New York City

I recently returned from New York City. I stayed with my friend Brenda Grell in Greenpoint which is just north of Williamsburg in Brooklyn. Greenpoint is a Polish neighborhood and I have such a soft spot for Polish people it was such a treat to eat terrible Polish food and drink their cheap but good beer Zwyiec. This trip I decided to pretty much explore in Brooklyn as I hadn't really spent much time there before. The Brooklyn Museum had a beautiful exhibition of early American Landscape work by Asher B. Durand. Their Visible Storage/Study Center was a fantastic idea and I wish more museums would do something like this. Unfortuanately I didn't find any interesting galleries, but I didn't look very hard to be honest. Instead I spent time in the local bars like Daddy's, Pete's Candy Store and Iona's. Browsed books stores like Spoonbill and Sugartown. I strolled the massive Prospect Parkand enjoyed the the 4th of July Fireworks from our rooftop. Oh it was my first time at Coney Island and probably my last as it is set to come down at the end of the year. The beach scene there really blew my mind. It was dense with people really letting it all hang out. All were welcome, it was wonderful stuff. It was a great break from the SoCal beach scenes that seem owned by the rich, attractive and white. Brenda and I road the Cyclone rollercoaster in Astroland. It looked easy from the ground but OH MY GOD it was the scariest thing we had ever been on. The thing rattled, swung, bounced, and pitched across its aging wooden tracks in such a way that I thought I had suffered some sort of internal bleeding from my vertabra splintering into fragments. I could hear Brenda screaming for her life and have a pic to prove it. One of the Cyclone's many stories is from 1948, when a coal miner with aphonia visited Coney Island. According to legend, he had not spoken in years but screamed while going down the Cyclone's first drop and said "I feel sick" as his train returned to the station—then prompty fainted after realizing he had just spoken.

I really enjoy visiting New York as the people and the environment are of a totally different flavor then Los Angeles. Not better or worse, just different and I enjoy that. Something that I do like better is the experience of diversity. While Los Angeles is a diverse city you don't experience much of that on a day to day level because of geographical/urban development issues.

I also spend a day in Phillydelphia visiting my friend Melinda Erickson before she left for a Capoeiratrip to Porto Portugal, lucky her! People seem to really like that place and there was a positive vibe amongst its inhabitants though I couldn't see the charm in the short amount of time I was there. (sorry Philly peeps) I'm a west coaster whatya expect.