Wednesday, July 1, 2009

roots

oh happy canada day.

american tease

the last real night in ny: the hostel group invited me to go to a cabaret burlesque show of sorts at a venue called the slipper. it started out with this woman who seemed to hate her job dancing (filling time before the show begins) in front of a crowd frantically buying drinks, inhaling cigarettes over loud obnoxious beats. She stands on stage under really hot lights, secretly rolling her eyes after thirty minutes of what turns into light swaying, sweating while the crowd watches her smirk and feel sorry for her almost slave like dancing. then the show begins!! Naked fire spinning, fire hoola hooping, general strip teasing, then a daredevil who staple guns his arms, walks on glass, bashes his hand with a can of beans, puts his arm in a rabbit trap, a michael jackson strip tease, the feature queen la queefa, it was all really really campy. It reminded me of a john waters film. actually alot of the people in the crowd could have starred in his films.
spent the next day chilling out in central park for most of the day.
around 10pm i went to the greyhound station and saw all the crazy american bus travelers. I thought seattle was full of loons, nyc is like a hub of them all. I was secretly looking for someone I could spend 20 hours with and perhaps sit beside on my ride. I found a girl from Korea studying in nyc to become a television news broadcaster. she had such a strong korean accent and didn't know much english, that I doubt she will ever been on any american news channels, man those guys are freaks, and also robots. she was going to ohio to see her a section of her family.
on the bus ride there was a person snoring that sounded like his nose was no bigger than a grain of rice, because his snores were such a high pitch growl that no ordinary human nose could have made them. there was also this baby who was the eraserheads babys doppleganger. he cried this guttoral moist cry and coughed and wheezed nearly all the way to cleveland. Oh i was in pennsylvania, cleveland, and indiana, and toldeo. Pennsylvania i only saw a gas station but from what i make out of it there are alot of christians as you could buy recordings of the weeks masses on tape, bibles and other pharaphenlia from the bleary eyes clerks at 3 am.
arrived in chicago at my couchsurfing destination. joe and ellen, they are amazing! they got this huge loft in bucktown. They have amazing records, she goes to SAIC and joe is interested in journalism. We bought some beer talked for hours then went out to a show. kinda lame show. got back and a girl from nyc was also staying the night who was going to london to study the next day but her flight was canceled. At this point I hadnt slept for nearly 24 hours, as the bus was like a livestock transporter rather than a commuter bus.
woke up to breakfast burritos, walked downtown, the buildings here are amazing. . its amazingly clean, went to the river, beautiful how it splits the city into two. actually it reminds me of las vegas, i dont know why, ah, its really really american! joe says how its the hub of all mid america. lots of god bless america shirts and everything that entails. thats the downtown portion though. where i am staying is really cool. snuck into the moca, bought wine and 5 tubs of ben and jerrys (joe and ellens idea) and now making black bean burgers with kale chips, fried plantanes and mushrooms.. listening to neil young.
today it rained.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

i am ingesting billy jean

went the aperture magazine gallery. there was an exhibit on abstract ways of dealing with and looking at photography.
took the subway to williamsburg in brooklyn. i have never seen so many hipsters in my life. williamsburg was an old what seems to be industrial town, now theres modern condos at rockaway beach. but good record shops, book stores and everything else for a hipsters needs. it rained again just out of no where forming two giant rainbows on top of each other.
ate a burrito at rockaway beach at sunset.
headed back the hostel to draw, when everyone was predrinking to go out. so i joined. we went to two local bars with really good music. then we took an elevator with a bunch of kids, and ended up in andrew w k's apartment where a party was going down. the music was horrible, the worst ive heard to date, but the place was huge and there was free booze and shinanigins. sure enough michael jackson was played. got home around 5am.