The New York Chronicles

I find myself on an airplane. I'm sitting in the aisle and the two seats beside me are free in theory, but a bearded hipster has got there before me and is stretched out, his woolly socks almost touching me and thick rimmed glasses digging into the side of his face as he sleeps. I curl awkwardly away from him. I'm watching Dublin disappear rapidly beneath me. I'm watching Beastly and sleeping and then I'm walking through two sliding doors into a thick wall of heat and fumes and in the distance I see it.



New York City.

The taxi's leather seats are hot and I wind down the window. After spending every summer in Ireland for as long as I can remember, I am completely baffled by the unrelenting heat. The wind is hot. The air is hot. The sun is very, very hot. That night I fall asleep ridiculously early beside the open window,the warm air blowing in chattering voices from the trendy bars along the street below.

Since then its been a crazy few weeks of trying to find somewhere to live and starting CUNY. When I went to my first class at the Graduate Centre I had to stop and stare at the building for a few minutes.


I finally went inside, got a student card and voila: student again, complete with library access and homework. My fellow classmates are all much older than me but they are welcoming and nice. They say nice things about my writing.

I wander around a lot. In the sun New York has a sweet smell like dusty leather.


The humid nights make for terrible sleeping but great exploring. Last night I was on my way home from dinner with some friends on the Upper West Side on a subway line I didn't know. I suddenly had this urge to get lost so I jumped off the train at a stop I didn't know and wandered through downtown New York in the vague direction of home. I'd turn one corner and get this great view of the Empire State Building all lit up against the night sky, and then turn another corner and be on a quiet street completely surrounded by darkened buildings, alone except for a tall black transvestite in towering red heels who smiles at me as we pass.

I spent a really great weekend in Rhinebeck.



The house we were staying in was part of a Barn Tour so we got to go with them and see some cool barns and attend a cocktail party in the fanciest barn/poolhouse I've ever seen. I was wandering around taking photos when I noticed a caterpillar floating in the pool, wriggling wildly. I don't know why but seeing it made me incredibly sad. I almost fell in trying to rescue him but eventually was successful and deposited him safely on some nearby grass. I got some weird looks, but I was happy. Early the next morning we went riding through the fields and forests and it was completely great. Afterwards, the woman we were staying with brought us to visit Rokeby (here's a cool article in the NY Times about it).

It's a beautiful old mansion and estate, and after borrowing a flashlight from the eccentric owner Ricky, we wandered around the barns, climbing up rickety wooden steps to find ourselves in an attic full of monsters. Literally.


They build the floats for the East Village Halloween Parade there. They invited me to come and help out this year which is definitely something I am hoping to do.

Other than all of the amazing things above I have been drinking a lot of hot chocolate (and iced chai), reading, watching Buffy, lusting after bikes, walking dogs, falling in love with dogs, and taking up Power Yoga which is both awesome and painful. I have been brought to some really cool places by Kate, who has been a life-savingly cool guide/friend/general person. My favourite place was a hardware store on Metropolitan Ave in Brooklyn that have a pet miniature pot bellied pig called Franklin who made me so happy about just the fact that he existed.

I really need to go and read for class today, so I will wrap up this rambling post of ramblyness with the song I have been listening to on repeat.

April

April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.

March/April are flying by quicker than I can get a handle on, and its hard to describe what's been happening other than working/writing/going to the zoo/hanging out with old and new friends/feeling mixed up goodandbad/writing some more.

Here are some pictures:







I feel like my past few months have been full of beautiful things.
And sunshine.

Here is my current Youtube playlist (Pop is what I crave when I'm writing, like energy drink bubble gum poetry for the brain):









this is a great remix by Jamie XX of Adele's Rolling In The Deep



I've also been listening to Spies, who are both a friends band and a band I love, which is rarer than you would think. They recently got a great review in Hotpress and their single Barricade was Single Of the Fortnight, and no-one deserves it more. Weaker Body is my personal favourite.

I went to see the Werner Herzog 3D documentary 'Cave of Forgotten Dreams' about the cave drawings in Chauvet, and it was incredible. I'm so glad I got to see it on the big screen in its full 3D glory. The drawings inside the caves were so beautiful; they were full of movement and detail and felt so incredibly human that it rattles you to the core. It makes me think art is a very pure human action rather than something created by society, which is a strangely comforting thought.

I've been doing a lot of research lately into the nature of truth (or Truth) and the wonderful Oisin Byrne of www.origasmi.tumblr.com sent me this snippet interview of Werner Herzog talking about The Ecstatic Truth which is very, very good. I will leave you with his wise words.

Fashion-ation

I don't often write about fashion because a) its incredibly intimidating and a bit too easy to sound like a twat when postulating about the beauty of a shoe and b) paul says he won't read my blog if I do. But, I don't think he does anyway and I have a fashion crush.
His name is Bernhard Willhelm, and we first met on Camden street on a rainy Monday afternoon in January (I can't remember if it really was a Monday, but dramatic effect etc). I was rifling through the contents of Debra, the new charity shop, when I found myself holding a new-looking dress I did not understand one bit and therefore instantly adored. It had a hood! Non sensical ribbons hanging off the back! Sold.
When I got home I spent ages trying to figure out how its supposed to be worn, and finally decided to google the designer to see if there was maybe a picture somewhere. I came across http://www.bernhard-willhelm.com/ and after looking through various collections decided it was true love. Sadly, when I came to the prices section it became clear I would need to write several bestsellers before I can fill my wardrobe with delightfully confusing dresses and demented nun outfits




For now though I am very happy with my new favourite dress/puzzle and can't wait to wear it to breakfast in New York.

Just to reassure that I have not changed my fashion radar from 'shiny!/black' to 'label', my other current favourite dress is from Penneys. I bought a second one yesterday just in case the first one falls apart, which it is threatening to do all ready, and had a brief moment of panic that I was, in fact, a sensible old person. However, I then talked to my friend who I consider to be very cool and not sensible (compliment!) and she said she does the same thing. Phew.

Now all I need is some Jeffrey Cambell shoes. I mean, the curve of the sole really speaks of bygone days, yet the tough leather is a nod to futuristic styles...
Time to stop apparently.

Its a new dawn, its a new day...its a new year.

And so far, my strange feeling that its going to be a good one has proven itself...not so strange.
After lots of playing in the snow with my far-flung friends home for Christmas, photo stories about my cats, missing of New York and reading of the Sookie Stackhouse novels, something truly great happened; I got an email from the director of the CUNY Writers Institute to say he loved my work and was awarding me this years Fiction scholarship. I actually nearly fell of the chair with shock and couldn't sleep for 2 nights afterwards. Then they made the announcement on their website and it suddenly became real.
Other than being very very happy to go back to New York, it was incredible to have someone who is under no obligation towards you whatsoever say great things about your work. I had been having kind of a insecure moment about my abilities and what it actually means to be a writer but once I stopped dithering and sat down at my computer I felt a lot better and now with the scholarship I'm starting to believe that this might be something I can actually do.

Other than getting great news and not sleeping (I have some kind of weird morning insomnia where I wake up ridiculously early and get an adrenaline shot accompanied by twelve million insistent thoughts) I've been going to the cinema a lot which keeps me feeling sane (unexplainable) and brain-fed. I also went on a Dogme 95 binge and watched The Idiots and The Celebration, which left me feeling utterly disturbed in a good way. Dogme films have a way of grabbing you by the throat and making you feel incredibly uncomfortable, which is in turn strangely enjoyable in a film. I went to see Howl 2 days after I watched The Celebration and although it was good and I enjoyed it, it felt so polished and strange in comparison.

There was an election, which I chose not to involve myself in too much other than feeling grumpy with Enda Kenny for staring at me whilst I ate breakfast every day.

I've been trying to spend as much time outside the city as possible, and climbed Killiney Hill on a grey day to sit in the middle of a cloud.


Other than reading 9 Sookie Stackhouse novels in the space of a month (who can resist a vampire viking warlord with a sense of humour?), I picked up this book will save your life by A.M. Homes at the last flea market and think its great. She is very funny in a dark, satirical way and manages to create incredibly human characters. This book will save your life is about a forty something bussiness man in LA who has isolated himself from everyone except his housekeeper, personal trainer, nutritionist and Rothko and De Kooning paintings. And I swear I don't just like it because it features a horse at some stage.

And right now the sun is shining, the junkies are drinking cans by the canal and the trendy kids are sweating in their pleather as they walk-of-shame towards Rathmines. All is as it should be.

I will leave you with todays note of wisdom:
Is there anything that can't be made better by the playing of Rihanna's S&M?