Thursday, June 19, 2008

Parklife


Spent today measuring Central Park. Looks like I'll be working there soon, installing and removing a big gig. I've done it before, working production on the Dave Matthews (hacks out phlegm) back in 2003. I did pretty well on that one and managed to avoid hearing the band much at all.

I'm very lucky this year as since I've got back from China (where I dodged all kinds of bullets with my early return) I've only had to commute to jobs along the west side of Manhattan. As the festival season rolls around I think fondly of each one, knowing that every day I'm waking up in my own bed, not in a pool of sweat in a large metal coffin to spend the first hour of the day scoring passes, meal tickets and towels so I can shower in a cubicle made dank and rancid by the effluvia of countless dozens of roadies before me. No, I don't miss that.

I do miss hanging out with all the people I know through touring though. That's an eye-opener. After traveling months on a bus it's sometimes hard to adapt to civilian life, and now, even months after finishing my last tour in September, I still have to remind myself not to say somethings out loud or roll my eyes too obviously. The people I've toured with know what I mean.

At least I've been keeping busy instead. In fact, this afternoon, after I'd filled my map with measurements I spent the day slaughtering a French bloke and his Vietnamese wife in a very vivid style. The details of which you'll have to wait for until it's finished, or published.

But boy, do I have fun when I'm left to my own devices. Tomorrow I hope to slaughter some delivery boys and girls and visit a museum in Nanjing. A man needs a hobby.

Friday, June 13, 2008

Oh. Bollocks.


I guess this was kind of inevitable, and as my very clever friend Sarah said, there have been no studies so far as cell-phones, in their current ubiquity, have only been in common use for 10 years or so so it's a little early for studies....but this is the latest in radiation surveys on phone models from CNET. And radiation leads to brain cancer, etc, etc....


We're all doomed. Maybe those bluetooth headsets aren't so wanky after all?


Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Over the Water


I'm trying to enjoy the city this summer now that I'm here. It is the best city in the world and I'm all the more appreciative of it after 5 months in China (which I've been missing this week....hmmm).

Although I promised myself I wasn't leaving Manhattan for months this time, I went across to Brooklyn at the weekend to see the Telectroscope (techincally this is acceptable because I could walk home, if I needed to). This is billed as a tunnel to London that goes under the Atlantic and, using mirrors, allows New Yorkers to stare at people on the South Bank near Tower Bridge, and vice-versa.








Silly as it sounds I'm glad people are still making art like this - even though it's akin to a giant webcam mounted on Fulton Landing. To be honest, once one had looked at the people in London looking back at you looking at them, it was kind of done, but still, sometimes one gag is enough. Ask Wyclef...



And it's hard to beat the view here - unless you're from Sydney or Rio.... here's an old faithful, just because...


Monday, June 02, 2008

Postal Boots

Holts in Camden is the best place to buy Doc Martens. I've been going there for over ten years and bought several hundred dollars' worth of shoes last time, just by accident. I went in for some laces and came out with these amazing George Cox, Red Suede Loafers....

The bloke sold me some Royal Mail doc's this time, which I wasn't sure of as, well, who wants postie feet? It's like having plod shoes or something....anyway, they are the first pair of docs I've have that haven't flayed my heels while I wore them the first time. I was so comfortable I could talk to the dullest TM in the world on the phone about his LD's travel plans without thinking about violent murder yesterday, which is a first. And any shoes that can simmer the endless, blackhearted rage rock my world.



I saw Duran Duran on Saturday in Central Park. I never thought I'd use the word "vintage" or "classic" to describe them but their singles were still really really good (I used to have a girlfriend who loved them when I was 18 but I was into the Jam and too cool for DD, even though I liked all the singles. The shame of it, it was a very Catholic, guilty pleasure). Simon Le Bon is sort of creepy though. He's pushing 50 and still talking like he's sexy and 25, which sounds a bit like a pervy uncle flirting with bridesmaids at a wedding. "Okay, this is for the ladies, who know what it's like to be wet..." His dancing is ridiculous too, which was an unexpected bonus and cheered me up. Back in the 80's one could be excused for some of those moves, they were "weird", "arty", "androidy" or something of the time. Now they just look daft, especially as done by a podgy 50 year old. John Taylor is still one of the coolest English pop stars, really. I suspect that Simon Le Bon is a little pissed off that John Taylor can upstage him so easily, mainly because when he did the band intros he gave everyone props but when he got to John Taylor he started the crowd in a chant of "play the fucking bass, John" which sounded a touch charmless....or is that just me?