Busy Busy Busy

Today On My Way To Work I Listened To #68

Thinking of my first ever gig, July 31 1988 Pairc Ui Caoimh.

Today On My Way To Work I Listened To #67

Mos Def The Ecstatic

First, to set things straight, this is no Black on Both Sides. Second, in terms of a return to form, it's no The Renaissance either. All that said, it was still sooooo nice to be listening to Mos on my way to work this morning.

Mos Def Myspace

Today On My Way To Work I Listened To #66

Iron & Wine Around the Well

Oh yes.

While not an album proper, this will do quite nicely until the next one comes along.

Iron & Wine Myspace

New York I Love You, But You're Bringing Me Down

Of the cities that I've visited, but never lived in, New York is the one that I've visited the most. It's also the one that come closest to my ideal city. It could be the city that would make me stop moving. I could settle there.

If I hadn't fucked up the interview (too nervous, too babbly, too completely unequipped with the right qualifications) and if I had been offered the job, I'd have moved there in an instant and never moved again.

Major and I would have gotten ourselves a little (or big) place in Soho (after living in Los Feliz for almost a year now, I've gotten the hipster village Brooklyn vibe out of my system.) We'd have spent the years to come slowly shipping our books and music over from Europe, I envisaged stuffed suitcases on every visit home. I'd buy myself an amazing record player and start buying vinyl again. I'd amass all of my shoes and handbags currently stored in Dublin and France, and have to think about what bag to take with me in the morning.

We'd spend the weekends in the MOCA, the Met, in arthouse cinemas, going to gigs, baseball and off-Broadway theatre and just wandering through Central Park.

It was going to be so nice, if I hadn't fucked up the interview. But I did, and so this time around, for the first time, I didn't enjoy New York.

I didn't enjoy walking from Grand Central Station to my incredibly cute hotel, just after a rain shower which had the air feeling simultaneously cool and warm, with the top of the Chrysler Building gleaming through fog, like the backdrop of a Batman movie. I didn't enjoy passing all of the shiny, smartly attired, smiley people spilling out of bars, following their post-work "just the one." I didn't enjoy wandering around the block looking for something to eat inhaling the buzz of the city, and I definitely didn't marvel at the fact that no matter where you turn in New York there is life and there is character and there is atmosphere. No Siree.

In the morning, before my interview, my heart didn't soar as when I saw the cafe in the yard of the hotel, kind of like a minimini-Hudson Hotel bar. And I thought it was perfectly normal that the New Yorkers having their breakfast beside me were so nice and friendly. Knowing me, you'll know that I didn't think it was a big deal that, after breakfast, I got what amounts to the best haircut I've ever had. And after the interview, I wasn't impressed by the Thai food and the delightful staff in Thai 51- I didn't bat an eyelid as they gave me a free dessert for my plane trip back to L.A.

As I walked down 2nd Avenue, on a beautiful, sunny Friday, I didn't imagine Major and I there, meeting after work ready to celebrate the weekend. Nope. Not once. When I found the perfect summer dress just before alighting my bus at Grand Central, I didn't even crack a smile. I did not enjoy my overnight trip to New York.

As the bus drove towards JFK, and the other passengers craned their necks to turn for one last view of the skyline, I looked fixedly ahead, ignoring New York's final attempt to seduce me. I was having none of it. I was bitter, to have come so close to the dream, only to have it snatched cruelly away by a lousy interview. I was not going to succumb to the alluring charms of New York this time around.

And then, Iron & Wine "Such Great Heights" started playing on my ipod and my bitterness faded. As I realised what a charmed life I have, that I was heading back to the Major and L.A., that a whole new adventure in Poland awaits. I took one quick look over my shoulder just before Manhattan disappeared and thought that there will be more exams, there will be more interviews, I'll land the dream job some day and hell, if I don't, I'll just keep on living my dream life with or without New York.

The Major's Revenge

So, the Major finally got his revenge for all the times I've stood smugly by as he struggled in changing rooms, throwing fits over sizes and the fact that not a single item of clothing in all of L.A manages to look halfway decent on him.

He even got revenge for the suit-shopping experience, because on this, my first ever shopping for a suit expedition- I didn't even manage to buy a suit.

The Major was treated to stroppiness, sulkiness, incredulity and disdain as I tried on every possible combination of shirt/ jacket/ trouser combination the Glendale Galleria had to offer. It was a miserable, miserable experience, with nothing ever managing to simultaneously fit and look like it wasn't a bargain basement find. Seriously what is the story with the shiny fabric? Who is that supposed to do anything for?

At one stage I found myself in Sbarro, practically crying into my slice of margherita, berating myself for ever having under appreciated Zara and Benetton in Rome, and wondering why suit shopping wasn't as simple as the trip to Gap I had thought it would be. All the while Major was trying to mask his glee at me finally getting a taste of what it's like for a post-adolescent male to go shopping.

In the end, I abandoned the shirt/ jacket/trouser combination and went for a black silk pencil skirt and fitted knitted jacket with a chocolate brown silk vest for underneath. It took me FOUR HOURS to come up with this solution. The sensible heels to go with it were selected and bought in a record four minutes, and well, the bag will just have to be bought in the airport.

And if the big cheeses don't give me my dream job following tomorrow's interview in New York, I'll blame it on the fact that I couldn't settle on a suit, and I'll be sure to buy one next time around. But maybe I'll spare the Major another chance at revenge and just go suit shopping on my own then.

Today I Didn't Listen To

Grizzly Bear Veckatimest

I've been sitting on Veckatimest for a while now, waiting for the right moment to listen it it, getting all excited every time one of the tracks slips through on shuffle.

I had told myself that this was the week I'd finally succumb and listen to it non-stop, all in anticipation of tomorrow night's gig in the Wiltern.

But then the big cheeses from New York got in touch with the date for my interview- June 19.

So no Grizzly Bear at the Wiltern for me.

And no Veckatimest.

For this week at least.

Grizzly Bear Myspace

It Isn't Always Sunny In Southern California

Usually, the best thing about leaving a city in the summer is that the memory of clear, cloudless skies is what I take with me when I go. Winter, if it was cold (Paris/ Seville) or rainy (London/ Rome) is forgotten, as all I recall is bright, hot days and warm, balmy nights spent out of doors.

But all is not going according to plan in Los Angeles. Despite what you may have heard, and despite what they say every night on TV, the weather isn't always beautiful here. Indeed, it has been weeks since we've seen the sun through the heavy clouds. I'm sick of the sight of my winter jacket- I never imagined I'd still be wearing it in June- and Major, who only has a month left in this part of the world, is shaking his fist at the sky every morning as he gets up for work, gesticulating and grumbling that this is not what he signed up for.

It isn't all June Gloom in L.A. though, as there are the most amazing Jacaranda trees* in bloom all over the city, distracting me from the cloudy skies and mild temperatures. This morning I realized the Jacaranda flowers won't be around for much longer, so I snapped a few of them on the way for my morning coffee, scolding myself for not having done so earlier when they were in full bloom, and also thinking that without them to distract me, it had better get bloody sunny here soon.

I googled "pretty purple trees in L.A."- this paying any attention to nature, never mind botany, is a new thing for me.