Rockaway Beach II

Today we hit Rockaway beach again. But this time we went to Fort Tilden and the Queer beach. It was a very much nicer crowd. No children running and screaming and no old ladies feeding the birds right in front of you. Instead there was gay men running and screaming, chasing one another pulling down each others pants and showing everything right in front of you. Much better! Happier, looser and strange. Gotta love it. I also saw "the chief of the cannibals wife": an older black woman with strange tattoos also over her voluptuous breasts. She was my favourite among all the characters on the beach. After to much sun we went for Fish tacos at Rockaway Tacos and also managed to down a Strawberry/Banana icecream waiting in line.

Gonorrhée, also in France

I should really go to sleep now but I just remembered something funny from last weekend. We where having a dinner at the Tearoom in Brooklyn. We where a mix of Scandinavians, a Colombian and a Frenchman including the Frenchman's shadow who joined us later, never said hello and then disappeared with out saying goodbye. Anyway the food was totally ok, borderline-ing on good. But as with such restaurants you don´t come to get feed but to indulge your self with stuff or food that you do not need. There where some funny controversy on the Colombian trying to get away cheaply while I in my counterfeit grandeur tried to advocate a splitting of the bill. Counterfeit because it actually did not matter to me I would have been paying roughly the same amount anyway. But it was so funny to go at our Colombian friend in a very unswedish manor. But I am digressing. This story is really about the Frenchman.  
But still I have to mention the funny party who where seated next to us: about eight or so males mostly Swedish dressed up for a Pripps Blå ad! They where to perfect: tanned, tall, modern haircuts, stubble, white t-shirts and blue shirts. All of them! They must have coordinated it somehow. Imagine one guy waking up like: "OK so we are doing advertising in NY, we are mostly Swedes. What could be better than throwing a Pripps Blå-party with the boys? I'm just saying you must have a blue shirt, man!" That it looks totally ridiculous and that one guy could hardly be separated from the others that is not important. They probably ended up doing some orgy with a woman who likes Pripps Blå and tripple penetration. But again I am digressing from the actual story. (Even though I admit that my projection of how the Pripps Blå party ended is tantalizing we are going to leave that now since I have no proof of anything happening for those guys other than it being totally weird and should have been posted on this blog:
http://hurricanevanessa.com/that-awkward-moment-when-you-pitch-up-at-work-wearing-exactly-the-same-as-someone-else-has-its-own-tumblr-of-course/
If you never saw the ad or can not remember it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oQM6e_BHh0
So back to our French, but taking the detour passing by our Colombian. As always when hanging out with Colombians the Burro-discussion comes up and a little later we start to talk about Gonorrhoea, because that is how they say hello to one another in Bogotá. So our Colombian asks the Frenchman how to say "gonorrhoea" in French and the Frenchman in turn looks like he has never heard anything like it and I remember that I thought that he would joke and say that they do not have that i France. And before I know it he says without any trace of irony that they do not have that and that their women are very clean! I do not even know where to begin on this one... It is just so... totally... wrong and... or should I change that to French and chauvinist? During the whole night, however hard we tried to explain what Gonorrhoea is we failed to learn the word for gonorrhoea in French. So I looked it up: and I am not surprised just a bit spiteful now that I can spell it out: Gonorrhée. Which with normal French-speaking rules probably means you pronounce it "Gonorr"... over and out must sleep now.

Smoking at Tim's

Ok, even though the subject of this post may indicate that I dipped into the part of the US-culturett  secondly most famous it is not true. I am now referring to the other smoking as in barbecue. Today I was invited to Tim, a really great guy I met and a most hospitable person. With out talking to much about people who are not here to defend themselves I can just mention that Tim is an accomplished NY based artist who is also both a player in the best meaning of the word and a gentle man as far as I can tell. His work can be found at http://www.timothyhutchings.com/ & http://www.plagmada.org/. Enough of our most gallant host.
So what we did was smoking pork ribs with cherry wood. The technical set up can be read about here: http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/how_to_turn_your_kettle_grill_into_a_smoker/
So as you can plainly see from the url, you don´t even have to click the link we used a normal round grill. It took about 3,5 hours and if we would have had better control of the temperature we could have been going even longer. But I must say that the result was very good and as everyone seemed very content with the meal I believe that all nine of us agreed. Other things that I got to try was macaroni salad which is no salad at all but cold macaroni in a mayonnaise based mixture. Good tasting pasta dish but not a salad. I also had the best coleslaw I ever tried. Now this comes naturally since I NEVER had good coleslaw before. This one was without dairy products which I dare say makes the whole difference. I must also mention the Polish sausage and rolls as well as the desert which was Ambrosia. Which although I am no fan of wiped cream or coconut was totally fine. I would like to thank everyone for the nice food although they might never read this. But now it is written down.
We did not just stand around staring at the smoke escaping the grill. No I tried several new games. Two role playing games: one called XXXX-treme street ludge where you are a street ludger whit striking resemblance to Vin Diesel in three respects. Funny but maybe not that repetitive. The other called Primitive does sum up it's system with it's name. Although that is not the meaning of the game but rather not getting to speak to the other players. You all play pre-language primitive humans, and every day is a struggle for survival. It was also great fun, but I guess it could take very different forms played under different circumstances. I was also introduced to Jungle Speed. And that is an awesome game that I could probably play for hours. I would even like to see a TV-show whit people playing Jungle Speed. It is a recognize and grab trinket card game and I will not explain it further because I do not think that I can.

John Maeda & Becky Beamont

The talk was not only by John but by his team-partner Becky as well. They have been writing a book and worked RISD and the talk was centered on being an artist and leader at the same time. The talk was kind of short and did not open my eyes, I guess it was nice but if I get the chance to see it again I would pass now that I have seen it. But then again, I can see myself in Galapagos Art Space listening to another speaker next time. And my guess on the French breakfast was on the spot. Exactly. But we needed to bring our own cigarets.
To find more time: John Maeda turnings everything off. And organizes his time. Take vacation. I agree with this at least. But then again I do have my email as well as networks running while working and chats. And I sometimes feel the need to go check. Structure that?

If I don´t wake up…

This morning I have booked a breakfast seminar in Brooklyn. Unfortunately I did not wake up at 7 when the alarm was set to go. I must have killed it in my sleep because I have no recollection of it. one minute to eight I woke up and checked the watch. Now 35 minutes later I am on the D train ready to change at W4. I'll be late for sure, but the speaker does not start until 9 so hopefully I will get there before that. And hopefully the breakfast is not French, but I doubt it. Then again it is free so who can actually complain? And I have not seen it yet.
So what is this about? Well there is a man who's name I have forgotten about but that I will soon learn once again who will be talking about creativity. No dear reader you are right: I am not psyched about it. But I am in NY and some friends where promoting this so I thought that I should not let it slip by me. Explore and keep exploring. Now it is time to change trains in a bit. Get ready.

Slow

I been waiting to get some feed back, starting yesterday. Since I did not get very much I widened the circle of people I asked and did not get any more. So I actually asked a person. From his perspective there was not much to change. Actually nothing but it was out of a tech perspective and what I'm designing is nothing to demanding. I don't really know what I should use the time fore, except one thing... that I can't do until I get to borrow a Windows computer. And even then I'm not sure I will remember the log in info I need. Damn.

Moved again!

I have lost count of the number of times I have moved to new desks. But they say this is for real. That I will actually be seated in the big room, next to the bosses. Damn immediately in to the hot zone... after only a few hours on my new place I get called in to the department boss. I already knew that I was going in there to help them translate some Swedish but the boss either misinterpreted my facial expression or thinks that everyone going in to his place are scared because he said something that at least to me sounded like he was calming me down. Hilarious, but not the time to start laughing. There was a thought on my mind though: I was unsure of how freely I could move in behind his desk. It turned out there was no problem at all. Seriously super friendly. Now I have a meeting as a translator tomorrow. The interesting part is that about half of the page is already in English and when I looked at it and started translating I realized that of the part that was in Swedish there where so many loan words that my participation felt completely unnecessary. But it will only take about an hour tomorrow and I seriously enjoy meeting new people in the department and people from the outside. Looking forward to it.

Brain freeze

When the temperature is close to 40 degrees and the humidity is around 80% you start inventing new ways to live just to achieve equilibrium for a moment in time. I am talking about brain freeze, you know what happens when you drink something cold to fast or eat a lot of ice-cream. Your head hurts intensively for a few moments. Well as the temperature was rising I found myself trying to achieve brain freeze with the help of big glasses of really cold milk and or ice-cream. It never got a real hurting brain freeze how ever hard I tried, but the feeling in between a light freeze and going back to over-heat made it all worth while. And of course drinking is a priority while sweating like a pig.

Cloud Control @ Knitting Factory

So I actually made it to the Show by Cloud Control Sunday. It seemed I knew half of the audience, which was funny. As I came in, pretty late the second supporting act Beige was in the middle of their set. They played a monotone droone like synth pop using keybords, guitars and their voices. It was interesting and could be used as a meditative tape. But nothing I would actively listen to. Not least because I only made out three words that the lead singer sang and nothing from the other guy. There was a feel of teenage angst to the whole performance. The singer draped in very modern 80ties syntpop attire and as the crowning achievement sporting a pair of female pyjama trousers. Very chique.

So in the break between the bands I befriended some Aussies. One guy who drove around in a van surfing the whole of USA heading for Puerto Rico as a last stop and another gentleman who was studying at the NYU; piano of all the things in the world. Nice guys.

Then the main act came on at just as I had been told before there was a very folksy tone to what they played. I thought the first song, which I actually liked the best I think was a song for wanderers. Very rhythm strong. They where singing in harmonies which lead my mind towards religious music, but maybe that is just old knowledge talking. It has been such a big thing in the indiepop as of late so now it is hardly even indie any more.
I liked it though, and they had a song towards the middle of the set which was built very much around everyone in the band making sounds with their voices in a rhythmic way that was pretty interesting. As a whole I think the concert was way to short, but the band is a happy bunch and if you are into folksy pop music this might be for you.

Rockaway Beach

"Chewing out a rhythm on my bubble gum
The sun is out and I want some
It's not hard, not far to reach
We can hitch a ride
To Rockaway Beach

Up on the roof, out on the street
Down in the playground the hot concrete
Bus ride is too slow
They blast out the disco on the radio"

I walked in the steps of the Ramones this weekend and made my way to Rockaway beach. It is at the far end of the A-trains route and then some. A long journey, I did not check my watch but it must have taken somewhere between 1,5 and 2 hours one way.
The beach is long and well cleaned. The same can not truthfully be said about the town at the beach. It is built of mostly low wooden houses, standing at a tilt, with the porch almost falling in to the swampy water following the track that an older boat already took some 5 years ago.
You get a feeling that the place is run by some former beach-bum surfer who´s heart beats for America (Fuck yeah!) and has no concept of environment except for the well guarded and cleaned beach. The urban area next to the beach has a very American small town feel paired with Spanish Beach resort in the worst possible way. Or wait a minute, I was only there day time and could not make out a single disco so maybe you should take away the whores and the thieves from that Spanish resort. But the sales men and the garbage and the junk-food and plastic toys and hats which reads 'Tailand' was all there. All in all a pretty good day.

Suspect

I noticed a man of north african decent who was acting suspicious on the subway platform. To make thing even more interesting he bore the signs of the Mohammedian teaching: both a thin and shameful beard as well as one of those small knitted hats much like the ones jews have, but larger.
I have read in the subway information that if you notice someone suspicious you should contact a policeman or someone working with the MTA. Now I did not really perceive the man as a threat just because he was clearly religious even though I am the first to admit there are good grounds for suspicion towards any religious person who deems it appropriate to show their faith flagrantly in social life. But I guess I just don't like to feel afraid and the number of religious persons around me makes me numb to the constant threat to my lifestyle as well as freedom of thought, freedom of speech and the freedom of humanity.

What did the suspicious individual do then? He lifted the pay phone with a hard jerk and listen in it. Then when no one spoke to him he put it back down. Looked over his shoulders saw that I looked at him and then left my field of vision. Clearly suspicious behavior. But suspicious of what?

I let it slide this one time… but the next time…

Fire hydrant and heat wave

This week end a heat wave is draping the city with temperatures up to 40 degrees Celsius and 80% moist. Let me tell you something if you did not figure it out by your self: that makes you sweat.
Yesterday on my way to a really nice night I passed a open fire hydrant. You have seen it on the movies and on TV: yet another NY moment to tick of on the list: Yes I have now taken a shower with an open fire hydrant and even better: if you are to do this it should be in Harlem. 2 gold stars.

So the night started out good and it kept on giving although my Hyper's seem to have lost their geist all together. Not a single one of them showed up for Richards welcoming beers at Spritenhaus. Not even Richard. But we had a good time with out the poor hard working slaves: among other things I hung out with the band Cloud Control mostly the drummer Ulrich and their manager Greg Mondo. I have not heard the band yet, but was invited to their show tomorrow so there will be a chance for that. Probably not exactly my music but I think it will be nice.

Stuck

I'm totally stuck. I have been working on this layout that I thought would use perspective to show the massive amount of entries there are but in the same time have the ones you are looking at in focus. The people in charged have showed a page that they liked and now it seems I can not make anything that does not look like a carbon copy. I have been toying around the whole day with different executions but it does not seem to go anywhere. To add to my misery I am showing things tomorrow and I'm very unsure of how this will be solved on the tech side. Unsure is an understatement: I even know that my original idea although great in a viewers perspective will not be implemented since we are not assigning developers to this. So what scares me the most is the outlook of having to make a wordpress-thing of this in the end, by my self.

Library again

This time I actually made it into the Library, I saw the sights got searched by security twice and applied for a card. Most books are in storage and most areas are used to display the people giving funding to the Library. A noble pursuit indeed but o so boring. The visit was something of a let down. Maybe because before leaving to go I had a bad experience with a call. But I think that the library might have had a bit to much of a build up. The building does not have a very welcoming atmosphere with roughly double the amount of guards to librarians.

Heard in the street...

Today I bring you 2 quotes I overheard while going shoping groceries. The first was a mother with her herd of children around her said: "I'm fucking ready to slap the shit out of you, I'm so tierd!" That's the way to talk to your children I've been told. Slap the shit out of you... that is some hard slapping about to happen to that urchin. Luckily no violence was perpetrated in the store. And I am very uncertain as to the illegality of such actions in this country. If I was to hazard a guess I would go for totally legal. Maybe not slap the shout OUT of a child, but some slapping would probably be legal taken the statistics and religiosity into account.

The second quote I heard in the street, I guy on the phone says: "She is not really a spiritual person". I think I know what he meant by this but then again it is quite ambiguous to something like that. There are many possible meanings where of several can be seen as very demeaning and at least one way of looking at it it would be among the highest praise. I am just going to think about that sentence for a while and I bid you to do the same. Good night!

Death Metal

So yesterday I went to a concert. There where several bands of Trash, Death and Rap Core type. The audience was not that big and it was actually quite chilly inside the venue. That is a first for me, especially since I know that out side I would be sweating.
The bands where:
Ikillya Call themselves death metal on their home page but it sounded much more like a combination of Trash and Hard Core. They had a Mark Zuckerman look-a-like on guitar and Martin Lawrence look-a-like on base-guitar.

The Judas Syndrome playing Death Metal with some other of kind strange type singing in the mix. The stage was not comfortable for them, they had such different acts in the band that it looked very disparate. During their show the moshpit-bizniz happened, read on.



When Everything Fails according to the flyer: I never managed to actually hear what they said their name was and it seemed no one else did either. I only heard that they came from Syracuse and had to puzzle my way to their name. They are a trashy band who looked Brooklyn HC, covered Pantheras Mouth of War as well as one more song that I could not make out, had blatantly stole the riff from welcome to the jungle and probably was the band I would most like to see again. I think they called them selves the dirtiest rock band out there. And maybe not, you should have seen the base players shiny white shoes... but I liked their stage performance.

Hung, a Death metal band who among them had a violinist, and their music made me think about Rough Trader. I did not like the singer as much and the drummer seemed to have some background in jazz. This does not charm me, being allergic to jazz. But the violin gave the music a kind of folksy feel sometime that was interesting.

Slam one Down was a Power Trash Death band as far as I could tell, only saw their last song though so I might not be correct on this. Their singer looked like a Finish Metal Hero anyway and that is always credited.

I guess I should say that none of the bands felt like something that I will follow from now on, but that several of them gave me some interesting thoughts.
There was also the interesting part of the concert when about five people started a mosh pit in front of the scene. The rest of us, maybe 20 backed up when they in a manner never witnessed by me before started wind milling their arms, cartwheeling and break dancing more or less one at a time not to kill each other. They where throwing imaginary punches and kicks in every direction and sometime I wondered if they even kept their eyes closed? It looked more aggressive but foremost more random than any moshpit I ever part took in. I stayed out of it this time I can tell you that, but I was impressed by the short guy who cartwheeled in. That is a move you do not see every day.

Paris, last year.

Last summer I went on a road trip in France with 6 friends. So after a week in a car with only guys there had been very few opportunities for anything and even less action of any sort. (Nice trip though) In the end of the trip we found our selves in Paris. It was late at night, we where looking for a club but could not find it and had been strolling around for some time. We where just passing the Louvre and I really had to go pee so I thought that I could just sneak in to the park and go behind some bushes. But as I approached the park I noticed that there where men standing around in the darkness there. First I thought that they where peeing as well, but as I got closer I could see that everyone where looking out from the park. Really looking, searching almost so then I thought how unlucky I got since they where obviously guarding the park, possibly from people like me. But just a few steps later I realized another thing about them, not even thinking about them not being in any uniforms or like attire: they where all standing alone, at least 5 sometimes ten meters away from each other. I have done my fair share of guard duty and I know that when you are out there just standing you can not help yourself from talking with the other guards. But no one was talking with any one else, they where just standing there, keeping their eyes peeled on any passer by, like me. Just as I am getting really close to the entrance to the park one of the guys move up and he winks his eye at me. It was then I realized that it was a cruising place where you pick up other men for some anonymous action. I hurried along since I really needed to find somewhere private to relieve myself, but at that time I said to my self as I have every time after when I retold the story that I really missed out on a big selection of free ass.

Super 8

Well I am really no advocate of child actors, quite the contrary actually. I usually find the slightest prof of someone under aged participating in a film a clear and irrefutable reason to not see it, even destroy the copies you can in a fire induced by large quantities of kerosene or gasoline or any other flammable substance you might lay your hands on. But tonight I made an exception, and frankly it is not the first one. And this exception proved to be a good call on my part, and again I must say, far from the first one. What did I do? I saw "Super 8" by director and writer J.J. Adams and a bunch of child or near child actors. And I liked it. I really appreciated that movie!
I like the story, the setting and the backdrop. It is all very familiar; small town USA, during the cold war. Station wagons, a yellow Trans-Am driven by White Trash, a bunch of school kids making their own zombie movie. Even that, why can directors "nerd" on anything but their own behaviour? A millitairy cower up, a beautiful girl, absent parents, families fighting and the list goes on. You have seen it all before if you ever saw E.T., the Goonies, the box, close encounter of the third kind, Roswell, or any other college or Sci Fi movie set in the rural America during the 20th century. The only thing that is remotely revolutionary about this piece is that the child-actors don't suck, on the contrary they are actually more than ok.

So yes I recommend that you watch this flick!

Noise

Stockholm is by some considered a silent city. Still I must say that Tokyo is quieter. NY on the other hand is about as loud as it gets, right up there with Krung Trep. I believe that the silence of Tokyo is technically induced and that it has been a cultural demand to keep the noise down. Although Stockholm has not used the same technology there is a cultural expectation to keep the sound pollution down. Here in NY I can hear that noise reduction has never even been discussed, further more I don't think that it is on the agenda for any US-citizens. I'm guessing that this discussion of loudness and noise have never even been thought of. Why should anyone or anything be silent? Except for the obvious japanese answer that it might disturb others the swedish answer would be that to loud sounds might damage the hearing of the citizens. (I also think that a modern society would grant it's citizens the possibility to choose but that is just me.) I do not think that New Yorkers lend this much thought. If I was to hazard a guess I would say that being proud of being fill in the blank also entails being loud. An example or observation that does not prove but suggest an adaptation to this life is the New York accent: nasal and high pitched, much like the forced voices of early radio. Breaking through any noise.

Ad Astra

I went to the public Library today because it is one of the things that I'm supposed to do. And I had a few hours to comp out since I worked late the other night. Unfortunately for me the library was closed. When I checked the other day it was supposed to be open until 8, but maybe it is different on a Friday… Even librarians work so hard and so they have most probably gone on and of the whole day thanking someone for it being that day of the week.

Behind the Library lies Bryant Park. So I have placed my butt here for a spell and write these words. As always in NY the surroundings are loud, even so there is a sombre feeling to this oasis of green beset on all sides by tall buildings of cement, bricks, steel and glass, almost swallowing the great lawn and it´s hundred inhabitants. The buildings, some older and others taller, of modern composition giving the impression of futuristic spaceships reaching for the stars. Or fingers around the palm cradling the tiered New Yorkers stretched out or sitting on the green fold chairs that litter the park. I guess that these will be collected by some park policemen when the time is right… or wrong. The idea of having people closing down the public spaces during night-times is for me very far from liberal. It is rather totalitarian where the state dictates who does what when. On this note I have also observed that the playgrounds are locked up around nine in the evening. It is hilarious and frightening at the same time! So no one will play during hours when they should be sound a sleep!
For people like me, who do my exercises and running during the late evenings and usually use the playgrounds as an outdoor gym it means another obstacle to pass: climbing the fences to reach the exercise equipment.
The question is if the action of using said equipment at times when the system says you should sleep instead is illegal?

Friday, thank Pete it´s Friday…

Don´t know why really but walking around the office you can not miss how happy people are about having a Friday and a weekend coming up. Several are actually having a vacation next week so then it is a bit more explainable when they go on and on about this Friday. They really need it, and it´s so good and so on and so forth. Well seeing as some are not working so hard from the begin with I don´t see the point in the huffing and the puffin. But it is Friday and it is soooooo good.

At the bottom of the food chain...

I saw a nurse in the subway. How could I tell? She was wearing her nurse uniform. And the I start wondering: if you use your nurses garment going to work does that not defeat the purpose of the special clothes for working in a hospital. I'm thinking cleanliness-issues here. It is actually the second nurse I have seen out and about. But the first time I did not think much of it. But this time it was so clear that she was commuting to work. And while writing this I see another woman looking like she just got out of an operational ward. But then again "fashion" here is a bit different so she just might like that turquoise garment and matches trousers with at hospital t-shirt. What do I know? I'm just doing the observation. You come to your own conclusions.

I'm actually late for work today. It just totally slipped my mind to set the alarm. So I woke up ten minutes to ten with a Design meeting starting at ten. So that got fucked up. I do not have many meetings but it seems that when I have them it is either first thing in the morning or last thing in the evening. Yesterday I had a meeting booked at 5 p.m. but then no one but me showed an I could conclude that they had some other meeting on the manager level because every one of them where gone. So at 6:30 I got a hold of my director and she told me that we would not have the meeting this night. It is not always important with times and letting people know. Or it could be that I am furtherest down on the food chain.

And no it might look like a thought but it is not a revenge. At least not a conscious one.

Warm and moist

So this week starts with a hot night, and not hot in the sense you would like it to be. No lonely hot. Could hardly sleep. Finally I managed to shut my eyes at 3 in the morning and then I woke up before the clock. How is this possible. I don't know.
Monday meeting at work, from what they tell us things are going well even if there is still disturbances from the big site closure earlier. Well I must say that I listen to that with some interest even though it does not affect my work. It is or was a major event in the world.
Work today was somewhat hampered by time restraints that turned out to be totally useless. But that is the way things goes sometimes. Probably possible to make up for it tomorrow.
Someone asked me about nervousness and it is true at some points I feel quite nervous. Event though someone says something I have done is good I find it hard to fully trust does words meaning just that. And even if they mean good, maybe they where expecting awesome? Pressure is building.
During daytime you sit in a cool office and again I most point out that it is not cool in the sense that you would like it to be but in the old sense of the word. So when you go home at 7 p.m. you leave the building and enter a moist and warm atmosphere: only five steps out on the street your shirt sticks to your back and small beads form in your forehead. You try to look cool, in all the senses making your way to the subway. Then when you get there you step into a wall of even warmer air and as you plumet into it's caress you are embraced by a blanket of air hard to breath and so thick you feel you must cut your way forward with your arms as knifes. The subway and it's air is about the sweatiest places I can imagine even though I have visited Spanish discotheques on the Balliares at 4 in the morning and rode a mule through the Egyptian desert during high noon as well as searched the back streets of Sofia for a strip club with a pool during high summer. No nothing compares to New Yorks subway system. And when I get home one of my flatmates tell me that thus far this summer has been really cool. Not in the sense you would hope to have your summers but in the sense that makes life easier...

Another Week

Ok, so this very short week is now ended. I did not manage to work even 30 hours. All though I'm still at the office and time is close to 8 on a Friday evening. Today there is a Hyper gathering in about one hour. I had hopes to get some company for a dinner tonight but drew blank on that. I guess what I should write about is the miscommunication that has taken place the last days and mostly on my account I have been doing work that was not supposed to be done. Hopefully it can be used later on. For instance I designed 10 screens when I actually only needed 1. Not super.
Ok time to let work go now, and meet NY on a Friday night...

Short Week - Long Hours

If it is a short week like this one, since we had 2 days of does it automatically put you in for extra long hours? Even though you are free and that is all good and so you still feel a need to do your 37,5 or close to it. There are much to be done, and less time to do it in. I just realized today that the deadline of my current project is suggested for tomorrow. So I stayed for a 12 hour day today. It was really ok because I had nothing else planned for the evening and I like to sit and work on the details without being uphold by others and noise and so on. Although I noticed I got fairly unperceptive in the end and had some concentration problems. So there was nothing else to do but pack up and try to get home. For even though I knew I was not going to be able to get in to the Subway through the Madison Avenue entrance I had no idea that my service would be canceled this night. I ended up walking to Rockefeller center instead, a fairly nice walk so no harm done. But I start to feel that the subway is as reliable as an unreliable junkie friend: tells you one thing, does not do it, tells you a time and is late by three days, or just plainly messes your life up with small shit. And you still end up paying every month.

No biggy, just a feeling this far… Hopefully I will be able to sleep tonight since I slept lousy last night.

Expat Swedes 1

After my initial 2 weeks here it feels relevant to make a few observations on the Swedes I have meet. Of the ones who have been here for a longer time I notice that they are very much in love with the US of Who gives a shit. They are not very appreciative of Swedish values although they are proud to be Swedish. That is something of a conundrum to me. But I guess this is what can be described as fuzzy logics for the social arena or just plain and simple the human capacity to choose what to include and what to close your eyes to.
And on this theme I must kill a myth that I was cradling myself until yesterday. I thought that Swedish people that moved to NY to work where somewhat cooler and more interesting than normal Swedes. Like my self. ;-)
But yesterday I meet the most boring couple. So very Swedish in every respect that that word can have a negative meaning. At first I did not realize that they where a couple and I just thought that there are a man and a woman of Swedish decent that can´t be much more blend. No that is not fair. The man was more than blend. He was down right irritating while bragging about his job, celebrities that he used to hang out with and so on. Together with the stile: yes you guessed it: office shirt, blue. Middle age-belly to go with that and soccer-player hairdo. Oh yes. And his girlfriend in a dress with colourful floral print to make up for here grey persona. I gave her more than one chance. I gave her about 30 minutes to say something interesting to explain how she could hang out with the bull-boy but I drew blank on that one. 30 minutes of my life that I will never get back.

Perfect Timing

Oh, I think I never had better timing. Maybe this is the way it is going to be for the rest of my life? Super bad timing the first part and from now on nothing but the best...
So we are having a few days off because of the independence day coming up this Monday and I am sick! Really sick, hardly leaving my bed and definitely not leaving the apartment kind of sick. And to top things of: it is pouring down outside.
It actually started a few days ago with a left sided throat soar. Which eventually migrated to the right side. And during the night broke out to be a full on cold with cough and fever. Well I might also mention that during the night we had a roof-top-hoping which was quite spectacular. I only took part in two of the three rooftops parties, but it was quite enough. The last roof was huge and sported some golf turf and a perfect view of Manhattan. I might ad that the partying took place in Williamsburg, to the astonishment of no one who knows NY.

Sick + rain + no work for another 3 days = perfect timing.

July

So this was Friday first of July. I worked a half day, did not get lunch but instead sat 2 hours at the bank to get me an account. So now I have an account, yey!
Workwise I think it is going well, I started a new project today. Very secret of course, new artist site. Even if it feels a little like the factory of sites I think todays work was very exciting. New ways of working and as we often discussed at Hyper Island: if there are no limits, you can not be creative!

Well it is well passed my bedtime so I'm signing off now. Sleep tight!