Gone to America

I had a great weekend in the nation’s capital, even though it was one of those periods of time when my brain seemed to have become partially detached from itself. The first evidence of this came just as I left the apartment. I was all packed and ready to go, ...

I had a great weekend in the nation’s capital, even though it was one of those periods of time when my brain seemed to have become partially detached from itself. The first evidence of this came just as I left the apartment. I was all packed and ready to go, and I had a piece of paper with all the important information on it – hotel name, booking reference, bus timetable, bus location. I was at the train before I realised I had left this important document on the table. I had to go back and get it.
Because of this I almost missed the coach. It wasn’t the Greyhound, it was the Dragon Coach – one of the bus services that ferries people from Chinatown to Chinatown. It’s a lot cheaper than other services, but you have to go to Chinatown to get it, and buy a ticket off a woman wandering around in front of a bank. I had a hard time finding exactly where it was leaving from, and I only made it because it was delayed.
I stowed my bag in the luggage compartment under the bus, but kept my laptop by my side. I always keep my laptop by my side. If I ever lost it I would instantly cease to exist. I’m convinced of this.
I relaxed somewhat on the coach, read my book, listened to my MP3 player, dozed a little. I don’t think I ever really woke up. We arrived in DC, I shouldered my laptop, put my book away and wandered off. Of course, my bag was still in the trunk of the coach. I had strolled a couple of blocks looking for a good place to flag a taxi (a Dublin habit, unneccessary in New York, but applicable in Washington) before I realised. I ran back, but the coach was gone. I rang the New York office, and an irritable chinese gentleman told me that the coach was already on its way back to the city and I should ring tomorrow.
The bag contained my clothes for the weekend, toiletries, my digital camera (so no pix), my phone charger, a book to give to my Aunt to give to my Dad, my headphones and a DVD I was supposed to watch. Not disastrous, but a real pain. And pretty bad if it was stolen. It easily could have been.
But it wasn’t. I carefully husbanded the remaining power on my phone until I was assured of my bag’s safe arrival at the Dragon Coach office in Chinatown. I bought some clothes, deodorant and a toothbrush, and had a look at DC.

And very impressive it is too. Really quite startlingly impressive. On Friday night myself, my aunt Stephanie (my dad’s twin sister) and my uncle Hubert stayed local. We ate near the hotel in Arlington, which is actually in the state of Virginia, just over the Potomac from DC. It was OK – I’d actually seen a bunch of stuff on the taxi ride. It’s very familiar to someone who watches as much West Wing as I do (they show it on Bravo all the time).

On Saturday, we hit the Mall. This is the area with all the famous buildings and monuments, like the White House, the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, the reflecting pool, the Capitol, the Jefferson Memorial, various Smithsonians and, uh, another reflecting pool.
We left the Metro by the Smithsonians, and walked to the imposing Washington Monument, then further to the Lincoln Memorial. That’s pretty effective too. Then we took a taxi to the White House and had a wander around (you can’t get that close anymore – just close enough to see the snipers on the roof). We took another taxi up to Capitol Hill. Very, er, majestic.
I’ve got to say, these Americans have their monuments and political architecture down. I’ve seen a lot of large sculptural commemorative structures in my time, but never so many, of such quality and imagination, clustered together in such a way that they enhance and reflect upon each other and create a whole that’s much greater than the sum of its parts.
And they’re coupled with genuine political signifigance – two of the structures are the White House and the Capitol, and there’s a constant buzz of helicopters coming and going. It’s definitely the most focused capital city I’ve ever been in. It all comes together to create a very dignified and lofty atmosphere. And idealistic. Very idealistic. I’m not sure how accurately this reflects actual political reality in the States, but it’s very hard not to be impressed, and I wasn’t in the mood to try.

On Sunday we went to Mt. Vernon, the home of George Washington. It was quite a distance away, but interesting. I had a look at his tomb and wandered around the grounds, and then I split off to go and have a look at the Pentagon and Arlington cemetery (I had less time in the city, so I had to cram more in).
I got off the metro at the stop called “Pentagon”, fairly confident that I’d have a good view of the place. Of course, I didn’t. This is the stop for the people who actually work there, so what I saw of it was basically a wall and a door. And cops with guns. And lots of signs saying “No Photographs”. So I just got back on the train. But I wasn’t disappointed. I may not have got a good overview, but I was closer than I ever thought I’d get – a gentle stones throw away. Not that I was going to be throwing any stones. I probably would have been gunned down.

And then to Arlington Cemetery, and another presidential tomb – Kennedy this time. But the most striking place there is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier – “Known But To God”. It overlooks the river, facing the city, and is attended by some kind of soldiers. Marines, or something. I watched as they laid a fresh wreath and bugled “taps”. Strangely affecting. This is a bizarre country – always a little bit different than you expect. Nothing is quite like you think it’s going to be.

On Sunday night we had dinner with some friends of Hubert and Stephanie’s, the McPhilips. It turns out that their son did the music for Ape, on which I was the sound editor. Even in America, Ireland is a small country.

Did I forget anything? Oh yes, further stupidity. On Saturday I didn’t wear my hat because it was too hot, and I got very sunburned. My skin is flaking off even as I type. And on Monday I slept in and missed the bus I wanted to get. I managed to go from being completely asleep to checked out standing in the center of Washington in about 30 minutes, but it wasn’t quick enough. Then I had to kill four hours.

So, it just remains for me to thank my very generous aunt and uncle, who didn’t let me pay for anything. Thank you!

And I’ve decided that I want one of these more than life itself.

I’m about to head off to Washington DC for the weekend, to see my aunt and uncle, so I may or may not be offline for a few days depending on the technological sophistication of the hotel. Please bear with me.
It’ll be nice to see a new part of America …

I’m about to head off to Washington DC for the weekend, to see my aunt and uncle, so I may or may not be offline for a few days depending on the technological sophistication of the hotel. Please bear with me.
It’ll be nice to see a new part of America – I’ve only been here in NYC, LA, San Francisco and San Diego. It’ll be nice to meet up with family, too.

I’ll be teaching in the NYFA next week, starting on Tuesday. Originally they had me down to do 12 hours, but now it’s more like 30, so that’ll be a bit of money. Should pay for that fancy new jacket I bought, anyway. Hey, it’s summer – I needed a new jacket!

I have my meeting with NYU on the 5th of May, so wish me luck. I don’t really know what it’s about. Do they have jobs? WIll they have jobs? Do they just like meeting people? I’ll find out, I suppose.

Writing’s going well. I’ll probably be sending out a draft to a few people in a week or so for some free evisceration. If I don’t send one to you, it doesn’t mean I don’t like you anymore – it just means I have no respect for your opinion .

Which reminds me – why no interest in the smiley debate? Not many people voting, and those that do are largely choosing (~o~)/, which means something like “raising hands and saying ‘wow’”. What kind of opinion is that? I’m going to leave the poll up until a more sensible attitude prevails.

And background picture – yea or nay? Not that I care what you think. It’s all the same to me!

Not a lot to report, but now that I’ve got that average post thing going at the top of the page I’m feeling the pressure not to let it go up too far. I’m having a fairly typical Sunday, which basically involves nursing a hangover, watching movies on TV (currently …

Not a lot to report, but now that I’ve got that average post thing going at the top of the page I’m feeling the pressure not to let it go up too far. I’m having a fairly typical Sunday, which basically involves nursing a hangover, watching movies on TV (currently Braveheart on USA), and waiting for The Sopranos to start. And now Deadwood too. It’s really good.
Usually the hangover is a result of an evening spent in the Ear Inn, but not this time. Last night I went to a going away party that Julian and Lisa threw for Nacha. She’s moving to Mexico, for no apparent reason. I can dig that. Good luck Nacha!
I ended up heading on with some of her friends to a gig by an Irish band called Mr. North in a pub called Tailor’s Hall, just a few blocks away from here in Sunnyside. It was fun, but I drank a lot. Hence the hangover.

My writing routine is continuing fine. I’m finding I have no interest in updating After The Party, now that I’m writing something else. I guess it was just a way for me to release pent up creativity, and I don’t really need it anymore. Sorry if you were a fan.

During the week I went to see an Off Broadway show called Cookin’. It’s kind of a Korean version of Stomp, on a smaller scale and with more of a plot. It’s largely non-verbal, but I think an understanding of Korean would have added another level. I enjoyed it, but the Korean friend I was with was literally crying with laughter. Great drumming.

I’ve been doing a lot of tinkering with the website – some visible, some not. But I think that makes for very poor blog material, so I’m trying resist writing about every little CSS experiment in tedious detail. Instead I’ve added a new links section called Web Design Stuff, where you can see what I’ve been reading and using, if you’re interested. If you have any questions, or something isn’t working for you, please leave a comment.

It seems you’re OK with the new-look polling thingambob.

I asked: So, do you like this new style of poll?

You answered:

• I am in love with it. 25%
• I generally approve. 12.5%
• It’s OK, I guess. 12.5%
• Not too keen. 0%
• My eyes! Tear out my eyes! 12.5%
• I really don’t care. Why would you think that I care? 37.5%

8 Votes

Most of you don’t care, which is fair enough. Why in the hell did you vote? I’m sorry to whoever had to gouge out their eyes.

The new poll is quite serious. I’ve recently started using emoticons, in a small way. Some posts, some emails.
My Mother, for one, seems quite upset about this. Personally, my inner jury is still out on whether they are a heinous corruption of the written word and the art of typography, or a perfectly reasonable way of conveying unequivocal emotional intent in an environment where communication is both text-based and instantaneous – a relatively new phenomenon.
What do you think? And why do the Japanese have much more interesting emoticons than the rest of us?

Ok, I’ve added a new polling facility. This one is a lot neater and more configurable, and it validates. This is probably something I shouldn’t care about, but for some reason I do. It comes from Minstek, and I have a

Ok, I’ve added a new polling facility. This one is a lot neater and more configurable, and it validates. This is probably something I shouldn’t care about, but for some reason I do. It comes from Minstek, and I have a holding poll down there at the moment. I’ll probably put up another one tomorrow. If you care.

The NYFA have been in touch – I’ll be teaching there during the last week in April. It’s not much, but it’s something. Also around that time I expect to be hearing one way or the other about this low budget feature, having a meeting at NYU, and spending a weekend in Washington with my Aunt and Uncle. So it’s all go. In a couple of weeks.

I’ve put up my review of The Ladykillers. Any questions?

Happy Easter everybody!

I’m happy because I’ve finally managed to make this page valid XHTML 1.0 transitional! Wooo! I can add a button!

It wasn’t so easy. The first time I tried to “validate (Go on, try it, ...

Happy Easter everybody!

I’m happy because I’ve finally managed to make this page valid XHTML 1.0 transitional! Wooo! I can add a button!

It wasn’t so easy. The first time I tried to validate, I had over 500 errors. Now I have none! I attribute this to switching the design entirely over to CSS, abandoning tables entirely, and extensive use of Brad Choate’s Textile plugin, which is really great in many ways.
In the process I tidied up the code a lot, and found better ways to do things. For example, the drop-down archive menu is a lot more efficient now, and the option to view the blog in my handwriting is a lot snappier – although it still won’t work on a Mac or in any browser other than IE5+. I’ve also tidied up the design on the Recipes pages. Almost all of the people who come here via Google searched for Stuffed Peppers. I hope they find this page useful.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t convert the poll over to CSS, so it had to go. I’m looking around for other options, but no polls for the immediate future.
For the record, the last poll:

I asked: Dude.

You answered:

• You know it. 40%
• Dude. 40%
• My shizzle has gone fizizzle. 20%
• What’s happening, Dawg? 0%
• Man. 0%

5 votes.

I’m getting on fine in the new place. The advantage of living in an Irish area is that there’s a shop around the corner called Butcher’s Block that caters specifically to our needs. To be precise: decent pork sausages, decent rashers, black pudding, white pudding, Barry’s tea, various Irish biscuits etc. It’s really really great. I had a decent fry for the first time in months. Months!
There’s also a decent cinema within walking distance. I went to see The Ladykillers. I will review it shortly.

And thanks to Zaini for his report. Bet you appreciate my grammar and spelling now, eh?

My last day in Japan today, on to Malaysia tomorrow. Tokyo is a crazy place a bit hard to get around at the start what with the completly different aplhabet and what seems like a million different train companies doing the same job as the metro in New York, I …

My last day in Japan today, on to Malaysia tomorrow. Tokyo is a crazy place a bit hard to get around at the start what with the completly different aplhabet and what seems like a million different train companies doing the same job as the metro in New York, I was spoilt.

Boulder was good too, went up the Rocky mountains and played around in 44 inches of snow by a frozen lake. I think I would turn into a proper hippy hillwalker if I lived there. Also went to the hotel where they shot the shinning, or maybe it was just writen there or based on that hotel or just the exteriors were shot there…. I dont know. it was being renovated and facts were a bit hazey. But I went to a hotel that had something to do with the shinning. Cool.

Back to Japan. Am staying in what seems to be the smallest room in the biggest hotel in Tokyo. Its massive it has a 10 screen cinema and an IMAX theatre, 9 indoor tennis courts, an 80 lane bowling alley and two wedding chapels. Its mad expensive here I paid 25000 yen to go to the cinema last night, thats a bit under 25 euro and 900 yen for a pint of Guinness, but it was better than most of the Guinness I got in New York! There is a lot of bowing going on here Ruairis music video has nothing on this.

Now back to New York.I will not be posting an entry due to time restrictions what with traveling around the world and everything and also for fear of the heavily edited version which might make it to the blog. All I will say is that Anthony covered most things pretty well appart from the wierd and wounderful things that go on in Korean Karaoke bars. I have photos and will be accepting writen requests for the negatives, for sale to the highest bidder. Anthony would you like to start the bidding? Ill say no more, but I cant get `Ive Never been to me` out of my head either.

Enough cruelty, I had a briliant time in New York. I have been there twice before and Anthony managed to show me a completly new side of it. He was a great host Id recomend it to any fan of the blog who wants to meet all its stars. Just be aware of Anthonys insane need to be on time for things!

Thank you and Go Anthony!

Things are calming down a little after a fairly tumultuous couple of weeks. Zaini’s in Tokyo, Paul Moore is in Dublin (well, I assume he is), I’m in my new apartment, and all’s well with world. For the record, here’s where I’m living now:

Things are calming down a little after a fairly tumultuous couple of weeks. Zaini’s in Tokyo, Paul Moore is in Dublin (well, I assume he is), I’m in my new apartment, and all’s well with world.

For the record, here’s where I’m living now:

Map of 4125 39th Place, Sunnyside, NY 11104-4203

I have HBO on demand.

I’ll say that again: I have HBO on demand. This is what civilization feels like.

As to where I’m at in other ways, I’ve decided not to be so rash as to say I’m quitting sound editing entirely. If something comes along that looks interesting, I’ll do it. I’ll find out about this low budget feature so many of you want me to do in a couple of weeks, and if they want me to do it and we can come to terms I will. But I’ve decided to stop worrying about it. Rather than be unemployed and stressed, I’m going to be unemployed and relaxed.
I have enough money to last me three more months. My only plan during that time is to come to the library four days a week and write stuff, and spend the other three days hanging out, drinking, going to see movies, whatever (on that note, review of Hellboy up).
After three months, I’ll either have started earning and I’ll stay, or I won’t and I won’t. There are a number of possibilities for making money: the feature, freelancing for Magno, or lecturing in the NYFA or NYU. All or none of these may transpire (or other stuff may come up), but New York is too cool a place to be to spend your time fretting.