Waiting At The Lights, Know What I Mean?

I rented a van to get everyone to and from the United Palace show with Bloc Party. This is the traffic outside the Lincoln Tunnel at 11:10PM on Friday. It was taking over 10 minutes to go forward one block at one point. Like a good, snotty Manhattanite, I blamed all the Bridge and Tunnel traffic but I was told later that a bus had crashed over in Jersey so I guess one can't entirely blame all the B&T people.




And then this was Saturday afternoon near the same location.





I didn't really care, I'm so glad to be back here. I love New York. It's home and it's one of the most amazing cities in the world. And the women are so beautiful, like few other places on the planet. I spent most of the weekend sighing wistfully and feeling like I'd been punched in the chest.

Thing is, once I've got rid of Chazz Michael Michael's body (which I acquired on tour) and been here a couple of weeks I'll be itchy to travel again. I've already been looking at the Cathay Pacific website - 23 Asian cities in 21 days.....hmmm.....

And how can you not love a city where you can buy a life-size figurine of an adolescent wizard balancing on a broomstick that looks strangely like a flat-ended tail?



Spent Sunday morning on the phone with my mate Mick from London. He told me about a reissued version of Young Americans with a bonus DVD. After a (typical for us) couple of hours talking about Bowie in the 70's trans-atlantically I had to go to Virgin to buy a load of CDs & DVDs. Spent the rest of the day watching them. Even when he's being a ponce Bowie's still Dave and the Greatest Living Englishman as far as I'm concerned (And I'm happy to admit that he gets it wrong often but to my mind he's still trying and he made all those LPs from Man Who Sold The World through to Scary Monsters {and okay, Let's Dance} so like McCartney he should be allowed to make any records he likes forever. He's earned it). Like Lennon he's from the (maybe extinct?) strain of working class English who aspire to something better both intellectually and artistically. Maybe Jarv's the last one in that line that I can think of..? I'd love to be wrong here.

One week of shows left. It's a gentle re-entry into life doing shows while being at home. Maybe by Saturday (when we finish properly) I'll have adjusted to being back and I won't sit in my apartment wondering why my phone doesn't ring and buzz with incoming emails. Maybe...

Still, if I feel weird I can always walk around and look at girls for a bit. That usually helps.