Noo Yoyk

Mondrian’s ‘Broadway Boogie-Woogie’

“Daey Woon at thu Beeg Brootha Howse.”
Sorry - Manhattan; Day One.
Early rise [due to jetlag(ue)] and take quick Subway journey from where we are on Upper West Side (chilled and cosmopolitan) to Times Square (bustling, brash and a tourist-trap) to meet Nicole for brunch. Adorable school kids got on to our subway-car on the way and reminded us how cool it is to be eleven as they giggled, teased each other and pretended to fall over.

Got the 'pancakes, maple and bacon' idea out of the way once there (quite nice) and experienced the first US ‘double-tip-ask’ so far (gratuity added to bill yet still seemed to need a tip for waitress. i.e. Add 36% to bill.)
Pfft... Mental note to stay out of NY's "Picadilly Circus" for food. Would I eat in TGI Fridays back home? Hrmm....

Took the bus-trip round Manhattan afterwards which was pretty cool in terms of getting to terms with the geography if not a bit pricey. Fella giving the commentary was suitably witty and counter-culture. A Struggling Writing Grad he said. I think Jo and me laughed at his cracks more than most. He was tactfully sanguine and quiet about the whole 9/11 thing when we drove near 'Ground Zero' prefering to motion in it's general direction rather than go on about it's effects, which I found rather dignified all in all. Better that than some sort of patriot tirade (as I probably would have predicted). It's a big-ole building site now. I still wonder about the 'other' WTC towers that 'fell' despite the lack of plane-interface-actualitys on that day— but I fear for being thrown out and labelled a commie so I'll just bitch conspiratorily on my webloggy-bloggy-loggy-fun-fun instead.


Deli near hotel is like Fortnum & Mason's on acid; Picnics beckon...Still finding it hard to gauge the scale here though. Big or small? The grids and high buildings cloud things somewhat I think it's big. But it's quite easy to walk so maybe it's small. Went up the Rockerfeller centre for some pretty good views and chanced some 'experimental' shots of the skyline by pointing the Ixus through the Binoculars. Worked better than planned (if you don't mind a black corona round theedge); Hazy sky though, preluding the thunderstorms later on, so we couldn't see that far across central park. Fun though., The elevator has a glass roof so you can see on the way up. The Thunder storms tonight were cool too. Time exposures I tried to take were crap. I want a Digi that's small like an Ixus but works like an SLR. Big ask.


Went round Museum of Modern Art in the afternoon today - very nice collection; Witness me at top of post posing sheepishly next one of my top-ten paintings of all time - Mondrian's 'Broadway Boogie Woogie'. I got Jo to take it yet it looks like she made me.(She didn't) I wanted to mark the event of such a meeting with an inanimate object but as is my wont I couldn't help but feel utterly stupid when push came to shove. Or Lens came to Pose. Does this painting contain the first pixels EVER?

This country seems a bit schizo. I can't quite work out the gap between what's clearly a geniune and really human. positive and friendly (not the 'have a nice day false" vibe I thought I'd find] feel of this place and the strange way some of them want to fight crazy wars to keep their 'gas' prices below the 'outlandish' prices [that are nearly - and shockingly - reaching the astronomical prices of half that of the petrol prices in Europe.] Naturally it's about power. It's a strange thing. Less petrol about is there? More Expensive is it? I think I must need a bigger and less fuel-efficient Truck to feel safe then..." I don't get it. But then I killed several kittens just flying here and I'm using up more of the world's resources rambling on about it now so I'll shush now - Enough with the hypocrisies (and ranting)!
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