NY D1 & 2
En Route - mostly unremarkable. PAL's economy seats were roomier than I expected them to be, and the food was tolerable but that's about it. Their shenanigans with tickets and flight details were absurd and cost me a lot more money (slashing my pocket money by about 30%) so as much as possible from now on I'm avoiding them (no online check-in, poor service, amongst others). Watched Yes Man and Confessions of a Shopaholic on the flight. SFO stopover. American Airlines' economy section was horribly cramped and uncomfortable. Tried to sleep but failed. My first major flight without a book. Thank God for my ipod.
Day 1 - Excited as bees, took a run through Central Park. Saw the lane where they shot parts of When Harry Met Sally and Vanilla Sky. Took no real path, just followed cute dogs we saw. Squirrels unafraid of humans, unlike in Boston. Haven't been back to NY or the US in almost 10 years, so it still feels like I'm walking through a massive set, like I'm in the warehouse in Synecdoche, NY. Staying with a friend in the city, off Central Park West. Lovely place, and surprisingly quiet. Did some work for Uno in the afternoon. Then in the evening went to New Jersey for some Swedish art punk, courtesy of Love Is All. They were great, though I don't know why I should be surprised. I kept screaming for "Ageing..." and they played it as the first song of their encore. Got to meet Josephine and tell her we played almost all of 9 Times That Same Song on Radio Dredd. We missed the first opener, but the second, Real Estate, were also good. Sort of reminded me of Pavement. Ran into Richard Baluyut at the gig; apparently he's friends with Love Is All. Gave the good news that they're going to lay down tracks for the new Versus album this month, and that he, Ed and Fontaine have been joined by another member, a girl whose name I forget. It's going to be on Merge. Jetlag? What is this jetlag? It does not apply to me. Bah.
Day 2 - Went to Union Square to get a local prepaid sim. Went to Virgin Megastore's closing sale, where everything is 40% off. Got 2 shirts. Went home, went back out to get some groceries. A little more work. Then trekked to the Austrian Cultural Forum for a talk between Nicolas Mahler and Mark Newgarden on humor and their comics. It was a choice between this, a Jason signing at The Strand and another signing at Jim Hanley's Universe with Becky Cloonan, Vasilis Lolos and Brian Wood, but they'll all be at Mocca anyway and none were talks, just signings. Also, Mahler was leaving on Friday. He wasn't here for Mocca, just the talk. Which was great; good slide show, and they even showed some of their animated work I'd never seen before. We hung around after to talk and get some pictures and got invited to some wine upstairs, where we got to chat with Mahler and Newgarden. People seem to be really delighted when their stuff reaches the Philippines. I got to ask Mahler about how he developed his almost abstract style. He sketched and signed a postcard for me (I have all his books but they're at home), then gave(!) Neva a book. Mark gave me a "book groomer" and introduced me to Bill Kartalopoulos, who was in attendance. That was a nice surprise. Got to tell him how much I enjoyed and missed his egonlabs and indy magazine.
- morning of Day 3 now. Apparently I missed a Guillermo Del Toro signing at B&N because The Beat got the time wrong. Heidi said noon but it was actually midnight. Oh well. He has another signing at a different branch but I'll be at another event tonight. In the meantime, more work.
Day 1 - Excited as bees, took a run through Central Park. Saw the lane where they shot parts of When Harry Met Sally and Vanilla Sky. Took no real path, just followed cute dogs we saw. Squirrels unafraid of humans, unlike in Boston. Haven't been back to NY or the US in almost 10 years, so it still feels like I'm walking through a massive set, like I'm in the warehouse in Synecdoche, NY. Staying with a friend in the city, off Central Park West. Lovely place, and surprisingly quiet. Did some work for Uno in the afternoon. Then in the evening went to New Jersey for some Swedish art punk, courtesy of Love Is All. They were great, though I don't know why I should be surprised. I kept screaming for "Ageing..." and they played it as the first song of their encore. Got to meet Josephine and tell her we played almost all of 9 Times That Same Song on Radio Dredd. We missed the first opener, but the second, Real Estate, were also good. Sort of reminded me of Pavement. Ran into Richard Baluyut at the gig; apparently he's friends with Love Is All. Gave the good news that they're going to lay down tracks for the new Versus album this month, and that he, Ed and Fontaine have been joined by another member, a girl whose name I forget. It's going to be on Merge. Jetlag? What is this jetlag? It does not apply to me. Bah.
Day 2 - Went to Union Square to get a local prepaid sim. Went to Virgin Megastore's closing sale, where everything is 40% off. Got 2 shirts. Went home, went back out to get some groceries. A little more work. Then trekked to the Austrian Cultural Forum for a talk between Nicolas Mahler and Mark Newgarden on humor and their comics. It was a choice between this, a Jason signing at The Strand and another signing at Jim Hanley's Universe with Becky Cloonan, Vasilis Lolos and Brian Wood, but they'll all be at Mocca anyway and none were talks, just signings. Also, Mahler was leaving on Friday. He wasn't here for Mocca, just the talk. Which was great; good slide show, and they even showed some of their animated work I'd never seen before. We hung around after to talk and get some pictures and got invited to some wine upstairs, where we got to chat with Mahler and Newgarden. People seem to be really delighted when their stuff reaches the Philippines. I got to ask Mahler about how he developed his almost abstract style. He sketched and signed a postcard for me (I have all his books but they're at home), then gave(!) Neva a book. Mark gave me a "book groomer" and introduced me to Bill Kartalopoulos, who was in attendance. That was a nice surprise. Got to tell him how much I enjoyed and missed his egonlabs and indy magazine.
- morning of Day 3 now. Apparently I missed a Guillermo Del Toro signing at B&N because The Beat got the time wrong. Heidi said noon but it was actually midnight. Oh well. He has another signing at a different branch but I'll be at another event tonight. In the meantime, more work.