Getting to New York.

Thursday, 17. July 2008

It's a gray July afternoon when my flight gets me to the JFK airport in New York. I pick up my backpack and head for the exit to find a bus into the city.

But why am I even in New York?

It all started a few months back, somewhere in my head.

Every day I was getting more and more into bicycling, ever since I came back from Berlin last May. It was pretty much taking over my mind at the expense of my other favorite things to do. I got so much into it that I thought a vacation on two wheels is the next thing to do.

But then again, every three years I travel to the United States. Now, what is THAT about? Every three years? Sounds weird, doesn't it.

Well, my first trip to the US was in 1996. 3 years later, my former band decided to tour the States, so the tour happened in 1999. I wasn't thinking much about it then, but when my 2 university colleagues asked me to go on a vacation to the States together in 2002, I definitely saw the pattern there. 1996, 1999, 2002,... So I just decided it's actually quite a cool idea to go to the States every 3 years, so after that 2002 trip, I went again with a friend in 2005 and, of course, it's 2008 now so - time for the USA!

So, how do I combine a biking vacation and a trip to the USA? Well, I thought what would be a good thing to do and the idea was born: I'm going to bicycle from Seattle to Los Angeles on a bicycle! 2000 kilometers on two wheels in about a month.

But first I gotta get to Seattle, no? Well, that's where we left off.

So, I catch the bus to downtown Manhattan and then a bus to my friend's Peter. Because there's another Peter in this story, I'll just call him Peter Ki.

Peter Ki had been teaching at Ambrit school in Rome for about 4 years and had just returned to New York. We used to hang out in Rome a lot, play tennis, go to parties, barbecues,... He's one of the people I'll miss in Rome.

So with Peter Ki I head to a dinner where actually 5 people who at one point or another lived in Rome will gather. 5 of us and Peter's friend from LA.

Karen is another great friend from the same group of friends that Peter Ki was part of. She's moving to Israel and is currently on vacation in the US. She came down to NYC from Rhode Island just to meet us.

Daniela is Italian (from Rome) and she's hosting Karen in NYC. I haven't met Daniela before, but she's a cool cat.

Campbell (I can never remember how to spell her name and I only remember now because she signed my lucky dollar bill at that dinner) used to teach at the same school in Rome as Peter Ki and Karen. In fact, that's how we met a few years ago.

So with Peter Ki, his friend Gerry and myself it makes for 6 of us.

We have a merry good time at a tiny restaurant with a garden (properly called "Tree") and then split for home shortly afterwards.

Campbell, Peter Ki, Gerry, Daniela, me, Karen @ Tree in Manhattan.

Friday, 18. July 2008

The weather in New York City is incredibly hot. Hot and damp. Totally hard to breathe.

I'd say it's at least 40 degrees Celsius, but I could be wrong because I know the humidity makes it seem much, much worse.

This kind of weather doesn't make you want to do much, other than stay inside with AC and chill.

So in the morning I manage to get a phone and a phoning plan and I'm super happy with it. In the afternoon Peter Ki and I go to the MoMa museum with Karyn and then have a picnic in the Central Park together with Daniela.

In the park the heat and the humidity are a little bit more bearable so we relax with tons of food we bought earlier on. Lots of charades playing and checking a few bars is what we do until bedtime.

Daniela, me, Karen in the Central Park, Manhattan.

Saturday, 19. July 2008

The heat and humidity are still unbearable. They call it a heat wave on TV. I don't care what the TV says, I call it the worst weather I've ever experienced. For somebody who hates the rain, you can imagine how bad it is when all wish for is some rain to break this friggin' heat down.

Today I manage to ship some packages to a couple of customers in the States. I didn't have the time to do it in Rome and wouldn't want somebody to wait on his records for two months, so I thought: what the heck - I'll just mail them from the States. It's cheaper as well.

Somehow, another person i know through Couchsurfing (visit www.couchsrfing.com) is in NYC right now, so we manage to meet for lunch. The appointment is at Kate's Deli in the East Village.

Emma (my couchsurfing friend) her friend Viktoria and another guy enter the place. We all sit down (the three of them, Peter Ki and I) and start chatting.

The guy introduces himself as Scott. He's about my age, interestingly enough about my height and more interestingly into music as well. So when he says he just came to NYC to visit and he's actually from Louisville, Kentucky I ask him if he knows any of the Louisville HC/Punk bands that I used to listen a lot to and still occasionally do.  Surprisingly enough he does. Endpoint, By the Grace of God, Falling Forward,... are not unfamiliar names for him.

He says he plays in a band too. Which one I ask. Metroschifter, he says back.

Holy cow, Scott F. Ritcher! We met in 1996 in Rome when I organized a show for Metroschifter, Omaha and Washer. Hell, I didn't recognize the guy.

Small world, isn't it?

Scott pulls his blackberry out and, well, his blackberry confirms what I just said. Autumn 1996, show at CSA Brancaleone (that was before Brancaleone dropped their CSA tag and became sort of a drum'n'bass venue) with Omaha and Washer.

We chat a lot about those bands, about Facebook and how everybody from those bands is pretty much on it, while Peter Ki starts discovering how good the vegetarian cuisine is and decides to take me to another vegetarian restaurant for dinner.

Some walking around, more chatting and then to a bar to meet Peter's friend Janet. The three of us then head to Red Bamboo to have one of the most delicious vegetarian dinners I've ever had. 

We explore the West Village until we're so tired that our tongues can't talk anymore. The jet lag has been hitting me ever since I've arrived to NYC and by midnight I'm pretty much useless. 

It's bedtime much earlier than I'm used to.

Sunday, 20. July 2008

In the morning I move to Brooklyn to stay with my other friend Peter. For the obvious reasons, let's call him Peter Ka.

Now, Peter Ka and I go way back. Back to 1996 and my first US trip actually.

I was staying with a friend from Sarajevo, Bosnia just outside Pittsburgh. One day we decided to check some talk on socialism and religion or something of sorts at the Carnegie Mellon university in Pittsburgh and noticed a couple of guys with some cool Punk patches on their bags. Soon we made new friends.

Their names were Andrew and Peter, and they had a radio show at the college radio. I gave them some Goodwill releases, they invited us at the show and we kept hanging out for the next few days.

Then a year later Peter came to visit me in Rome and we had some great time there getting locked inside some ancient Roman ruins amongst other things. We've never lost touch, although our communication suffered the usual laziness and the amounts of being busy and not keeping in touch because of that. But a few mails a year almost always happened, besides finding each other at different virtual communities like Friendster or Facebook (that I still confuse, by the way. most probably cos both start with an F).

So Sunday morning I take a cab to the west village to join Peter Ka and his friends at a very crowded brunch. I tend to forget people's names, but I remember Jose. He's a young architect from Santiago de Chile who just moved to New York City from Minneapolis. He has a few interesting stories to tell before we all walk to take the train home.

Peter Ka and I get to his flat in Brooklyn. Wow! What a place!

It's a two level apartment in a wooden building in the heart of Brooklyn (better known as Williamsburg) with the kitchen, living room, two bathrooms and a storage room at the bottom level and 3 rooms and one more bathroom at the top level. Behind the house there's a small garden (where I planted an avocado without telling anyone!) and in front of the house there's a little patio with the gate. Peter's room is the biggest of three. Not only it's the biggest, it's actually gigantic. At least 30 square meters (or over 90 square feet, for you Americans) if not more.

We hop on bikes (his roommate has a Schwinn that he doesn't care much about, so I get to ride that one while in NYC) and head to an empty swimming pool to watch some bands playing. Emma, Viktoria and Scott are already there and we watch a couple of bands (one of them is Liars, the other I forgot the name of and the one we missed is called Team Robespierre) together, before Peter Ka and I head into exploring Williamsburg on bikes.

Peter, me, Viktoria, Emma in Williamsburg, NYC. Photos by Scott.

It's actually a very nice and extremely diverse neighborhood. From the hip and trendy, student populated area around Bedford and the North 4th, 5th, 6th... Avenue, to the Hasidic Jews' neighborhood just a few blocks away (south of the Brooklyn Queens Expressway) to the black neighborhood further up Bedford street.

In the evening, I meet Emma and Viktoria at White Ginger, a vegetarian restaurant in Williamsburg. With them there's this young couple that has just moved into the area. His name is Briton and we discover to have at least 10 friends in common. Not only that. When he asks me for the name of my label, he says "I've heard of Goodwill records before. You've released someone big, haven't you?". Well, we haven't released anyone big, but it turns out that he's best friends with the Damage Done who we released a split 7" with a few years ago. That's why the name of the label made him think it must've been someone big. I guess it was just familiar in a different way.

At home (Peter Ka's place) we wait for "Ben". "Ben" (not his real name, although it makes sense to call him Ben as I've never heard his real name before) is a friend of Peter's roommate's friend. Or better, he's a friend of his roommate's ex roommate, if that makes more sense.

In reality, neither Peter nor his roommate (who isn't even at home a the moment but rather on the other side of the world, exploring China) have ever met "Ben", but his roommate's ex roommate has asked Peter's roommate to ask Peter if "Ben" could stay there for a few days.

"Ben" was supposed to call in the afternoon, but he hasn't. We both worry what may have happened to the guy.

Finally, at around midnight a taxi stops and "Ben" arrives.

"Ben" is about our age, not very tall, to put it politely and despite he comes from London, he doesn't have English accent at all. I ask him where he was from and he says "Kosovo".

Ha! We exchange a few sentences in Croatian and then chat until it's really late and makes sense to go to bed, especially for the two that have to work in the morning. Not me.

Monday, 21. July 2008

Today the whole heat + humidity combo has gotten down to acceptable levels. I check my mail most of the morning and then head out to check Academy records that Briton suggested to me the night before. To my surprise, it really is a good store. I find quite a few records for quite cheap and head back home.

I meet Peter later on in Brooklyn and we go to the biggest US food coop together. He is a member and I need a pass to go in. A pass to go into a food store??? Well, we go upstairs to the office and I get a pass.

This is the story: the Flatbush Food Coop (that's the full name) was established in 1976 and has about 3,000 members. To become a member you pay a $ 200 fee (or $ 25 a year, until you've reached $ 200 total) that is returned to you once you decide to cease being a member. This money helps the coop to run and it invests this money in equipment, food or else. Besides your investment, you are also asked to volunteer a certain amount of hours in a certain amount of time (for more info on the coop go to  www.flatbushfoodcoop.com).

Only members and their guests (I guess I qualify for a guest) can shop at the coop and the food they buy costs much less then elsewhere. Just for the record, a South American dark chocolate that in Rome goes for about 3 euros ($ 4.50) there costs about $ 1.50 or basically three times less. Now, that same chocolate wouldn't cost $ 4.50 in a store in the US, but still at $ 1.50 it's a steal. 

We get tons of veggies, chocolates and some other stuff and I invade his kitchen to cook us pasta and broccoli for dinner. I think there's enough for him to take to work for lunch.