Sun, sand, ponies and bugs
Monday 18 Aug 2008
Wow. Back from Assateague and I didn’t know that many bugs existed. This week I’m sure to get in trouble for inappropriate scratching, and narcolepsy, and if anyone were to study my blood alcohol level even now a couple of days later I’m pretty sure I’d fail.
No trees, no shade in fact, no indoor life, no iPod, no chores, no responsibilities. Just 30-odd miles of sandbar, cool Atlantic and glorious heat. A chance to sit and think and dream, to chat and drink and laugh with a bunch of really cool people, to watch the ocean lap in and out and to think of nothing in particular. I passed Watchmen around (thanks for the loan Jerry) and wrote a little of the stories I wanted – the sun wasn’t particularly condusive to thought though – much more pleasant to switch brain off completely! Downsides ofc included being flayed alive, and one night of ridiculous torrential downpour and lake-inside-tent semi-sleeping. Shit got WET.
Slight return to reality via an extended Maryland Blue Crab lunch, two vital rounds of thick black coffee, and a loooong ride home on the Chi Town bus, which despite fears was actually really pleasant, and at $35 for a round trip is a steal. DC was nice if small – seemed a lot like Brooklyn in the central residential areas – it’s first stop on my upcoming roadtrip so will return and do the tourist thing properly!
Should really have taken a lot more pictures, but the general mood was less Facebook pouting and more a low key hangout with friends. Would definitely like to take my new camera (as/when it’s released) there – we sat drinking beer all through Saturday night to see the dawn. The shocking pink sun graced over the water as the full yellowing moon sank behind us in deep blue West; utterly beautiful and possibly best left, on the first encounter, simply as a memory.
Preparations for America (Part2: Eating)
Sunday 03 Feb 2008
Part 1, unwritten and unpublished, would describe the legacies of our shared culture, our rivalries, the Puritanistic escape from Popery, the shared desire for power and responsibility, the fortunate position our language takes as a default for the rest of the world, MTV, Hollywood, ridicule of the French (joke) and weird activities.
Part 2, here, simply documents that last night at Big Easy I took the opportunity to enjoy a remarkably fine double-thick cut Mignon – the size of a family car – cooked blue with piles of fries, onion rings, salad, peppercorn sauce, calamari, chillies, slaw, skins, wings, chips, and several fattening sauces all washed down with Dead-Man’s Mules and finished off with a bloody good deep slow-burning Scotch. (While the birthday boy settled for a mere 20 kilo powerlifting monster of the deep).
I see these efforts not only as a method for using up that extra belt notch, but also as part of a veritable training regime; practicing and preparing to be comfortable in ordering for a lunch a salad – with a 16oz Sirloin and blue cheese sauce ‘on the side’….
A day of conversations
Sunday 27 Jan 2008
“We just need to sort the deposit, whether you want the bed and furniture and stuff, some other stuff I’m sure, but not that sure – watch out for that car – just how am I managing to stay upright… and look, here’s a coffee shop, quick!”
“Starbucks???”
“I used to have principles too…”
***
“I can’t believe I didn’t go to Download with you…”
“The three of them are up there and they play each other’s guitars!”
***
“With very few examples, no work could completely satisfy me; maybe 80% on the absolute best of days, but there’s always a significant part of my life that needs other stimulus, other sources of joy and they need time, and a life to live. Maybe that’s why I’m not killing myself in the city.”
“You should write that down or something, that’s exactly how I feel!”
“Just seems like common sense really. How do we split this fiver?”
***
“So the hero’s dead, the antihero is a total fucking psycho, and the sheriff’s dreaming of his own death.”
“And there’s no music; that shotgun sound is incredible.”
“What the hell did we just watch?”
Mmm, caaake…
Monday 17 Dec 2007
Soho has cakes too, is there nothing you can’t get here?
(8 days to go!)
