Picture Postcards

Selfportraits in the MoMA

Christina's World by Andrew Wyeth

Detail

Poser in the MoMA

Time Exposure from Nicole's penthouse bar

Street in The Village

Carrie Bradshaw's Stoop

Cute Van Alert

Cosmos in Scout

Apple Store on 5th Avenue

Liberty through Binocs on Staten Ferry

Hats outside the Guggenheim

Guggenheim Interior

Tronno

Leaving New York yesterday morning felt a little soon - it's a place you could spend months—nay—years getting to know, so we really didn't get to do as much as we liked—but hey - there'll be other chances - maybe even at the end of this big trip!?! Even still - we fitted in a trip to Staten Island on the big orange ferry, had hamburgers in a slightly surreal 70s styled burger joint hidden away in the lobby of a posh hotel, went to see the Guggenheim (sadly covered in scaffolding and not exactly beaming in its Frank Lloyd Wright spiralness). I bought a hat in Barneys (yes—no apostrophe), bimbled in the new Apple Store on 5th Ave and drank Cosmopolitans in Sex & The City bar 'Scout' and had cupcakes in the East Village on a fun tour of the show's locations.

Good things about NYC:
Proliferation of cabs and reasonable prices for long journeys - yay!
Central Park - we walked pretty much the length and width of it on our last day and it's lovely
Iced water delivered instantly upon arrival at any restaurant
Fresh produce!

Yesterday we spent just over 12 hours on the Amtrak "Maple Leaf" Train 61 to Toronto leaving the hotel at something like 6am to get to Pennsylvania Station in time for the 7:15 off. Twelve hours may seem a long time but the train is a big comfy wide air-conditioned affair with enough legroom for the average basketball player. I seem to have a never-ending ability to be perfectly content watching the countless bridges, factories, rivers, crossings and towns pass by for hours on end, which I suppose is a good thing for when the scenery gets really big. I've bought some new pencils and a cartridge pad with a view to maybe drawing the odd thing but haven't felt a calling quite yet. The carriage also had mains electricity so we were able to watch the Lost Season Two finales (Downloaded in NY - some answers but even more questions naturally) and Jo was able to sit and write with no worries about the battery dying. Oh, and there was proper tea to be had in the Buffet car. Yay!

So I'm typing this in Ceara's splendid apartment to the east of Toronto Downtown. Great views too. And aircon. Met her at the station and headed out for cocktails (I recommend an Amaretto Sour) and a nice light bite on the front by the lake. Great to catch up a bit. It's two years since we last caught up - the time it does a fly. Big night out tonight and a proper day in the city tomorrow; we might head out in a bit to have a little mooch in the shops but it's verr hot and we're verr lame in the heat so it'll be a while yet I think.

Noo Yoyk

Mondrian’s ‘Broadway Boogie-Woogie’

“Daey Woon at thu Beeg Brootha Howse.”
Sorry - Manhattan; Day One.
Early rise [due to jetlag(ue)] and take quick Subway journey from where we are on Upper West Side (chilled and cosmopolitan) to Times Square (bustling, brash and a tourist-trap) to meet Nicole for brunch. Adorable school kids got on to our subway-car on the way and reminded us how cool it is to be eleven as they giggled, teased each other and pretended to fall over.

Got the 'pancakes, maple and bacon' idea out of the way once there (quite nice) and experienced the first US ‘double-tip-ask’ so far (gratuity added to bill yet still seemed to need a tip for waitress. i.e. Add 36% to bill.)
Pfft... Mental note to stay out of NY's "Picadilly Circus" for food. Would I eat in TGI Fridays back home? Hrmm....

Took the bus-trip round Manhattan afterwards which was pretty cool in terms of getting to terms with the geography if not a bit pricey. Fella giving the commentary was suitably witty and counter-culture. A Struggling Writing Grad he said. I think Jo and me laughed at his cracks more than most. He was tactfully sanguine and quiet about the whole 9/11 thing when we drove near 'Ground Zero' prefering to motion in it's general direction rather than go on about it's effects, which I found rather dignified all in all. Better that than some sort of patriot tirade (as I probably would have predicted). It's a big-ole building site now. I still wonder about the 'other' WTC towers that 'fell' despite the lack of plane-interface-actualitys on that day— but I fear for being thrown out and labelled a commie so I'll just bitch conspiratorily on my webloggy-bloggy-loggy-fun-fun instead.


Deli near hotel is like Fortnum & Mason's on acid; Picnics beckon...Still finding it hard to gauge the scale here though. Big or small? The grids and high buildings cloud things somewhat I think it's big. But it's quite easy to walk so maybe it's small. Went up the Rockerfeller centre for some pretty good views and chanced some 'experimental' shots of the skyline by pointing the Ixus through the Binoculars. Worked better than planned (if you don't mind a black corona round theedge); Hazy sky though, preluding the thunderstorms later on, so we couldn't see that far across central park. Fun though., The elevator has a glass roof so you can see on the way up. The Thunder storms tonight were cool too. Time exposures I tried to take were crap. I want a Digi that's small like an Ixus but works like an SLR. Big ask.


Went round Museum of Modern Art in the afternoon today - very nice collection; Witness me at top of post posing sheepishly next one of my top-ten paintings of all time - Mondrian's 'Broadway Boogie Woogie'. I got Jo to take it yet it looks like she made me.(She didn't) I wanted to mark the event of such a meeting with an inanimate object but as is my wont I couldn't help but feel utterly stupid when push came to shove. Or Lens came to Pose. Does this painting contain the first pixels EVER?

This country seems a bit schizo. I can't quite work out the gap between what's clearly a geniune and really human. positive and friendly (not the 'have a nice day false" vibe I thought I'd find] feel of this place and the strange way some of them want to fight crazy wars to keep their 'gas' prices below the 'outlandish' prices [that are nearly - and shockingly - reaching the astronomical prices of half that of the petrol prices in Europe.] Naturally it's about power. It's a strange thing. Less petrol about is there? More Expensive is it? I think I must need a bigger and less fuel-efficient Truck to feel safe then..." I don't get it. But then I killed several kittens just flying here and I'm using up more of the world's resources rambling on about it now so I'll shush now - Enough with the hypocrisies (and ranting)!
.

Well we’re here

Sooo... It's about seven pm here and midnight back in uk but we’ve arrived fine and found an Airport to leach off in our slightly crumbly brownstone off broadway. Talk about lucky!

Flight went fine - Air India rocked it - very few ‘bing-bong’ type interuptions, nice stiff G&Ts and a cracking chicken curry to boot. Unpretentious, great.

Haven't really looked about yet - stopping to get breath before heading out for a bite and a beer. Everyone here seems very chilled. The MTA metro-fine. Now to lose this gin headache....

Tags:New York

Bontempi Radio Köln: Edition 07 | Music to ride trains by

Pishh-ti-coof... Pishh-ti-coof!

Welcome to edition seven of Bontempi Radio Köln. A bumper D90 double-length edition this time (sorry for download size—it is worth it I promise!) as I’ll be away riding trains for the next month and won’t easily be able to fill the missing Bontempi gap when away. This ’cast contains a definite George Stephenson theme and is best listened to with your eyes peering out of the window on whatever journey you find yourself on, with your brain duly engaged in neutral. Unless you’re driving of course. Or there are kids opposite eating oranges and playing [insert name of latest japanese kids’ craze game here]. In which case turn it up even louder. It will scare them off.

Listen here or subscribe via iTunes by clicking the post-title or the Podcast link in the right-hand column

If you liked the show or have requests, comments, suggestions, please email me (address at bottom of page) and let me know! I’d love as much feedback as possible so I can continue to make BRK as interesting and fun as I can.

Tags:PodcastsTrainsNorth American Railroads

Bontempi Radio Köln 07; 20/05/06
Tracklisting:

01 Roy Budd: Carter takes a Train (Get Carter OST)
02 Keiichi Suzuki: Satellite Serenade (Orb Trans Asian Express)
03 The KLF: Last Train To Trancentral (Pure Trance)
04 Special Projects: Code of the Goddamn Streets
05 LMNO: Silcock Express (Sabres of Paradise mix)
06 Underworld: Dark and Long (Dark Train)
07 Jimmy Saville: InterCity 125
08 Tangerine Dream: Love on a Real Train (Risky Business OST)
09 Brian Eno & David Byrne: Mea Culpa
10 Two Lone Swordsmen: Sex Beat
11 Le Tigre: My My My Metrocard
12 Berlin: The Metro (Extended version)
13 Si Begg: Eurostar
14 Kraftwerk: Europa Endlos
15 The KLF: Madruga Eterna (LittlePixel overdub)
16 The Monkees: Last Train to Clarkesville

Mini Facelift...

Not Botox but spiffy new headers instead

The fabulously talented Jowie wrote me some code a while back so that I could have multiple graphical headers that load at random, along with a fresh set of 'make X history' comments every time you visit this oh-so-interesting log-on-teh-webs. New slogans? Oooh politics!

Anyway - today I finally implemented it. Took a while as I knew it wouldn't go smoothly. This always happens to me - I try writing/copy pasting a bit of code; it doesn't work. I try again. It half works. I try again. The other half works. I start again because I've made too many changes and then somehow miraculously it does work - often when I don't really know how. Classes and Parents in CSS leave me cold yet I somehow renamed some divs today and now have a great random header! Many thanks for that Jowie! Splendid.

In other news- Gonna be off to Canada pretty soon (sorry no dates Mr Burglar)... Getting a 30 day rail pass so we can piddle across the prairies and mountains in our own re-enactment of 'The Silver Streak' at our leisure, starting at NY and ending... well back in London at some point via the length of Canada and probably the height of the US. Exciting stuff. No driving too. Rest assured - I won't be blacking up like Gene Wilder though... Will be taking a Lappy so hope to post a bit when we're out there if at all possible. Maybe even podcast. If we find some free wireless that is...(fires up a Stumbling app...)

Bontempi Radio Köln: Edition 06 | Jack yer’ Bontempi

Long time coming…

Welcome to edition six of Bontempi Radio Köln. A long time coming but good things come to those who wait... This one mainly features early house, euro-beat, electro and hi-nrg cuts from the 80s. Tunes in the charts or discovered later that made me prick up my ears and stop listening to stadium rock. I've kept production to a minimum on this - it’s really just the tunes but I hope you enjoy the selection.

If you do — I thoroughly recommend seeking out some of the old WBMX Chicago Hot Mix Five sessions that can be easily be found on your p2p network of choice, fully capturing the birth of the modern DJ featuring legends like Farley Jackmaster Funk, Fast Eddie Fawlkes, Kenny Jammin Jason, Ralphie Rosario, Steve Silk Hurley, Julian Perez and Mickey Oliver. They did this sort of thing way, way better than me.

Perfect summer music. To dance to. Or listen on the bus.

Listen here or subscribe via iTunes by clicking the post title or the Podcast link in the right-hand column

If you liked the show or have requests, comments, suggestions, please email me (address at bottom of page) and let me know! I’d love as much feedback as possible so I can continue to make BRK as interesting and fun as I can.

Tags:PodcastsHot Mix FiveClassic Chicago House

Bontempi Radio Köln 06; 09/05/06
Tracklisting:

01 Taffy: I Love My Radio (US 12")
02 Man2Man meets Man Parrish: Male Stripper (Pixel mix)
03 Pet Shop Boys: In the Night
04 Vicious Pink: Cccant you see?
05 Nightmares on Wax: A Case of Funk
06 Shannon: Let the Music Play
07 Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley: Jack your Body
08 Hithouse: Jack to the sound of the Underground
09 Jack ‘n’ Chill: The Jack that House Built
10 The KLF: Kylie said to Jason (Kylie in a Trance)
11 Inner City: Good Life
12 Frankie Knuckles Feat. Jamie Principle: Your Love

The Sultan’s Elephant

Central London stops for a truly amazing spectacle

‘The Sultan’s Elephant’ was a huge-scale puppet show (read as ‘amazing piece of street theatre’) that closed today after three days in the centre of the west-end of London. Featuring a ten-metre-high mechanical ‘time-travelling’ elephant and a five metre little girl who’s spaceship had crashed into the tarmac at Pall Mall, stitching cars to the tarmac with rope, roaming around the west end and generally causing an upscale meleé we were really glad to have caught it’s culmination this afternoon. Not really being big on TV these days (UKNova is our VCR) we were totally unaware of it happening until my sister in Newcastle asked if we were going, having seen it on the Beeb's news site...

Kudos to Sarah, as we are so glad we did get along.. Wonderful to see the elephant give it’s good-bye’s to the little girl as she made her escape in the Jules Verne moonshot, with really excellent music being played live by a band sat in the trailer pulled by the Heffalump. Genuinely moving. Who cares about wires? - CGI has nothing on this sort of thing. I hope there are many other chances to see summer happenings like this in the future. Staged by Royal De Luxe, this is theatre, ingenuity and spectacle at its best.

I took some pictures in the crowd today but they won’t be nearly as good as the ones already flooding onto Flickr, so if you want to see more of the fabulous Dalí-like creations, click the photo link below.

Pictures of the three day event on Flickr

Tags:Sultan's Elephant

Theonie Cotterpin…

...is the name of my new/old bike

Rescued from a shed, my sister’s old bike is back on the road with new wheels built by me, shiny bits and no gears! Oh it surely is great to be on a sabatical and have the time to go out for a nice ride in the park on a (unnaturally) sunny day. I shouldn’t gloat but sod it - I’ve earnt the break.

She’s very smooth, elegant and totally silent - I’ve found after only riding her for a couple of miles and several laps around Finsbury Park, where she cheekily posed for the FixedGearGallery that I’m already falling for her gallic ways. Blah ’giving inanimate objects a personailty’... It’s a family thing. I couldn’t break the tradition of generations...

Tags: Peugeot Bikes Fixed Gear Gallery