verena

i will write more soon. in the meanwhile a video of grandmaster caz, he performed live for us…

when i stepped out this morning from my apartment building i recognized an unfamiliar smell. it was an after-rain-fresh-air-smell i have never experienced before in new york. it smelled a bit like graz. from wet concrete, trees and a bit of grass. like it….
except when passing by a fried-chicken-place. then it smelled different.

i have taken on my most favorite hobby from three years ago. concerts!
a short reprise on last evening’s jay-z and mary j. blige concert: i don’t know why i like this whole rap thing that much, but i just do.
first: a great mary j. blige, but damaged a bit by the not really well adjusted sound in madison square garden. i remember my last concert in the garden. i see the people standing in the illuminated exit hallways on each section. their silhouettes against the yellow light from behind. it feels most familiar. doing the shaky-shaky-thing to “familiy affair” is a bit hard, because i am “sticked” on the ground. probably spilled and dried-up beer from a whole season… so it’s all an upper body exercise thankfully my neighbor spills his beer too, so it’s somehow wet again and i can lift my feet.
there comes the man jay-z! he is pulling off one hit after the other. we have fireworks, a big band style orchestra, cool visuals on big screens and all over the stage, p. diddy and beyonce showing up. another guy showing up and doing one song with jay-z i can’t identify. and how? he is wearing a big hoodie with sun glasses and a cap. but i guess it’s memphis bleek.
when singing to “99 problems, but the bit** ain’t one” and all the other songs i am thinking how weird it is to repeat lines full of “my nig*a” as a “whitey” as i am. i probably have not the slightest clue what it means to be black in america. otherwise. this is just a show…. or not? jay-z refers to the katrina disaster. bush not helping the black community there. followed by “fu** bush” and “are you ready for a change?” - barack’s face all over the screens. a screaming crowd.
by all you can say against jay-z (when you probably not into that whole rap thing, which i haven’t been before my new york time) he has a certain kind of charm. a boyish smile paired with a certain street smart wit.
i guess i found parts of what i left three years ago. it just takes some time.

ps: found that video on youtube. i sat on the other side.

great job mr. ashcroft.

when searching for an apartment you always get to know some people. so today i planned a photo tour with a guy from brazil.
i like to meet new people. just for the fun of it. but as i learned three years ago, that can be tricky. i am not sure how often i walked into that trap. there is no such thing like just hanging out together (a man and a woman). it’s always a date! always.
so i am a bit curious about how this thing is going today.
our plan is to see the cloisters, a collection of medieval european art and architecture in the very north of manhattan, fort tyron to be exact.
we meet at the subway and go uptown. we start talking about photography, apartments, living in new york, visa stuff, music, totally random things. so as it turns out my fear was reasonless. we have a totally relaxed conversation over a couple of hours. i guess that weren’t like this with an american. sorry. no offending. it’s just an european thing.
by the way the cloisters are really worth seeing it. it’s like being in europe. i will post a couple of pictures on flickr later on (the reason for our visit). i run almost into michelle williams and her little daughter. she is hiding behind big glasses, but i instantly recognize her.

so this makes two times europe in one day.

i like this video a lot. new york feeling.

it’s april and it’s not really warm, but we are far from icy temperatures. nevertheless our boss michael planned an ice skating party down at the chelsea piers tonight. almost everyone from the office is here, even the colleagues from los angeles.
i haven’t done this in years. i actually can’t even remember my last time on skates, but i don’t fall and i don’t hit the ice with my backside. after being brave sportsmen and sportswomen we get pasta, meatballs and salads, while we are watching the next group entering the skyrink: some fast and furious amateur ice hockey cracks….

continuously thinking about how low the dollar is is dangerous, when a) you get paid in dollars and b) you love shopping… but this time it’s different. i work from at home, so i thought it would be good for my eyes and my neck to have an external screen. i find a cheap one at best buy. the shop clerks are helpful as always i am a bit paranoid about dead pixel, but they don’t let me open the package to check. so i carry the good piece home.
and as it turns out, there is a dead pixel! actually not a dead one. it’s flimmering red. so even more annoying. grrrrrrh!

i am looking forward to another evening with my austrian guest hansi. i try to get a table at peter luger, the very famous steak house in brooklyn, but no chance. so we are going for indian food in hell’s kitchen, which i love since my india trip in january.
and then there are certain things you only do when you have guests… i have never been to the revolving restaurant on top of the marriott on times square. so let’s go…
to go there is not as easy as you think. when you take the elevator in a high rise building you normally have two sorts of elevators, ones that bring you to the lower floors and ones to the upper floors. very easy. not here. first you have to press the right number on a display. that shows the letter of the elevator you have to take. still easy. not today. we take the right elevator, but either it goes in the wrong direction or stops at the wrong floor and there are not buttons you can press. after 20 minutes of high speed up and down (don’t forget we just had dinner!) we make it to the restaurant. it’s full of tourists, what else?
i am ordering a kind of hot chocolate with rum in it. it’s called caribbean delight. i regret it after the first sip. the view is not bad, but the circular restaurant is rotating within a big square of concrete columns, so it’s not too exciting.

i have my first visitor from austria. hansi, a former classmate form boarding school in bad gleichenberg. i haven’t seen him in quite a long time. he picks me up from work, but he is too early, so i send him down to rudy’s, the legendary dive right across film center where i work.
once i am at rudy’s we have a relaxed beer and it’s very nice to talk to someone in “österreichisch”. i don’t have to tell hansi about some weird american habits, because he lived long enough in florida to know how crazy it can be sometimes.
we are heading to gramercy park hotel. i have never been there so far, so i am curious. one of hansi’s coworker recommended the bar there. what should i say? it’s supercool! see here: www.gramercyparkhotel.com/bars.html. it’s in real much darker and looks much better. people are more upscale but still not over the top. i like it. one place more where i can take out visitors….
after rose bar we are heading to an “österreichertreffen” 20 blocks uptown. nothing a new yorker would ever do by foot, but we are austrians, so “hurra die gemse!” wharf bar: bettina is there, dominika and magdalena, the austrian student researching on hiphop language. and bunch more austrians.
one german guy is also here, who introduces himself as a spiegel-editor. he is looking for german-speaking students or very young people who moved to the city recently to stay here for quite a long time. that’s hard to find. because once you have your student visa, they let you study, but then you have to leave the us. or when you are young you probably find a job but you don’t get a visa… his story is about people who move to a city that’s actually falling apart, that’s lost a lot of its energy and vibrance already and has nothing to offer anymore for young people.
i have some thoughts here, but i will blog about that some time later…
i meet ursula, a physical therapeut from hartberg, who is married to a new yorker. again a nice evening and a good start into my second week…