Easy!
Sheesh, been hotter than Hades here in NYC the past few days, my birthday weekend I was blessed with beautiful weather, good people, good food, terrible singing (on my part), some bike time and perhaps a burnt shoulder or 2, some punching the air and sing along choruses, a couple of brewskis and a jolly good time! It felt very special.
I missed my UK mandam and Galdam enough though, and it didn't feel right even thinking about a glass (or bottle) of Calafornian Rose without my boys in tow.
But there will be bear serious catch ups when you roll here, or I roll back there, we'll throw it down. And NYC ain't ready!
A Few of us hit the kareoke tip on Friday night and I didn't think it was right that my normal rendition of New York New York by The Frank went down, so my opening track was Breathe by the Prodigy. You know, just to break it in gently eh?!
Murdered some death cab, some Queen, some Metallica, some Weezer and sank plum wine and ate cheeseballs. More cheeseballs DAMNIT! I had a blast, and I was completely unsurprised to learn that no one I roll with is an undiscovered American Idol.
A wonderful lazy morning which included perhaps the best omlette I've ever had, and not a yolk in sight. WTF OMFG?! I'm converted. I don't think eggy soilders would quite be the same though.
NYC ran into the 90's both days, it was absolutely beautiful, I don't operate that well in the heat but i'm steadily climatising and I reckon i'll be wearing a fur coat come August and still feeling a draught.. Just you wait!
Saturday night I headed to an awesome restaurant called Esca with a lovely galdam from work, Kate. It was a reet treat! We got to eat outdoors on the terrace (Not that easy in NY - You certainly are hard put to find a place to beer it up outside - Boo!). It was an evening of new experiences, great company, 7 small delicous courses, 7 different wines, a lot of laughs and it was splendid. Thank you.
Sunday I did feel a bit flat, I took a ride which lasted longer than I had intended, and the heat was crazy, think I had a slight case of heatstroke, but it was a'ight! I went over to Brooklyn with my buddy Chris to see Alkaline Trio at the Williamsburg Music Hall, they were supported by Saves the Day who threw in a ton of old stuff which made me very happy, and the Trio didn't dissapoint either! There were huge sing along choruses, fist punching, a little bit of a throwdown it was solid. And I left feeling totally psyched on it!
The weekend was a treat, a lot of memories and special moments. And a lot of wishing I could have spent some time with the UK massive. Be-lee.
Nuff Love.
Wednesday, 29 April 2009
Friday, 24 April 2009
New York Moments.
People have spoken about these before and i've never really had one, i don't think so anyway. However, this morning it was a slap in the face New York moment. Its a funny place, i'm not in the slightest bit a City boy, all these people, all over me, all the time, no space, shitty air, manic, non-stop.. But this morning was perfect.
I managed to get a copy of the new High Contrast Album - Confidential, which is amazing - Get on it. It's a 2CD set, CD1 comprises all his heaviest drops, from the early days on High Society all the way through to his latest work on Tough Guys Don't Dance, plus a couple of brand new smash and grabs! CD2 has a ton of his remixes and it is off the chain! I love the Hometown Glory Adele remix, it is on heavy rotation!
7 Note in Black - A roadblock of a tune!
Anyway, this morning is absolutely beautiful so I rode in to work taking a big divert through the park and the Hometown Glory remix dropped as I got turned the corner onto Central Park Drive, it was perfect timing! Wind on my back, no traffic, green lights for the entire trip down 5th Ave in the sunshine, weaving pedestrians, holding on to taxis, amazing.
That was my New York moment. As much as this place I think can grind you down, these occassional moments exist and make it all seem worthwhile. I'll be on the lookout for many more of them.
I managed to get a copy of the new High Contrast Album - Confidential, which is amazing - Get on it. It's a 2CD set, CD1 comprises all his heaviest drops, from the early days on High Society all the way through to his latest work on Tough Guys Don't Dance, plus a couple of brand new smash and grabs! CD2 has a ton of his remixes and it is off the chain! I love the Hometown Glory Adele remix, it is on heavy rotation!
7 Note in Black - A roadblock of a tune!
Anyway, this morning is absolutely beautiful so I rode in to work taking a big divert through the park and the Hometown Glory remix dropped as I got turned the corner onto Central Park Drive, it was perfect timing! Wind on my back, no traffic, green lights for the entire trip down 5th Ave in the sunshine, weaving pedestrians, holding on to taxis, amazing.
That was my New York moment. As much as this place I think can grind you down, these occassional moments exist and make it all seem worthwhile. I'll be on the lookout for many more of them.
Sunday, 19 April 2009
Air-con Schmer-con!
Phew – What a mission!
Apparently it gets super hot in NYC in the Summer, and you know me and heat, like an animal of the Savannah I can handle searing temperatures and take it in my stride.. So, after much deliberation, I decided to take one of my air conditioning units from my apartment and smash the shit out of it..
Not really, I just stored in my cupboard aptly named “A cupboard full of Franks weird shit”.. In there are lamps, alarm clocks, old suitcases, pillows, text books on autism (fascinating reading) air conditioning units, VCR’s (Yes.. PLURAL! Who even used VCRs these days?!) and other junk that I don’t need to be seeing in the 21st Century.
So the air conditioning unit is actually a heavy piece of kit, heavier than I thought, so I thought it was totally incredible it was held in place purely under its own weight AND gaffer tape. That stuff is good for anything, right?!
I couldn’t believe it. I was cooking a delicious dish one evening and thought hell, I’ll just open up this window and catch a cool breeze, flip! I opened the window and if not for my cat like reactions an air conditioning unit would have been falling 4 floors on top on the Upper west Side Corner boys beneath my window selling rock. Damn!
So yesterday I took precautions and removed the unit carefully, the window was propped and I began the extraction, carefully removing the structurally sound tape and then bringing the unit inside safely.. But not before the damn window fell down and crushed my wrist against the air conditioning unit – Cue screams of pain.. (There is a pattern forming here..) and then the struggle of holding an air conditioning unit in place, opening a window, and swearing blindly.. All single handedly.
Oof!
75 Fahrenheit yesterday and it was absolutely wondrous, rode the BMX busted some skids and power wheelies, topped the tan up, watched the Rangers beat the Capitals again, tossed a football about, watched the world go by, listened to some good music, felt the sun on my skin. Missed my friends a lot today, I missed Bolehills and you.
What is my loss is Spain’s gain.
Had a few beers with Justin and Chris last night this hectic lae that just sells there own beers, they come in half pint glasses, served at room temperature and it was pretty good! Had laugh, sank a few beers, then walked home from downtown, it was such an incredible evening.
Today I got up and rode to Nyack on the road bike, it was fine weather, much better than last week but I didn’t feel that great though, guess I’m a little flat after all the insane partying that’s been going down! Ha. Went shopping for vests (see : tank tops) but that didn’t go to plan either - The WORLD IS AGAINST ME!! ha!
It’s my Birthday next week and it’s going to be a funny one, not having my crew to share it with, I’m not sure how I feel about it. I’m going to see Alkaline Trio though so that should be a treat!
Over and Out!
Apparently it gets super hot in NYC in the Summer, and you know me and heat, like an animal of the Savannah I can handle searing temperatures and take it in my stride.. So, after much deliberation, I decided to take one of my air conditioning units from my apartment and smash the shit out of it..
Not really, I just stored in my cupboard aptly named “A cupboard full of Franks weird shit”.. In there are lamps, alarm clocks, old suitcases, pillows, text books on autism (fascinating reading) air conditioning units, VCR’s (Yes.. PLURAL! Who even used VCRs these days?!) and other junk that I don’t need to be seeing in the 21st Century.
So the air conditioning unit is actually a heavy piece of kit, heavier than I thought, so I thought it was totally incredible it was held in place purely under its own weight AND gaffer tape. That stuff is good for anything, right?!
I couldn’t believe it. I was cooking a delicious dish one evening and thought hell, I’ll just open up this window and catch a cool breeze, flip! I opened the window and if not for my cat like reactions an air conditioning unit would have been falling 4 floors on top on the Upper west Side Corner boys beneath my window selling rock. Damn!
So yesterday I took precautions and removed the unit carefully, the window was propped and I began the extraction, carefully removing the structurally sound tape and then bringing the unit inside safely.. But not before the damn window fell down and crushed my wrist against the air conditioning unit – Cue screams of pain.. (There is a pattern forming here..) and then the struggle of holding an air conditioning unit in place, opening a window, and swearing blindly.. All single handedly.
Oof!
75 Fahrenheit yesterday and it was absolutely wondrous, rode the BMX busted some skids and power wheelies, topped the tan up, watched the Rangers beat the Capitals again, tossed a football about, watched the world go by, listened to some good music, felt the sun on my skin. Missed my friends a lot today, I missed Bolehills and you.
What is my loss is Spain’s gain.
Had a few beers with Justin and Chris last night this hectic lae that just sells there own beers, they come in half pint glasses, served at room temperature and it was pretty good! Had laugh, sank a few beers, then walked home from downtown, it was such an incredible evening.
Today I got up and rode to Nyack on the road bike, it was fine weather, much better than last week but I didn’t feel that great though, guess I’m a little flat after all the insane partying that’s been going down! Ha. Went shopping for vests (see : tank tops) but that didn’t go to plan either - The WORLD IS AGAINST ME!! ha!
It’s my Birthday next week and it’s going to be a funny one, not having my crew to share it with, I’m not sure how I feel about it. I’m going to see Alkaline Trio though so that should be a treat!
Over and Out!
Thursday, 16 April 2009
Double frapacino with sweet and low, half and half, easy on the froth..
I’m writing this from my internet-less apartment, ready to upload onto the mainframe shortly when I go for coffee at a starbucks and pretend I’m composing an important paper on my thoughts on the current economic situation or perhaps discovering a cure for cancer, or even developing a strategy for diminishing the epidemic of third world famine..
Or, I’ll just be like everyone else in there and be checking my facebook and looking at LOLcats.. I can do it with such intensity though that I could fool all them suckers!
I hate starbucks. But if putting myself through sharing a room filled with cravats and non-prescription wearing glasses for free interwebs, then I’ll endure it. I don’t NEED glasses, but don’t I look intellectual?
This weekend has been a funny one, I have taken to being a bit of a loner for it. For example, I went to my favourite Chinese restaurant where the guy had previously spoken to me like his long lost Brother, he said he saw me a week ago in the street as he remembered my scar, I was like no way!! And we embraced in a way only Brothers rejoined after years apart could. He was awesome, and so was the food, this time around though, he didn’t remember me at all, it was all a charade to lure me back to his restaurant, to be fair, the food is so good he didn’t need to bullshit me! I felt s cheap. Anyway, the food was top notch again and I sat there reading my copy of the New York Times and tried my best not to look too weird, too lonely or too desperate for someone, ANYONE to come and talk to me. Ha!
I retired back to my Chelsea apartment, it was the final night and it was a great sleep, it had been an exhausting week of great late nights, intense work, and big old PB’s in the gym. Psyche!
Saturday morning the weather was super terrible so I made the most of it and took a much needed lay in. I then moved the rest of my stuff to the UWS, throwing gang signs from the back seat of my over-filled taxi to all the corner boys on the way trough, I’m so in there, I fit right in – Blood!
I spent the day making the apartment mine, prioritising things like getting the wonderful painting that Hannah and Warren gave to me before I left, and getting my RB.com prints into frames and getting them hung.. That done, I unpacked, cleaned, made the bed up, put my stuff in places I’ll never remember and will have lost forever and went for some lunch at H&H. That place is freakin’ awesome!
Saturday night I donned my best sneaks and my hip-hop attire to go to Webster Hall to see one of my favorite MC’s of all time – Mr. Lif of Definitive Jux Records, he did not disappoint, but the support acts did, HipHop is kinda dead in the water, it’s the same old shit, but Lif is incredible. His poetry is deep, meaningful and super charged, he is politically driven, always speaks a great message, and his DJ Sunny James is an absolute monster on the 1’s and 2’s!
Proper good night, made some awkward chit chat with a few people, and spoke to a group of dudes from Brooklyn who were pretty interesting, they filled me in on some hot spots I should get to, so I’ll definitely be following that up. I had a storming evening, Lif was hot and the crowd was making gun noises and throwing shapes, so I obviosuly fitted in.
I got to bed about 1am, and my alarm went off at 4:30am for me to get to Central Park for my first ever road race. Sheeeeet. It was a pretty good turnout I think, I raced category 5, which is like amateur I guess. Have no idea what I was doing of course and powered my way to the front and held the race for 2 laps thinking this was easy.. HA! On Lap 3 a few attacks came and I managed to keep with it clawing my way back through, but on the final climb, about 1 mile from the finish a big attack came and I was shot to bits, my legs blew up and much of the pack blew past me, I finished 20th out of just over 50 riders, but I thought I had it in the bag, I know I expended too much energy and next time I’ll stick in the pack a bit more and save my legs the effort. Or just buy an altitude chamber to sleep in for the next month and smoke them suckers next time around!
Afterwards Henoch, who I rode with in the State Park that time turned up – he overslept along with the other teammate John.. Not together of course, that’d be weird, and they’re both married, so get off my back! They were riding to Nyack, a ride I had done before but it was flipping cold, I had no gloves and I did feel spent, but to hell with it. I rode with those guys and hung in there, doing 55 miles at a good pace, and now I feel absolutely shot to bits.
Derby national was this weekend, and it sounded like it went super well and event organiser Lauren Smith took the win on Day 2 – Go you! Very happy they pulled it off, the weather held and Derby has been put back on the map! Such an awesome track! Can’t wait to see the videos and see what I missed.
Anyway, this has been long enough, it has been a long weekend and I’m feeling pretty non-psyched for work this week. Sheesh.
Love to the Hood, my brothers from other mothers and anyone that may stumble upon this from googling starbucks.
Or, I’ll just be like everyone else in there and be checking my facebook and looking at LOLcats.. I can do it with such intensity though that I could fool all them suckers!
I hate starbucks. But if putting myself through sharing a room filled with cravats and non-prescription wearing glasses for free interwebs, then I’ll endure it. I don’t NEED glasses, but don’t I look intellectual?
This weekend has been a funny one, I have taken to being a bit of a loner for it. For example, I went to my favourite Chinese restaurant where the guy had previously spoken to me like his long lost Brother, he said he saw me a week ago in the street as he remembered my scar, I was like no way!! And we embraced in a way only Brothers rejoined after years apart could. He was awesome, and so was the food, this time around though, he didn’t remember me at all, it was all a charade to lure me back to his restaurant, to be fair, the food is so good he didn’t need to bullshit me! I felt s cheap. Anyway, the food was top notch again and I sat there reading my copy of the New York Times and tried my best not to look too weird, too lonely or too desperate for someone, ANYONE to come and talk to me. Ha!
I retired back to my Chelsea apartment, it was the final night and it was a great sleep, it had been an exhausting week of great late nights, intense work, and big old PB’s in the gym. Psyche!
Saturday morning the weather was super terrible so I made the most of it and took a much needed lay in. I then moved the rest of my stuff to the UWS, throwing gang signs from the back seat of my over-filled taxi to all the corner boys on the way trough, I’m so in there, I fit right in – Blood!
I spent the day making the apartment mine, prioritising things like getting the wonderful painting that Hannah and Warren gave to me before I left, and getting my RB.com prints into frames and getting them hung.. That done, I unpacked, cleaned, made the bed up, put my stuff in places I’ll never remember and will have lost forever and went for some lunch at H&H. That place is freakin’ awesome!
Saturday night I donned my best sneaks and my hip-hop attire to go to Webster Hall to see one of my favorite MC’s of all time – Mr. Lif of Definitive Jux Records, he did not disappoint, but the support acts did, HipHop is kinda dead in the water, it’s the same old shit, but Lif is incredible. His poetry is deep, meaningful and super charged, he is politically driven, always speaks a great message, and his DJ Sunny James is an absolute monster on the 1’s and 2’s!
Proper good night, made some awkward chit chat with a few people, and spoke to a group of dudes from Brooklyn who were pretty interesting, they filled me in on some hot spots I should get to, so I’ll definitely be following that up. I had a storming evening, Lif was hot and the crowd was making gun noises and throwing shapes, so I obviosuly fitted in.
I got to bed about 1am, and my alarm went off at 4:30am for me to get to Central Park for my first ever road race. Sheeeeet. It was a pretty good turnout I think, I raced category 5, which is like amateur I guess. Have no idea what I was doing of course and powered my way to the front and held the race for 2 laps thinking this was easy.. HA! On Lap 3 a few attacks came and I managed to keep with it clawing my way back through, but on the final climb, about 1 mile from the finish a big attack came and I was shot to bits, my legs blew up and much of the pack blew past me, I finished 20th out of just over 50 riders, but I thought I had it in the bag, I know I expended too much energy and next time I’ll stick in the pack a bit more and save my legs the effort. Or just buy an altitude chamber to sleep in for the next month and smoke them suckers next time around!
Afterwards Henoch, who I rode with in the State Park that time turned up – he overslept along with the other teammate John.. Not together of course, that’d be weird, and they’re both married, so get off my back! They were riding to Nyack, a ride I had done before but it was flipping cold, I had no gloves and I did feel spent, but to hell with it. I rode with those guys and hung in there, doing 55 miles at a good pace, and now I feel absolutely shot to bits.
Derby national was this weekend, and it sounded like it went super well and event organiser Lauren Smith took the win on Day 2 – Go you! Very happy they pulled it off, the weather held and Derby has been put back on the map! Such an awesome track! Can’t wait to see the videos and see what I missed.
Anyway, this has been long enough, it has been a long weekend and I’m feeling pretty non-psyched for work this week. Sheesh.
Love to the Hood, my brothers from other mothers and anyone that may stumble upon this from googling starbucks.
Sunday, 5 April 2009
The Third Mind...
It has been a tough weekend - sheesh - It is only Sunday morning though and I have just wasted an hour of my life on Virtual DJ - I have totally become addicted to it, its incredible, i reckon I could totally hold down a set.. I would need my MC on the Mic W-Bomb spittin' fire whilst D-Stroy dropped bombs, where you at Brother? And Shaquatasha would totally need to be up front hollering for the mandem! Ha!
New York living is going okay, i feel fully integrated as I managed both a run in with the law, and a limo yesterday. I decided it would be a fantastic idea to strap my belongings to my back and ride the 70 blocks uptown to my new apartment, yesterday i made the trip twice taking the majority of my stuff, but I was delusional thinking it was a good idea, even more so after I had already endured one trip! The pack up weighed about 60kgs both times and my poor road bike got a hammering. On trip 2 just as I was turning up towards Columbus Circle and Central Park a limo turned beside me, completely unaware that I was there. It looked to be a young girls birthday party, and there were heads out the sun roofs and all the windows, having the time of their lives. Queue me, looking like I have a house on my back and riding alongside, I just thought he's going to have seen me (you couldn't miss me) and he'd give me space, but he didn't, not nearly enough, as we were turning he was getting closer and so was the NYPD truck, i managed to plough arm first into the NYPD truck and stop dead, tucking myself in to avoid further crushing, the girls screamed with terror as I screamed in pain, and then the driver floored it, I managed to get on and move to the side of the road, but not without raising a few peculiar looks.
I hate limos, and I'm sorry to those poor girls whose birthday party i totally ruined! Ha ha!
Anyway, I got load 2 dropped off and I feel absolutely exhausted still. It was never a good idea, and I'll never do it again.
I was cultured this weekend as well - Yeah - That just happened! I visitied the Guggenheim galleries, where DJ Sabo blended eclectic world beats seamlessly to art, chinos and boat shoes, he didn't really, the acoustics would be amazing for say, classical music, or drowning cats, but Sabo was playing droned out house music, that sounded the same as every New York club on a friday night.. Still I had a very good night regardless of drama, and awful music! And I felt slightly more cultured to boot...
Today I'm not sure what's going down, I want to ride as its super nice out, but i'm not sure my body is up to it, I have about a week left in this joint before I get kicked out, but I haven't much stuff left to shift, so I might take a day off that. And stick pins in my eyes instead.
This week has been tough for many reasons, and it all mounted up on me. Things didn't really go my way from the start, phew, I am a drag! I'm going to shut up now.
Would give my left arm (the one thats bruised and battered, not my good one) to have a ride of Bolehills right now, I can imagine shes running sweet at the moment, I hope you bastards enjoy it! ;)
Happy Birthday to my UK mandem AT and W-bomb who both turned 33 last week, to celebrate they both did a 100kg bench press for one, had a protein shake and then downed a bottle of California Rose. Sounds like my kind of evening!
New York living is going okay, i feel fully integrated as I managed both a run in with the law, and a limo yesterday. I decided it would be a fantastic idea to strap my belongings to my back and ride the 70 blocks uptown to my new apartment, yesterday i made the trip twice taking the majority of my stuff, but I was delusional thinking it was a good idea, even more so after I had already endured one trip! The pack up weighed about 60kgs both times and my poor road bike got a hammering. On trip 2 just as I was turning up towards Columbus Circle and Central Park a limo turned beside me, completely unaware that I was there. It looked to be a young girls birthday party, and there were heads out the sun roofs and all the windows, having the time of their lives. Queue me, looking like I have a house on my back and riding alongside, I just thought he's going to have seen me (you couldn't miss me) and he'd give me space, but he didn't, not nearly enough, as we were turning he was getting closer and so was the NYPD truck, i managed to plough arm first into the NYPD truck and stop dead, tucking myself in to avoid further crushing, the girls screamed with terror as I screamed in pain, and then the driver floored it, I managed to get on and move to the side of the road, but not without raising a few peculiar looks.
I hate limos, and I'm sorry to those poor girls whose birthday party i totally ruined! Ha ha!
Anyway, I got load 2 dropped off and I feel absolutely exhausted still. It was never a good idea, and I'll never do it again.
I was cultured this weekend as well - Yeah - That just happened! I visitied the Guggenheim galleries, where DJ Sabo blended eclectic world beats seamlessly to art, chinos and boat shoes, he didn't really, the acoustics would be amazing for say, classical music, or drowning cats, but Sabo was playing droned out house music, that sounded the same as every New York club on a friday night.. Still I had a very good night regardless of drama, and awful music! And I felt slightly more cultured to boot...
Today I'm not sure what's going down, I want to ride as its super nice out, but i'm not sure my body is up to it, I have about a week left in this joint before I get kicked out, but I haven't much stuff left to shift, so I might take a day off that. And stick pins in my eyes instead.
This week has been tough for many reasons, and it all mounted up on me. Things didn't really go my way from the start, phew, I am a drag! I'm going to shut up now.
Would give my left arm (the one thats bruised and battered, not my good one) to have a ride of Bolehills right now, I can imagine shes running sweet at the moment, I hope you bastards enjoy it! ;)
Happy Birthday to my UK mandem AT and W-bomb who both turned 33 last week, to celebrate they both did a 100kg bench press for one, had a protein shake and then downed a bottle of California Rose. Sounds like my kind of evening!
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