Back in the USS of A

After a whirlwind tour of Britland with Miette I’m back in Brooklyn on a bright, sunny, and slightly chilly morning. My bags are now unpacked. My washing is in a big pile. My fridge is bare. Lots to do. So hopefully if I work at getting smarter in a week then everything will be so much easierer. Er.

Being in London as a tourist, staying in a hotel rather than the usual generosity of friends with couches, was a strange experience for me. Trying to fit in just some of the usual things that go on in London made me realise why your average American tourist makes the mistake of trying to ‘do Europe in a week’. The list of places we wanted to go still far outweighs what we did see, but hopefully Miette got a sense of what London is like – from clubbing to history, from shopping to rain, from tube to London eye. Thanks to everyone who we managed to catch up with and sorry to everyone we didn’t, next time!

Depressing vistas

As of last October a pile of re-zoning was approved in Williamsburg and Greenpoint – which explains the ever growing towers sprouting up all over, especially around McCaren Park. Here are some highly boring illustrative images that, for some reason, I found to be the most depressing thing I’ve seen in a while. Maybe it will look just find once someone adds some nice graffiti (Ed. Matt has now written the word ‘graffiti’ out 200 times and will not get it wrong again).

Minor Cessation of Brain

So for some reason I decided tonight would be a good time to try bikram yoga for the first time. Not quite sure what I was thinking, or that I was particularly in any fit state to look myself in a room at 42 C (over 100F) for 90 minutes DOING.FRIKKIN.YOGA!

Perhaps I might have faired better than only surviving 25 minutes of the warm-up exercises had I not cycled down there, but that’s probably a poor excuse. To my credit I did manage to stay in the room the whole time without bolting, even though at one point I felt my chest was going to explode. The full length of time I spent in the room was actually around two hours – as Bikram Williamsburg, like most bikram places, requires you to get down there over 20 minutes early if you’re a newbie to ‘acclimatize’.

To be fair, everyone in the class was very friendly and John, the teacher, was quite understanding of my decision to just lie there and try not to pass out while everyone else continued to execute a sweaty series of movements. Not quite the same as my usual mellow session down at go yoga though, that’s for sure.

Where is my beautiful house

Random celeb spot: Last night, just after parting from Stephen and Yi-Hsian, a very spiky, white haired David Byrne strided past me on Astor Place. Looking good Mr B! Made me think back to my first days back in New York when he used to own a duplex at the base of my first New York girlfriend’s apartment – blimey, that’s almost 10 years ago now. And you may ask yourself…

Ocean City Postcard (front)

Ocean City Postcard (front)
Ocean City Postcard (front),
originally uploaded by ultrahi.

Finally got round to uploading that Ocean City postcard I was blathering about a while back. You can also check out the back of the card with its 1944 postmark.


Getting Webby With It

For those of you currently embarking on any Web 2.0 type enterprise – here’s a great set of talks from a few WebTwo luminaries on what they did and didn’t do.

It is Inevitable, Mr Ibsen

Last night we went to see Hedda Gabbler at the BAM, a performance by the Sydney Theatre Company featuring both Cate Blanchett (Hedda) and Hugo Weaving (Judge Brack). It was, to say th e least, absolutely amazing even from up in the nosebleed seats. The set was stunning – as was the lighting, and everyone’s performances just shone. Plus, in the final climax as Judge Brack attempts to blackmail Hedda into an affair Hugo Weaving says ‘inevitable’ in a decidedly Agent Smith manner. Brillant.

You have reached level 3

The bruhaha around South Park’s amazingin Scientology episode continues – Matt and Trey have taken up the gauntlet as this quote from Variety shows: “So, Scientology, you may have won THIS battle, but the million-year war for earth has just begun!”. You gotta love those guys. Maybe they should do an episode about gays marching in St Patrick’s day parades…

Faith ‘n begorra

Happy St Patrick’s day to everyone – and a fine, sunny day it is too as throngs of merry makers gather greenly along Fifth Avenue. But not everyone is gathering happily on this day of drunken fun, Irish gays and lesbians are not being allowed to march in the parade on the orders of the parade committee. The chairman of this committee, John Dunleavy, has an interesting perspective [from NY1]:

In an interview with the Irish Times, Dunleavy says: “If an Israeli group wants to march in New York, do you allow neo-Nazis into their parade? If African-Americans are marching in Harlem, do they have to let the Ku Klux Klan into their parade?”

He went on to add: “If we let the [Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization] in, is it the Irish Prostitute Association next?”

What a fekin’ eejit.