NYC first impressions

Hi. 

Well here I am writing from my new brooklyn apartment. And by new, I mean 200 years old or more. No one seems to know exactly how old. It is very kooky, the door frames and floors are at angles with each other. There is one cobalt blue wall in our lounge. there are two couches, lots of clothes and lots of good vibes.

My flatmate Sena is a fashion designer. I have a studio at home, and if I put my headphones on or my speakers up reasonably loud I can block out most of the freeway noise. There are extremely impatient motorists at most hours of the day. They don't just toot when somebody is in their way, they practically fall asleep on the wheel and honk for like 5 minutes.

There has been so much happening in the past few weeks I would ramble on and on if I tried to recount it all. So I'll go into a few lists for you.

Things I've been eating lately:

Vegetarian stuff (I've made the leap to vego!)

Mini carrots (they come pre-peeled in bags they've so tasty)

Organic fruit and vege from union square market including:

-Purpil basil

-Yellow watermelon

-Tiger tomatoes

-Yellow peaches

Animal crackers

Dorritos 

Everything bagels

Pink lemonade

Things I have bought lately:

A desk 

A toasted sandwich maker

An electric drill

A small mexican puppet

Highlights of the american AYO tour:

Playing to a rowdy Rhode Island high school

Inviting the whole orchestra back to my tiny apartment

for a house warming party..

the guggenheim gallery

Boston, the place is so cool.

Shops that are cool around williamsburg:

The MASSIVE retro antique clothing store opposite my house

The 'general store' selling organic and vegetarian food

Billies store (the supermarket nearest me with cheap food, but

aisles too narrow to have two trolleys.) This ends with me reversing

up half the aisle to let someone else through..it's like a one way street.

Catbird

Blackbird Parlour

The bagelsmith

Opportunities that have arisen lately:

A new commercial for Saatchi

A string arrangement for mike chunn

A piece for a Julliard ensemble

Performance by the fullerton symphony 

Today I:

went to Pearl Paint, a 5 storey art supply store in canal st.

It has different stuff on different levels. I bought a large thick

paper art pad, for my AFL sketches. Also a mini black notebook

for those ideas that come on the train.

Also, I started work on the string arrangement for Mike chunn.

Also, I decided I need a whole lot of things I hadn't planned for - such

as a sustain pedal, a keyboard stand, a firewire drive and a separate

screen, mouse, keyboard..and a computer chair. All in due time!

Need more work first.

Rose my lovely nz friend is here for a week, and then Joel arrives on sunday.

Kiwis will visit my apartment in a constant stream it seems..poor sena! Although

she insists she doesn't mind.

Ok hopefully this update is enough for now.

A few photos.



The award winning double bass sand sculpture on LA beach. I won a t-shirt but left it on the bus.



the puppet I bought in LA in the mexican street in downtown. She is so ugly she's beautiful.



San pedro hostel, the orchestra is waiting for the bus. In LA the bus is late. In NY we are late for the bus. And the bus driver is VERY grumpy.



We stopped off in a town called Salem, famous for the witch trials. Here is a witch crossing, and the local book store, lacking any shelving whatsoever.





In LA we stayed near the beach called San Pedro. Some houses were really great, others, had front yards like this.



Many many cellos waiting again to board the bus. Mine's the heaviest i'm sure (closest).



Ok that's it. byee.

Claire