the bronx is up and the battery's down

i'm in brooklyn! stayed up all night and caught a flight at 6:55 am to lagurearerardia (how the hell do you spell that). slept most of the way. was entertained mildly by the stewardesses' comments over the loudspeaker--"thank you for flying spirit. if you have comments or questions about your journey with us, please visit our website. we also love to hear critical feedback--if you were dissatisfied with your trip, contact us at www.northwest.com." hilarious. hopped in a taxi driven by an old black man who sang along to louis armstrong's "what a wonderful world" very loudly and cute-ly. i was charmed. he drove me to brooklyn for $27. at this point i am drunk with sleep, maybe just drunk, though i couldn't tell you why. i staggered up the steps to graham's apartment (four flights! good lord) and after hugs and lauds and smiles and greetings i dumped my stuff in the living room and proceeded to play Katamari Damacy, which was very clearly created while the makers were extremely high on mushrooms and/or paint. by about 11 am i was fading fast so graham deposited me in bed and went off to take a shower. i thudded into sleep like so many bowling balls through clouds, and was lost to the world until graham nobly woke me at 1:30 and we decided to get some food. walked to the 2nd street cafe which is wallpapered in tablecloth drawings done by children/grandpas and snarfed a goat cheese omelet and bottled coca cola. off to sightseeing then, which in my book essentially means aimless wandering, which is what we did (and oh my god--weirdest/coolest thing ever--i bumped into jason saltiel, good friend of mine from high school--just proves i can't go anywhere without bumping into someone i know) until about 5:30 when we sauntered into the teacher's college at Coblumbia where graham's friend's boyfriend was having an exhibition of his paintings/photographs/music videos/modern sculpture. some tasty cheese and ridiculous conversation with a woman who thought i was 30. afterwards graham and i discovered we both found grown-up conversation to be laughable and i remembered (actually, i've been constantly reminded since i got here) why i like graham so much. i do have to mention one piece of art, it was hilarious. this guy (the artist's name was jerry james) had told a group of first graders that they had one minute to draw him, and started counting "one elephant, two elephant, three elephant..." well, the end result was that he got a lot of really cute abstract drawings, and pasted them all onto a piece of cardboard and framed them. and the centerpiece was done by one little kid who may have not totally understood the instructions, and had expertly drawn a little elephant with its trunk sticking straight up. i almost died and then wasn't sure if i was supposed to be howling with laughter at a gallery opening so we left.

so then we decided we would wander some more and walked along the river for the sunset. i bought a softserve vanilla ice cream cone with rainbow sprinkles from a truck. we saw gangs of kids playing basketball, ten year olds brandishing cell phones, and the coolest shoes ever. everyone has cool shoes in new york. then went turned left at 106th and hit central park west and took that till about 96th and gave up and hit the subway. we had dinner at a trendy, very loud bar/restaurant called "coffee" whose walls were studded with broken coffee mugs and saucers. we got invited to a male model's perfume party (or something, i wasn't really sure what was going on but one of the guys he was hanging out with was botsford in 30 years). after we finally got seated i had a delicious salad with seared rare sesame-encrusted yellowfin tuna and miso-ginger dressing, yum. then we were both pretty exhausted so we thought a movie might be in order, but by this point it was about 10:30 and Sin City was sold out, and Millions didn't start till 12:30 so we hit up a mcdonalds for a flurry and took the subway home.

had a beer with andrew and the three of us watched about fifteen minutes of Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, miyazaki's latest film (princess mononoke, spirited away, etc) but couldn't keep my eyes open. took a shower, called max, and sunk into the pillowy softness of graham's couch.

plans for today: shit, it's already 11:30! i think i'll walk out and get some coffee and explore a bit on my own. i hate that i have work to do. but graham does too so it's all gravy. there is a basquiat exhibit at a museum somewhere around here, we will probably hit that up. also my mom arrives today. not that i need to see her, beacuse really, who comes to new york on vacation to hang out with their mom? sheeeeeeeyat. it is a beautiful day.

currently spinning: lcd soundsystem, daft punk is playing at my house
current mood: intrepid