On the streets of New York

I have been walking around New York for a few days now. I've done a shitload of shopping (sneakers, a few dvd boxes, cargo pants, Hellboy's Right Hand of Doom, a Kangol hat etc) but more than anything, this city is always about the people and what goes on around them.

So. Pictures. More text some other time.

Playing petanque in Bryant Park.

"My balls are closer together than yours."

Sit down in Bryant Park, borrow a book, enjoy the sun.

Old men watching a chess game.

Like something out of a movie.

Bryant Park in all its glory.

A street percussionist. He moved all his stuff around the whole

time, and created complex layers of beats and noise. Awesome.

Best fries I've ever had, and a slider. You're really supposed

to eat more than one, but this was more than enough.

In 1995, I saw Deftones open for Misery Loves Co here.

Now it's a small shopping center with hip designer stores.

I had to buy stamps, so I went looking for a

post office. I wasn't expecting The Post Office.

Foosball tables in Greeley Square.

Hanging out with my boy Bob.

Malls and madmen

Friday was Shopping and Circus Day.

I walked downtown to where all the malls are. They're all connected through the Underground City and offer pretty much any kind of shopping. I finally found a memory card for my phone (curse you Sony Ericsson, or rather, curse you Martin Larsson for using an old phone!) and went wild at a t-shirt/merch store called Labyrinthe. Best tshirt assortment I've seen in a long, long time. I walked away with one Watchmen, one A Perfect Circle, one White Zombie and one Tea Party (the band, not the political movement). Now I shall have to restrain myself from buying tees in New York. Yeah...right.

Having shopped and walked around downtown for a while, I took a breather at the hotel before Circus picked me up. Circus is Moonfish's beau, Moonfish being one of my classmates from Odyssey.

We went by their place, a glorious apartment with hardwood floors, a brick bathroom and a small courtyard with a spiral staircase covered in ivy, and then on to a really good vegetarian Asian restaurant. The best part was the banana fritters. Banana fritters are standard desserts at Chinese restaurant in Sweden, but they tend to be rather soggy sad little things. These were fried to perfection. Nom nom nom.

Then on to the circus.

The big top

We saw the circus troupe Rasposo do their show La Chant Du Dindon. It was very funny and felt like just as much theatre as circus. It was like staring into some demented family's living room.

Note how close the audience is to the action.

It was all acrobatics and aerials, without any fancy machines or effects. They utilised the scene brilliantly, modifying it to suit their needs. It was all done in a single flow and seemed improvised. Very nicely done.

Then snacks and hanging out with some circus people. Then back to the hotel for sleep.

Hello Montreal!

A bit out of synch with the blog posts, but I shall try to rectify that.

On Thursday I flew from Boston to Montreal. I slept the whole way, all 45 minutes of it. I didn't even feel the plane touch down, just slept right through it. Very nice.

At Montreal's airport I had to go through not only customs but also immigration. They had all sorts of questions, wanted to see my credit card, asked repeatedly what I was doing in Canada, etc. It wasn't rude or anything, but it actually felt like more scrutiny then I've gone through whenever I've traveled to the US, which I find interesting.

Then I took a bus into the city. On the way I noticed a poster for a metal festival. Kiss as headliner, and I was about to dismiss it when my eyes caught some more bands further down. Machine Head. In Flames. Etc. Cool.

My hotel is OK. Somewhat old and worn, and my bathroom, which isn't shared, is across the hall. Building layout planning at its best. But the place is charming and placed well between downtown Montreal and the Old Port.

Thursday I went exploring down towards Old Montreal and the Old Port. Old Montreal itself turned out to be just like most of Gamla Stan in Stockholm. One giant tourist trap. I found a nice café that had all organic food, where I got a very nice soup and a chicken curry that was really good.

Blog-posing in front of Cirque de Soleil's tent

setup for their show Totem, down at the Old Port.

I walked over to the Notre-Dame Basilica and took the brief tour.

The altar space in the Basilica.

My way back was through Chinatown, which also screamed Tourist Trap in big garish neon letters, surrounded by small plastic cats waving with one paw. There was a small street market with all kinds of knick-knacks and cheap crap on display. Much to my surprise they had a stand of bokken. I was not surprised they were all crooked, unlike the one I have that I assume was whittled out of a hundred foot oak by a small old Japanese man using nothing but his eye-lashes (thanks again for that gift, bro).

Then the heat got to me, so I had a quick meal at a Chinese place and then went to the hotel to hug the AC.

Backstage America, part 2

Oh. I forgot. On the way north to Shapleigh, Maine (home of EGE and other mysterious creatures), I turned off the I-95 and took the smaller US1 up the coast. I had a lot of time and figured I wanted to see something other than a boring interstate highway.

What I did see were some people on some beaches.

I did try to smile. Really. I did.

Note Decepticons logo on hat. Win!

Evidently, these people hadn't listened to the weather report and seemed to possess no ability to turn their heads 180 degrees and look at the horizon, in the direction I am looking in the pic. Huge, and I do mean huge, storm clouds rolled in. I got in my car and rolled out of there before the panicked exodus began.

When the rain started I had to stop and wait for 20 minutes. I couldn't even see the road, because it rained so hard. Around me, throughout the small touristy coastal communities, people in bathing clothes scrambled for shelter and tried to keep towels and toys and boom boxes and whatever they were carrying dry. Not likely that happened.

So. Back to Shapleigh. We passed a church with a sign that said "Heaven and Hell are real places." Fire and brimstone, right there. EGE told me what it had said earlier. Dust on your bible will doom your poor soul. Ponder on that one for a while. Not only while it doom your soul. It will doom your poor soul.

We also passed a road called Big Ass Truck Drive. Funny.

Finally, we went to a place called Mulligan's where everything costs five dollars or less. I had a 4.69 dollar club sandwich, which was really good. EGE had a sallad. In a very small bowl. That refused to be eaten.

First quote of the day, about the fork:

It's not a bad sallad. It's just a bad delivery system.

Eventually, the food was consumed, and we went on to dessert. EGE's birthday was coming up so I figured we'd have a birthday dinner kind of thing. Chocolate cake and strawberry short cake was devoured.

Outside the restaurant, there was a big old clock on the ground, probably once the top of the tower it sat next to.

Cool clock next to Swede trying to look cool.

For some reason, EGE had the brilliant idea that we should go for ice cream afterwards. Now, as you know, we all have a second stomach for ice cream, so naturally I said yes. I figured two scoops would be enough. Then I saw the size of the scoops. Each was larger than my fist. But I persevered! Death to the ice cream!

The best of many a during

ice cream eating pics of EGE.

We basically rolled to the car. On the way back to the house a slight degree of road rage was expressed as a person, who shall remain nameless, said of the car in front:

Person 1: Move it!

Person 2: He's not in a hurry.

Person 3: But I am, because I'm full and I want to get home so I can get out of these pants.

That is all. I am in Montreal right now, which will be documented in future posts.

Solid men of Boston

After Readercon, I poked around the area around my hotel. Which by the way is The Most Depressing Building Ever:

Somehow a building from East Berlin in the

80s had been teleported to downtown Boston

I found some interesting shopping, most of it closed, and a movie theatre were I sat down to watch Transformers 3. Far far better than the second one, and worthy of an insane amount of popcorn. Which I don't eat anymore. But, you know, the whole Big Movie Where Things Explode thing doesn't work without some reference to popcorn.

The next day we braved the horrid heat and went out. We walked down towards the water and met some interesting people:

Wool? Really? In 30+ degrees? And they are able to look

enthusiastic at the same time. Surely that deserves some sort of medal.

Down towards the docks we found a sort of open mall thing, which looked interesting but turned out to be filled with tourist traps of the worst kind.

I took a picture of the street, and since I've learned that pics are more interesting with some people you recognize in them:

Dundee failed spectacularly in his

attempt to stealth out of the picture.

Then we laughed about him failing spectacularly, and I

decided to take another pic where I don't look so frikkin' serious.

Having abandoned the open air mall, we went to an actual mall and did some shopping. I picked up a little something for my brother's spawn and bought a Decepticons cap (will be seen on pics in later posts) for myself.

The mall had a Cheesecake Factory, and since Dundee is a fan of The Big Bang Theory he wanted to go, and having partaken of their cheesecake on several previous trips to the US, I was easy to convince. I may, in fact, have suggested it . . .

Some kind of brownie cheesecake, apple strudel cheesecake and

pineapple upside down cheesecake, surrounding the kick-ass Mojito I had.

Needless to say, we walked away full and on a major sugar-rush.

Later, after yet another movie - Super 8, which I had seen but Dundee hadn't, and it was just as awesome the second time - we went for lobster. Because you have to eat lobster when you're in Boston.

Grilled lobster. Nom nom nom.

And that was two days in Boston. On Monday morning I got into a rental car and headed north to Maine. Which will be covered in another post.

Pics galore 3

So weird to wake up somewhere else than the dorm room today. Below, pics from the last week or so of Odyssey.

The farewell barbecue for author in residence

Gary Braunbeck. Too many people to name.

Gary Braunbeck, Darth Harp and the Commodore.

Djinni, Meta and Sister, at the Indian restuarant.

Best place we went to. Just thinking about it now makes

my stomach go "Go back there, you fool!"

Meta, Sister, Harp, Narcomancer and Alaska, enjoying Indian food.

When OdFellows fight with foam swords, which was a

recurring theme, blood is not spilled. But candy is.

Arts and crafts night preparing gifts for Evil

Overlord and the Commodore goes horribly wrong.

"We're bored."

"Let's braid his beard!"

Not a new concept, but the look was new.

The last nightly walk. Saying goodbye to The Giant Head.

All of a sudden we were in third grade as stalks of grass

simulated insects. As if the real insects weren't enough.

Party Planner and Alaska enjoying a popsicle after the walk.

From the late night get-together on the last night:

Peeko filming away. Alaska trying to avoid being in pics.

Peeko assaulted by lots and lots of beard.

Meta looking for tabs. There was much guitar playing.

The Head had to be touched. Rough and soft at the same time.

Desk Fairy, as I came to be called, and Party Planner.

Alright. I'll say it. Attention whore.

Barbecue man strumming away. Djinni, Party

Planner and the Commodore in the background.

Pics galore 2

Yay for pictures!

Peeko the Elf deep in thought during the slam.

Also at the slam. Left to right. California, Tomatoes,

Werefox Ninja, Barbecue Man, Sarah Palin, Alaska

Birthday cake time. Meta, Harp, Pygmy Dragon

Peeko giving me the "not in a gay way look."

Palin is busy doing photo acrobatics.

The Commodore did not like the camera.

Pygmy Dragon found this funny.

Evil Overlord to the left, Djinni to the right.

Mid pic, far away: Peeko's elven chariot.

Second take of this pic. Why?

Barbecue Man wanted to suck his gut in.

Which he proceeded to do. Ever so subtly.

The Commodore with her pet dragon.

Pygmy Dragon was not intimidated.

Evil Overlord with the bowl from

which we draw slips for our games.

On a path near the monastery, there is a representation

of the Via Dolorosa, with each station depicted like this.

An eerie place at night.

The night time walk crew. Palin, Meta, Alaska, Peeko.

Can you tell who has the biggest head?

Alaska, Peeko, Palin. Two posing, one just goofin' around

And . . . smile!

Yeah. Goofin' around.