The Great Montombo

Hup Holland; Hup

2006-06-26T17:32:00.000+02:00

This weekend Grader and I have been sampling, so to say, the joys of Amsterdam. Team Welt Meistershcaft has temporarily gone in separate directions with Downo and Skinner fulfilling obligations by going to see Arnika in Paris.
It had been a pretty arduous couple of days on my part having had to go all the way down to Nürnberg to sell the ticket to USA-Ghana which involved about eight hours on the train and overwhelming numbers of unbelievably awful American supporters. I really wanted to extort them for all I could but as well as being unbearable they were also cheap. At least they didn’t win and inflict their shit-arse team on us for our Second Round game. The way they were carrying on while on the train and then especially the S-bahn to the stadium you would’ve thought that they had never experienced public transport, which unfortunately is probably true. Every morning on the New York subway was more crowded than that. As Grader’s host dad Manfred said we really should treat them the way they deserve and stop being so polite. Then after a final night in Köln I was thinking that on reaching Dedinghausen I’d be able to chill for at least a day but Grader had other plans and so after another quick lunch stop at the Menzes we were back on the train. Needless to say I was feeling pretty blah after two days of trains.
Another thing with Americans is that on any trip around Europe they all visit Amsterdam at some stage. And then all proceed to talk about it as if it’s some great revelation that you can smoke weed there and the peculiarities of the red light district. Grader was looking desperately for something to poke in his eye as a distraction on the way there when we were behind two such storytelling geniuses enlightening the Dutch people trapped opposite them about their escapades during their first time in the city.
Grader had been productive during his time in Washington hooking up a place for us to stay, this time being with the brother of one of Heather’s school friends. As described Javier is the nicest Ecuadorian you’re ever likely to meet and his place in Naardem-Bussum was very comfortable.
Amsterdam itself is beautiful set up as it is with concentric semi-circles of canals emanating from the Centraal Station making navigation relatively straightforward. Added to this is that most of the streets are tree lined and the buildings have things like anno. 1664 emblazoned on the front even though new bricks are required in the gaps as they fall away from each other. Along the canals are bountiful cafes perfect for whiling away a couple of hours sipping coffee and watching the water traffic go by.
Javier had told us that the first photo out of the station is always the giant bike rack to the right and he was correct. Copenhagen was just a warm up for this place and again the things are menaces. The silent killer, you step out to avoid an obstacle on the footpath and they’re there waiting to mow you down. At least you can hear cars, and unlike in Germany they don’t seem to believe in the bell here.
Very cool bikes, people look so much more at ease with the huge seats equipped with suspension and sitting upright. Also no ugly helmets disfiguring the appearance, here the cyclist has the advantage of both speed and some of the most solidly constructed bikes around. Especially if you have one of the box carriers on the front that Grader likes so much. Speaking of the condemned one he can’t see how Christchurch should be any different from these cities as it’s so flat and thinks that more people should be on the bike. So all of you need to make sure that he gets out there and starts leading by example. Even with a family it’s no obstacle to keep pedalling, you just invest in one of the ones with what is essentially a wooden box on the front instead of a wheel where children/groceries/tulips/clogs etc can be deposited.
We also managed to get some culture under our belts with a visit to the sex museum, just to fill in some time before the train mind, where the displays got progressively more disturbing. A very fast progression past the urination-transvestite-homosexual-animal (they don’t need a political party advocating this stuff it’s already here) and chubby which was almost the most horrifying. It made some pretty sick shit look normal.
This was nicely balanced by a visit to the Van Gogh museum, though a hefty €10 it was well worth it with a very comprehensive collection fully representing the Dutch master’s career. I had really wanted to go to the Rijksmuseum especially to see Rembrandt’s Nightwatch and was planning to go Sunday morning before heading back to Germany but the train schedule didn’t allow enough time to make it worthwhile. Next time.

Always say hello

2006-06-21T15:01:00.000+02:00

Here are some of the oh-so-sensitive songs that were quite popular among the hordes of English fans in Köln:

I’d rather be a cabbage
Rather be a cabbage
Rather be a cabbage
Than a Swede.

My granddad shot your granddad
Doo da, doo da
My granddad shot your granddad
Doo da, doo da

Oh it’s fun to be morally superior. It makes for an interesting mix with the newly found patriotic fervour that the hosts have tried on, found they liked and are now wearing it everywhere. Carolin, who I stayed with during my time in this ancient Roman city, was telling me about the last world cup which was on while she was living in Australia and how it was only after seeing some other guys wearing German tops into bars and cheering the team on that she did the same for the first ever time. Many people have commented that the number of black, red and yellow flags about the place is unprecedented, and more than a few have suggested that if Germany win the thing then Poland should look out in a generations time.

It’s pretty cool really to see a nation awakening to itself and be able to show pride for the first time. Of course all of this is being helped by the way their team is playing and with their 3-0 demolition of Ecuador to top their group they are proving to be one of the form teams.

The past few days have been almost nothing but travel. After returning from Copenhagen on Sunday we went to game number three in Hamburg – Saudi/Ukraine – then the next day hopped the train down to Dedinghausen, met Grader’s host mum from his time in Germany, had lunch and then straight down to Köln. The idea being to be in amongst the English fans for their game against Sweden which is being played here tonight. Today is one of the biggest days of the tournament so far with both Germmany and England playing, both of whom probably have the biggest fan bases at the tournament, the Germans obviously because they are at home and the English because they have a good tradition of following their team. There were so many fans that they had to create three fan areas all of which were full. Then when I went to meet up with Carolin I found that most of Köln’s many Platzs were also crammed with locals.

All of this made it interesting trying to meet up, especially as our contact was a ride in the back of a truck from Mizunte in Mexico last year. She was with two friends then one of whom, Astrid, came out tonight. (Which if I ever get around to typing it out you can read about here one day :). Whoever says that Germans aren’t the friendliest people around obviously needs to come to Köln where they are known for being a bit more outgoing than the average. And this was certainly the case as I had a great night out and met so many really cool people. Later on Carolin told me that she had laughed with Astrid about how I just talk to everyone – I had been talking surfing with the girlfriend of one of Astrid’s brother’s friends :) – which the only response open was “but that’s how you end up with a place to stay in a German city that you had never thought you’d visit from a ride in a ute.”

"Danish, is that like a language they speak in Denmark" Michael Down

2006-06-19T21:53:00.000+02:00

For the second, well third but Hannover doesn’t really count, European city that I have now been to I think that Kobenhavn will take some beating for the title of Favourite. It has it all, beautiful squares and architecture, canals (now pronounced as in banal), our new favourite thing – girls on bikes, and great nightlife.
One disadvantage to the place is a reluctance to join the Euro, so now it’s doing two calculations in your head to try and work out equivalent prices. This applies more to the others as I am pretty much in Euro is my new currency mode. But anyway the seven times table is getting a good working over, that gets you back to Euro and then double back for Kiwi. Being the young traveller that he is, Downo has a ‘First Time’ guidebook, the great thing about this is that it a little old. This means it has great advice like “…the Euro is nice in theory but will not catch on, you should forget about it as it only applies to select transactions.”
It’s always the surprise events that end up being the most rewarding and so it turned out again when in a bar at 4am we found out about a half marathon being held the next day. The real attraction for us was that the first eleven ks was over the Øresundsbron which connects Kobenhavn to Malmo in Sweden. You may have noticed the hour it was decided to take part, thankfully the race wasn’t until three in the afternoon unlike most Kiwi events which are predominantly held in the morning. It was quite amusing waiting for the bus to the start point as Europeans don’t just go running in an old t-shirt and shorts. Absolutely everyone had the latest gear from dri-fit t’s, those leggings that everyone’s wearing these days and brand new trainers. And there was us who had only taken day bags north and so only had street wear, Ben had saved me from doing it in Chucks by lending me his sneakers. All of this was quite intimidating thinking we were going to be destroyed and that of all of us I had done the most running for the last few months. And this was the 10km part of the SBS Marathon the weekend before I left. All I knew was how much I’d struggled to get through that and this was over twice as far.
My only goal when setting out was to make it the eleven km to the end of the bridge, from there I could always get a bus to the finish or something. Maybe it was because of the longer distance but the competitiveness was replaced by camaraderie among the three of us who lined up at the start line – Ben having decided that going for a picnic with the two girls from the night before was a more manly option, I’ll let you decide – and we set off doing healthy five minute kms. It was kind of strange on the bridge as it felt it was flying by and that we were halfway there after only three kilometres. But alas there were still eight to go but we managed to keep up the five minute pace and we exited well under our hour goal. It was surprisingly steamy while crossing, you would think that being over such an expanse of water there would be a bit of breeze, added to this was there only being one drinks station for all that time compared to the six or so for the last half. The best part about reaching the 12km mark wasn’t that we were over half way but that that’s where the second station was.
Unlike this year’s City to Surf which just ended in a car park we got to finish in Malmo’s stadium, it’s always a great feeling sprinting the finish on nice spongy running track. It was amazing how many people were out on the streets cheering everyone on, heaps of people had set up their sprinklers out on the road or the kids were spraying people with hoses. It was amazing how much of a boost it gave getting a refreshing dousing and probably played no small part in how good I was feeling with two km to go. Much better in fact than at 11 when Ben’s shoes were giving me grief and I let the others go on ahead. And so a final time for them of 1h55m and me 2h01m – I shouldn’t have taken those photos – which seemed remarkable all things considered and while I was happy just to finish that one minute still grates. It’s a real shame that this was the last Broloppet as it really is a cool event.
I am undecided as to whether an afternoon in Malmo is enough to merit a Sweden patch on my pack, usually such a small amount of time wouldn’t but the method of arrival I think may warrant an exception to be made. Thoughts?
Needless to say that night was spent very quietly, in stark contrast to the previous one. To be honest I didn’t think that it would’ve been, after watching the Italy game we were all feeling pretty weary after having to get up in time to catch a 7:15 train. But then in bounded two young things who were insistent that we go out, they had some club in mind but we never made it. The first obstacle was this American guy whose friend had obviously had far too much to drink and was passed out on a bench. This led to one of the quotes of the trip when after trying to get us to call the police and report a drunk American somewhere in Kobenhavn he came out with “what? Are you guys just going to leave me here with him and go off and party?”
To which I think everyone thought “that’s the plan, maybe you should’ve stopped him downing the vodka shots you say he’d been drinking since mid afternoon.”
Reading our minds he responded with “I don’t want to make that call to his parents. I’ve lost too many friends to drink driving. I’ve made the call too many times to parents to tell them that their kid is in a body bag”
It was pretty obvious that I wasn’t the only one trying not to piss themselves. The good thing about this delay was that Marie and Nana (I don’t know either, those Danes) had been talking to a couple of locals who told them about this big music thing just around the corner. Despite the fact that it was winding up there was still a cool atmosphere and talked to some guys about the upcoming Rothskilde festival, unfortunately Munich is too far away to think about coming back for it. I have never seen so many bikes as outside this place. Bikes should be used a lot more as a mode of transport.
Any place that has Iggy Pop’s Passenger – easily one of my favourite tracks to dance to - playing when you walk through the door is going to be a good time and the Vega Natklub did not disappoint. I don’t think Denmark has seen the likes of the moves that Grader was pulling out, they certainly brought a lot of attention on our group.It was quite crazy walking to Vega with the birds singing and the sky lightening. The sun had only gone down fully about 11. And when we finally crawled back to the hostel morning was well under way

Together at last

2006-06-16T17:31:00.000+02:00

Team Weltmeisterschaft is together at last. Skinner and Downo had left the Hamburg brigade in limbo by chasing a false dream of getting Korea-Togo tickets. If any of you watched that game and saw the screaming hordes of frenzied asiatics you would realise the true futility of this. They were productive in making some friends while away, two apparently top rate British guys who we will hopefully be meeting up with again in München.
Before then however it’s time to leave Oriana in peace to study for her exams and take a temporary break from WM second round action and head to Kobenhavn and one of the original Zeelands. WM 2nd round action reminds me about Wednesday night when Germany played Poland. This is probably the biggest game in this group, lots of nice historical rivalry and even better not confined only to the football field, no need for details here hopefully you are all fully up to date on your history. This was the game when the German public really started to think that maybe they had a team that could do well in the competition. When Neuville scored with only a couple of minutes to go the 67,000 people in the fanfest went absolutely mental. One of the genius ironies of this game was that both of the German strikers were born in Poland, it seemed that neither wanted to score against their home country either. Germany had looked the better team throughout the game with Poland apparently forgetting that the object of the game is to score. Now they are out so doesn’t matter.
It is not surprising that this was the first time we’ve seen any untoward behaviour. The Polish fans were very aggressive in both appearance and attitude and despite the huge numerical disparity more than a few of them were obviously looking for fight. Pretty arrogant really, surrounded by people who hate you and standing there insulting them. And so it was no surprise that midway through the second half the packed crowd was forced apart by a phalanx of fully kitted out police who, after a brief show of defiance from the foolish Poles, proceeded to dish out a good old fashioned beat down and drag them out.
For this next story please refer to photo album. We think it must have been one of the Reeperbahn’s quality institutions who decided that they needed to cash in on the football mania. What better way to do this than to get one of your employees, some black, red and yellow paint a national flag and a photographer. Take all of the above to a guaranteed mass of people and bingo front page for your prospectus or maybe new signage out front.
After the game was over the Reeperbahn was unbelievable, hordes of people and innumerable cars with flags streaming behind and horns blaring slowly making their way down too. It had taken us quite a while to exit the fanfest as you might expect and so the street was already thronging, but even after a walk up and down including a kebab stop people were still pouring out of the gates at the same rate as when we exited.
So after that distraction shall we turn back to Kobenhavn. This Deutsche Bahn Weltmeister pass is turning out to be a most prudent investment. Only having to pay from the border makes it feel like a very cheap trip. In planning the trip I had always loved the idea of the four of us cruising around in the booths that you get with the table. And like so many things so far the reality was every bit as good as one could want, much laughter did ensue. A quote book has been started and while the title page does state that ‘what goes in the quote book stays in the quote book’ I think that some of the entries will be too good to lock away. Keep your eyes peeled.
For all of those who remember the good old days of SYC we discovered the source of one of the more peculiar group names. Turns out someone had been to Club 34 here and enjoyed it so much they wanted to keep the memory alive. Tim Chesney what were you doing down a street like that ;)
Both myself and Mr Michael Down have guide books that specifically state that at the City Public Hostel do not end up in the 75 person dorm. It seemed like good advice but on reaching the reception desk that the only beds they had left were in this room. No-one could be bothered walking anywhere else so we decided to try it for a night and see what happens. It’s a very weird thing walking through a door that says Beds 75-150 and into what is ostensibly a school hall. These people must be making a crap load of money ‘cos for the amount they charge there isn’t really much here, not even cubicles around the showers but that is an obstacle for another day and another report.

The day job

2006-06-14T17:30:00.000+02:00

Doing nothing but watch football is much harder than at first it would seem. With three games a day the first kicking off at 3pm and the final whistle not being blown until 11 it’s become a full time occupation. Thankfully Tobias’ flat is only a fifteen minute walk from the Hamburg fanfest, just past Otto across the Reeperbahn and bingo, so at least the commute is manageable.
Hamburg has really put in a good effort for their fanfest with every participating country represented with a stall, which means lots of people pretending to be Brasilian, a strange literal translation from German to English for the Ivory Coast – Elfenbeinküste meaning something like elephant’s foot, and everyone ignoring the Saudi tent. Why would you bother, crap food, no fans and most importantly no beer. Also odd is the British tent only selling Strongbow cider and no lager.

The first game we watched involved Holland so lots of easy humour involving Dutch fans. Then a game that definitely wasn’t marked down on my list of games to see between Mexico and Iran. Who knew that there would be so many Iranians and that they would be so loud – at time of writing the first half of this game has probably been the loudest of any witnessed, having flown over Iran earlier that morning and the vociferous fans made it an easy choice over who to cheer for. This game also involved our first cultural misstep of the tournament. We had battled our way into the temporary stands that border the viewing area and were firmly ensconced in with the Iranians when we realised out of the whole stand we were the only ones with a beer in our hand, oops.

On the other side of Eicholtz is a Portuguese (from now on being pronounced to rhyme with sways :) street, what could be more perfect to view their first outing against Angola. So after downing the first kebab of what I’m sure will become many, going to be hard to beat this one though, we joined the throng on the street all craning to catch a glimpse of a screen in the teeming bars. 1-0 meant they and we went home happy. Me more so because that meant finally going to bed having had just two hours sleep the second night in Dubai, not much more the night before and then it being back into the early hours of the morning Dubai time.

Today also marked the Team Weltmeisterschaft European footballing debut. Every Tuesday Tobias plays a bit of social five a side down at his university and he invited Grader and I to join him. I was a bi nervous as to how the Kiwi standard would match up against one of the greatest footballing nations but we seemed to hold our own.

It was a pristine ground surrounded by beautiful classical building. It was also a stiflingly hot evening. There has been somewhat of a heat wave in these parts with day upon day over thirty barely cooling down in the evenings. With it not getting close to dark till after 10 the days have a tendency to drift by very quickly – what you think is mid to late afternoon turns out to be more like 7pm.

Italia!!! Italia!!! Italia!!!

2006-06-12T17:28:00.000+02:00

A good solid start to the tournament for one of Team Weltmeisterschaft’s favourites. The stadium at Hannover was also very cool, generously dispensing great views from all around the bowl. The noise was intense with continual cheering, at no stage could you hear anything from the pitch itself. The coolest old gent from Italy was sitting just in front of me, turning up about ten minutes before kick off he leisurely made his way down the packed row and then on reaching his seat took a moment to wipe it down before assuming his imperious position. During play itself he then gave continual advice to the players on everything from who to pass to through how convincing he found their acting (sorry FIFA – simulation). One moment we all joined in was Pirlo’s masterful shot. For this we had the perfect angle for to be astounded as the ball ducked, weaved and somehow held its line to cushion into the right side netting.

So it turns out that all of FIFA’s efforts to stop scalping have worked out to pretty much nil. Right from getting off the train we were being offered tickets and as Grader was lacking, we were interested in making a purchase. When ordering the tickets we had had to enter so many personal details that were to be matched to the ticket; what we didn’t think of was just ordering as a company as one genius Brit had. Thumbing his nose even more by calling it something decidedly dodgy like International Ticket Holdings or something. So it was to my surprise that just on kick off I received a text from the G man that he had joined me inside having previously decided that the €150 equated to about six people to the reception. So I hope that you aren’t near the bottom of the list, though a couple of you might be saved as he got it for a hundred.

Getting there felt like just commuting inside the same city. The S-bahn station is just at the end of Tobias’ street which is two stops from the Hauptbahnhof (central station) and from there a simple seventy minute trip down the road. All extremely smooth and comfortable. We did get a taste of the dark underside of German efficiency on the way back when a Ghanaian guy who was sharing our booth and who didn’t have a ticket, he said he’d had his wallet stolen, raised the ire of the conductor who was visibly and audibly seething with frustration and impatience. Probably not the easiest trip for him though, a packed train full of people returning from a football match, 1am and probably more than a few trying to get away without a ticket.

I hope all of the cities are as well laid out for their games. The centre of town in Hannover was a nice ten minute walk from the fanfest and then from there about another fifteen to twenty to the stadium. It created a great atmosphere with everyone walking down the one road to get there with banter, songs and drumming flying back and forth. One of the more genius sights at the fanfest was the complete lack of customers at the Budweiser tent. Plenty of the good stuff was being poured at other booths but none of it officially sanctioned. I really don’t know why they bother, who would choose a Bud over even the cheapest, nastiest German offering. You’d have to look pretty hard for the latter as even widely criticised Astra, a local Hamburg beer, is not too bad.

This modern love ... breaks me

2006-06-11T17:24:00.000+02:00

I know that the UAE is trying to set all sorts of records for different extravagant things but one that I hadn’t counted on was the speed of passport control, about as long as it takes to open a passport, stamp it and rearrange your pristine white robes. Who needs landing cards anyway, they would only slow you down. Even when I had something to declare there was nowhere to do it. The whole thing took about as much time as I got to spend with Saija a couple of nights later.
An advantage to a religious intolerance of alcohol is that energy has to be put into flavoursome substitutes. My favourite surrogate were the fantastic yoghurt drinks that were on offer-strawberry, mango, and one with passionfruit were some that I sampled and it would be unfair to nominate one above the others.
Essential reading for anyone interested in this region, actually everyone, is Wilfred Theisinger’s Arabian Sands.
People are probably getting sick of being told how great Emirates is. I know that two of my colleagues have already been extolling their virtues to the world. And bear in mind that I am still going to write good things about them even though their baggage handlers broke my pack.
One of the biggest improvements is just the Airbus A340 that they fly with a 2-4-2 seat formation as well as being a lot quieter and feeling much smoother than the Boeing 747. Then the food actually tastes like food and there’s a lot of it, always good. You also have to respect the large investment to bring all flights live coverage of the football fest in Germany. On the flight to Hamburg I caught the Argentina-Cote d’Ivoire and Trinidad & Tobago-Sweden games that I had missed while out with Saija the night before. Basically they cover everything good food, comprehensive entertainment, quality service and of course free drinks. I could even be updating this through a wi-fi connection but there are too many movies to watch and someone nice to talk to in the seat next door. Sorry.
My sister had recommended sitting on the right hand side of the plane when leaving Dubai which I managed to swing and was rewarded with stunning views of Iran – no nuclear facilities spotted just in case you were wondering Donald. Dubai airport is pretty nuts and totally dominated by Emirates which made check-in both straightforward and confusing. Not quite as mystifying as arrival however, I think that I went through immigration while on one of those moving walkways it was that fast.
The flight took us up in between Iran and Iraq then up to Poland before heading west to Hamburg. It’s amazing how developed the whole plain is, even the woods seem to be in geometric shapes and you have to wonder how they have survived there. It also seemed as though there were little villages spaced about 10km apart crisscrossing the whole area.
When one of the power companies in New Zealand tried to install a wind turbine in some remote outpost there was huge outcry from the three people and five dogs that lived there about noise and visual pollution. At the same time as they ran their fan heaters all winter in their un-insulated houses. Here there are wind turbines everywhere, spinning away incessantly even though there doesn’t appear to be any wind. The future is now, get on board ;)
‘Hi Grader”

testing, testing are you still there?

2006-06-09T21:46:00.000+02:00

And we’re back!

After a nine month hiatus in Christchurch the road is once again beckoning. Not so much of the road as featured last year though and hopefully much more in the way of trains but figuratively at least.

So now America has been left behind and it’s time to focus on something infinitely more attractive, namely Europe and the Fifa World Cup 06. Germany’s not going to know what hit it when on the 12^th Grader, Downo, Skinner and myself (superhero names to follow) combine our powers Captain Planet style to take on the mighty event. We are all a bit worried about Grader though and what sort of shape he will be in what with his recent engagement, the yellow peril can really take it out of a guy. Actually just had a message from him and he’s safely in Dublin practising his Sieg Heil’s with the rest of the gathered Pom’s (I don’t understand either, I thought Dublin was an Irish city but that’s the advantage of having eyes on the ground and not just relying on other agencies to report for you ), hopefully he won’t get arrested before I get to Hamburg, I don’t know where I’m going.

In the meantime it’s two nights in Dubai, if you’ve got a crane bring it here. It seems that unless a building has about three attached to it the other building start gossiping about lying idle and general lazy tendencies. Some of these suckers are 30 to 40 stories high. It truly is unbelievable in scope in that it’s just happening everywhere.

To try and get a feel for the place I headed out for a walk and ended up playing cricket on some dusty empty lot with a bunch of young Pakistanis which I came to while meandering through the narrow lanes between the low slung houses of the predominantly Indian/Pakistani workers. The only real communication possible was listing players names but it didn’t really matter for the half hour or so that I joined in.

Being in an Islamic country sure throws up some contrasts – a woman wearing a full burqa but carrying a Coach handbag, even the most modest among us get caught up in flashy consumption. Like the burqa much of the beauty of the place is hidden away, only when a gate is left open do you get a glimpse of the idyllic courtyards that are hidden behind the high walls.

Walking isn’t the most sensible idea around here with the temperature and the humidity which I wasn’t expecting. Even at night it doesn’t really improve. Wandering the alleys and souks around the Creek with Tina the mercury seemed to rise back again about 10. And so after the third shower of the day it was out to sample some of the fabled Dubai nightlife that I had heard so much about when trying to match expectations in Christchurch. While a lot of progress has been made in Dubai in the last twenty five years and many new things introduced it doesn’t appear that they have discovered irony yet and are still in the superclub faze. Woo woo house music :) And man could some of her friends dance, on and on resolutely trying to go all the way through to the end.

Ah good times.

notice

2006-06-08T00:06:00.000+02:00

Hi everyone, welcome back.

I have been writing as I have been going but to start with some of the order may not be entirely chronological. This will remedy itself along the way.

Crosstown Traffic

2005-07-18T23:47:00.000+02:00

Apparently you never get a day in Seattle without clouds. The place must be a bit abnormal currently as the blue sky has yet to be marred by any white or fluffy. Yesterday I went for a walk up Queen Anne hill to the lookout and thanks to the clear weather got a great view right past the Sky Needle (I refuse to be igven grief about not experiencing this touristing hihglight, all towers are the same and it's nice to be able to take a photograph that includes the architectural feature once in a while- big ups for citites with hills), over the city and out to Mt Ranier which the guidebooks say is lucky to get. If you were needing inpiration to write about some mythical mountain where the goal of a great quest, probably involving a dragon, lay then this semi-dormant volcano would be a good place to start what with its snow covered cone rising up out of the mists hounding its base.

Once again I have been getting the feeling of just being carried along on a wave of good fortune. I gave up on the idea of stopping in Rapid City and going to Mt Rushmore as it was turning out to be one of those places that would be pretty much impossible without a car and there wasn't really anywhere to stay bar hotels. So this meant that I arrived in Seattle a day ahead of schedule, on the way I had called both the hostels in the city only to learn that both were full, so it was looking like an uncomfortable night in the Greyhound station. But I figured that I might as well try and hope that there had been a cancellation or something and thankfully this was the case - a hostel bed never felt so good. Both of the places here are really good with teh best feature being a really extensive complimentary breakfast - eat that Chicago you overpriced so and so.

This hour of free internet is coming to you from a prety amazing library. You get a lot of building for $135 million and there are 300 computer stations to choose from!!!

I just about cried this morning at breakfast when I was reading the local free newspaper and reached the gig guide to see that Kings of Leon had played in town on Saturday night. And all I did was go to a baseball game, dammit.

The whole Seattle area is really beautiful, kind of similar to home with lots of mountains, water, pine trees etc. The harbour setting sets up some pretty impressive views, the city has a huge port and judging by the names of the ships and on the sides of the containers is where most of the trade imbalance with China arrives.

The Pike Place Farmers Market is a lot of fun with a huge array of every type of produce. The highlight, however touristy, is definitely the fish stall where they throw the fish around and all yell out in unison, kind of hard to explain but compelling viewing. There were some Alaskan crab legs there that had to be over a foot long I was trying to picture what the creature would look like whole.

Today I have been up to Bruce Lee's grave and am about to head out to where Jimi is buried. Oh yeah - Matt - I made it up to Espresso Vivace and finally got a good coffee in America.

brrm brrm

2005-07-17T23:43:00.000+02:00

change busses

brrrrrrrrmmmmm, brrrrm, brrrrrrm, brrrrrrrrrrm, brrrrrrm, brrrrrm, brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrm, brrrrrrrrrrrrrn, brrrrrrrrrrrrrn, brrrrrrrrrrm, brrrrrrrrm brrrrrrrm brrrrrrrrrrrrm, brrrrrrrrmmmmm, brrrrm, brrrrrrm, brrrrrrrrrrm, brrrrrrm, brrrrrm, brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrm, brrrrrrrrrrrrrn, brrrrrrrrrrrrrn, brrrrrrrrrrm, brrrrrrrrm brrrrrrrm brrrrrrrrrrrrm, brrrrrrrrmmmmm, brrrrm, brrrrrrm, brrrrrrrrrrm, brrrrrrm, brrrrrm, brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrm, brrrrrrrrrrrrrn, brrrrrrrrrrrrrn, brrrrrrrrrrm, brrrrrrrrm brrrrrrrm brrrrrrrrrrrrm, brrrrrrrrmmmmm, brrrrm, brrrrrrm, brrrrrrrrrrm, brrrrrrm, brrrrrm, brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrm, brrrrrrrrrrrrrn, brrrrrrrrrrrrrn, brrrrrrrrrrm, brrrrrrrrm brrrrrrrm brrrrrrrrrrrrm,

change busses

FOR TWO WHOLE DAYS!!!!!!

Paw to paw with the king of beasts

2005-07-15T06:40:00.000+02:00

Wrigley Field totally lived up to expectations. It's pretty impressive when you can draw 39,000 people to a Thursday afternoon game especially when it's only against the Pirates who by any definition suck. One of the coolest things about Wrigley is that because it is so old the stands don't enclose the whole field only really following the first and third base lines out and so all of the buildings on the lucky sides now sport mini bleacher stands of their own. Most would hold 100-150 people I reckon, pretty nice perk to living there.

Chicago is definitely one of the cleanest cities so far and seems to be environmentally aware also which is rare for the East Coast. There is even a recycling program which as far as I have been able to discern is unherad of east of the Mississippi.

Also in the positives column is the Lincoln Park Zoo. I wasn't expecting too much with it being free maybe a glorified petting zoo for inner city kids to see sheep or something but it wasn't that at all but a very extensive collection and an attempt was being made to house the animals in native like enclosures whcih the Bronx Zoo surprised me at its lack of. Auckland Zoo and Orana Park are really right up there in terms of zoos.

An incredible moment came when I walked past the lions and around from the screaming children to where there was a side viewing window. Here, hidden from the horror, was a lioness streched out against the glass and it was quite a buzz to hold my hand up against her paw. Another highlight was seeing a bald eagle that was recovering from an injury sustained in the wild, and a couple of polar bears.

You truly have to despair at the American public, the place was filled with kids on day trips from their summer camps and the only way I can describe their attitude is that the performing monkey days are missed - "make it move daddy." It freaked me to see otherwise respectable men beating their chests and grunting in an attempt to make the gorilla copy them. They were only getting two disdainfull looks though, one from me and thankfully one from the gorilla who, when it was a little quieter, did perform a little.

Seeing all of the different animals got me very excited about Peru and especially the Amazon section of that trip. It's not too far away either.x

Civic Space

2005-07-15T00:17:00.000+02:00

A city is defined by its public areas, art and architecture and in all of these Chicago is top notch. I have gone a bit photo wacky these past couple of days.

The new Millennium Park is one of the coolest civic spaces I've ever been in with truly breathtaking sculpture and an outrageious outdoor stage. It's at the northern tip of the huge Grant Park which stretches along the front of the magnificent Lake Michigan, it's not like you need to build right up to the water when you go up 112 stories.

Apparently I can post photos on here but it doesn't seemto want to co-operate so you'll just have to wait.

Amid all of the architectural splendour rises the impressively ugly Sears Tower again confusing the issue of world's tallest building by claiming the highest occupied floor. The funny thing it that it seems to be the fashion to copy it with two other black monoliths with twin white antennae sprouting forth. One of these I went up last night, all you have to do to get to the 96th floor is buy a drink in the bar there which is a win-win situation really. Minimised tourists, no lines and sometimes it is better to view the giant rather than stand on its shoulders.

Speaking of deals, it seems to be the latest trend among panhandlers to come up to you and start a conversation, pretty easy to target someone lugging a 20kg pack and then a short way after "so where you from? Let me guess Sweeden, the Czech Republic, England? Noo Zeeeland that's by Switzerland isn't it? Say man can you help a brother out ..."
Now I still stand by what I have written previously but this is often coming from people who are better dressed tahn I am. Also I'm getting pretty sick of getting singled out cos I'm white - what makes you think I've got more change in my pocket than these black guys in suits around me, honestly it happens all the time. When I think about it it doesn't seem like such a bad rub getting a buck or two for a conversation I don't want to have, but to pay and commune is just a rip.

One thing that I haven't mentioned yet are fireflies which I first encountered in Nashville. Impossible to record on film unfortunately but fun when you're walking down a street to have all these little flashes of light flitting about.

Today I'm going to go to Lincoln Park Zoo, apparently it's free - booyah, and a Cubs game a Wrigley Field. Pretty much just leaves Fenway Park in Boston to go in terms of iconic baseball fields to visit.

Something that definitely helps when travelling is seeming to being blessed with an innate sense of direction. So far I have had little trouble with any of the places I've been and been able to navigate without a map fairly easily, even when exiting subways and the like I seem to know what way to head. But Chicago is messing with me. It's as if the compass has been turned around 90 degrees counter clockwise and I can't quite get used to it.

Gateway to the West postponed

2005-07-13T00:41:00.000+02:00

Well Dennis finally caught up with me. With the bus not leaving for Chicago until the small hours of the morning I though I might as well go catch a movie. While St Louis is a very nice place (more about that later) it does have the misfortune of being one of those suburban cities. A very good book about the place is Johnathan Franzen's 27th city; anyway this meant going miles out into St Louis County by metre and then, according to Mapquest, a short walk. Well it took an hour all the while the remnants of Dennis were falling from the heavens. St Louis is also a place where is seems all but impossible to spend money, I didn't see one McDonalds, BK, Wendys etc and hardly anywhere else to get something to eat. Then the one place you think would charge to get a tour of doesn't, but then when you sell 1 out of every 2 beers sold in the US I'm sure you can afford to show a few people how for free. The Anheuser-Busch brewery was actually quite beautiful and ornate, well worth it and you get two free brews at the end. While some may think two free Buds is hardly worth it I would agree but there are other options that actually do have some flavour.

The Gateway Arch is a spectacular peice of engineering and truly beautiful. The trip to teh top is pretty cool too, you get in these little egg shaped capsules and get hauled up 630ft and great views of the city and the might Mississippi. I haven't said anything about that the aorta of America yet. It's not as wide as I thought it would be but you can see that it's still formidible and the fact that it's going to take me three days by bus to follow it right up is mind boggling.

And so just about dead from tiredness and after a thourough soaking I'm heading north to Chicago and not West as so many others did.

Dash from Dennis

2005-07-13T00:04:00.000+02:00

I have done it, the night is conquered and now I can escape. Just as the birds heralded it the sky is beginning to lighten heralding the end of the toughest four days of the trip. All that was needed was one of the last cloves to dull the hunger and a can of coke for some much needed caffeine. Thankfully it has been a warm evening and this station they have in St Louis is grand in its imperial style and cute little forecourt equipped with picnic tables which are perfect for watching the busses pull up and spill forth their contents. Always a mixed bunch from your truckers and army brats being shipped around the country to your old people whose social security won't stretch to a plane ticket - like the gent who was next to me from Nashville to Atlanta who for some reason kept his bag in the overhead tray but needed access to it all the time. This part was fine I guess but the act of sitting down seemed to be just about too much for him as he realised that the final part of that action is a fall and requires faith that the seat will still be there upon completion. This made him hesitate at the last second and invariably meant that instead of falling into his seat he ended up on me. Not helped was his size, though compared with the two four rows up from us he is positively fading away. The four people occupying this row are all generously proportioned with the two in the aisle being genuinely huge which leads to the incredible sight of them having to balance out with only one cheek (which is probably about as wide as me) on the seat closing the gap for the front of the bus to get to the toilet to about 6 inches.

The plan on leaving Atlanta was an overnight journey to New Orleans where accomodation was booked for the weekend and then up to Memphis etc. However upon reaching Mobile, Alabama expecting to transfer busses the disinterested customer service representative informed a small group of us that the Greyhound terminal had been closed due to the hurricane and that actually Mobile was in the process of being evacuated itself. Not being able to get any more help out of this person and with the clock reading about 4am I had to make the executive decision to get back on my original bus which was going all the way to Houston. At this point I think it would be relevant to take out a map of the US and a coloured pencil, actually this is what I started doing, and draw a line from Atlanta through Montgomery and Mobile, AL; out to Houston; up to Dallas wait for three hours in the dive of a terminal, surprising as the big D is Greyhound HQ (did get to quickly escape and visit the grassy knoll which means I have now been to the sites of the three most famous assassinations in US history Lincoln, JFK and MLK jr.) and then finally on up to Memphis Tennessee. And there we are Sunday morning after leaving Atlanta sometime Friday.

Texas was refreshingly hot - 95f and with a good hot wind rushing over the burning earth. None of this muggy bollocks.

Hallelujah, praise the Laawwwd

2005-07-12T00:27:00.000+02:00

The Full Gospel Tabernacle was where Memphis began for me with Rev. Al Green in full voice. A surprisingly small place way out in the suburbs and perhaps the most amazing thing being that the big painting they had behind the choir of a baptism scene had Jesus as white but all the other characters black. The choir was blow your mind stuff but even they struggled to match the musicians three kids representing a truly righteous organ, guitar and drums.

Called past Graceland which I had psyched myself into going to pretty sure that it would be as unbearable as most Elvis fans usually are. And so I was surprised how gutted I was when they said that the queue was running at two hours which meant that with my limited time in the city that I wouldn't be able to see anything else. So on it was to the Gibson Les Paul Showcase which toured past these beautiful instuments being crafted out of solid blocks of wood. And another super effort from the Smithsonian with the Rock and Soul Museum. Oh and past Sun Studios.

Memphis impressed me with the amount of art they had around the town and it would've been nice to see it with a few more people around but being the weekend pretty much the only populated street being Beale which just oozed the blues with bands every 100 yards or so all mixing together in the middle. On Heather's step-dad's advice I called in to have some ribs. Even though it was the first thing I'd eaten that day the half portion left me stuffed, I have no idea how people could manage the monstrous portions walking past.

The timing of the busses meant that I had to leave far sooner than I would've liked, missing out on Destiny's Child too.

Newsroom

2005-07-11T22:35:00.000+02:00

What a day to go on a tour of the CNN headquarters in Atlanta! The place was going mad covering all the events in London which I had only found out about while queueing for my ticket. Such is the isolation of the backpacker. Horrible twist for a city which only the day before had been celebrating so.
The tour itself was excellent and quite inspirational, maybe even something other than teaching that a history degree may be useful for. Apart from the obvious CNN is a pretty impressive organisation, I would like to see the BBC and compare, however in the atrium - the one with the longest free standing escalator of 8 floors in the world - the NZ flag they had was wrong, white stars bordered by red. The tour leader was most embarrassed and i hope a couple of fact checkers get shot. The most mystifying part for me is how could a flag maker of the size that someone like CNN would buy from get it so wrong.
In my pursuit of culinary diversity in the US I felt that grits really needed to be tried. Again taking cues from Lonely Planet the Flying Biscuit (read Scone) was visited and grits promtly served. And with assurances from the guy sitting next to me that these were about the best grits to be had anywhere I stared with trepidation at the thick grey sludge before me. Apparently it's some sort of ground corn cooked with cream with the end result coming out something like coldish porridge made from tapioca - like two nightmares combined. Thankfully there was a generous portion of scrambled eggs to chase it down and finally a place with an espresso machine and not just deli dreck.

In the time it took to eat this every MARTA station had been issued 5 heavily armed troopers menacing around the entrance. It's so obvious - ratchet up the alert to orange, post the army and wind everyone's tensions that little bit tighter. Yawn.

The Martin Luther King birthplace, church, gravesite etc was very moving and I'm glad that I braved the walk. A bit like Fiji there is nowhere to hide when you're the only white guy on the street and you're instantly a target for the abundant panhandlers a situation made worse by having absolutely no money still needing to visit a bank. I'm really glad that I read John H. Griffin's book Black like me before coming as it really helped me view the South, just wish I could've got to New Orleans where most of the story takes place.

I was going to go to the Braves/Cubs game but Greg, the guy I was staying with, was having a cook out and so I went to that instead to meet some southern folks. And very nice they were too, extremely enterprising all of them seemed to have started their own businesses and as a group had started a church a couple fo years ago.

Athens

2005-07-07T08:23:00.000+02:00

Right from the outset the South proves itself to be markedly different from the north-eastern pressure cooker. Being greeted with a big smile and similar "Howdy, how may we help you today?" at the Nashville visitors centre surprised me so much I just about turned and left. And help they most certainly did do making sure that I was able to use the few hours I had there to the best advantage.

It's a pretty cheesy place, even exluding the country, with a full scale replica of the Parthenon with some flimsy excuse about being the Athens of the South.

This included a visit to the Bluebird Cafe whose honour roll includes the Cowboy Junkies, dave Crosy, Steve Earle, Emmylou Harris and is credited with discovering both Garth Brooks and Lucinda Williams. Tonight however is was four unknows performing in the 'round' though apparently Willie Nelson has recorded one of the guy's songs. The concept is pretty cool really, a circle where everyone takes turns singing a song and so you get a nice flow as themes are taken up and dropped with some good banter in between.

I even found myself enjoying straight country music for a bit before the straight up honesty started to get to me. I the end I think that I need a bit more subterfuge. Lonely Planet reccomended the catfish sandwich which of course I followed and was well pleased with the result. Catfish seems to be pretty big down here.

Nashville was also the first 'car' city I've encountered. The Bluebird is quite a way from the city centre and after the 18hr bus ride from DC I quite fancied a walk. But was there a footpath to be found? There wasn't even a sidewalk! I got honked at a couple of times for daring to take up a little bit of the grass verge, at least I think that's what it was for.

South

2005-07-06T22:08:00.000+02:00

My watch has stopped. I don't know what sort of omen that is but it sure feels like its only the mechanics failing the idea anyway with New York already feeling far away and Montreal barely raising a flicker on the memory scan.

A few days ago when I left DC, Heather and Grader behind I have to admit to wondering about just heading back to LA and then Christchurch's warm embrace. As usual it was a book that saved me - Jack Kerouac On the Road, kind of a fitting choice I figured when making the purchase. I am actually glad that I'm travelling while reading it as the mad excitement it contains would be too much to bear otherwise.

After a few glorious days in Maryland where everything was as described - cheesy Canadians, being plied with drinks by Heather's step dad, cool as basment and refreshing pool - the 4th of July soon rolled around and a second huge crowd in three days as we headed down for the fireworks etc. One of the best things about Washington is that all of the museums and memorials are free. There is simply far too much to see but I made a point of finally getting through the Capitol Building, the one major thing that had elided me on previous visits; the newly completed WWII memorial which they have done very well - Heather wasn't the only one surprised at how tasteful it was; and the National Museam of the American Indian which also wasn't complete the last time I was in town. Forget every other minority's sob stroy the Indians in North America simply got screwed, and even in a setting that has to be as neutral and unconfrontational as the Smithsonian this fact leaked through time and time again through stories from all parts of the continent.

I also managed to catch up with Alex and Susan Fleming who kindly had me over for dinner and it was really nice to hear how they've been the past couple of years. I sure have been treated well in the home cooked meals department the past few days with Susan even creating a semi pavlova.

It was cool walking around and seeing skyrockets littlering the place, definitely something we need to bring back. Washington remains right up there in the favourite city stakes and I guess we'll see over the next three weeks whether anyone else can top it.

Click...click...click...

2005-07-03T18:52:00.000+02:00

Again my freakish timing holds, and along with Grader and Heather, I am able to be a part of the Live 8 movement. I'm not really sure why Philadelphia is one of the cities, I think that it maybe had a Live Aid concert as well, but it has certainly worked out well.

The stage was on the steps leading to the Museum of Art, which you will all know from Rocky, and meant that the crowd could fill in the avenue right back to the Town Hall. Some reports say that a million people were there, others 200,000 in any case a shitload and probably the biggest crowd I've ever been in - beating Time's Square for New Years 2002. Heather coped admirably seeing she doesn't really like crowds. And we had no troubles with traffic and parking somehow fluking everything making the whole trip about as smooth as you could imagine - well until we got to the site.

Apparently in America a blanket placed on the ground holds the same legal property rights as a fenced off plot of land. It was one of the craziest things that and none of us could really believe these people who had got there early, set up huge picnic areas right near the front - some even having charcoal barbeques going- and who then were getting really really angry when the other few hundred thousand people tried to enjoy the experience.

At first, me the naive little kiwi boy just went strolling through and was shocked at the reaction engendered. One particular guy who the term red neck hardly covers it started going on about his Grandma who had made the blanket - "so why would you bring it to something like this, what is this a music festival or a fucking picnic?" and then called me a hippy, I think it was the hair good thing he didn't see Grader's pink shirt. You have to wonder what he was expecting really with it only being about the most left wing event since the anti-war marches. This was a common thought that only grew through the day.

The hopelessness of the idea of convincing the general American population that there is something bigger out there was amply proven by the three ample black girls next to us. I don't think I have ever witnessed such selfish behaviour amplified all the more by the nature of the event we were at. Actions include grabbing the 'One' campaign beach balls thrown out for everyone's entertainment and deflating them so they could sit their fat asses down. The worst was yet to come when three cops suddenly came through the crowd from the direction of the medical tent clearing a path for the stretcher carrying team of medics following. The importance of this didn't seem to register with these girls who were just about to get a deserved knightstick to the head before they loudly moved.

One of the coolest things ever was right at the start when Will Smith kicked off a round the world shout out getting Philly to shout howdy to London to say good afternoon to Paris to say Bonjour to Rome and on to Berlin, Moscow, Ontario and back to us. The global community is fucking cool! A bit later they re-established the connection and after being told about the sobering fact that one child needlessly dies every three seconds all the venues followed the lead of a video clicking our fingers every three seconds.

We got to see some pretty good bands, nothing compared to London which had the mother of all line-ups. But those to come to the party included Kaiser Chiefs (who? who? who?) to kick it off which they did well. Black Eyed Peas followed by Bon Jovi - booyah!!! Destiny's Child, Kanye West, rubbish, rubbish, rubbish, Dave Matthews aaaarrrrgggh, Def Leppard!!!!! Alicia Keys for confusingly only one song, Linkin Park which song are they doing they all sound the same joined by Jay Z why are you giving these little dicks credibility. And then it was too tortuous to wait around for Stevie Wonder so we left.

I may seem pretty down on America in this post and I apologise to all of those who I know are out there who do see some of these issues and feel the same. It kind of seems that those people I meet are cool and know what's going on and the rest are happy to kill in ignorance, so I guess I also apologise to those who I'm about to meet in the next few weeks :)

It was unbelievable the reaction of the crowd when they were being told about the reasons behind the whole event. It was as if they just thought it was some free concert for their benefit. So many people around us had brought enough food to pretty much consume non stop for the entire day, and continued doing so even while being told that their lifestyle, which seems to be considered some God given right, is directly causing millions and millions to suffer. It became clear that the most dangerous thing in the world is the American Dream. I can't remember where I heard it but 'your average American doesn't want restrictions put on the rich because they don't want them to be there when they get rich themselves.'

I can also understand why Americans struggle to see why they should be sending aid overseas when there is so much poverty at home. This became especially evident on the day itself travelling through Philly with huge areas so derelict they were one step from falling down. I can only imagine the hopelessness those living there must feel. But surely a country as full of resources as America should be able to take care of these things and so you look around to see where some solutions could be found and it's hard to look past the size of that defense budget. The country doesn't have a health system, as Grader found out last week, and even cheap health insurance is $200 a month! Land of the free indeed.

By the end of the night Chet will own your heart

2005-07-01T08:38:00.000+02:00

Well the clock has wound down on my time in New York with a very mellow final twist given by The Eels. Always one of those bands that flies somewhat under the radar but one that is consistently genius for which no exception was made tonight.

For this tour the band consisted of frontman E, obviously. Four lovely ladies on strings and a mohawk adorned double bass player. And then there was the freakishly talented Chet showing off at various times on the slide guitar, keys, organ, percussion, drums (simply a tom housed in a garbage can and an old leather suitcase for the bass drum) and a soaring saw echoing around in the wonderful accoustics of the Town Hall providing a beautiful melancholy for E's somewhat dark lyrics.

It's been great to be back in the city and to have a chance to fill out the picture a bit by experiencing it in summer. Big thanks to Amanda and Jimmy for their hospitality and good luck in your new places, I hope the move goes smoothly.

Now just got to hope the crazy Chinese will let me on the bus in the morning. When I went down there yesterday to check the timetables and buy a ticket the lady selling them wanted to put me on the next bus to DC. This was despite the fact I didn't even have a day pack or anything, I don't know too many people who travel a light as shorts and a t-shirt but maybe it's more common in Chinatown.

Blackthoughts

2005-06-30T08:29:00.000+02:00

Summer evenings are perfect for outdoor concerts and Central Park is pretty even in that respect as a venue. Wisely over the warm months there is pretty much an event a night and this night it was The Roots supported by De La Soul and who really cares, some guy in a mask who I'd never heard of and couldn't understand.

When buying tickets on ticketmaster you get through all the selection process and then are confronted with a convenience charge, in this case $7 which for a $30 ticket seems pretty steep, with no explanation as to what greater features in the way of ease this money might bring. these were my less than complimentary thoughts while buying the tickets and were quickly forgotten as merely one of the inconveniences of life but were soon rushed back into the forefront of my mind by the 45 minute queue for the Will Call booth, you would think that $7x5000 people could pay for more than two poor sods to deal with distribution.

Thankfully the bill lived up to its pretty fearful reputation with De La taking us on a trip back through the annals of hip hop for which they have been blazing a trail for most of the others to follow. Very cool seeing them joined by Mos Def, the Black Sheep and a raft of others who didn't mean anything to me.

The Roots as always were more than excellent during their more than two hour set. I don't know how Questlove does it keeping a continually excellent beat going pretty much non stop over this marathon. Truly a pleasure to watch him in action, hard to single him out though with truly excellent musicianship from all involved.

Inconceivable

2005-06-29T06:13:00.000+02:00

One thing that's inescapable in the big cities of the States is homeless people. It has been a little surprising that there aren't more here in New York this time seeing it's summer and the size of the place and all, it's definitely not as bad here as LA and San Fran. Not that that's any sort of justification, one is too many.

I remember that in the previous times I was here it always used to break my heart seeing them and all I wanted to do was give them all I had and little had really changed. The main difference is that then I was working and so had a slightly larger budget and it does feel kind of funny giving to people when quite often you are only eating once a day yourself. But then I always feel guilty about the extravagence of travelling, however cheaply, and who really misses a few coins anyway. I also can't get out of my head the idea that if it's bad here what is the reality of Africa.

The front page of today's paper was trumpeting the fact that B*sh has set aside $1.7bn to battle malaria in Africa which gives everyone a nice warm fuzzy for 12 pages until you hit the editorial and find that a couple of years ago he promised 5. Who the hell needs another aircraft carrier/submarine/war - other news says that the Taliban is back on the rise so that incursion has obviously worked well giving full value for money. Try, try, try again and one day you may succeed. The diplomatic equivalent of trying to reach the playground of Peace and Posterity by banging your head against the wall while the rest of the class goes hungry.

SOOL Crusade

2005-06-29T02:36:00.000+02:00

I have been pretty fortunate with my two weeks in New York to have timed it right for some pretty big events. This whole weekend has been Billy Graham's last Crusade and I thought I should make the effort to get out and see such an influential man along with 99,999 others. You only realise how truly large New York is when you go to the extremities like Flushing Meadows in Queens. It just goes on and on and on.

The buildup to the great man was just about unbearable, and only a little of it was the fact that it was stinking hot and standing room only, and far more to do with the music being hellish. How can it be that something seeking such great heights is without fail insipid and and so breathtakingly uninspired? It is truly staggering how narrowly focussed American Christians are on moral exactitudes. Seems to take up pretty much all of their spiritual focus, not leaving much room for such trivialities as the Kingdom and helping the poor. The latter lack being even harder to stomach looking at the people around and the general excess of New York in general. It was announced during the "15 minute" plead for money that the weekend had cost US$7 million to stage, a truly staggering sum imho. Made me wonder how many Easter Camps could've been run with that sort of money.

Then the big Billy G was finally assisted to the podium and I think that maybe 86 years is a few too many to try and communicate. 30 minutes of general evangelical waffle followed by an altar call that seemed to come from nowhere and judging by the conviction on people faces as they moved forward I was confused by those who were joining me in looking for an exit.

To recover from that I felt that a good night of music was neccessary and thankfully New York delivered. The last time I was here I had wanted to see The Soundtrack of Our Lives (SOOL) bt it had sold out quicker than these sorts of thing do back home, anyway not much chance of that Sunday night as it wasn't going to be until after1am as they were supporting Robert Plant earlier in the night - too cool.

Having not heard anything of theirs I didn't really know what to expect but was treated to a sol soothing mix of the Doors and Turin Breaks. The Doors in the cool jazzy keys and baritone voice, Turin Breaks in everyone seated, well bar the lead singer but I'm getting to him, and two accoustic guitars. All of this was fronted by a giant bearded, kaftan wearing Swede (not the exceptionaly part as the other 5 were too) who looked like he could've pillaged English villages on his own had he been born 800 or so years earlier. The other 5 would barely have made a dent in a nunnery by comparison but they did have great hair! One of those gigs that fits the mood perfectly, just like Turin Breaks in Auckland.

Sorry Brouwer, Billy Corgan was playing on Monday but couldn't make it.

Broken Land

2005-06-26T20:57:00.000+02:00

By strange coincidence I have woken up the past two Sunday mornings on a strange couch out in Brooklyn. As I informed last week Saturday night was spent out of Manhattan and because of the hassle of night trains we crashed at Jimmy's friend Phils very cool pad. This week I had gone with Amanda instead to a bar where her friend Eric had just started working. It seems that the latest bar fashion is the 'Lounge Bar' and this is actually the name of the establishment in question. It's a pretty cool idea really with lots of couches taking up most of the floor space and giving a nice relaxed feel. One odd thing that bugged me a little was that the speakers for the DJ were positioned so that they had to go past the couch area before the sound waves broke over the dance floor - not much but took a little away from the feel they were going for I thought.

Seeing it was such a nice evening we took our drinks out into the courtyard, or maybe it was so Amanda could smoke I forget, who cares, where we got chatting to some locals. After the initial period of breaking the ice, making sure they could speak english, posessed table manners you know that kind of thing ;) we were shown once again that Manhattan was not the only place that fun and cool people reside. If you do get around to checking out the blog big ups Matt, Anne and Dana and thankyou for your hospitality and instructions re. the virtues of Nathan's hotdogs which on further testing are far superior to anything else around. Also on showing that the benefit of the broken land (from the Dutch town Breuckelen and pretty obvious derivative) is that they had rooms they didn't know what to do with compared to Manhattan where more often than not the oven becomes essential storage space. Pity about the trains.

Let's go Yankees! Let's go Mets!

2005-06-25T21:09:00.000+02:00

When I was choosing a series I thought would be good a few months back the prospect of a subway series between the Yankees and Mets was too good to pass up. And apart from one obnoxious jerk sitting behind me Yankee Stadium delivered on all the magic it promised - apart from one thing the Yankees lost. It's the first time I have been to a game over here where the team I was supporting lost. At least New York still won though, right? ;)

The stadium itself is amazing, even getting off the 6 train with it right there you could feel the magic that surrounds the place and the storied team it houses. There are people everywhere and being a subway series enough Mets fans to give the opposition a voice and some good (and crude - tshirts just stating blatantly Mets Suck) banter. My seat was way way up in the upper deck, but amazingly you still felt really close to the game. Probably had more to do with the feeling that if you leant forward you would fall onto the field it was so steep than anything else.

I then met up with Caroline and some of her friends for a while before trying to find somewhere to watch the Lions game. During the week I had done a little research and found a couple of places that I knew were showing the game so after not being able to find anywhere open where I was (New York actually does sleep) I headed for the first one. There I was confronted by an extremely fat, extremely rude bouncer and a demand for $20 which there was no way I was about to pay, especially seeing it was already almost half time. As if we would charge an American $20 to watch the superbowl - an argument I used but I think the guy was too fat to understand. So after sneaking a glimpse and seeing we were up 11-0 timed it brilliantly with an uptown train and went to plae number 2.

Now this is a place that I had been to a couple of days earlier, Irish bar in every sense of the phrase and in response to my enquiry received a very excited and generous response in the affirmative. So it took me by surprise to find that the doors were locked and that despite a blackboard saying that they would be open the bar staff were quite hostile in saying that they weren't open. i'm just glad it was a balmy night and not like the one in Christchurch as I stood outside the damn place watching through the window - this is a 4am btw :) It's funny how much even rugby comes to mean when you are away.

A Dark Knight

2005-06-24T02:26:00.000+02:00

Went and saw Batman the other day and it was awesome. Great that they have returned the franchise to the original Tim Burton vision. The new cinema at Riccaryon may have very comfortable seats but they forgot the reclining bit which makes the movie going experience so much better.

Also went to probably my favourite small venue to see a band, being the Mercury Lounge which is down on Houston St (pronounced How-ston - nothing like a bit of consistency for those of s trying to learn the language. I have actually been reading another Bill Bryson book - Made in America - which has as its theme American English and, as usual for his work, was very interesting and maybe that language isn't quite as bastardised as we sometimes think and has actally contributed quite a lot back.) Anyway back to the music, the band was Junior Senior and there's nothing like a bit of Danish cheesy pop with a big queer guy and his little buddy to brighten a rainy day. Yes it has been raining here a bit and with the humidity it surprises me that it doesn't more often. The humidity kills me, need some of that Christchurch freshness.

The Late Show

2005-06-21T20:59:00.000+02:00

If someone reading this would like to pass on the website to Dick Lord I'm sure he would be most interested.

I ticked off one of the main things that I wanted to do on this trip yesterday and that was to be a part of the audience for the Late Show with David Letterman. The day i tried for had Christopher Walken as the guest and Billy Corgan playing which would have been too cool. I think I got there a bit late but I was given a ticket for the next day where it was Michael Keaton and the author David Sedaris who I had never heard of but who was extremely funny so may be worth a read. Michael Keaton was alright you have to respect him, he was the original Batman after all (I saw the new one the other day too), they talked about New Zealand a lot, Letterman seems to have a bit of a thing for us but not much knowledge.

The whole thing is so slick. I could'nt believe that they just tape it straight no retakes or anything. The banter between all of the crew that now feature on the show is fantastic, even paul is better live. The CBS orchestra is pretty amazing they play during teh simulated commercial breaks.

One weird thing was that you cold feel the 8th avenue subways going by underneath during the taping.

Well worth making the effort for when you are in New York

Beck is a Scientologist

2005-06-21T18:28:00.000+02:00

Stepping onto 8th avenue was like a breath of fresh air! (warning: I may carry this metaphor on far longer than general practice would condone ;) Straight away the life and vitality of the city filled my lungs and I felt reinvigorated after a more than interesting insight into long distance busses across America.

Met up with Hayden and firmly established the Rydges legend on the Upper West Side. Also managed to squeeze in a little touristing and were confronted by a show of pure force down by the WTC with at least 30 cop cars parked in formation along one side. These were accompanied by officers carrying no less than M-16 rifles which makes you more than cautious and it's hard to stop wondering whether, if something did happen, how much care they would take in discriminating positively in the favour of general passersby.

It seems that every keyboard in this cafe has at least one button broken, this time it's the k - a big improvement on u and .

Caroline's friend Amanda has been very generous so far in donating her couch to the cause, and apart from a couple of mishaps with the keys (having to wake the super at 5am to be buzzed into the building isn't a great way to endear yourself to the staff. Best not to actually say your apartment)

On Saturday night I went with Jimmy, the other room mate, to probably the coolest party I've ever experienced. Pauly you would've been all over this place. Titled Rubalot it's over in Brooklyn and involves about 6 areas in a whole building with live bands, old school movies and a number of DJs. It was the type of place that dressing like Karen O was conservative.

Backdated

2005-06-15T15:57:00.000+02:00

The baseball was too cool last night. Even though the Jays suck, I am a moderate Cardinals fan and it was nice to see them deal ot a shellacking to make p for the previous night's loss. Five homers makes for a pretty entertaining game. I seem to have a knack for going to high scoring games over here.

Being inside the Skydome was awesome. The weird thing was that the roof kind of took some of the wonder ot of the hitting, as if by having worked out the limits man had already conquered himself.

Walking to the stadium from a Chinese restarant there was suddenly clouds of smoke pouring out of one of the side streets. Turned out it was coming from a car jst sitty in the middle of the road fully aflame. It didn't look malicios so mst've been the heat but the better person to ask would be the lady standing abot 5m away for ages even as fuel dripped in burning puddles underneath.

This particular post is coming to you from Niagara and specifically a little ampitheatre just off the tourist street. Anyone else planning a trip here I would allow about an hour and you'll be able to cover all that's really necessary. See the falls then get over the Rainbow Bridge asap. The rest of the town is built around trying to extend that hour into a couple of days with a couple of casino's taking advantage of Canada's more liberal laws regarding entertainment and some of the tackiest most insipid 'fun' rides I've ever seen. It's especially sad when you consider the beauty and power of teh falls themselves but the people here must feel like they're living in a fairground.

Being 'Proudly brought to you(me) by the Niagara Casino" is the most horrible choir I have ever heard. quite how these guys made it onto any kind of stage, let alone one that leaves those that a stellar band like Brumytown performed on in its peak looking squalid at best, is quite beyond me. So far there have been four soloists none of whom have been anywhere close to in tune with the poor sap whose just returning for another go still waiting for his voice to break, thus sounding more like a beginner on the recorder rather than a tenor. Their material is the usual run of worship songs and accompianment the percussion section of an electric keyboard. For some reason there are at least 10 adult support staff bopping around keeping everyone smiling, in time etc. All I can think of when I watch them is "those who lead a shild astray the worse punishment will be reserved."

So far then I'm hitting .500 (you now, got to keep this baseball metaphor going :0 with high school music productions after relaxing in the square in front of the very cool Toronto Town hall - a spaceship being eaten by a clam (Lonely Planet) - while an excellent big band from Wisconsin played a lunch time set. Take note CCC Leisure unit, great way to make a square a fun place on a summer lunchtime.

Next one will be from NYC also with my first Greyhound adventure under my belt.

Cue the organ

2005-06-14T20:39:00.000+02:00

Sorry about that, comments have now been turned on so you can all get writing.

Youth hostels must be some of the coolest places on earth. Bug ups to Matt for the Canadiana recommendation, it's easily understandable why it won the Best Hostel in North America award. It seems that pancakes for breakfast is a standard feature over here, just gotta be up in time 'cos otherwise it's like that tank of vodka and orange in Rarotonga - Jeff, with accompanying disappointed faces.

Today I passed a shop entirely dedicated to fashion for the tall woman which got me wondering whether those of the opposite gender were particularly lanky in these parts. With the survey maybe three quarters done I would have to say that maybe the bell curve is a little skewed in the upward direction.

Off to my first baseball game tonight - can't beat two dollar Tuesdays for a bargain. Met a young mancunian last night before the movie who has become addicted to the national pastime and instead of tripping around has spent the last three weeks going to the Rogers Centre. I could maybe understand it if it were a good team but the Blue Jays, would be like getting hooked on Northland or something.

Forgot to ask about Katherine's birthday, hope it went well and was enjoyed by all who attended.

Tomorrow is Niagara and then the overnight bus to New York, oh yeah!!!

Winners Champagne

2005-06-13T09:06:00.000+02:00

It's kind of unbelievable that it has taken six days to find an internet connection that didn't require the same sort of payments as a small African nation might make to the IMF in interest to merely check my messages and fire off a short report.

What I thought I might do was ressurrect the old blog that was so popular for about a week last year and just make posts on there for you all to check at your leisure. So set your homepages to http://thegreatmontombo.blogspot.com/ - go on it'll be fun. And you can post comments and stuff - woosah!!!

First things first for those of you who got up early on Monday morning to watch the race - how'd I look on TV ;) Actually I think the stand I was in got shown about 5 times in the whole broadcast. Everyone always said that going to a GP will totally change your mind about the sport, in that it will totally blow your mind and all I can say in response is "too right!" Half the time you're marvelling at the beautiful machines and the other half you're trying to keep track of all 20 cars in your head. Until they hit meltdown point the Renault's looked so good, a cut above everyone else except maybe Montoya when he was pushing hard and not stuffing up pit exits. Alonso also took the prize for the most hot girls wearing his gear, again Montoya a close second esp. as I was sat right in between a big Colombian crowd. But the real excitement of the weekend came after running down the track afterwards. That back straight is long so missed the presentations and stuff but as I was going down the pit wall taking photos of the garages, ron dennis etc I got into the throng in front of the Ferrari pit. The guys in front of me suddenly started yelling and waving and one of the red clad mechanics came over, he had with him the bottle of champagne that Schumacher dropped down from the rostrum and all I will say is that it is very nice champers and a shame that so much of it gets wasted spraying it around everywhere.

I'm in Toronto now after taking the overnight train down from Montreal and it's quite refreshing not to be in humidity over 50%. On Saturday it was 38 celcius and 57% humidity which meant that I was basically in a full body sweat the whole day - attractive I know. Doesn't lend itself to touristing much so it was a good thing I had the GP for distraction.

Los Angeles actually wasn't too bad. I'd managed to sleep most of the way over and then got the last bed at a really cool hostel (USA Hostels if anyone's headed that way) just off Hollywood Bvd. On the counter as I was checking in I noticed a flyer advertising a free movie and when I turned up it was a pre-release screening thing, had to fill out a questionaire at teh end and stuff which isn't a huge price to pay for a free movie. As part of screening who would get in you had to say how many films off a list of 10 you had seen to which I replied 'Eight,' which was a good omen for actually enjoying it. All of you who are into other realm beings living among us type thrillers with mega cool action scenes go see Night Watch when it comes out. Oh and it's Russian for a bit more indie cred.

Better wrap this up, but just before I go I'd like to give a big kodak theatre Oscar thank you to Luke for the tent, it's perfect.