Feeling good on Lexington

Published on Fri 18 Jun 2010

I'm just back from spending most of the weekend at Half-Ton Studios with The Travis Waltons, trying to finish the ep we're hoping to launch in a few weeks. Yesterday my part in it all consisted of eating my body weight in peanuts, brownies and chocolate cornflake cakes and then having a little sleep while the others recorded the important instruments, but I got a fairly epic synth part and some singing that was politely described as "quirky" done today, either side of a pretty enjoyable Morning People practice.

The whole week's been hectic. I finally won a game of squash on Monday - I think I came back from America leaner and fitter than I've been for a while - dunno how that happened. I did one of the more depressing gigs of recent times on Tuesday supporting Jeff Klein who plays keyboards for The Gutter Twins. It'd taken him 2 days to get here from Texas and BA had misplaced his expensive guitar and all his clothes (according to his twitter he's got them back now, which is good) so he borrowed mine (guitar, not clothes - I warned him it was hard to play, but he had a  quick go and reckoned he wouldn't get tetanus from it - his words, not mine). We had a pretty decent chat before the show - he's a nice guy and I felt bad for him. Advanced ticket sales weren't amazing and for some weird reason 3/4 of the people who had bought them didn't even turn up so it was pretty sparse in the room. I always feel awkward for the audience in that situation - like they're trapped - and it makes me not play so well. I also didn't have much to say for myself in between tunes. I played: A Folly or a Fortress, Watertight, 60 Miles with a Slow Puncture, The Ghost of Paddy's Night Past, Muscle Memory, Ball and Chain, Edinburgh. Someone told me afterwards that the highlight was the moment in between the first two songs when I tried to pull up my trousers and accidentally pulled my pants up instead. Then felt the need to announce it, just in case there was anyone who hadn't noticed.

Jeff was great, despite having to put up with my guitar and the weird pops it makes when anyone but me plays it. He did take the piss out of my storytelling ability in lieu of thinking of anything to say himself, but I didn't mind.

Him: "I'm busy tuning here - Paul, tell a story"
Me: "I used up all my stories earlier"
Him: "Wow that was all your stories? I know how that feels"
Me: "Clearly..."

So, that thing from last time that will haunt me forever. I'm almost certain I sat next to the guitar player from Bon Iver on the plane from Chicago to New York. I wasn't totally sure at the time, but having checked out some photos I'm sure it was him now. I spent the whole flight trying to make myself say something and never did. It's a recurring theme of mine. What are the odds of sitting next to a member of one of my favourite bands on a plane? It's not going to happen again is it. What is wrong with me? I could've found out why they stopped playing Blindsided. On the other hand I was a bit confused about his name at the time so I guess it could've been awkward. We did have a bit of a chat and he seemed cool, if unsure about the number of players on a "soccer" team.

The taxi ride from the airport to Manhattan was surprising - I saw a cricket match going on. Probably the only cricket match in all of America at that point. Mary showed me lots of pretty pictures of Florida's flora and fauna on the way and decided not to hold me personally responsible for the oil they have going on down there, despite me being British. When we got dropped off I walked the 10 blocks from outside her fancy hotel and checked into mine. It had got a load of rather mixed reviews in between me booking it and me getting there, but was absolutely fine and literally a stone's throw from Times Square (though maybe by someone with a slightly better arm than me). I settled in a bit then went for a bit of a wander and the day's second McDonald's (it seemed to be doing a brisker trade in people using the loo than people buying food), being annoyed at myself the whole time and vowing to that this would mark a turning point in my life and I will say things that I have to say from now on. A hip-hop guy in the street somehow managed to coerce me into buy a CD off him. I should listen to it. Maybe. Apparently track 11 is good "fow da lovin". I went for a quick drink in an Irish bar by my hotel and got talking to an Irish guy who was moving to Kentucky the next day to go and work in an Irish bar. I think there's a statute that says each Irish bar must have a certain quotient of Irish bar staff.

I must have walked about 20 miles the next day (Monday). I'm not sure there's any way of doing justice to the amount of stuff I saw. I still find it ridiculous it all fitted into a single day. I started off heading east from my hotel and had a look around Grand Central Station - the first of many, many places from films that I would see. It's pretty impressive. I don't remember ever noticing the blue ceiling in the films.

I walked past the Chrysler Building

then across to the East River, humming that brilliant Jeffrey Lewis song ("9 8 7th Avenue, now I'm crossing Madison, sobbing on Park Avenue etc. etc.") the whole way and ended up at the UN headquarters.

I thought about going in, but had had enough of going through metal detectors for the time being, so admired all the flags for a bit then wandered back to 5th Avenue to visit St Patrick's Cathedral on the advice of my guide book. I'm normally quite sceptical when people talk about "soaking up the atmosphere" of places, but it suddenly made a lot of sense. You couldn't be anywhere else when you're in New York and there's always something to look at. It also feels strangely familiar because of all the films/TV shows. I banned myself from listening to music so that I had a better chance of taking it all in. I'm still not sure if I did.

I liked the cathedral, but it's weird to think of it not being nearly as old as it's been made to look. I suppose it's better that way than being built in a really quickly dating modern style.  

The only problem with building cities on the grid system (apart from spending your whole time waiting to cross streets) is that it's quite difficult to take pictures of big things from not very far away, and it's quite difficult to get far away without another big thing getting in the way.

I also had a quick scoot round this church down the road, which has an impressive reredos containing statues of a fairly high percentage of the saints...

St Patrick's Cathedral is directly over the road from The Rockefeller Centre, which I only really became aware of because of 30 Rock, but is really effing tall.

I'll be honest. I came pretty close to just hanging around there all day waiting for Liz Lemon to come out. I think maybe I'd already spent too much time on my own...

It occured to me that I'd not had anything to eat yet and it was nearly midday, so I took a chance on one of the many, many hot dog stands. Street meat someone in Chicago called it. It was great. Juicier and spicier than I expected.

Gah. I have to go to bed. The not particularly romantic not particularly comedy I shouldn't even have started watching has ended. I can't believe I'm only halfway through the first day. I've got another surprisingly busy week. This is going to get confusing...