We return to Paradise

Paradise is not a word I would use to describe Australia, though a US associate of mine who recently spent some time here chose that word to sum it up and while we are excited to be back here... mostly to catch up with Norman he he, the ride home from the airport was a kinda sobering one. Can't tell you how kick ass it was to get off the plane though. We left the hotel at 2PM with a 6PM flight on the cards. Well, we didn't get off at 6PM, and we found that pretty much all our US flights were delayed in some way or another, so it was nothing new there.

We were pretty happy to get out of the cold too. Our last days in NYC were spent freeeezing and it was really quite uncomfortable. To come back to overcast conditions here was a little less than overwhelming, but not unexpected. I've lived in Melbourne since 1984 and expect nothing else ha ha.

The commencement of our return trip also involved me getting into an argument with the guy at the first screening port at JFK. Michelle bought a snow globe and due to its fragile nature I wanted to take it with us on the plane. Same wiht our illustrious portrait from Central park. For those unaware, the US have some particularly idiotic policies about liquids going through the scanners. Well they wouldn't let me keep the snow globe, and I got quite T.O'd about it. Life goes on...

Fortunately when we got to LAX, we had a very fast change over, but we still ended up sitting on the tarmac for a goats age. At least we could self medicate on the LA-Sydney flight, but this was not without peril. We got KILLER seats, but Michelle felt really unwell for a considerable part of the flight and considering how anxious we were to get home, and how long it was taking this occurrence really didn't help things.

We sat on the tarmac at Sydney airport for another 75 minutes before that flight left and finally got to Melbourne. My sister and our nieces were there to collect us and it was nice to see familiar faces. Mikaela who is 4 was soooooo excited to be at the airport I'm amazed she could contain herself. We had soooooooo much luggage it was almost comical, but we really bought a lot of stuff and had a kick ass time doing it.

Feeling quite delirious just now and our house is an absolute bomb site... tomorrow is another day. Norman is going crazy complaining all the time, but looks in good shape. He's also extremely woooly compared to when we left him. Not sure what that's all about, but perhaps his carer can shed some light on that when she drops the keys around.

And with that, our journey is complete. Check back for further adventures...

Best Cupcakes Ever!

Loads of destinations, but not quite the overwhelmed day we anticipated, we kicked off with a highly anticipated return to the Union Square market. It was good, but not as grand as we remembered. Still, we managed to find a few artifacts of interest and once we found ourselves overwhelmed by the bountiful amounts of craft that infest this market, we set off to visit to the Staten Island ferry. It was extremely cold and windy, and having seen the statue of liberty up close and personal before, we were keen just for a look from the upper deck of the ferry terminal.

Though turkey day was a glorious 64 degrees, the days that followed were more in the 42 area and the wind was nigh on unbearable! Made things a little difficult to be sure.

From there we went to Bleeker and W11th for one of our must go to destinations - Magnolia's cake store. Anyone au fait with Sex In The City will know this store's legend and you can find this place pretty easily... it's the one with the queue of freezing people around the corner. The store itself is really humble and the prices were so insanely cheap. I was all geared up for a $5 per cupcake spend, yet they were a meagre $2 a piece. And talk about a kick ass cup cake. Wowser! Didn't see Carrie Bradshaw in the cue, but Michelle pointed out that she is in fact an actor and probably gets a closed door walk through of the store when she's in the market for cakes.

Took in some great slices for lunch, though I don't know how long we can sustain that sort of diet. It's fun to eat and when compared to australian pizza, the comparison is that there is no comparison. To elaborate, I'll never eat Australian pizza again! Lard bucket crap that it is!

Due to the writers and theater strikes in the US, some of the shows that were not affected, were also afflicted by legions of people and as a result our attempts to see Xanadu were foiled. Not the end of the world; we went off in pursuit of a film, but massive queues made this seem like a chore and after trawling around for a while on the sub freezing streets of NYC, we decided that enough was enough and sought refuge in our hotel room.

Our journey is almost at an end. Hope Peach remembers us he he he.

Happy Turkey Day

So today is Turkey Day. Known more commonly as Thanksgiving, Michelle and I were planning to go to the Macy's parade, but after a late night last night, we decided to experience the parade on the TV instead. And boy are we glad not to have gone to the parade. 3 million people congregated in Times Square and the parade was quite very gay.

We started the day with lunch at our new fave dining place - Pax. Sounds like a disease it's true, but a really fine fresh food dining experience. Good for any meal of the day too. Look out for it next time you're in NYC.

Skipping back to last night, we met up with our Parisian pal Gaetan, who I have not seen for close to 5 years. He hasn't changed too much and it was really cool to catch up with him. We had dinner for the third time at our restaurant on 8th st and once again, managed to get in some shopping. Picked up a CBGB's tee for Norman and a cool bib for Melinda's forthcoming baby. Good times.

After a few beers, and a great dinner, we headed over to Times Square to check out Gaetan's appt. He dished up some quite revolting French liquer type stuff (Anisi - which sounds suspiciously like anus) while we chatted with his photographer flat mate and from there we hit Rudy's bar for some truly toxic drinks. It sounds like a great idea being served overwhelmingly alcoholic drinks, but in truth, it's not so good. they just splash liquor into a glass and colour it with some soda. Even on the rocks, it still tastes like metho, and well I don't roll like that he he. After diluting it with lots of coke, we went off to the Virgn Megastore to get the Seinfeld DVD Box Set (wowser!) and inspired Gaetan to check out Circa Survive. I found the new DHG album, and well life doesn't get much sweeter. We came home and watched TV till 3am he he.

Gaetan is working for a French firm based here in NY and his office building is on 57th and 5th and faces over the park. You want to see this view. Unbelievable!!! We met him on 42nd st and he was kind enough to take us up to his building to view the park from something like the 38th floor. Spectacular!!!

We have bought so much stuff while here we needed to buy another suitcase. We're trying to curb our purchases because if we stay on this rate of buying, we'll need yet another case. And that's assuming we can fit everything we have into 3.5 suitcases + backpacks we have. After we parted ways with Gaetan we got ourselves a slice from a truly necro pizza store (though the slice was fine!) and picked up a new suitcase. After a trip down to chinatown, we worked out way back to Times Square for dinner. what luck! We found another Pax. Ate another slice for dinner and from there, we took a night time view from the Empire State building. Though by day it was around 63 degrees today (almost t-shirt weather) at 8pm up on the 86th floor, it was about 50 below and blowing a gale! We couldn't stay too long... would have definitely frozen to death!



We finished the night with a deluxe Pax Pumpkin styled cookie and watched 12 seconds of the Jets vs the Cowboys game. We're integrated into the US way of life for sure he he he.


Tomorrow we plan to get up and at 'em by 10am and we're hell keen to hit the market at Union Square. It hasn't been open yet and tomorrow is the first day. We may remember it as being better than what it was, but time reveals all. Also on the cards is a trip to the Magnolia cake store for a Sex In The City acclaimed cake and hopefully we'll go and see Xanadu on Broadway. Pretty pumped for that. There is also maybe a chance that we could go to a Cabaret show, though not 1000% as to whether that's on this Friday...

Till we return.

J & M

Jason and Michelle On Ice - Coming Soon to DVD

Like many youth groups before us, Michelle and I thought it would be a great idea to go ice skating in Central Park. And you know what? It was kick assssss.

But before we delve into that, we need to skip back to Monday nite/Tuesday morning. The time is 3AM (NY time) and the wife and I are still awake. Big deal I hear you say. That we had to be up and at 'em at 6.08 AM is where this gets complicated. We managed to get out of bed, organised and a mile down the road by 6:45 which was impressive to say the least. Tired as hell, the bus destined for Washington DC set sail at 7:15 and we had a 3 hour journey to the nation's capital.

About 15 mins in, we hit Jersey and I gotta say, I was pretty excited. Never been to Jersey and never truly expected to go, I can't say it was everything I hoped it to be, but it was quite very OK. We took a rest break across the border in Delaware and that too was quite very OK. We got some great souvenirs there too and ate some truly bizarre scroll things called Cinnebon's. Not the ideal breakfast fare, but we both lived to tell the tale. They have Coke Zero here, so good times all 'round.

Eventually we got to DC and saw all kinds of cool stuff. From the Korean and Vietnam war memorials, to the Abe Lincoln memorial/statue, the white house, The Capital Building, the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum and some other stuffs. It was actually really cool and though we virtually had to run from site to site it really inspired us both to want to return for a more in depth visit in future.





The Korean War Memorial was pretty amazing as was the Abe Lincoln statue. It's so incredibly overwhelmingly massive. The statues and memorial pieces in this area are phenomenal - truly without peer.

The Smithsonian Air and Space museum was killer too. A host of air and spacecraft, missiles and more. See photos for more. We got to touch a moon rock and have plenty of cool pix taken with all sorts of famed craft. Having seen first hand some of those makeshift crafts that have allegedly been on the moon, you could easily find yourself a little more aggressively aligned with the conspiracy theories surrounding those landings.

Speaking of conspiracies, there are some bonafide 9/11 conspiracy theorists that exist right across from the White House. They hang out there with a host of propaganda, biblical quotes and video screens, demonstrating to all those who gather that they believe the events of 9/11 to be a government conspiracy. It's kinda weird that people like this and Conchita who has been holding a vigil across from the white house since 1981 are in fact more interesting than the famed 1600 building. 66% of the White House is underground, and the yard definitely needs some work.

The busride back was a little suck-ass though. It took over 6 hours and we were well and truly T.O'd by the time we got back to Manhattan. I for one would do it again though. DC was cool, we got to enter 5 different states and my 'Where Have You Been' Map is looking dyn-O-mite!

Rising around midday today, we wasted little time in getting ourselves down to Central Park for some ice skating. Many will be aware that there is an outdoor rink in the park and yeah, it's pretty cool fun. The skates hurt like hell and it's probably impossible to spend more than an hour doing this activity, but it was quite serene and if you're someone like us who can find fun in pretty much anything, then this will be right up your alley.

When leaving the park, we decided to have a charcoal sketch done of the pair of us. I look a little weird, but Michelle looks red hot! Some amazingly gifted talents sitting outside the park doing sketches for people. I'm pleased we got one made for sure. I won't post a photo of it here, it will be part of our home gallery that can be viewed upon appointment.

At the moment, we're just hanging out watching a little bit of TV and soon we will head out for a spot of shopping and dinner with a friend.

It's Turkey Day tomorrow, so not sure what we're gonna do, but it's kinda fun just winging it.

Enjoy the pix, back soon.

Jason

The Great Star Wars swindle...

We kicked off today with a trip to the Guggenheim museum. Pretty amazing place... both architecturally and visually. Generally it's an art museum, with pieces from a host of eras and some truly renowned artists. Unfortunately, you can't take photos there, so I can't do much of the show and tell thing, but you can look it all up on the world wide web should you care. I personally am not much of a fan of the greats when it comes to art, but it was pretty amazing to see original paintings by Kadinsky, Picasso, Matisse, Renoir etc.

I was most taken by the contemporary or modern sorts of pieces. Stark, but engaging and I really like the modern view of what constitutes art. Like music, it offers the idea that even someone as artistically challenged in the traditional sense as I am, can even engage and output art myself.

Michelle's own art installation piece.







Michelle had a nap this afternoon while I went off and did some more shopping. I've eliminated my need to return to 3rd st for any more CDs, so that's a good thing. I walked 50+ blocks today and did some CD shopping in a tidy 2 hours. If you've never been to NY, the distance that constitutes a block is not quite the same as an LA block. Word to the wise.

While I think of it, when we were in LV, Cirque de Soileil was playing literally everywhere. I love how Jack from Will and Grace called is Cirque de So Lame. he he. Been meaning to write that down for a goat's age. God knows I said it enough times while we were there he he he.

We had dinner at this Mexican place we came to last time. Nice, but we both had horrific indigestion after it. We decided to do some more shopping down at 42nd St... good news for some of our family members back home he he, and yeah, felt a little better to be moving around.

Are there ever enough pix of me with a beverage in my hand?

And below, Michelle and I at Times Square.















We hit Toys Are Us down at TS, and that place is ginormous! Naturally they had some star wars stuff and again, I got totally T.O'd about some of their wares. For the second time in as many days I have uncovered figures that have absolutely no relation to any of the characters in the movie. Surely the Star Wars syndicate has generated enough merchandise items and made enough billions of dollars that they don't need to invent characters and make figures of said characters. I even tried to engage some guy in a conversation about it, but he looked at me like I just stepped in from Mars. Forgive me for assuming that some nerdy looking geezer standing in the Star Wars section, looking at the Star Wars things would be in some way interested. "I don't know these movies..." he says. I don't know what's worse... made up characters, or idiots who don't even know but wish to consort with the associated goods. Did you know they never even made a figurine for the Cantina Bartender? I mean yeah, they did make one when they reissued the movies for DVD, but c'mon, that's a crock!


Here's Michelle hugging the giant Darth Vader head.

And below, I'm rockin' it with the Tusken Raider action kit. Includes a female TR and a baby TR. I know, you never saw either of those in the movies... so make that 3 made up figures... Don't let my face belie my

outrage either! It's real!

So tomorrow we're off to Washington. That's gonna be swell think. It'll definitely be a fly by nite excursion. I've heard tell it's a 5 day city, but there are a lot of lamers out there who spend ages looking at crap, so I reckon we can do it in a few hours. It's on a day tour, so it's not like we have a choice he he he.

We're meeting up with a pal of mine who worked with me a few years back. he is a Parisian who is currently working in NY, and yeah, looking fwd to that.

No more will I tell you today.

Jason

The Central Park experience

Like many fine New Yorkers, Sunday starts at Central Park. Though it sounds massive, you can actually walk around a lot of it in a reasonably short amount of time. Not to suggest that is a perk, only that it was a surprise to me.

We kicked off our visit with a horse and carriage ride which was cool. a good way to preview everything. Some very helpful tour guides hooked us up with a map and we found this hundred year old carousel the outdoor ice skating rink, the zoo in the park and of course Strawberry Fields which is across from where John Lennon was murdered. There is a memorial styled thing there and though it's a little difficult to find initially, it quickly becomes obvious as to where it is located.

Michelle got to feed a goat which was pretty funny, and though it was a pretty low key kinda zoo, it had some kick ass monkeys. Particularly this weird window licker styled monkey which reminded us of Norman. He likes licking windows etc he he.



We finished up with lunch at our new fave restaurant on 8th St and I got myself a KILLER Adam and the Ants t-shirt. Expect the unexpected!!!

We're planning to go to the Guggenheim tomorrow with a trip to Washington on Tuesday, so that's gonna be grand.

More soon.

Jason

Who in their right mind would leave Vegas?

A kinda loaded question when you think about it. Easily posed as who in their right mind would go to Vegas? And though it's a weird kinda place, the weather was awesome!!!

We arrived in New York on Thursday night after a long and tedious commute and well it's freezing here. The news report suggested that snow is imminent tonight. Good times he he.

When we last left off, we were headed to see a Vegas 'cabaret' show. I guess if the Suicide Girls' performances can be viewed as cabaret, then so can this. And the music featured at an SG show was nothing to brag about. I forget what this one was called but it was enjoyable enough and considering how tacky Vegas it, the show was more tasteful than I expected once it had commenced.

Here's a nice pic of me and Sigfried and Roy.

So we left the hotel in Vegas at 9.30AM and arrived at the airport not long after. We had an 11.26 flight and due to poor weather in NY (though we saw no evidence of that) we didn't get off the ground till a little after 1PM. Long story short, we got here to our hotel in NY at close to 10PM and we were both a little T.O'd by that. But life goes on.

We have been doing some shopping over the last two days. Finally found some decent record stores and hit St. Marks place which sadly seems to be losing much of what made it a worthwhile attraction. A guy from MySpace told me about a little underground store called Hospital Productions. He said it was down a ladder under a Reggae store. He wasn't lying... it literally was down a ladder. Never seen anything like that! Even found an Atomizer record in there. Ha, is that a good thing?

Stumbled across a great vegetarian restaurant around 3rd St yesterday and we ordered our first, and probably our only, pizza pie last nite. Even had it delivered to our room in the hotel... how cosmopolitan.
We bought some cool hand cut stencil artworks today and this cool framed print from some street vendors near Union Square, and these things are so great and so cheap! It's almost hard to take these pieces from people for such small amounts of money. Tragic that you could easily pay $5 for a cup of coffee, and $10 for a great piece of art. We also picked up a kick ass turntable bathmat from a store called Trash and Vaudeville... Great stuff!

We went down to times square tonite and had a lousy dinner. At least we offset it by a great lunch from a Thai place on 8th st today. Times Square was absolutely crazy tonite. sooooooo many people.

We're gonna head down to Central Park tomorrow. Seems a tidy Sunday thing to do. There is a musical production of Xanadu on at the moment and we're definitely gonna see that. Can't wait. That movie rules, so how good is the Broadway Musical gonna be? I know!!!

Michelle is feeling really homesick at the moment, and we are both missing Norman. Hopefully he'll forgive us for abandoning him he he.


More soon.

Jason