Notes From An Even Smaller Island

Rock n Roll, English Pubs, Mad Dr's and Englishmen! 25th August 2008

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 23:12:00 +0200

Hello lovely friends, sorry for delay in updating you but been a wee bit busy as you will read!

I am a Hudson River cycle-path - thanks to Purple Bella (on loan but I may have to adopt her!). I love the Westside Highway ride uptown by the river. I ride up there almost every day now and stop on the way back to grab a coffee, sit by the river, write my journal and take in the wonderful view of the Hudson way up on the Westside.

A trip down memory lane with Rancid - punk rock gig @ Irving Plaza with F, Dr D & M. They must have played about 40 songs before we decided we’d had enough of listening to the same 3 chords over and over! Actually, they are pretty good……shades of Discharge, The Clash, GBH……you get the picture. Lots of punching the air and jumping up and down like the old days (and that was just F! )

Went to see Patti Smith’s 'A Dream of Life' biopic @ The Film Forum. It’s a beautiful film that should be seen – even if you are not a PS fan. Its raw, real, pulls at the heart-strings at times and is wonderfully shot in B&W. Then low and bloody-behold, she pops in afterwards to do a Q&A session with the director, Steven Sebring! Weird to see her standing there so close.....this mega-rock idol from my past! She's tiny and looks great!

Drinking Guiness @ The White Horse Tavern on Hudson with great friends from London (and a few knew ones fron nyc) last weekend then went onto MoMA’s PS1 over in Queens. Wasn’t too keen on the ‘making boxes’ music but the art was interesting and thought-provoking – Iraq and Vietnam. Similarities abound.

Went sunbathing and picnicking with Dr D and Mel on the 10th St Pier - watching the pretty boys preening for the boys. Lots of oiled up, buffed up, sexed-up bodies adorned the pier!

Cycled on the Hudson last Sunday with F and then went for a pint @ the Ear Inn (where all the bar men looked like they were about to have apoplectic fits – way too much grog me thinks!!) and met two wonderful New Yorkers. Y had actually travelled in Europe in the early 70’s after having been denied her mandatory conscription which she really wanted to do (her sisters had got in first so they wanted no more of her family!). She had worked for a short while at the Black Lion on Kilburn High Road which I know very well! We then ended up cycling in convoy through the night-time streets of nyc, dodging the traffic (E a 51 year old and the partner of Y on his low-ride bicycle taking no prisoners and F riding his bike like the old skate-boarder that he is!!), over to Budha Bouda in China Town for delicious food and then onto Diablo on Bleeker Street – yet another (Mexican – go figure!) bar owned by Brits. Can’t get away from them!!

Receiving excellent compilation from my lovely thoughtful friend, N, in the post. What a lovely surprise and some cracking tracks on there, N! Thanks sweets!

Beers @ MiLady's dive bar on Prince St & Sullivan on Friday then up mid-west for taking silly photo’s and dancing round the living room to Dirty Dancing soundtrack with Damien!

Strolled through the Saturday market on Bleeker....shades of Portobello (made me a little home-sick actually. BUT, not enough to make me want to come back yet!! )

On the F train over to DuMBo in Brooklyn yesterday to check out the books in PowerHouse Books and then onto J & V’s for a Barb-b-Que's. F excelled at Mojito’s. Home movies involving a certain gentleman with a paper bag on his head doing a rather salacious dance (naming no names but it begins with F!)! More new frineds were made that evening – not sure if it was to do with the dancing or the Suriname rum-fuelled mojito’s!

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Settling In........August 13th 2008

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 22:26:49 +0200

Hey lovely mates,

Quickie update:

I just walked back down 5th Ave from Union Sq...not too far granted but its bloody hot out there! F and I got caught in torrential rain last night on the way to a local bar (Bar 6) for a beer.....soaked but fun as its almost tropical. We also got caught in a storm driving upstate NY to his friends place by 7 Lakes the other day......jeez, when it rains here, it bloody well rains! Beautiful, beautiful place called Sloatsburg (or some such silly name!). He's an English guy, D, who was a record Co. accountant. Their house sits on the edge of this lake like something from a movie set......you know, those vast, deep, still, silent-watered lakes that if you swam in, some ghost of the past would swim from the depths and grab you by the ankles and drag you down to their merky tomb! Anyway, they asked if we wanted to dog-sit in September so we said yes

Apparently freakish weather for this time of year. However, no one seems deterred by it - particularly the mini-swishing-skirted-tanned-legged young things that are parading up and down 5th - godamn them!

Ok......going to brave the heat again to get something in for dinner before his nibs gets back from the studio. Then we are off to meet his friend who is an accomplished writer and journalist from Brazil who I have heard so much about and so looking forward to meeting. Apparently his wife is about 10 years older, a fashion editor, smokes with a cigarette holder (probably gold!), very grand and poised.....Greta Garbo-esque character. Interesting folks me thinks. Shall I wear my heels or just slum it in me Birks? Too hot to bother!

Ok...stay tuned. Next up: SummerStage in Central Park.....free gigs galore so I hope the weather stays this way.......picnic coming up me thinks!

Lots of love from steamy NYC, Hxxxxxx

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Best Laid Plans 11th August 2008

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 21:44:18 +0200

Hey lovely mates, sorry for the round robin but its really starting to feel like 3am now!?! Plus, if my man were here, then I certainly would not be on email yet!! No disrespect to you lot!

So......my flight was delayed by 2 hours (some passenger got really sick so we had to turn back on the run way and get him off, security check where he was sitting, find his luggage and so on). I'm thinking, this is ok as it means I won't have too long a wait for F at La Guardia. Soooo......ofcourse he has no idea I'm coming a day earlier and has been texting me en route back from Cuba (via Cancun and Phillidelphia) and I'm not responding as I'm half way across the Atlantic! And being no flies on the bearded one, he starts to suspect I'm up to something. Anyhoooo.... I got a message from him as I'm waiting to get off the plane at JFK but I wait as I want to get sorted, get through Immigration (who coincidentally grilled me for 15 gut-churning minutes about why I was there for so long, was I going to work whilst there (who, moi?! Non, m'am!), how much money did I have, had I been rejected entry to the US before????? Then she examined my passport with a bloody mignifying glass - i kid you not! Sweat is trickling down my spine by this point and I haven't even done anything wrong!! Its that stare they give you...they are trained by the CIA apparently so that they can detect any change in the size of your bloody pupils if you are lying!!. Then she lets me go and watches me walk away and I'm sure she's thinking 'we know where you live'! Yikes!!!!).......bloody hell......so then I go to get my ticket for the shuttle to La Guardia to meet F and once I have that in my mitts I remember to listen to his message. He's only stuck in bloody Philly coz of bad weather and no flights til the morning!! He also said that he thought I might be at his apartment to surprise him as he hadn't heard from me all day! The game is up! The long and the short is, he has mansged to hire a car to drive back instead of waiting til the morning flight (he's keen then!!) so he should arrive imminently.....his lovely neighbour, let me into his place (he always leaves a spare set of keys incase of emergencies). So.................I'm trying very hard not to fall asleep!!!

Ok...maybe a wee disco nap is needed

More updates soon
Lots of love from the big apple
Helly xxxxxx

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