My first full week begins

^There goes the neighbourhood^

Monday Monday.

A leisurely start, consisting mostly of finally bringing my empty suitcase up the stairs to the 4th floor and tidying up all my clothes and other gubbins that was strewn under the bed. Also spent some time attempting to fix my various technological nightmares, some of which seem to have fixed themselves over night.

I then went to my new favourite, Tiny Cup, to sample the biscuits and gravy as reccommended by Kait. She was right, it was very delicious and not the dog food which, as my mother pointed out, its name implies. Biscuits are sort of scone-y things and the gravy was a very thick creamy herb sauce. Also spent some time after I'd finished eating doing some writing in my new notebook, having filled up all my others. Just some doodly thoughts and general wonderings, don't think they were the beginnings of 2011's hit novel but you never know.

OH MY GOODNESS this is the best thing that's happened to me, probably in the last 3 years.
The first time I went to Tiny Cup, me and Kait were sitting chatting at our table and there was a little girl and her father on the next table. She must have been about 4, 5 and very sweet. Anyway, suddenly her father said 'excuse me, this is for you' and handed me this:

IT'S MEEEEEE!
Portrait by small cute girl in coffee shop.
The dad said 'because you have rainbow hair. And she made up a name for you' which as you can see is 'srnai'. With little hearts. Oh I nearly fell off my chair, it was so nice and unexpected. What an amazing and unique way to have your day brightened.

Back to today (in a minute I'm going to write about yesterday so get ready for non-chronological madness)

After biscuits 'n gravy I hit the G train then the A train then 8th Avenue and 42nd St. Short walk to BDC for jazz with Sheila Barker. Never had a class with her before. Sheila Barker is very cool, very relaxed and not intimidating at all, which is a change from a lot of the BDC jazz faculty. It was nice to get back to workout warm ups, for some reason I feel very stretchy today, even my 2nd was above average. The main thing I need to work on, always always ALWAYS is core - I have pretty decent core strength, I just forget to apply it to what I'm doing which renders it fairly useless. Must utilise core must utilise core.

I then had a little stroll through TS, got myself a Jamba Juice (finally nomnomnom) and had a look at the reduced tickets booth in the centre of everything. Chicago is going for $50, Blue Man Group for $70...ah well! I think I will save my money for the show I really want to see...which is called 'How to succeed in business without really trying' and it stars....Daniel Radcliffe! Ahahaaaa yes that is the main reason I want to see it since I have no idea what it's about. D-Rad, singing and dancing! The publicity photos are very funny. Also the theatre where it's opening at the end of Feb is right next door to Broadway Dance Centre - where Hair used to be. So while I will still miss seeing the cast of Hair running outside on my way home, maybe I will see Daniel Radcliffe exiting and entering instead, which is almost as good.

Also I made this masterpiece of cinematography for your delectation - I call it 'Welcome to Times Square' and I wish I knew why I turned the camera on it's side halfway through.

Here's a still from the film:



Anyhoo. Back on the subway, Kait and Tuan got on at Fulton St so we walked home together and were greeted by Fernando offering vodka, Ugur slicing his finger open, Camilla singing 'I'm so exciiited' and two new Loftstelites - Jana who is Australian and haven't really met her yet, and Charles who is French and another dancer! So that's Camilla for hip hop, Charles for contemporary and me for jazz/modern/tap/whatever. And Velvet for samba, in her curent fantasy. Charles is on the BDC ISVP (the one I can't afford) and seems very nice, so that's another person I can go to class with hopefully. He also has brand new BDC trackies which will make mine look even more faded...oh noes.

***

Meanwhile, back in time........

Yesterday was tap jam day. Adam is a saxophonist studying music, specifically jazz, at NYU and he told me about this thing at Smalls jazz bar. So off we went along with Velvet to Greenwich Village hoping to see some smooth jazz, slick tap and generally feel cool about ourselves.

Videos are still a slight problem, as my Blackberry-computer cable seems to be broken so i have to borrow someone's. For now here's a taster - this is a Youtube of Michela Lerman, a co-founder of Smalls tap jam. (NB: what we saw did not involve the Super Mario theme song, which is sort of a shame I feel)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiK_xQGzHt0&feature=related
She is rad.

Lots of other really cool dancers. The guy in the hat was my personal favourite.

I should add that the accompanying jazz trio were also excellent. My knowledge of jazz is pretty much limited to 'Matt likes jazz and can do jazz drumming. Also, I have Chicago on DVD.'
But I can still appreciate it from a completely non-judgemental, non-analytical stance. The pianist, one Theo Hill, was really really marv.

Very lucky to have been there, I think.

A final thought before I sign off.

Today I overheard at least 3 conversations that went along these lines:
'I feel huge today. Why did you let me eat so much?'
'It's alright though, you only ate half your burger'
'Yeah but it was a quarter pounder burger'
etc etc etc.

And I'd like to make a call to arms: we must STOP THE MADNESS!

I'm not going to lie, my relationship with food is terrible. Some days, like today, I forget to eat enough, some days I eat far too much and then feel hideously guilty for days afterwards and self-medicate with more food, generally sugary, fatty foods. I have a serious sweet tooth that I struggle to keep under control, and I am not a very dedicated cook so when I do need something substantial it tends to be completely weird, especially in my current strict-budget circumstances. My weight's gone right up, right down, back up again, down a bit, shot up, plummeted and settled at some kind of middle ground (in only the last 2 years) But I am at least aware of how crazy it is. It is ridiculous to use food as some kind of punishment/reward scheme, and by the time I heard the 3rd group of girls having the above conversation, it made me feel quite sad.
Poor girls, everywhere, feeling guilty for eating half a burger? Like, one that they ordered when they were probably out with friends, having lots of fun and not caring about their eating at all, and suddenly half way through - what? A little skinny demon appears on their shoulder and goes 'oi, what do you think you're doing, tubby?' Or whatever it is. Whatever makes them stop eating their burger half way through has ruined their night, because they will then obsess over it and complain about to their friends to try and quality their 'gluttony' and try to prove that, because they feel guilty about having eaten sooo much, they are not some kind of bottomless pit who stuffs her face all day. Those are the things that will be running through their minds the rest of the night, and then they go to the cinema and maybe they really fancy some popcorn because, well, they just do, but oh wait who else is getting popcorn? Can't be the only one getting popcorn. And how much exercise have they done today? BAAAAAAH !?@***!%!!#??!

Catch my drift? It's not about the extreme stories that the media like to report, or the silly stereotypes of girls living off salad and counting every calorie and NEVER getting popcorn. The bigger problem is the other girls, who are generally happy but are pressed into feeling guilty when they do want to eat chips or they want to have dessert. I know exactly how this feels - I ALWAYS want dessert. I used to sit there, longing to order chocolate fudge cake or banoffee pie, while everyone else waved away the waiter. So when the waiter got to me I'd wave him away too, guilted into not ordering what I wanted, and then think 'damn I wanted some pudding' for the rest of the day*. DON'T DO IT PEOPLE. If you want CAKE or BURGERS or CHIPS or MILKSHAKE or CHEESE SAUCE on your pasta instead of TOMATO...I implore you to frickin have it and refuse to be made to feel guilty by whatever is your poison, be it super skinny people in your life, your friend who is really self-righteous about food ('no, I don't really like carbohydrates/ice cream/hot chocolate with whipped cream and marshmallows/lunch' - bollocks), advertising, glossy magazines or just your own internalised sense of guilt. STICK IT TO THE GUILT. Poke the guilt in the eye. The guilt has no place with you. Tell it in no uncertain terms to jog on.

*If you've eaten out with me in the past 3 months you will know that this is no longer true. My name is Tessa Fairey, and I'm a pudaholic.

Phew. In short, while I'm not suggesting everyone immdiately runs out and buys a cheesecake (not that you could anyway...I'm the one in the City that Never Sleeps, remember? heehee)

BUT. Please, so that I don't have to overhear anymore conversations like the ones I've heard today, let's go Neanderthal and treat food like it's supposed to be treated - it is sustenance, you need to use it in the right way to keep yourself going strong, and if you want to have sabre tooth tiger steak for a treat, the other Neanderthals will not judge you. Nor will the dinosaurs. (They might eat you though. And if they did do you think they would turn to their dinosaur mates and say 'dude, I've had like 60 Neanderthals today. I'm toootally bloated'? No, no they would not.)

Thank you and goodnight!
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Fernando, Tessa, Kait

Grrrr

Very cross, I wrote an entire entry and then my battery went dead cos my laptop had come unplugged without me noticing, so I lost the whole shebang. And my phone and camera are still behaving like children and not cooperating with me AT ALL. Think I will go make lunch to make myself feel better and have another go afterwards!

Madame social Butterfly

Greetings earthlings

I am currently floating on a cloud of non-specified joy...it's been a good week! And it hasn't even been a week yet...I can't believe it.

I had a lovely day yesterday. It started v. slowly...after Friday night noone got up before midday. But once I had, Kait took me to Tiny Cup, a small cafe about 5 minutes' walk away, where they serve officially the best waffles EVER. Enjoyed a terribly civilised (2pm) breakfast, coffee, juice, talking about this and that...just lovely! Then Kait went off to meet her friend to see Fuerza Bruta, to my extreeeme jealousy http://www.fuerzabrutanyc.com/ When she came in later she showed me pictures and waxed lyrical about how insane it was, so now I will be spending some time queueing for cheap last minute tickets!

In the afty I took advantage of our empty room to get out the resistance band and the pointe shoes and do some exercises, which felt great if a little spatially challenging. Pointe shoes need to be worn in again though, it has been a while.

Then me Tuan and Camilla went to Times Square to see a film called 'The Mechanic'. It's pretty much a hard core action film - there is a plot, but mostly there's shooting and strangling. Against all my expectations though, I really liked it aside from the brutal violence which I am not and will never be able to stomach. (I think this is a good thing.) My favourite thing about going to the movies, no don't worry I'm not going to come back speaking American* but gotta go with the lingo, is the snacks. There's a whole new world of junk food here - Dibs, Sour Patch Kidz, Reese's Pieces, Cookie Dough Bites, Milk Duds, Junior Mints, Raisinets...what ARE all these mystical new tooth-decayers? I must know! (I got some Dibs...little bitesize balls of ice cream covered in chocolate and nuts. Nom nom!)


Returning home I was greeted by a 3rd floor gathering. Renata's final final night, so she was in a pretty melancholy state. She and Wave had been to see Chicago. When I walked in everybody went 'ooohhhhh, you missed dinner!' Which is a shame as it sounded like fun - Velvet made lasagna for everyone. Hopefully she will do it again v.soon. And there were leftovers so I got fed. Hahahaaa so much for being independent. We got moved downstairs by Agustina (staff) and ended up in a very weird conversation about Brazilian carnival, slang terms for some things I couldn't possibly repeat here, and gold-paved streets.
I learned something new and vair amusing from Camilla. In Italy, if you want to say someone is stupid, you mime splodging an ice cream cone onto your forehead and say 'gelatooo!' I don't know why. But I think it's wicked! It's sort of the equivalent to when we want to call someone stupid and we do exagerrated slow applause and say 'speciaaaaaaal'.

Anyway. The nub and gist is that the experience of being around people all the time (but not in an annoying way as everyone's respectful of 'own space') is really really good for me. Young people with whom I have things in common. There's a lot of shared humour.

Off to Tiny Cup for $4 oatmeal with cinnamon and brown sugar, yes yes yes!

P y Lxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

*If I come back speaking with any kind of accent, it is more likely to be Portuguese than American!

Brooklyn Winter

Snow on Thursday




Snow shovelling in this city is most definitely skilled labour

Day 5 (!!! Feels like I've been here for ages)

I can hear cars going past and from the splashy sounds that accompany them, I think the snow must be melting.

Friday night is party night.

As planned I went to Tribeca, and back to my old friend Duane Park. Sadly Marisa wasn't there so I couldn't catch up with her, but the host Billy remembered me and welcomed me in. I ended up sitting at a table with a music lawyer who's worked with Billy Joel, Michael Jackson, Lauryn Hill etc and his friends - Chicava, a burlesque dancer and Ricky Gordon aka Dirty Red, a musician who plays old-school blue grass, slave roots music and jazz and has played with Spike Lee and, randomly, just wrote song for Snoop Dog(g?). So a really interesting bunch with good stories and cool jobs! The place was packed out so how, of all the tables in there, I managed to end up on that one I do not know.

The Brian Newman jazz trio played and the Friday night burlesque show was on, so I enjoyed some quality entertainment and then was very happy to catch up with Patrick, one of the very friendly waiters I met last time I was there. It was really fun to be back there and see familiar faces and not have to worry about being ID'd.

So then I walked back to Chambers St to catch the subway home, about 1am. It turned into a very long journey because the trains run so infrequently late at night, but when I eventually did make it back to Loftstel I was greeted by another party in full swing. Renata, a Brazilian girl from the floor below, is leaving today so in honour of her last night the Loftstel staff let us ignore the 'on weekends the quiet hour starts at 12am' notices and make lots of noise drinking cheap beer and playin a really odd combination of music. It ran the gamut of genre from Taio Cruz and other top party hits that all the kids listen to these days, to some insane Spanish song chosen by Hector the Mexican (who proceeded to grab Wave and sping her round the floor very fast for the entire 5-minute song) to a really dodgy techno-y electronica-y/traditional south American thing courtesy of Fernando...followed by some mellow gutair music and then a dirty grime/dub/techno (I know, hard to imagine) that repeated the word 'evil' over and over. This is what happens when you have an international house and only one British person to fly the flag of good music... reason just goes out the window.

Here's a list of the names I've grasped so far:
Kait
Wave
Camilla
Tuan
Joe
Gabriel
Fernando
Rick
Arnaud
Renata (now gone)
Abi
Velvet
Ugur
Joseph who likes to be known by his middle name but I've forgotten it
Staff:
Daniela
Agustina
Kenso
Susan
Then there's about 6 other people I can think of off the top of my head whose names I just cannot remember, and about 6 other people on top of that who I haven't really met yet. And there's names that I can't put to faces. And there's me, and there's our new roommate, March from Holland who does not snore and is therefore allowed to stay in our room.

Didn't go to bed til v.v.late hence it is 2.30pm and I'm still in my PJs. Have had my uber-healthy blueberry and yoghurt breakfast though. Hmmm also my brain is like marshmallows.

Time to go for waffles with Kait, who keeps mentioning 'biscuits and gravy' and I'm really curious to find out what these may be.

Hope England is treating my nearest and dearest as well as America's treating me, P&Lxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Tap that

You may have noticed...I've posted 10 blog entries already. And I've only been here like 3 days. This is in fact not because I have too much time on my hands and nothing to do (honest). I'm still slightly adjusting to the time difference - I keep waking up super early then finding myself feeling really drowsy and dizzy halfway through the day. So I'm loathe to go out during the day when I'll just end up wanting to go to bed, which is tricky to do when bed is 2 trains away.
Plus the snow is still here though much reduced, which makes travelling that bit more difficult. Having said that I am putting on my finery (and boots and parka) to pay a visit to Duane Park this evening and I cannot WAAAIT!

So today though I've been home I have been very productive. I've done lots of writing and even done some pointe practice (though not much cos these floors creak badly enough as it is without me shoe-blocking all over the place.) I have also eaten a nourishing breakfast and cooked myself a nourishing lunch of pasta with veggies and tuna. See, proper nourishing, haven't even touched my Golden Grahams yet today. Man I love Golden Grahams. I have also spent the past hour or so reading up on tap dancing - my class yesterday really got me thinking.
http://www.offjazz.com/term-tp.htm This is a list of tap terms and definitions. There are quite a few that make me go 'argh, no!' Scuffle for example.

http://www.theatredance.com/tap/ This is an interesting if brief history of tap...there's quite a lot missing, but it's got so many tangents that I now want to chase (so there goes my next hour).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZH2LLy84MGA&feature=related This hasn't really taught me anything...but I rather like it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89HdVh0vksg&feature=related This is just silly. Savion Glover, trained at Broadway Dance Centre, kind of Gregory Hines' successor. And Gregory Hines was Sammy Davis Jr's successor...almost officially.
'In 1990, Hines visited with his idol, Sammy Davis Jr, as the great entertainer lay dying, unable to speak. After Davis died, a choked-up Hines spoke at Davis's funeral of how Sammy had made a gesture to him, "as if passing a basketball … and I caught it." Hines spoke of the honor that Sammy thought that Hines could carry on from where he left off.'Left: Hines and Glover
Above: Davis and Hines
Right: Hines






And of course we have my all-time idol and hero: the mighty Gene Kelly.

Yes Fred Astaire was good...but Gene was a perfect combination of the rhythm core of tap and the training and quality of ballet and jazz. By which I mean he can do the impressive speed-tapping and crazy syncopation as well as the next man, but he also really moves around the floor and executes perfect turns without ever compromising on tap - he doesn't stop tapping to travel and doesn't stop travelling to tap.
Plus I just love him in general.

There's too many great Youtube clips of him so I entreat the World to go and watch them.

They don't make'em like this anymore!

xxxxxx

Tap class

I went to Intermediate Tap with Jared Grimes, 7.30-9pm. Bloooody nora!

It was vair vair vair challenging. On the walk there my knee went as well which was not too nice, it was doing lots of horrible painful twisty things. It did wear off though through the class so not too bad.

Class was inteeense. As we've discussed many times, the difference between American and English tap is mad. There are things that are just literally not in our tap vocabulary.

Example: (best to try this if you're a tapper...but hey, even if you're not, go nuts!)

Shuffle warm up exercise. Standard shuffles, only in America they tend to do them sort of more on the spot...like, really teeny so there's very little back-and-forth action and therefore little room to make 2 sounds which makes them harder. So -
Right foot. Straight shuffle x4, shuffle diagonally forwards x4, shuffle diagonally backwards x4, now cross your right foot behind your left foot, keeping them both parallel and shuffle x4. Sounds simple. Now make them 3-beat shuffles. Now do it all at an insane speed and on the left. So, the first 3 rounds of shuffles are fine but the ones at the back with the foot crossed behind are frickin hard to get a good sound! Because there's even less room to move your shuffling foot. You have to literally put your right leg behind your left leg, but keep both feet totally straight, no turning out. So we did that for ages, and loads of other exercises going through what I would call ripples, pull backs, wings, paddles, toe taps, ball and heel beats...but lord knows what they're called here. OH YEAH and we were doing wing sequences with ball and heel beats in between on different rhythms, Jared improvised and we copied straight away, and he started doing these kind of half wing things...your feet nearly leave the floor but don't quite, and then some where one foot does leave the floor completely but the other doesn't. And then he stopped and was like 'yeah so I just made them up, let's call them scuffles.' Hang on but scuffles are something else completely! AAAIII. Pheeeew it was a hard class for me to follow..I got by but the actual quality of tap sounds definitely suffered from sheer trying to keep up. Plus he did everything at like triple speed. Had to concentrate sooooo hard.
We just don't learn tap like that at home, I think there's huge merits for both though cos this teaches you hardcore rhythm and English teaches you dance quality and more complex steps - the American style is really improv-based (copyright Em Golborn) and consists largely of basic steps - the aforementioned shuffles, beats, toes, wings, pullbacks and the odd maxi ford. But put together in sequences that focus on making rhythms, really percussive. English style also does rhythms of course, but it concentrates more on how your body is involved with your feet and how the basic steps get put together into bigger more fancy steps, i.e. you learn a maxi ford and then you'll learn the turning variations, different breaks etc and it's actually part of the syllabus, whereas America you don't get taught how to put them together so much as just pick it up as you go along. Essentially English tap has more formality in how we learn it, which means I think my brain is adapted to needed to watch it, break it down then do it rather than just do it!

I think next time I will go down a stage, as there may be more technique-focused classes at a lower level and I think here I need to start from the ground up.

Hmm that was a super long rambling analysis of my hour and a half long tap class.

I hope you all really really enjoyed it! Ahahahahaa hmm. Then I came home and ate a bagel with cheese and tomato and some fruit salad, and am now talking rubbish in a multi-dialect conversation in the 3rd floor living room.

Sunday Monday happy days...Tuesday Wednesday happy days...Thursday FRIDAY happy days Saturday, what a day, groovin' all week with you dadadumdum

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

And now for something completely different

Some videos from Amsterdam that I just discovered hiding in my media player. Happy memories -that trip was so much fun and so good for me, and I wish I'd gone there straight away instead of stopping in other countries first, then I would've had way longer in 'Dam.

On Loftstel life

Well, I have only been here one full day and a bit, so perhaps a little early to make all my judgements. But so far I'm loving it.

Loftstel is a Loft+Hostel, situated in Greene Avenue, Brooklyn. It is almost right opposite Tompkins Park which is small, but nice with benches and paths. It's a short walk to the G train, from which you transfer to the L train which can take you to the Brooklyn hipster community of Williamsburg or, for a couple more stops, straight to Union Square on East 14th St - home of Whole Foods Market, Trader Joe's, a coffee shop that's also a model agency and a farmers market (incongruous I know).

There are 4 Loftstel floors and a roof that's accessible in the summer. My room, shared with Kate, Wave and Camilla, is on the 4th floor (though we have been temporarily moved out while they take pictures of our room or something). There's also a kitchen and a bathroom on each floor, so you pretty much keep your food and shower stuff on the same floor as you and adopt that floor's kitchen/communal area as your hang out. ALTHOUGH the 3rd floor and 1st floor have sofas which 4th floor doesn't. There are green walls, blue walls, a wall with a giant multicoloured tree mural.

I haven't met everyone yet, or worked out what the people I have met are doing. There's my 3 roommates who I've mentioned, there's Arnaud, Urgu (Turkish), Erik, J-something or other and a couple of others whose names I forget. Dunno what most of them are doing in NY but no matter, I have 2 months to get to know!

What I do know is that everyone spends aLOT of time on laptops! It's like laptop city in the kitchen right now (11.21am US time). Camilla is talking on Skype so there is Italian flying around the room. Kate is eating her oatmeal/granola type stuff (she told me she's a vegetarian turning vegan...oof) Arnaud is typing stuff and Urgu is sitting by the window with headphones on, dancing and occasionally breaking into bursts of 'Barabara Streisand' by Duck Sauce...you know, 'oooooh ooooooooh oooooh'...yup.

Outside there is snow everywhere. It snowed afresh last night, with a bit of thunder and lightning thrown in for good measure. There's a tree right in front of the fire escape covered in snow, the branches are all droopy because it's so thick.

I am planning on venturing outside soon to do some Brooklyn exploration. I've done my research and discovered a bunch of nearby eateries that interest me very much. Most significantly I'm curious about Jamaican Grill which is not too far from here and does pancakes, bacon and eggs for a mere $5!!! As well as jerk chicken, curried goat, plantains, dumplings, soups, fried things, salads, all kinds of other nom-worthy Jamaican dishes, and all insanely good prices so I really can't wait to get my gnashers round a plate of chicken & rice with mac & cheese & fried plantaaaaaiiiiin......yes! (Hahahahaaa Theodora jealous yet?)
Also nearby: Chinese takeaway WOOHOO, Tiny Cup cafe/coffee shop, various delis/markets and the intruigingly-named 'Sugar Hill Disco and Restauraunt'...disco dancing while eating, maybe? Hope so.

Last night I went through the BDC schedule - wowsa it looks better than I remember. Although Jason Marquette's not on the regular schedule as a guest teacher anymore which makes me sad cos he was wicked. Tap today at 7.30-9 (this may be a stupid idea because it will be tough travelling to and from Times Square at that time in this weather) with Jared Grimes. Loads of other new things I want to try. Also, there are hiphop classes taught by LaJon Dantzler - anyone who has seen 'Step Up 2' will know who he is because he plays the excellent 'Smiles' - the guy in the MSA crew with the teeth. Anyway, fucking awesome dancer and I am going to go do classes with him harhardihar. Also have Step Up 2 with me so will be watching it for research purposes/stargazing.






http://diehipster.wordpress.com/ Here's a web discovery I made whilst Googling 'Brooklyn' for ideas. Its hideously un-PC and excessively judgemental, but mostly it's ragingly accurate and therefore funny. I made a similar discovery last year with 'Look at this fucking hipster' which has the same message but more subtle delivery. It's fun to laugh at people you know nothing about and dislike for purely superficial purposes. (Actually that's not quite true, it's not entirely aesthetic-based hating. I'm more disenchanted with hipster content than hipster fashion i.e. daft performance 'art' where the artist has no more idea about what they're trying to do than their bewildered spectators, and bands featuring vocalists looking like the girl from the ring whispering and squeaking into their mics, XX-style, in a way that just grates like nails on a blackboard.)

Ees mucho snowy! This is a guy in Queens digging out his car. The snow has already started to melt as we've had intermittent bursts of sunshine but it's set to carry on tomorrow and probably Sun.

Pip pipxxxxxxxxxxx

Hmm can't think of an interesting title...ODDS BODKIN

Want to put the pics I took from the plane up...but my bloody Blackberry cable is failing me and not opening the memory card! Daaaangnabbit. So I will do the notebook things I wrote on das flighten.

Tuesday 25th Jan, somewhere round 1pm UK time

'The most amazing thing about Iceland is not the Northern Lights or the lava fields...
It is the fact that over half the populartion believes in elves.'

Errr.............

On the screens on the back of the seat in front of you, there were adverts for Iceland's tourist industry scrolling across.

This was one of them.

So, according to the Icelandic tourism maestros - Icelandic people believing in elves is more amazing than the Northern Lights. I think here they may be mistaking 'amazing' for 'incredible'. Literally, as in not credible. Unbelievable.

Brilliant, though. How do they know? Do they do a census and instead of having boxes to tick for 'married' 'single' 'divorced' they have 'unicorns' 'hobbits' 'elves'?

For all the comedy value they brought to my journey, the Icelandic folk have earned my respect forever. The flights were wicked. The planes were pretty empty - on the UK-Iceland leg there were 3 seats between me and one other gentleman so we had lots of space. Then Iceland-US I had an entire 3 seats to myself! Score.

And you know the rest...films, airports, subway etc.

***

My plan for today didn't really get followed too well...I did go and visit my old building, which was bizarre...someone let me in and it was like it was Feb 2010 all over again - the smell of Subway sandwiches from next door really took me back! Marisa wasn't home so I left her a note, and I can't wait to get down to Duane Park on Friday for some Brian Newman jazz trio and some burlesque!

I also had breakfast at the 23rd St diner, where I had breakfast most weekends when I was last here. And they remembered me! When I sat down one of the waiters said 'welcome back'! I can't believe that, it's been nearly a year! Just shows what a pancake addict I was/am. French toast with strawberries and a chocolate shake, it's good to be back!

When I left Loftstel this morning at approx. 11am I walked to the subway and caught the G train and then the L train to Union Square. It was funny, because I actually felt a little bit nervous about arriving there. You know how it feels when you're about to see someone you used to know really well but haven't seen for ages? I had that. Was fab when I came out of the subway steps though - pretty quiet, oh and snowy! Forget that bit - it was snowing quite hard when I left, complete white-out.
I also went to see The King's Speech today. It was really really good, of course it was. Colin Firth definitely lived up to the hype. When I came out of the cinema, the snow had all gone. This is a perfect example of the daft New York climate - one thing one minute, and something completely different the next. It changes so fast. In this case, the snow had all been washed away by sudden rain, which turned to really fine sleet/hail which was bloody painful on the ol' face!

There was a lady talking to a squirrel in Union Sq. I mean, really. Holding a full on conversation with it. Well, I suppose a conversation has to be two-sided and the squirrel wasn't really participating.

Getting to know a few more Loftstel residents now - it's so easy, everyone is vair vair friendly. Also many people are vair vair foreign so there's a few names I cannot pronounce yet. Have been chatting to another roommate, Camila who is Italian and lots of fun and DANCER yay.

Finally, did some shopping - groceries and pharmacy things like shampoo. Struggled home on the trains, and I was quite close to home when a guy walking past me said 'Do you need any help?' I politely declined and walked on, and then he called after me 'I'll carry you any day!'
Which is all very well but mightily unhelpful - if he was carrying me, who's carrying the shopping bags?! Silly blokes trying to be smooth and failing miserably.

Hmm ok well that was basically a long account of my day which essentially consisted of doing nothing, and it took me 7 paragraphs to communicate that.

And now, some reviews.

Here's what I notebooked yesterday as well:

Sooo, Black Swan...just reading about the costumes.
They were by Rodarte - a design duo consisting of 2 sisters. Rodarte's signature look is distressed clothes in delicate fabrics - perfect for a ballet movie as they work a lot with silk, tulle, chiffon, embellishment and detail.
So the Black Swan people hired Rodarte to come up with something fresh, inspirational...know what they came up?

A variation on the standard, traditional, actually quite famous 'Swan Lake' tutu - a short tutu rather than a long romantic-style one, a feather detail bodice with a sort of extreme sweetheart neckline and, in a piece de resistance of originality, the white feather half-headbands that are probably the best-known element of the white swan costume.


SPOT THE DIFFERENCE! OH MY GOD RODARTE YOU'RE SO UNIQUE!


















So, an expensive design team designed the costume that's already been designed by the wardrobe and costumiers of the Royal, English National, Bolshoi, New York City and countless other ballets. Hmph. Want to marvel at innovative swan costumes? MATTHEW BOURNE! Well, actually costume designer Les Brotherstone. http://www.swanlaketour.com/about_the_show

I'm not just saying that because I'm religiously devoted to Matthew Bourne either.



All in all I think Black Swan was ok but I found a lot to criticise - I understand a lot of the stuff was for purposes of storytelling, but some things were just silly. Like when the ballet company director says 'Watch her, she has less than perfect technique' - comparing a dancer who does have perfect technique but no much stage presence to one who is all performance no technique. Errr...I think by New York City ballet stage they wouldn't overlook having 'less than perfect technique'. She wouldn't get that far if she was sloppy no matter how good a performer she is. Also, this only occurred to me, the film features the NYCB staging 'Swan Lake'. The principle character of this ballet (originally choreographed by Julius Reisinger) is Odette. She's called Odette. Yes she is a White Swan. Yes she is the Swan Queen or Princess. But her name's bloody Odette!!! And the evil version is called Odile. They do not once refer to these names in the movie. What plot device was that supposed to be??? Silly silly silly. Well done Ms Portman though she was good.

That's all folks, til next time
Peacexxxxxxxxxxxx

First day of the rest of my life?

Gooooooooood morning!

It's 10am. Had a cracking sleep, now up showered dressed and ready to hit the subway. Today's plan:

Go to 'my old neighbourhood' (26th and 7th) and see if Marisa is home. Also while in the area get breakfast and a massive Jamba Juice.

Have a wander, remember where stuff is. Probably go Times Square-wards and to BDC (also to see if there are any new shows opened and what ticket prices are like in TS!)

Union Square, Trader Joe's, a few essential groceries (TEA)

Walk downtown and then maybe over the Brooklyn Bridge - be good for me to work out how to get home on my own. Williamsburg, Bedford Ave etc.

So basically stroll around for a day. YAY! I'm so excited all over again.

Coming soon: pics from my plane window - the most FANTASTIC views of arctic landscapes, a glacier!!!, mountains, bonkers cloud formations and sunsets. P y Lxxxxxxxxx

Touchdown

Though now I've written the title, I'm in doubt whether it's a planes-landing reference or an American football term. Either one is relatively appropriate for now though.

New York time it is about half past 10, which as my laptop so kindly informs me is 4am English time. So I've now been up for almost 24 hours. On the plus side this is the right thing to do...I think. I get very confused on the rules of dealing with jetlag, especially when I'm jetlagged.

It will please you to know that I wrote many hilarious anecdotes and much observational humour during my flight(s) today.
Sadly my brain is now too scrambled to transfer any of them from my notebook to here so just prepare to be enthralled and fascinated tomorrow!

Suffice to say my flights were lovely. I will definitely try IcelandAir again - it was super cheap, the staff were nice, the in-flight movies were excellent which is what I mostly base my airline judgements on anyway and it was all just very Icelandic and reassuring. At the stopover at Reykjavik, the airport was all gleamy wood and glass and there were adverts everywhere for knitwear brands and spring water, featuring v.furry Icelandic horses.

I watched Baz Luhrman's version of Romeo and Juliet, one of my all time favourite films, on the Britain-Iceland leg of the journey. I am making a plea - anyone who has seen or may know the whereabouts of my copy of Rom and Jul on DVD, please tell me! I lost it a while ago!

Yawn yawn yawn suddenly very sleepy.

The rest of my journey was not so smooth - I left JFK and followed the signs to the Airtrain to get me to Manhattan. Even though I was going to Brooklyn. In my usual blase way I thought I'd just hop on and change somewhere that seemed like it would get me to Brooklyn. In the end I spent at least an hour going up and down on trains in a tired stupor, lugging my huge case through the subway turnstiles and generally sticking out like a sore thumb. Eventually got to Nostrand Ave, Brooklyn. According to my directions from the Loftstel website (which so far I had miserably failed to follow) I had to find Marcy Avenue which miraculously I did, and then had to walk about 10 blocks down to find Greene Avenue and Loftstel. By this point my back is aching from carrying my bag, my case is getting damp and I quite fancy just sitting down on my suitcase for a rest.
When I finally made it to Loftstel however, I was welcomed by Susan the girl on duty who was very nice and showed me round. I'm in a room with 4 other girls. Two of them I'm with right now - a very friendly girl called Kate from Kansas (a fellow Lush devotee) and a very friendly girl called Wave from Switzerland, originally California. Have met a few other Loftstel residents who all seem v. nice too, so I'm really glad I decided to book in here. I have a feeling it's going to be awesome to live here for 2 months. Rooms are a little small but nice and very, very warm. There's a kitchen and bathroom on each floor and a living room downstairs with sofas and a TV.

Kate, Wave and myself just sat out on the fire escape for a bit chatting. Kate is studying ceramics at Queens College and Wave is here to improve her English, work and explore. They asked me why I'm here...when I find out, I will let them know!

Signing off now Mos def time to sleep. I'm so excited for tomorrow, when I can get my stuff properly sorted and wear normal clothes rather than 65 layers and get to MANHATTAN. LOWER EAST SIDE, SOHO, CHELSEA, UNION SQUARE, WASHINGTON SQUARE PARK....oh my gosh. When I was on the subway going from 42nd St there were 2 guys who both had their headphones in, and were mouthing along to their music and doing little dance movements and head swivels with closed eyes - like a silent disco, only a silent sing-off. It made me feel like I never left New York.

Starving, and exhuasted now. Time for bed, and to read some more of 'Never let me go'.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Oh God Oh God Oh God

The day of departure approaches like a flying brick (i.e. alarmingly).

I'm once again in my room, with a suitcase that just won't lose 2llbs and a hand luggage that won't fit in a hand luggage. Bloody baggage restrictions, how do other people do this! Do they just not take stuff? What stuff can I not take? The things that I could get rid of only weigh about an ounce so there's sod all point, I'd have to get rid of about 12 items of clothing to make a difference and that would pretty much leave me with leotards and shoes which may work for Lady Gaga but is not a look I will be sporting.
But I can't get rid of the shoes either cos, well, they're flipping shoes aren't they! Need them on my footsies. And since I've sensibly decided to go to New York in the middle of winter, guaranteed to be vicious and freezing, I've got 2 pairs of boots coming with me, both of which are filling up the weight quota aLOT on their own. Plus tap shoes, jazz trainers, warm jumpers...I did consider discarding a cardi (would that make it some kind of ex-cardi, if it got discardied?) but again, highly necessary item to take due to aforementioned cold.

I'm slightly freaking out. The butterflies in my stomach will not CALM DOWN. (Aside - credit now to Theo. Last night in das Pubben I said 'I've got butterflies in my stomach' to which he replied 'Tess you've got to stop eating caterpillars'. Ahh witty repartee.)

And he's not wrong either I do feel like I may have eaten caterpillars.

Eurgh.

I didn't feel nervous at all last year when I left. I felt excited. I've concluded that this must be because last year I went with a job to go to, a place to stay, an agenda to adhere to and grown ups everywhere to do the worrying for me. This time I'm really taking a metaphorical cliff jump and falling down a bloody great abyss of doubt, where I won't know what I'm doing or why I'm doing it. Not that I do most of the time but at least I know the way to the shops here.

Am also feeling a little emotional - have done all the goodbyes now. Spent a fab fab fab couple of days in York with Ellie, enjoyed a delicious breakfast and goss fest with Rachel, had an awesome time at the Granny Mansion party with Thee y Jose, laughed a lot over G&Ts/beer with Dan and Dave a la Tommy Lord, did some good reminiscing and piss-taking with Jonasz and Sam last week, bid farewell to the Boppin office and Lucy, visited my grandparents today, spoken to Emili, had my final dancing on Sat plus a few more. All done. V. final. Going to miss everyone lots I think.

Suddenly got really nervous now about the baggage allowance thing again - oh bloody nora what am I going to do. This is when I start cursing myself for not owning a smaller laptop or generally being smaller, then my clothes would be smaller and consequently weigh less, right? At the moment my only plan is to wear about 50% of my clothes, which is about 16 layers. I should look super cool on arrival in the coolest city in the World.

Back to packing - methinks tis time for a bit of Spin Doctors for chillaxin' purposesxxxxxxx

Early credits

I would like to take this opportunity, *FIVE DAYS* before I fly to the USA, to acknowledge the wonderful people I'm surrounded by who I will miss. They come from many tribes and walks of life and they are all true individuals, which is a quality I value highly (in case you've been living under a rock).

We have -
Ellie
Rach
Thee/Chico
Jess and fam
Sam
VG Dance Crew - Vanessa, Em, Victoria, Molly, Anne, Izzy, Vicki Cee, Charlotte, Shell, Kim, Lauren, Nathan, Fraser, Lindsey, Abbie, sorry there's loads of us I can't do a long list! Everyone else who goes there and the cameo appearances (Beth!) - L.L.L.D! (and of course ex-danceclassmates)
Toddy
Lucy
The Ravin' Raven
Wendy, Super Aunt
CALLIE
Grandma and Grandpa Fairey
The mighty and mad Ashmans
D'Cruze and Associates
The Fathers
TLOGS past and present!!!
Maman
Daddy
Ben
Pub nutters
Festival friends past and future

Ok this has got a bit out of hand and I've started just listing everyone I know...but the intent is there: there are lots of people I'll miss when I'm away and will be very grateful to come home to, because they're RAD! (Soooo, nobody move!)

Cool, so that's me being sappy and sentimental. Sort of. Y'know, just saves me doing it later when I'm in NY having a slightly homesick day and get mega emotional and just turn it into a big sobfest. STIFF UPPER LIP I'M BLOODY BRITISH!

BIG LOVE to my partners in crime and adoring fans. Hankies at the ready I'm leeeeaaavin on a jet plane! Peacexxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

This may be jumping the gun a bit...

Welcome, Wilkommen, Bienvenue (as the plaque outside languages block of my old school used to say).

Told you I'd do another one didn't I? Told you it'd be called Another Bite at the Apple didn't I?! Check that title, get it, d'ya get it? My wit knows no bounds, nor apparently does it know the definition of wit.

Anyway as I say, told you! It's not often I get to say I told you so as I'm not often right so I'm going to relish it this time. Mind you it would have been tricky for me to be wrong, since I am the one who decided to do another New York blog, and now I am doing one, so it's less impressive that I am on this occasion right...if you follow.

Cast your eyes over the last few entries of 'Faireytale of New York', that great work of early 2010, and you will read that I did in fact say I would be writing another blog next time I came to New York and it would be called 'Another Bite at the Apple.' Which I am, and it is. Glad we've cleared that up.

One small problem though...I am not actually in New York. I am not even in old York, though I will be next week! I am in my bedroom, in Hinton Ampner, very much in the south of Merrie Englande. BUT I got too excited about the fact that I'm leaving for NYC in 11 DAYS so thought I'd get a head start and, well, start. Welcome, once again, to my blog - if you know me well, you'll have an idea of what to expect. If you don't, I should warn you now - things that don't feature on a list of what to expect from Tessa include: sense, reason, typo-freeness, lack of rambling, staying on the subject, evidence of good computer skills, evidence of English as a first language. But hopefully that won't be a barrier.

To begin my countdown to NYC-Day I will just mention what I have done to prepare, and what remains to be done.

Done:
Found a place to stay
Earned some money
Alerted some people I know in New York that I'm coming
Alerted my parents that I am going (though I did leave that one fairly late)
Booked a flight
Researched how to get to the city from JFK
Researched lots of nice places to eat and things to do
Started mentally packing

Things I have not done:
Booked the place I have found to stay
Hung on to the money I earned
Alerted a few key people i.e. other family members and friends that I am leaving (I'm sure they won't mind, may not even notice til I'm back so let's let sleeping dogs lie)
Located my ticket print-out
Researched how to get from my house to the airport on departure day (NB check which airport I'm flying from)
Researched lots of nice places to eat that I can afford to buy food from
Started physically packing

So all in all it's looking quite good!

In all seriousness, I am so excited I could die. Like, really really really. New York means a lot to me because I had the time of my life there only 10 or so short months ago. It gave me a lot of stuff - it gave me beautiful clothes, some indescribably amazing classes at BDC and fantastic food and drink everywhere I went. It also introduced me to the most bonkers collection of people you can imagine, and my standards for bonkerdom are pretty high - this should tell you how mad it was. I came back full to the brim with joyous experiences, musicals, parks, sights and sounds. I can't even remember what it felt like to not have bright colours in my hair - since that first attempt at pink tips in New York, I've run the gamut of pinks, gone through purple and landed on blue. Got my first tattoo there, too. God knows what I may come back with this time... oh the possibilities, mwahahaha! I'm going to really enjoy annoying my dad by threatening all manner of extreme hairstyles/piercings/facial tattoos.

So, that's what I experienced last time I hit the Big Apple, and I can't wait to see what I find next. Even just writing about is making me feel like I might start levitating (or that might be the hallucinogens...JOKING no need to call the authorities) (yet).

Going to leave it there now or this will just become a big chorus of I'm really really really super excited.

Until next time, PEACE

The Blue-was-pink-and then a bit purple Faireyxxxxxxxxxxx

Me on my 20th Birthday, the night before I left New York last year and swore blind I'd be back soon. I'm not known for following through on stuff, in fact I'm bloody awful at it, but this time I really meant it!