felt and fat

greetings from london, pt. 1 of 1:

Long standing curse of my inability to get back to Prague made for all plan-mind going to that leg, leaving London as the three day layover with no map and no agenda whatsoever. Result, lovely of course, if you look the other way from the gallant bobbies in the tube stations, standing four-abreast looking at EVERYTHING with distrust. NYC since I returned: the subway disembodied voice saying 'any possessions left will be destroyed...' and all this, but here, man you leave your bag or even stop looking at your bag a second and other people on the train start asking, 'who's is this?' Trains run so much more smoothly in general in London that the random detours and temporary closings feel like just another day waiting for the J train. Life during wartime indeed.

Well well, I stopped by the MOJO offices to chat with old pal Jenny and found myself explaining what 'crunk' was to the befuddled posse, feeling really, well, it's how I imagine K. must feel every day at the Times, actually, and then I tried to find someone to go see Lady Sovereign tonight with me - no takers. Actually, only the youngest hire knew who she was, if that's any indication to you of the status of grime in the UK media.

Normally I got to shows alone, but wasn't feeling it today and made it a visual art day, stopping at this place The White Cube, which was in Hoxton square, feeling very much what Williamsburg wishes it could ever become - a post-industrial greenland utopia of small shops and artist lofts. the Cube is in the square itself, a big corrogated metal building open to the air and full of paintings by Anselm Kiefer, weird huge canvases caked with waves that kind of lashed against the rusty metal ships attached by wires.

The modern is pretty impressive: a converted electricy generator that literally buzzes from its former use. Art is arranged by subject - loosely, ahistorically, sort of brilliantly - allowing you to think about a subject from a lot of angles. of course, it also sort of digests the art in advance for ya, but there's a lot to see and if you're going to do it once, that might be a good plan of attack. will be interesting to see the works restructured and shifting into different ideas over time. joseph beuys totally dominated my mind today, an homage to the ex no doubt, and i spent a good deal of time wondering about the art star/rock star crossover. Celebrity.

Wandering the streets as tourist with no desire to spend or capture is pretty great - I was determined to spend only 25 pounds and I've done that. Am headed to Prague tomorrow and will be moving in to a one bedroom apt. for the month of August. Email me if you want to send me a letter, or want me to send you one! I'll be collecting Czech music too, so if anyone wants a taste, let me know and I'll start thinking of tracks to put on a CD comp for my Sept. return.