Time travel

Back to NYC. Aaahhh....this is going to be hard to do, actually. I do miss it so. I haven't talked or thought too much about New York, for that very reason.


I believe I left off here, Radio City, the Rockettes etc. Next on our epic schedule of New York touring was the Staten Island Ferry.




Well actually I lie...for Dad it was a trip to The Intrepid, a big giant aircraft carrying ship thing that bobs about on something like 46th St and 12th Avenue (I just checked this and was correct...hey!) Full of planes trains and automobiles. Well actually not really, but it does have a Concorde jet, and lots of other moving cool hardcore things. THEN we met once again at the ferry terminal. It was a beautiful day, in fact it was just about a t-shirt day. So we set off on our lovely journey over the water. It was very gorgeous, cracking views of Lower Manhattan, a bit of Brooklyn, the Statue.







And when we arrived on the Island it was such a lovely day that we got some pizza (from a guy who positively delighted me...he was this big fat red-faced Italian bloke who looked like the epitome of the New York pizza oven maestros) and we sat on the benches on the waterfront watching a big ship go by, tres relaxing.


Daddy eating Manhattan, apparently.



Dad's shades: better on dad.









OH YEAH and today of course was really St. Patrick's Day, after we confused ourselves the day before wondering where all the green drunks were. So, the whole place was packed out and yes there was green everywhere...hats, jumpers, t-shirts, faces etc etc etc.

We swung by Times Square just in case for some reason the TKTS line was smaller today. Well, I couldn't tell you, because it was utterly heaving so there was no telling who was in line for what. Revelry was rife (and annoying) so I put on my best 'I'm a busy New Yorker, get the fuck outta my way' manner and ploughed on through. After years of wading through underage drunks and drunks of age who should've known better, we came out in the relative peace of the East Side: Madison, Park, Lexington Aves. After a lot of walking (and a stop at Starbucks which featured the dimmest barista I've ever seen - she managed to get not one single thing about my order right, yaaaay) we made our way to 59th St and 3rd Ave, where the Roosevelt Island Cable Car sets off.




Roosevelt Island is the skinny little island between the Upper East Side and Queens. It's mostly residential, with very little traffic. There's not much of note on the island itself but the cable car, I was promised by one Wave Bonardi (who I miss greatly), was something special. It costs the price of a subway ride, so if you have an unlimited Metro card, you're laughing.

Turns out Wave was right on the money. It felt fantastic to soar up through the skyscrapers and across the river, in the gorgeous sunshine. Apologies for the dodgy quality of some of these, I was working through grimy glass here.







What a beautiful day. We thoroughly wore ourselves out with large amounts of walking and parted with plans for breakfast the next day (New York does a damn good breakfast).

I don't remember what I did that evening. Oh wait yes I do I remember exactly. As it was St. Paddy's day, we decided to celebrate in true Irish style (despite the fact that none of us are Irish...well Wave is 1/4 I guess, that's why she celebrated properly.
So Joe bought beer and I bought a tub of 'Dublin Mudslide' Ben and Jerry's ice cream.

I also remember there were lots of v. drunk people in the garden.

CoughAdamPriceCough.

Anyhoo, that was Friday. And so the whirlwind tour of the Big Apple continues.

Peace and love and rock and roll
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

How important is chronology, really...

I am going to interrupt myself for this quick announcement...



This is 103 floors up the Sears Tower (only it's now called Willis Tower). It's 1450ft tall, taller than the Empire State. And it has these little glass boxes on the side of the building that you can stand in and look straight down through the floor at the street.



Teeheeheeheeheehee! I should mention that many people are too scared to stand in these things. I'm pretty proud that I went the whole hog and stood in it upside down.

............after a brief hiatus

I'M BAAACK!...errr...yes, not quite sure what happened there. Well actually no tons of things happened, that's why I haven't written anything for ages.

Right back to where I left off.

FAIREYS TAKE NYC
Commencing Tuesday the 15th of March at 10.00am

So Daddy flew in on Monday night and we met the next morning at his hotel on Union St, Brooklyn.
It was very exciting and very strange to have a member of my family in New York. Especially in Brooklyn.

So off we set on his first day in Manhattan. I, being so very excited and keen to catch up on gossip, managed to immediately send us the wrong way on the subway...but we moved past it and soon arrived at 42nd St and Times Square.

From there we walked the 17 blocks (sorry papa!) to 59th and Columbus Circle and carried on into the park. We wandered all the way up to Strawberry Fields to take a look at the Dakota and the John Lennon Memorial (and to have a little rest on a bench) and then decided we were hungry so we went to eat giant meat and cheese sandwiches at a small chain in my old neighbourhood of Chelsea. While we were there we also swung by my old building so I could point out the window that was my bedroom a year ago.

Suitably refuelled by enormous food and coffees, we headed for Union Square, to stroll around, people watch and have another sit down on a bench. (In a family of dodgy knees, sitting down on benches features heavily here).

During this bench sit we decided we would go for the gold and headed for the Empire State Building. Once again luck was n my side with that place, and we barely had to queue which always makes it a more enjoyable experience (and it's pretty darn enjoyable).

It was spectacular as ever, and in fact was my first time up during the day, so I could finally really see the view...and as you can see, wow.

Following this bout of exertion we found a Pret A Manger (one of the few places I thought we could reliably get an ok cup of tea (you can take the girl out of the England but you can't stop her fulfilling international stereotypes))

Our final sight for the day was the New York Public Library, one of my top buildings in the city. It's so beautiful and peaceful, and there happened to be a small exhibition of artworks that ran alongside a biography of Marie Curie so I learned something too.

All libraries should look like this.

Aaand that's day 1. We packed in a lot of stuff, and a lot of walking. Oh I forgot we also went home via Grand Central station, another sight to behold, though I'm grateful to the nice chap who found our train for us cos I can't for the life of me navigate that thing.

We made daring plans on the way home to MEET in Manhattan rather than me stopping at the hotel again and picking up Dad, and so, full of trepidation (just kidding) I left him on the train hoping he wouldn't nod off and end up at Coney Island. And I went home and did something, I don't remember what. Who cares.

Sooo Wednesday 16th March

Oh it's the 16th...it's St Patricks Day! Nope. This was the misapprehension under which we laboured all day though, and kept wondering out loud where all the drunken louts in green were. Duuuuh (gelatooo)

Anyway. Our plan to meet at the Staten Island ferry terminal went without a hitch. Except that it was grey and cloudy so I didn't want to go on the ferry. So we took a wander around the Financial District instead, stopping at Ground Zero, the Stock Exchange and the South St Seaport. (And yes if you're observant you will have noticed that I did a very similar tour with Joe not so long ago so it was all fresh in my mind...that's why I decided to take my dad there, cos I thought I could still navigate fairly well!)

After nourishing ourselves with giant sandwiches at a diner ('I didn't know it came with fries' said Dad in alarm. Silly padre, this is America) we whizzed back to Times Square in the hope of grabbing discount tickets from the TKTS booth. The queue however was astronomical, causing me to severely question the sanity of some people (do they really want discunt tickets so much they'll queue for an entire day in hot, sweaty Times Square?)

So we moved rapidly on a few blocks north for a memorable tour ooof......Radio City Music Hall! Now I'm not normally one for guided tours, but this was fab fab fab. Everything about it was great. Our guide was a very nice girl called Emily who we both listened to enraptured the whole time...she was a bloody good tour guide! I never appreciated how hard it is to do that - speak fluently and confidently about something for an extended period of time without sounding irritating. But she pulled it off. And Radio City is fun fun fun! It's all gorgeous inside. I think Dad mostly liked the Art Deco and I mostly liked the aura of Sssshhhhowbiz I could feel coming off everything in the building.

Radio City is famous for all kinds of superstars performing there. It is also famous for the annual Christmas Spectacular, featuring none other than THE ROCKETTES. Now I don't think I've ever mentioned this to many people but I LOVE THE ROCKETTES.
They are the final representatives of old school theatre and Broadway and chorus lines. Rockettes mean glamour, lavish costumes, kick lines, eyes and teeth, the whole shebang. And here is Lindsey, who just happens to be one! I'm only sorry that I didn't ask her if we could do a more interesting pose...shouldered legs or arabesques or something. And also that I look so scruffy...still, a Rockette is a Rockette. I was so very excited!













And here are some old Rockette costuuuuumes.....yay!


Hmm gosh this is getting rather long-winded. Better start a new one for days 3 4 and 5.

Arriverderci for now (I shuld say that I am once again blogging from a bed of pain...I'm sick, ugh. Well not really but I did feel awfully funny this morning and then threw up. Now I only feel a little funny:D)xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Change is all around

This week we bid farewell to our favourite RAs, one in particular which broke my heart...beautiful Agustina, gone back to Argentina and now we miss her. But she did leave us two tubs of Dulce de Leche and some cake mixes! Dulce de Leche, for the record, is like the substance found inside Rolos...only in a tub. Mmmmmmm yes!

So this photo is fab apart from how I look special.




We also bid a sad farewell to Kenso, Daniela, Fernando and today, Eduardo. And other Daniela leaves tomorrow. There is a big wave of change.

Hot Loftstel gossip: new RA Chad has been FIRED - gasp dun dun dunnnnn!
He apparently got drunk, shouted abuse at some people, urinated on something inappropriate, walked around the first floor naked and made some of the ladies of the house feel most uncomfortable. Sooo.....BYE! Meh he was a tiny bit of a douche anyway even when sober.

And finally, some juggling. Yes they are sideways but do you think I can work out how to rotate them? Don't be silly.






Has anybody spotted what I've missed? That's right, this week was Faireys Take New York! But such a lot happened that it will probably take at least one brand new post if not several. It was a whirlwind time of mad tourist activity and seeing the sights. It is fun being a tourist in a place where you've been living for 2 months. But also, bloody hard work - New York's exhaaauuusting!

As will writing the post about I'm sure so here I go!xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Hanging my head in shame

...at how lazy I've become. I am undeserving of this blog. But...been so busyusyusyusy! With happy happy things! I will have to begin with a photo splurge...partly because that is the only way I can remember what has been going on.

New developments, new faces, all kindsa new food and new fun activities. Here we go:

Well, first...Wave drew on Joe's face with permanent marker. This doesn't really fall into any of the above categories but it happened and there's a picture so it must be blogged. Also his pitiful pleading for her not to draw on his face was balm to our dark twisted evil souls. Hahahahaaa the Fourth Floor Coven strikes again! Look at the terror in his eyes.









Let's see. Well since my last update was the Thursday of Carnegie Hall madness, I am astonishingly behind...so I will go from Pancake Day.

Tuesday was Mardi Gras if you're from New Orleans or Pancake Day if you're from Merrie Englande. Which I am.

Lengthy discussions over what exactly constitutes a pancake did not deter me. If it's pancake day I will eat pancakes! And I will eat them like I would at home! This is how the discussion arose, in fact. Because the American pancake is very different from the English one, and then you get a Frenchy type person chucking crepes into the mix and also flapjacks? Now that really got me.

Observe:



We have the American, the English, and the Froggy. All clearly very different. I'm not exactly sure what the difference between English pancake and French crepe is...BUT IT'S NOT THE SAME OK!

And finally to confuse things further...




Mmmmm delicious tasty flapjacks, oats and syrup and sugar and butter and whatever else you may choose to put in theeem...






Aaaand more delicius tasty flapjacks and - waaait a second. Those are frickin pancakes! Gaaaah stop renaming things things that are already named those things!





Anyhoo. In the end I got quite vehement about the need to eat non-American pancakes on Pancake Day, and so after some Googling set off with Joe to one 'Crepe du Nord' which is located down below Wall St.

While so this was new territory for me.

It was very hustly and bustly down there with lots of nice buildings...inc. this somewhat significant one - hello Traaaading Flooooor! The Stock Exchange. Hmm, I stood in front of many many illions of dosh that day. Joe used to work in a building right down by the waterfront in the Financial District so he has a fair amount of local knowledge. Things I learned:

This place is very historical and here's why.It was on a night in August 1775, in the build up to the war, that Fraunces Tavern first gained notoriety. A group of American rebels, including Alexander Hamilton, set about dismantling British cannons at the Battery. When these young patriots were discovered, a British warship in the harbor fired the first cannon ball of the Revolution, which subsequently crashed through the roof of the tavern.

Samuel Fraunces, master of the house, was a passionate but secret patriot and used his position to spy on the unknowing loyalists. Fraunces passed information to Continental Army officers, and this loyalty would later secure him a short-lived position as President Washington's steward.

At the end of the war, after the last British soldiers had left America, it was at Fraunces Tavern that George Washington gathered his officers to bid them farewell. Washington was much beloved and delivered a speech in the tavern's Long Room which has been remembered for its touching eloquence. The museum holds in its collection the memoirs of Colonel Benjamin Tallmadge, which documents this famed farewell address.

So we wandered in and had a look around. Many other significant buildings were pointed out to me. Sadly I am a Neanderthal and cannot remember the rest of them.

Anyway we came to the most important building, Crepe Du Nord, where I had originally intended to get a classic lemon and sugar...but was so overcome by the other temptations on offer that I succumbed and got a deeelishus chocolate raspberry concoction with ice cream...and Joe got a crepe with cloudberry syrup.

Yup...cloudberry. Mostly out of curiosity as to what the fudge a cloudberry may be.



Voila. Small Eastern European berry, looks a bit like an orange raspberry, tastes a bit like apricots. Tasty.

Also, funnily enough, the building we were in turned out to be historical too. The waitress told me it used to be a brothel frequented by Mr Washington. Hmm.






Views from the waterfront...where you can see Lady Liberty. I will never forget the first time I saw this view, must've been very close to this time last year.
















And err well we know who that it, that is me.

Anywho after the picture taking and history lessons and general wandering, we went home via the liquor store for GIN AND TONIIIIIC! Those who know me well are aware that I adopted this as my drink a while ago and now I have a deep affection for a G&T. So we enjoyed an evening of clinking ice in glasses (or in Wave's case, red cups) and laughing at silly stuff...it was almost like being at home!












At some point in the past week, the heavens opened and we had apocalyptic rain. It was truly epic, I brilliantly wore my holey Converse so enjoyed soggy feet all day long. But no matter, was an enjoyable day spent wandering the Upper West Side doing my best Gene Kelly impession, and then a very weird movie that was good but came to a really abrupt halt...so abrupt in fact that we were a bit startled and didn't know what was going on. But that' indie art-house films for you.

Hmmm Blogger is doing weird things that are making me nervous...so I'm going to quit while I'm ahead and publish this before it can delete it all or something. Love and peace and peace and quietxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (HA not)

You've got the music in you

So.

A momentous week.

About 3 weeks ago Kait walked in and said 'there's a concert at Carnegie Hall with The Flaming Lips and Patti Smith, wanna go?' and Wave and myself said 'yes yes we do'. And then I mostly forgot about it until Thursday when I woke up thinking 'I am going to see Patti Smith perform today'.....ZIIIINNNGGGG!

It's been a quiet week largely because this gig cost $37.00 and I can normally stretch that over a week and a weekend if necessary. So that's the one big expenditure for the week leaving me with nothing much to do...but that's ok. It was so worth it!

The concert was a benefit for Tibet House US

Tibet House US is dedicated to preserving Tibet’s unique culture at a time when it is confronted with extinction on its own soil. By presenting Tibetan civilization and its profound wisdom, beauty, and special art of freedom to the people of the world, we hope to inspire others to join the effort to protect and save it. Tibet House US is part of a worldwide network of Tibetan institutions committed to ensuring that the light of the Tibetan spirit never disappears from the face of this earth.

The artistic director was composer Philip Glass, who also acted as MC for the night.

I won't talk through the whole thing but here's my highlights:

James McCartney. Opening act. He has a great voice, and looks atonishingly like Paul - the Playbill had a section about each artist, and his made me laugh because it was like they were trying so hard to say 'he has inherited his talent from his father' without actually going 'PAUL MCCARTNEY PAUL MACCARTNEY'. Poor guy - he's been gigging most of his life under a pseudonym, can't blame him. Father's shadow and all that.

Anyway. Then we had the fabulous Angelique Kidjo, a Beninoise singer-songwriter, named 'Africa's premier Diva' by Time magazine. She has covered some rad songs, such as 'Gimme Shelter', the Stones' greatest song. Her voice is beautiful and she gave an awesome performance, v. glad to have discovered her.

She was followed by Tenzin Choegyal, a native from Tibet who grew up in India and now lives in Australia - WOW OH WOW, he sang 2 of his own Tibetan-inspired songs, played on a dranyen (a traditional long-necked lute). His voice was something else, I completely drifted away listening to him. I insist you watch this video so you can hear what I'm talking about, live was incredible.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-JyOIsuMcw&feature=related Copy and paste link into browser. The flute at the beginning is beautiful but his singing starts at about 3.56.

Then some other stuff happened...all fab but I don't remember exactly who what where. There was Taj Mahal who is big big big on the blues circuit, he performed a beautiful song for which he brought out his daughter to duet, and then did a really classic blues number on the piano.

THE ROOTS - ah I love this band. They are totally unique, they are a hip hop group from Philadelphia and there's loads of them but they always play their own live instruments on stage unlike most hip hop and urban artists, they have what has been described by my good friend Matt Parkinson as 'an organic sound' which is funny cos one of their first albums was called Organix. They are great, and they collaborated with a couple of the other artists - they did a cover of Curtis Mayfield's Move On Up with Angelique Kidjo on vocals, and a number with Taj Mahal. And then they finished with this fantastic cover of Down By The River by Neil Young. This video is filmed from a different performance that they gave of this song, also at Carnegie Hall a couple of weeks earlier. The video quality isn't great but hopefully you get the idea. I never realised what frickin talented musicians they are - the drums, the guitar - the vocals! What a voice! The Roots have a dedicated following, they have a lot of integrity which is why they've had a solid, good, long career and will be going strong for a long time to come. But really they deserve to be much bigger than they are. They should be HUGE in fact. But I'm kind of glad they're not cos it could damage them, like it does for so many! This is Neil Young cover. Fab.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baU-HPOUSJo

Then of course we are onto the mighty Flaming Lips. The whole hall went nuts for them, especially all the other young people with us in the cheap seats at the back. Now, I saw The Lips in September, at a small gathering we like to call BESTIVAL avec Mademoiselle Theodora Sutton. It was epic, their full show on the main stage with the lights and confetti cannons, giant hamster balls, crazy screen projections at the back of the stage...fabulous. So was vair interesting to see them stripped back on an indoor stage, no bells and whistles. It was GRRREAT! They played something...I forget...and then their biggest hit 'Do you realise'. What I now realise is how much I love that song, it's very beautiful.
'You realize the sun doesn't go down It's just an illusion caused by the world spinning round' - I love that!
And Wayne Coyne was super cool, as ever. He looks like a classic rock icon from the 70s, which is so my style it's not even funny.

And finally...dun dun DUNNNN the woman we've all been waiting for...PATTI SMITH walked onto the stage for the closing numbers. This woman is too cool for words, so I will not attempt to describe it, just know that she deserves every bit of cred she's earned in her life and hearing her howling that we all have to STAND UP was very inspiring and brought me much joy.
And here's the thing...she just gets cooler as she gets older! She's a living breathing heroine and goddess of punk. She was born in 1946!!!!! The woman's 65! So apparently the secret to growing old is rock 'n roll. Well I always knew that anyway.











After the whole shebang was over we left Carnegie Hall and walked smack bang into Wayne Coyne (Lips frontman) signing autographs. Sadly he didn't have time for me as there was a bus taking him to a party that was about to leave, but I did actually invite him to a party at Loftstel instead. So there, I invited a rockstar to a party, I'm pretty happy with that.

I'm very behind on bloggy things...always busy/tired atm. Will have to do a big catch up, possibly later on today, espesh. since my day began in an interesting manner worth detailing (I think so anyway)

Rock and roll foreverxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx