Monday Oct 1st. My memory wanes... I remember spending a lot of time seeking the perfect pair of Levis. I know what my favourites are: 517's. But the 517's over here are a very different shape to the ones back home. What a catastrophe.
I walked through Alphabet City in the East Village, listening to Patti Smith's Horses and Ryan Adams' Heartbreaker: two very NY albums, though Redondo Beach is in California, I was in the vicinity of CBGB's. It's all Patti's territory. Heartbreaker is self-evidently appropriate, with such titles as Shakedown On 9th Street, Sweet Lil Gal (23rd/1st) and lines: "I'm as calm as a fruit stand in New York and maybe as strange".
Fruit stands in New York in fact are not that strange. I could buy an apple or banana for a quarter and what's more, they were fresh!
That evening I went to the Union Square Cinema. Darjeeling Limited. is Wes Anderson's latest film, and a damn good one too. In a similar vein to The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and The Royal Tannenbaums. A typical Anderson-style family drama, rife with quirky sentimentality, and oh so funny. Jason Schwartzman + Owen Wilson + Adrian Brody, and even Bill Murray has a silent cameo at the open and close of the film.
I won't forget the energy of this town. I walk and walk and I don't want to sleep though my head is heavy in the sweltering heat of the 1am subway station where I lean against the lino tiled walls and watch the black rats frolicking under the rails while the kids read Kerouac and the fathers read Forster and all others have white earphones and lovers rest their heads on lovers' shoulders. See, anyone can be beat. For the record, I don't like Kerouac. He's shamelessly overrated. Give me O'Hara any day.
So another night ended with a satisfactory slice of pizza and a cup of Earl Grey from the shop on the corner below the hostel.
oh god it's wonderful
to get out of bed
and drink too much coffee
and smoke too many cigarettes
and love you so much
Darjeeling Ltd.
