lessons from nyc.

1. Eating healthy food will cost approximately 7 times as much as eating unhealthy food.


2. If you show interest in sub-way serenaders, they will show interest in you. Persistently, and also physically.


3. Standard drinks do not exist in Manhattan.


4. "Vodka and Sprite" is NOT the same as "vodka and lemonade". NB: It is, but don't get into an argument with a Polish barmaid in Brooklyn about it.

5. Never attempt to use your understanding of the London tube network as a reference for your understanding of the NYC subway network. It is, most definitely, nowhere near the same.

6. If you think something is worth seeing, chances are, several hundred people agree with you and they are all waiting to see it too. Be prepared to queue (in a wholly disorganised and un-British manner).

7.  Just because a guy who looks like a local is standing at the curb looking ready to cross, it doesn't necessarily mean it's a good place to cross. It may actually be that he is just waiting for his dog to finish defacating. NB: There is no dignified way of walking away from said man once you have realised that you have just been stood next to a stranger and his defacating pet for a good few minutes for no reason.

8. Cheese as NY knows it is not the same as the rest of the world knows it. Therefore: always hold the cheese (please).

9. The Statue of Liberty isn't as big as you'd imagine. But you will still squeal out loud the first time you see it (well...I did).

10. The best stuff that'll happen is the kind of stuff you never really considered that would happen. This includes, but is not limited to:
-eavesdropping a high school field trip to the Met, and being amazed at how articulate young Americans actually are.
-watching parents interact with their kids. Anywhere. And realising that maybe there is some attraction in having children after all.
-getting danced on by a tiny Chinese guy, telling him you have a boyfriend and indicating a random black guy, then watching tiny Chinese guy go and shake a strangers hand.
-catching an open mic night by accident.
-sitting with and talking to a psychology professor in a deli because it was the only place there was left to sit.

11. Always tip your waiters and waitresses, thank you very much and goodnight.

this playlist will change your life.

1. new slang - the shins
2. goodbye england (covered in snow) - laura marling
3. enchanting ghost - sufjan stevens
4. out of the airlock - paul dempsey
5. justboy - biffy clyro
6. lindisfarne II - james blake
7. to build a home - cinematic orchestra
8. fields of gold - eva cassidy
9. shake it off - florence + the machine
10. call it off - tegan and sara
11. first day of my life - bright eyes
12. razor - foo fighters

shake.

fuck i love you miss florence.

under pressure.

i will never forgive my parents for not going to this gig. 

after a while.

you realise time flies.

rage 2008.

The quality is terrible but you get the idea.

OH MY GOD. I have never felt so much excitement in a crowd. The anticipation. The heat. We were so ready for it you could feel it in the air. Mental. Amazing amazing amazing. 

Getting excited for the Foos in December. FUCK CHA.

i don't know about my dreaming anymore.

lucky enough to catch this beauty twice at two very different british music festivals, latitude in suffolk and field day in london.

girls just wanna have fun (again)

good friends, good times. thanks for the memories. 

advice.

Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young

Wear sunscreen.

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.

Don't worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Sing.

Don't be reckless with other people's hearts. Don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss.

Don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself.

Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch.

Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don't.

Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees. You'll miss them when they're gone.

Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else's.

Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own.

Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.

Read the directions, even if you don't follow them.

Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents. You never know when they'll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings. They're your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft. Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out.

Don't mess too much with your hair or by the time you're 40 it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen.

Mary Schmich

florence.

have i told you lately that i love you?

07/11/11

i am so very excited to hear o so much more, and it's even more exciting to think of all the wonderful memories i know i will be making in the back/foreground of all these pending sounds, just waiting to envelope my musical attention span.

streetwise opera.

i discovered this project at latitude festival this weekend, a nice surprise viewing while my friend and i waited for the london contemporary orchestra in the film and music arena. 

streetwise opera weekly workshop programme which brings together a collection of film makers, producers and performers, who all have experienced homelessness. the artists work together to create professional pieces and also to develop the skills, confidence and creativity of all those who attend and organise the gatherings. 

their most recent works is a collection of four short opera films, each based around a famous fable. the pieces work brilliantly alone, but when watched in succession, it really accentuates their differences and therefore indicates the intricacies of creative processes that led to the finished result, and just how delicately appropriate each detail of the performance is. 

http://www.streetwiseopera.org/fables/

cocknbullkid.

caught this act at latitude this weekend. anita blay gave a really gorgeous performance. i'd never heard any of her music before but i still danced like a loon and loved every minute. i particularly love this song, as i feel it rings pretty clear with where my boyfriend and i are at the moment. we drift between intense sadness and emptiness at not being together whilst still holding on to the wisdom we have gained in knowing that the only reason we are sad and empty is because we remember what it was like to be happy and full.

this is an obvious choice for a single from the album ('adulthood') , but everything she played was beautifully true, fun and glamorous (can noise be glamorous?).

festival.

i know that no one in their right mind would take an alexander mcqueen scarf to a music festival...but we can dream. I WANT THAT SCARF. latitude tix and awesome company will have to do for now though. 

iron and wine.

simple.beautiful.

sounds of now: may '11

bright.

So there...so there was this woman.


...and she was on an airplane- she was flying to meet her fiancé seaming high above the largest ocean on planet earth. She was seated next to this man who she... she had tried to start conversations, but the only thing she had really heard him say was to order his Bloody Mary. 


She was sitting there and she was reading this really arduous magazine article about a third world country that she couldn’t even pronounce the name of. And she was feeling very bored and despondent. 


And then suddenly there was this...this huge mechanical failure and one of the engines gave out, and they started just falling thirty-thousand feet, and the pilots on the microphone and he’s saying “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, oh my god... I'm sorry” and apologizing. 


And she looks at the man and says “Where are we going?” and he looks at her and he says “We’re going to a party. It’s a birthday party. It’s your birthday party. Happy birthday darling. We love you very, very, very, very, very, very, very much.” And then he starts humming this little tune, it kind of goes like this: 1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4...

the good stuff.

I can give you what you want. 

I can make your heart beat short. 

I can make you ice cream 

We could be a sweet team 

Melting in your vice dreams, sport. 

I can be the sauce you crave. 

I can spell what you can't say. 

Chocolate flavour love theme 

Treat the treats you so mean 

Covering your nights and days. 

Let me give you what you'd like. 

I can make your mouth run dry. 

Drink me like a liquor 

C'mon and dip your dipper 

Show me what you're here for, guy. 

I can give you what you want. 

i can make your back real taunt 

Fantastic flavour fancies - 

Sick like Syd and Nancy - 

Wicked as a joyride jaunt. 

  

girls just wanna have fun.

Today was my friends Inga's birthday, so we had a BBQ and a little picnic in the garden. Craig set up his record player to play Cyndi Lauper and Bob Marley out the window. It was a little bit awesome.

Almost as awesome as this video clip, which I only saw for the first time today.

If there was ever a reason to shave off half your hair and dye the rest red...I think I just found it.

heckyeatumblr#10.

http://tumblr.com/xsx1xkgzm5

10. Write about your proudest moment.


The weekend in Sydney with my boyfriend when we first realised we were in love. 


I felt, as of that weekend, that I had seen every side of him that I needed to see in order to come to this conclusion. 


I saw that he was and would be everything I could and would need him to be.


On the train home on Sunday afternoon, in our hungover state, I lay across his lap listening to the new Biffy Clyro album (no jibes here people, I'm not a newcomer to the 'stadium sensation', don't judge) as he slept (probably snoring), and I clearly remember thinking that it was one of the happiest moments of my life.


I had never been more proud. And it was all because I felt (and still feel) so lucky to be with such a loving, gentle, generous, thoughtful, beautiful and selfless man. 

things to do in nyc #1

#1 I want to go running in Central Park. I'm going to start working on playlists NOW.