Bombay Bicycle Club...

Last night I went to see the Bombay Bicycle Club play at Webster Hall...

It's the second time I've seen them in New York now - last time they played the tiny Mercury Lounge down on Houston, there were probably 10 times more people at Webster Hall last night...

 Webster Hall's a great venue and it was packed out for the biggest night of the tour so far.

They played all their best songs - and the crowd knew the lot, singing and dancing along - they were far more energetic than the Mercury Lounge crowd too. Even during the new songs they sung, the audience were dancing along.

They sounded absolutely amazing live - and they sound even tighter than they did a year ago (although they were pretty tight then too) - it's great being able to see their following growing over here... hopefully they'll play again in 6-12 months, I wonder where they'll be playing then?!

Here's a wee video of them singing Shuffle...

Teeny Tiny Shop...

We spotted this super slim-line shoe repair shop on the Upper West Side yesterday.

New York land-lords really will squeeze every last penny out of every square inch of space!

Out & About...

The Bridge Before The Storm...

King Brown & Kin' Wet!

Last night (just seconds before the storm hit Manhattan) I went to the launch of King Brown magazine at the Klughaus Gallery down under the Manhattan Bridge.

King Brown's an Australian skating/graffiti magazine curated by a couple of artists (one of which is The Yok who's done a lot of stuff around New York and Brooklyn). This was the launch of their 8th issue, and their first launch party in America (I think?).

There was lots of stuff going on in and around the gallery - there was a skating/trick competition in the skate park opposite the gallery. The skate park sits directly underneath the bridge, so the noise of the skaters mixed with the racket of the train makes for an interesting blend.

There was also a couple of murals outside the gallery - both of which had been done during the event...

Just as I was arriving the clouds were thick in the air and the lighting was striking everywhere - so I was glad to get some shelter, but going into the gallery wasn't much better than being outside. It was absolutely heeeeeeeeeeaving...

It was a bit of a squeeze - it's a long thin gallery with not much in the way of air conditioning, so it was boiling in there... I ended up chatting to the man at the merchandise stall for a while just because there was a fan in that corner of the gallery!

When it came to leaving I looked outside and saw that it was raining... really raining. It was proper American Hollywood thick rain and lashing down like a monsoon. It didn't show any sign of stopping either.

The biggest problem was I had just bought the latest edition of the magazine that came in a hand screen-printed brown paper sleeve that was hand stitched close and I didn't have a coat that I could tuck it under... so it was going to get pretty wet if I left.

Luckily a very nice person behind the bar (I say 'bar', it was a fold out table with bottles of beer on it) let me have a bin bag. So I wrapped the magazine up and made a run for the subway station, which was about 6 blocks away.

I don't think I've got that soaked that quickly before... It was so so wet out there. In hindsight I should have asked to two bin bags, one for the magazine, the other to fashion a poncho out of... but instead I got soaked and had to ride two trains back, dripping.

The storms continued for the rest of the night, with huge lighting bolts lighting up the whole sky - it was all very dramatic. Rumour has it the storms are hanging around all weekend, so hopefully I'll be able to get some of my own photos next time!

It was a good night depsite the weather - I think it would have been far more enjoyable if it was 2 months ago or in 2 months times when the weather calms down... I love New York, but I blummin' hate the humidity here during the summer.

More Storms...

There were more HUGE storms last night - unfortunately this time I got caught out in it and got absolutely drenched!

There were some more very dramatic photos doing the rounds on the internet - here's one of the storm clouds looming over Manhattan...

Scary stuff!

Faile - 104 N7th...

On my travels yesterday evening I found Faile's latest piece, number 104 on North 7th St in Williamsburg...

I think I've actually walked passed this place a couple of times and not realised that it was a Faile piece, and not taken any notice of the tiles - but last night I got up close and really looked at it all...

 All the tiles have been designed and created by Faile - it's something they've been doing quite a bit of recently, instead of their usual pastings and murals.

It's far more delicate than most of the other stuff you see about -  another really orignal take on the whole street art thing.

5 Mile Mooch...

Yesterday I finish work on time (!) so I decided to enjoy the sunshine and walk back to Brooklyn... 

I didn't quite make it all the way back to the ranch, but I did have great fun strolling around taking lots of photos along the way...

 It was fantastic to just walk around and go dow new roads, investigating different alleys and looking for cars and grafitti and stuff to take photos off... I loved it! I think it'll be even more fun to do when this humidity dies down. I definitely thing walking back from work once a week could become a regular thing...

 Maybe.

Leon Reid IV...

I spotted some more fantastic street art during a lunchtime mooch yesterday...

This brilliant melted newspaper stand is by an artist called Leon Reid IV. It's outside a shop called Printed Matter that sells all sorts of books and other bits and pieces by independent artists (including some Yoko Ono bits and pieces).

This wasn't the only thing that was melting yesterday lunchtime, it was blummin' boiling!

Mini Golf...

On Sunday afternoon Abi and I headed back to Pier 26 for a spot of golf...

The mini golf course on the pier look like it's brand new. It's an 18 hole course all cleverly contained within a tiny area on the pier, with water falls, fountains and bridges to navigate under, round and over.



Our surroundings were pretty amazing too, with beautiful steamboats to one side and views of the World Trade to the other...

It was pretty busy, with people of all ages there, having a great time. The children behind us were pretty good, I think the boy must have been about 3 and was getting hole in ones!

Talking of hole in ones, guess who managed to get one... me! Having said that Abi and I also managed to lose our golf balls in the fountain after mis judging the bridge on hole 15.


It was really great fun and being by the river was lovely and relaxing.

It was a perfect sunny Sunday afternoon.

The Conrad Hotel...

Also down at Battery Park, opposite the Irish Memorial, is the Conrad Hotel, which is rather futuristic and fancy inside...

 You go up a big wide stone staircase into a huge lobby area with all these triangular things hanging form the ceiling and lots of very futuristic looking furniture. We stopped off for a little sit down on one of the huge curvy sofas and did a bit of people watching.

The felt a little bit like being in an airport - and it smelt like a cinema (there's one attached to the hotel), but it was still very impressive... not a patch on the Plaza though!