out in the end, it wasn't before sage 20-something wisdom had double-bluffed the entire table a couple of times. After that i took a walk along the lake shore in the rain. Its not unusual in Geneve to pass a parked porsche and ferrari in quick succession - the wealth drips from everywhere and it is very international city (aka heaps of tacky themed restaurants). Went to a kebab shop for dinner, serving NZ lamb. Then i wandered back to hostel (did i say how great this hostel was?) to undertake the most glamorous part of the backpacker experience...laundry. Thankfully the system was made by germans and run by swiss, so worked perfectly.
Following free breakfast (take all complimentaries possible in Switz) i jumped on this train to Venice via Milan. There is a tortured middle-aged English man in my carriage that for god knows what reason has decided to take his elderly mother travelling. The scene could not be more Coronation St meets every other nightmare soap. Note to parents: if you travel in the third age it will be in the care of trained professionals.
Also on the train is a little Italian boy whose musical book plays Frere Jacques in Italian. I grinmace (mock grimace) along with the young French family i'm sitting with. If only i could tell them we learn the original back home. There is a sense of failure when admitting ne p.v. francais, i promise to know more on my return.
Overall i have really enjoyed my time in French Suisse. The pace of life is hectic and leisurely at the same time, something Anglo-influenced cultures strive but fail to achieve for whatever reason. It has been very very expensive, especially the conference, but i'm glad i came. Without the conference i probably wouldn't have left home early for this holiday. I'm already learning how to relax properly again, after too many months on the edge.
About to head into the Alps, more from Italia soon...
mega-post - Lausanne and conference
The previous post was written on my cell on the train, and just after sending it I fell asleep and slept through Lausanne stop, waking up 7 minutes after it, and was stuck there til Geneve. Thankfully I could jump on a train straight back...
I walked up to my accommodation and met Doris Getaz, proprietor of Ada-logements B&B. She was classic...and I wished I could have spoken French to her. She did speak English but I'm sure something was lost. The room was small but very nice, about the best you can get for CHF50 (NZ70) a night in Lausanne. 8 of the 45 television channels had the Tour on, and another had overdubbed McLeod's daughters - surreal! I was so tired I slept through the conference pre-drinks, but never mind.
The next morning I made several convincing bonjours in the breakfast room...enough to convince people a) that i spoke French and b) was tired and didn't want to talk to them in French. The language thing hit me harder than expected - not because it made anything particularly difficult, but simply because of the mixed opportunities for local conversation with the locals. Will have to be tooled up when I visit again...
After a stroll to the Metro in the summer sun (free ticket for all tourists staying in Swiss cities) the Metro sped me to Ecole Polytechnique Federal de Lausanne (EFPL), officially the most
confusingly-laid-out university I've ever visited. All buildings seemed to be 'building C' (the one I needed to be in) yet all I could find were dangerous-looking labs. Eventually I found somebody to direct me upstairs.
I presented in the first session, and though I think I delivered well, the audience was far from electrified. Probably never going to happen at a conference on e-government though. I did however make several useful contacts, including the Director of Standards Srategy and Policy at Oracle UK. Apart from the contacts, most of the content was far out of my field and not much higher standard than one would expect in NZ/AUS.
After resting back at B&B at the end of the day, I woke up late and almost missed the conference dinner. I ran to the station and looked for the metro line to take me to Ouchy (shore district) that was on the map. Sadly it hasn't yet been built and its just a bus for the moment. It got me on the boat 3 minutes before sailing though, so good enough.
The cruise itself was almost painfullly picturesque: just imagine every photo you've seen of Swiss hills and vineyards composited together and that was it, enough to make you cry. Dinner was 1) salad, 2) bread cutlets with soup poured over them (even my french dining companions were confused), 3) sauerkraut and sausage, 4) meringue. Very good, and probably the main reason conference was so expensive...
The boat berthed back at Ouchy at exactly 11 (bless the Swiss), after passing Montreux (jazz festival currently on, and the subject of Deep Purple's 'smoke on the water'), the village of Evian, and standing on the bow watching thunderstorms to the north.
This morning nothing interesting was being presented so I slept in and went to an internet cafe to catch up on ~50 emails. Got back to B&B in time to see Doris' note "check out 11am" on the door. I handed the key back to her at exactly 11 with a sense of swiss satisfaction. Lunch was gaspacho, fish, and fruit salad, again good.
The afternoon session scared me shitless - an expert on electronic voting machines told us just how shoddy the standards, specifications, manufacturing, and independent certification. He predicts a 15% chance that the upcoming US election will be stricken by evoting maching difficulties in at least one crucial state. Floria2000-Ohio2004 anybody?
In general the conference participants were obsessed with the 'e' of e-government, to the point that some view adoption of ICT in government to be simply a technical challenge. Pain pain pained me as a political scientist to see this naievety (sic) from smart people. But I did have some great conversations about why there is e-government for certain thing for which there is actually no need for government - a refreshing dose of skepticism. No point having toys for the sake of toys. It was these people that turned into useful contacts. After attending 3 interdisciplinary conferences now I have serious doubts about their value to me as a political scientist. It just seems that while multiple perspectives are interesting and important, the various contributors don't seem to speak enough of the same academic language to really make headway.
Departing Lausanne involved a hasty back-pack re-arrange and clothes-change before heading down the road to do battle, sans francais, with La Poste. You can't pay with credit card, and there is a ticket-queuing machine, but in the end we worked together and got some of my dead-weight sent forward.
The train to Geneve today was 'slow' and 'old', and after arriving I had a pleasant stroll down Rue de Lausanne in the thunderstorm, before heading out for some dinner and the glamour of backpacker laundry. A few additional remarks to come soon...off to Venezia via Milan tomorrow morning.
Finally on a real computer in geneve for this mega-post
Thursday, 10 July 2008
Wednesday, 9 July 2008
4 cool things about Zurich
From my 3 hours in the city i have to say:
*Nice job with the public transport! Especially trains which really do run exactly on time, with announcements in german, french, english to help the plebs like me.
* Yes food is expensive, but get over it already... Switzerland has the highest per-capita gdp so what'd you expect?
* A certain understated extravagance 'yeah we're filthy rich but we don't flash it 24/7'
* Endless narrow medieval alleyways to explore (in daylight)
*Nice job with the public transport! Especially trains which really do run exactly on time, with announcements in german, french, english to help the plebs like me.
* Yes food is expensive, but get over it already... Switzerland has the highest per-capita gdp so what'd you expect?
* A certain understated extravagance 'yeah we're filthy rich but we don't flash it 24/7'
* Endless narrow medieval alleyways to explore (in daylight)
Flight from Singapore was good...screaming kids replaced by swiss health freaks who opened their windowshades at 5am, flooding the cabin with beige light. 777-300ER has even bigger and quieter engines, and outfitted with brand new entertainment system (better technology than AirNZ but few things worth watching). Lost 30 games of chess against computer, mostly because i can't move in <5 seconds every time and therefore blew out the clock by the endgame... Made the 5 victories all the sweeter.
Now on a train to Lausanne, a real bed and the conference opening drinks. This is the life!
PS - this was sent from my cell via vodafone email, but gmail mobile still not working so replies will remain sporadic.
Singapore T3 Transit Hotel rocks!
Flight from Christchurch to Singapore was ok, but not the best of doze-offs. Listening to Sigur Ros made me a bit teary for family and home. I did however watch all 213 minutes of Ben Hur. Apart from some very hammy acting in parts I thought it was excellent, and the chariot race at the end is a testament to the realism possible with 'low-tech' production techniques. It was probably a little ahead of its time too, portraying progressive attitudes to leprosy (it's not actually contagious) and strong historical Jewish-Muslim relations when Palestine/Israel was Roman.
I'm not very good at optimising my airport experiences. I like to have plenty of time between flights, and I like to be through security etc early so I don't miss any flights. But when you have all that time you just wander endlessly and pointlessly. And often, like today, fate lands me a 6-hour stopover when leaving the airport is not an option.
Never fear, Singapore Changi is here! Thanks to Rachel and Mike's excellent tip, I came to the Transit Hotel in Terminal Three and paid S$30 (NZ$30) for: use of their gym (treadmill, cycle, weights did me world of good), loan of gym clothes and shoes (not too naff), good shower, free soft drinks and food, free Mr Bean, and free email. Yussssssssssssssss. One day I'll get that airport lounge membership that this experience so desperately demonstrates I need...
Two hours til boarding for Zurich, next post from Europe!
I'm not very good at optimising my airport experiences. I like to have plenty of time between flights, and I like to be through security etc early so I don't miss any flights. But when you have all that time you just wander endlessly and pointlessly. And often, like today, fate lands me a 6-hour stopover when leaving the airport is not an option.
Never fear, Singapore Changi is here! Thanks to Rachel and Mike's excellent tip, I came to the Transit Hotel in Terminal Three and paid S$30 (NZ$30) for: use of their gym (treadmill, cycle, weights did me world of good), loan of gym clothes and shoes (not too naff), good shower, free soft drinks and food, free Mr Bean, and free email. Yussssssssssssssss. One day I'll get that airport lounge membership that this experience so desperately demonstrates I need...
Two hours til boarding for Zurich, next post from Europe!
Monday, 7 July 2008
Thursday, 24 January 2008
Enright House - 'Scattering the Sun' video
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