whoa, nellie

Because of my vacation, I had the unusual assignment of doing two Blotter illustrations in one week. I was very much struggling with both of them, but then had this Zen moment where I took a deep breath and decided to just slow down and keep it simple. I'm not in love with the second drawing, but I think the first, the horse above, reflects my mindset.

Blot: The officer followed the horse carriage and pulled it over ...

london, part two

I'm back in NYC now, but my clothes still smell like London — the ones I laundered in our flat on Fleet, that is. I open up my suitcase (which British Airways misplaced on the return, so it had the pleasure of spending more time in the U.K. than I did) and I'm taken back to gray skies over Soho, blue Christmas lights in Oxford Circus, Harrods in its gaudy holiday splendor.

The last leg of our London journey proceeded at a slower pace than the first, partly because we were tired from all the walking and also because I think we started to feel less urgency, were able to slow down and enjoy the city more.
On every trip, the BF wants to experience two things: parks and outdoor markets. Not sure what that's about — I'd just as soon spend all my free time in museums (or old churches, see below) but he always seeks out these big public spaces and makes us go there. On Friday we rose early and walked around Hampstead Heath, which is wilder than any public park space I've ever experienced. It was also gorgeous.
After, we headed south of the river and checked out Borough Market, a thriving bazzaar where you can purchase game rabbit, skinned sharks, tubs of sea salt — you know, the usual.
It was also close to the Tate Modern, sort of a modern art playground, with an enormous spiral slide that looped from the fifth floor down to the grand lobby. The States should lift this idea and start to incorporate more carnival rides into our museums — seriously, attendance would skyrocket.


We walked across the lovely Milennium Bridge — a truly triumphant pedestrian space — and landed at St. Paul's, sadly after closing time, but still a sight to behold. The rest of our trip went by in a blur: Taures and his band of SF faeries arrived and swept us into the nightlife, an appropriately big finish to a fantastic journey.

In three weeks it's more travel, this time home for Christmas. But it's 60 degrees in NYC today and doesn't feel like the holiday season at all.

paris: such great heights

I've noticed that I do the same things over and over again on trips. Upon arrivial in a new place, I seem to immediately make way to the highest point in the city, usually a tourist attraction of some sort, then proceed to climb countless stairs to get the best possible view of the village. Day two in the city usually involves an old church, unless the church also happens to be the spot mentioned on day one. Sevilla, Hamburg, Barcelona, it doesn't matter. The cycle just repeats.

Anyway, after arriving in Paris on Tuesday, we made way to Le General Hotel, which has an endless track of French house music playing on its site. The BF spent seemingly hours on the site back in the States, to the point where the cheesy music became a joke between us. The hotel itself also turned out to have a continuous soundtrack playing — somewhat loudly — in the lobby and, strangely, in all the hallways. But no French this time, all American, and some odd choices. About half of the CD seemed to be select tracks from the current Scissor Sisters album, along with Beyonce, an unidentified cover of "You Are So Beautiful" and, weirdest of all, "This Magic Moment" by the Drifters.

Our first day in the city, we followed my usual pattern and hit the Eiffel Tower first. Though I'd visited Paris before, I never got a chance to go inside its most famous attraction. Even in chilly November, there was still a sizeable line for the elevator, so naturally the BF and I opted for the route with no waiting, which meant climbing 8,000 stairs to level two. OK, maybe not 8,000, but close.

Day two in Paris also stuck to my usual script: This time the old church was Notre Dame, which was packed with Japanese tourists and so dark I could hardly see the place. I mean, can we turn some lights on or something?

Overall, I resonated more with Paris this time than during my first visit back in 2002. On that trip it was just Taures and me, both of us beat-down tired from a week in Germany and in no mood to deal with pissy French boys. This time the BF and I had rotten luck with weather (it poured all day Thursday) and even less luck with nightlife (we hit two bars on Wednesday night, with nothing interesting to report from either) but we loved the Louvre and had a delicious meal in the Marais.

Now we're back in London, with two days left here before the inevitable return to NYC. I still haven't done my requisite old church here (Westminster Abbey), but hopefully there's still time. This magic moment, so different and so new ...

london, part one

Day two of the British invasion. So far, London's been quite lovely, though we can't seem to catch a break when it comes to travel.
Our flight out of JFK was delayed by more than two hours on Friday. Once we finally arrived at the flat, we were beat and took a nap, then made like tourists and set out for Picadilly Circus. Unfortunately, the tube near our place was shut down ("due to a customer action at Camden Town" — which we later heard meant removing a body from the tracks!), so we had to very quickly learn the buses.
Now, I've only once rode a bus in NYC, and the system here seems to be about three times as confusing. We finally figured out how to purchase a bus pass (not easy when the station's shut down) and which bus would take us sorta kinda near our destination, and got on. It was my first time on a famous double-decker, which had a certain charm, but once were seated and seemed to be headed in the right direction, the damn thing got stuck in traffic.
We finally gave up and hopped off to get on a different subway line, one not stalled by stray bodies on the tracks, which finally put us out in Oxford Circus.
Like good gays, we headed straight for Old Compton Street, which was quaint and full of tourists. After a fast loop around Picadilly, we headed back to Charing Cross and hit some bars before calling it a night.

Unfortunately, the tube closes at 12:30, and we had no idea how to get home. We hopped on a night bus and ended up back near Camden (I think), where a rather surly driver told us we were going in the wrong direction — but he had no idea where we should be going. Bloody hell. We hopped off and finally hailed a black cab home.


Today was more tourist stuff: the London Eye and a walk around Big Ben, Parliament (insert text message from Brad here) Covent Garden and finally a lovely dinner with my long lost friend Carrie, who's turned into a true Brit after almost a decade of living here.

I'm not sure if I'm jet-lagged or just hyped up from all the excitement but I'm now both exhausted and wide awake. Tomorrow: the Tower of London, some museum time and a bus tour. At this rate, I'd be fine if I never get on another bus again.

wabbit season

Oh dear. My friend Hunter just pointed out to me that I made an appearance on Lady Bunny's Blog. (Warning, the link may not be safe for work!) Not sure how I missed that — I read her site with some regularity, but must've skipped that post. But yeah, I love the Bun Bun! Here's another pic from that same night. One of us was drunk and rowdy: You decide who.

the cats have spoken

Apologies for the derth of new posts lately. Life has been, um, challenging. There are major rumblings going on under the earth, and the potential for seismic changes on the horizon. I'm still processing it all, not yet able to figure out what sort of 2007 I want for myself.

In the midst of all this, the BF and I are preparing to hop the pond and spend T-giving week in soggy old London. It's going to rain the whole time we're there, but I can't wait. I need a break from NYC something fierce.

In the meanwhile, here's a new Blotter doodle. I was pleased with this one, and also amused that I keep drawing dissatisfied cats. Not sure what that's about.

Blot: An officer opened the apartment door and several cats came running out.

complicated rhyme

A little over a year ago, a friend shared with me Jennifer O'Connor's The Color and the Light. My musical tastes have drifted in recent years, but I still have a soft spot for quality (and mostly female) singer-songwriters with surprising lyrics and a creative approach the genre. The disc didn't grab me at first, but over a few listens I really started to love some of the songs; "Ready to Go" ended up on my list of best songs of 2005.
Jennifer's new disc, Over the Mountain, Across the Valley and Back to the Stars, landed this summer. Again, I didn't swoon on first listen, but it grew on me in a very good way. I just reviewed it for CL, and I suspect that the song, "I'll Bring You Home," will make my '06 best list. If you buy it on iTunes, you get three bonus tracks. Neat.

haunted houses

So another Halloween passed. It's still my favorite holiday, but I didn't celebrate as much as in years past. Saturday night we did the costume thing: I was Santa, the BF was a reindeer. Ho ho ho.

My Halloween interview with Elvira finally ran: Drop Dead Gorgeous.

Last night the BF and I took in Grey Gardens The Musical, which opens tonight on Broadway. Definitely worth seeing, though the second half would make zero sense if you hadn't caught the 1975 film. Act one had its merits, but the show really comes alive once Christine Ebersole puts on the head wrap in the second half and damn near becomes Little Edie. It's creepy — perhaps the scariest thing I saw all Halloween.

red on white

I never know if a drawing is going to come to me fast or slowly. Sometimes the ones I see most clearly in my head take the longest to materialize on paper. Many times the finished product looks nothing like my original vision.
This week wasn't one of those times.
I read the text, immediately saw what I wanted to draw, and, boom, there she was.
My one complaint: I couldn't get the skin tone correct. I wanted her to be darker, vaguely ethnic but not in an obnoxious way. The final is total white bread.

The Blot: The officer wrote, "She was wearing black almost see-through panties ..."