TeriTeri London

New Sunglasses

2005-06-21T13:27:00.000+01:00

Friday morning I woke up and my eye was swollen closed. Seems some grumpy insect or spider decided to bite my helpless face while asleep. Matt told me it wasn't so bad, but then he looked at me for another second and laughed and laughed.

It was one of the first very beautiful days in London and I decided I couldn't let my Igor eye keep my down. After going to the supermarket and wandering around the neighborhood we headed into the heart of London where I bought a pair of sunglasses. It was really hot and we had a picnic in Kensington Park.

Matt looks better in my new sunglasses than I do

Matt's dad wanted to know what English food was like

2005-06-21T13:25:00.000+01:00

Matt works David Grubbs

2005-06-19T12:41:00.000+01:00

I assigned Matt to volunteer at The Spitz for a David Grubs show on June 12th. It was his first job in London.

Tuung, folky glitch harmonies from Birmingham.

David Grubbs with his Greek cellist.

Matt said afer the show that he thought that David was a little tame, but still the best singer songwriter of his kind. I had to say that if I were to listen to a singer with a guitar, intimately playing me a song, I would have to go with Will Oldham or Cat Power over David anyday.

Wah and Steven

2005-06-19T12:36:00.000+01:00

Matt came and picked me up from work. Everyone was getting off and going home and I took this photo of Wah and Steven. "Please delete!", said Wah. I liked it though and didn't listen to her.

Things that happened on my birthday

2005-06-19T12:15:00.000+01:00

1. I took a two hour essay exam in NGO and Organisational Management

2. I said good bye to Patricia

Now that school is ending, everyone is going their seperate ways.

3. Matt arrived! He was held by immigration and almost did not get into the country.

4. When he finally made it into the UK, he met me at a noodle shop in Clapham, where some of my girls and I were having lunch.

Matt took this picture.

5. Matt moved into my house.

6. Matt took my to a down home Korean restaurant and we ate kimchee chijimi, yachae hot pot and denjang chigae.

Congratulations Mike! We salute you!

2005-05-26T10:16:00.000+01:00

Mike survives mental and emotional floggings, abandonment in the wilderness, being tossed out of airplanes, shootings, tank fire, confederate flag waving southerners and chemistry class in order to graduate from the Virginia Military Institute.

And remember young grasshopper, just as another smart Asian dude named Confucius once said, "Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart."

Sunday night at the Trocadero

2005-05-22T23:24:00.000+01:00

After work last Sunday I met Vernon and Maki at Sakura. They were just sitting down to a big Japanese feast.

We then went bowling in Soho with a lot of delinquent Asian teens.

Vernon and Maki show me how it's done.

More addictions to feed

We fed the robot our winnings and our receipts totaled 1,864 tickets.

The game room children were hovering nearby whispering in foreign languages. Was it the bright lights of the arcade or was that a gleam of envy in their eyes?

We still didn't have enough for the neon union jack electric guitar wall clock so we settled on adrenaline and whiplash.

Los Desterrados and Dr. Blitz

2005-05-12T16:33:00.000+01:00

Last night I went to see Hayley's "Shepardic Flamenco" band play. She is the wife of my professor Dr. Blitz, but we just call him Brad and he seems to dig it. Whenever I tried to take a picture from the side of the stage the Los Desterrados drummer began to pose and shake his hair around extra amounts. You can see in the picture here that his face is extra blurry because he just couldn't help himself.

Later he came up to me and said, "Sorry I kept giving you that goofy grin."

Tim, Lizzie, Josh and Brian

2005-05-12T16:22:00.000+01:00

hanging out in Spitalfields Market

i've got the Shanghai Blues

2005-05-10T15:47:00.000+01:00

For those of you who don't know, I work for the Chinese mafia.

Well actually I work for a swank Chinese restaurant in Holborn which is owned by members of the Chinese mafia. In stereotypical gangsta fashion my bosses are macho, two-faced, sexist, stank ass-pits, who are ironically, always nice to me, but very abusive and exploitative of my Chinese co-worker friends.

Do not ever go there or let anyone you care about go there. Not only will dinner cost you half your month's rent, but what they call "dim sum" are really MSG bombs, most of which taste like shit.

When I quit I am going to sneak behind the bar, steal all of their Cuban cigars and give them away to homeless people.

zai jian Emily, we'll miss you

2005-05-10T14:06:00.000+01:00

"I can't believe tomorrow I'll be in New York," said Emily. "Do you want me to say hi to anything for you?"

"Yeah, say hi to everything for me."

Bye Em! We'll miss you, especially Tutsu.

allison does london

2005-05-07T16:03:00.000+01:00

Allison. I phoned you this afternoon to tell you that you would be joing Maki and me in London for a spring time romp of magical proportions, but your phone service informed me that your mobile was not accepting calls at this time.

I know that you may not yet know that you WILL BE VISITING ME, but Maki and I have both voted and two yays wins over any single potential nay (unless you are some kind of fascist, which I know you are too adorable to ever be).

Please let me know when I should be expecting to see your shining, happy self. Maki and I look forward to it.

!Kung-fools!

2005-05-03T12:19:00.000+01:00

I was doing research concerning information technologies, globalisation and using information and communication technologies as tools for progressive social change and I found an article which contained the following quote:

"the !Kung [Bushmen of southern Africa] hate fighting, and think anybody who fought would be stupid"

I had just been stewing about how IT systems had been constructed in order to perpetuate disparity between the minority of ultra-skilled and rich and the rest of the world. I had been grappling with whether or not a dissertation on new media within the context of social activism (particularly when applied to developing countries) was or was not a stupid, snobby and contradictary preoccupation or a necessary and valuable one in terms of its potential for empowerment.

And then I read this quote in the middle of all this nonsense and it made me laugh and think about how totally rad the !Kung must be.

Maki-chan and makizushi

2005-05-02T23:24:00.000+01:00

Today I met Maki and we went to St. James Park to eat takeout sushi. I had two of my veggie favorites, avocado and oshinko. Maki also shared an inarizushi with me. Boy, did that ever taste yummy. Later on we ended up in Hyde Park where we laid in the grass beneath some gigantic flowering tree. It was the first time we'd been able to spend time together since Maki visited New York about two years ago and stayed at our apartment on Knickerbocker.

Then, right before I had to leave for work, Maki and I bought these giant homemade cookies from Ben's Cookies, some store in Kensington High Street Station. These were exceedlingly attractive cookies. I spend a lot of time looking at bakery items, and I can attest to the fact that these cookies were exceptionally good looking. People like us, who weren't even thinking about cookies when we walked past, were being irresistably drawn in from all directions.

The Royal Navy, Tower Bridge, River Thames

2005-05-01T23:49:00.000+01:00

Some people have expressed disappointment in the fact that there aren't more pictures of London on this blog. This picture was taken on an ice cold night in February and captures some very British things for those back home curious to see some British things.

man on a mini bike

2005-05-01T21:30:00.000+01:00

Today after I finished my shift I went to Bury Square near where I work to read through the remaining day. There were several people sprawled on the lawn and sitting on benches looking pleased with the early evening weather.

There was a man sitting cross-legged reading a book on the grass who i noticed right away, in part because he noticed me. He reminded me of this Korean DJ who works in Other Music back in NY, tall and thin with long uni-length hair parted in the middle. He also reminded me a little bit of my friend Kawasaki who runs a curry shop in the Highashi Shinsaibashi neighborhood of Osaka.

I glance at people all the time and they glance at me. Such are the furtive attentions of passing strangers.

I'm not sure how much time passed, but i had nearly finished my book and was beginning to get chilled. I looked across the square from my bench and the man was brushing grass of his pants, getting ready to go. Somehow he knew i was watching him because he looked back. We looked at one another and he seemed to want to say something, like maybe i reminded him of a girl he knew who worked in a music store in some other city.

But we were on opposites sides of the park so i went back to reading. When i looked again he was pedaling away on his maroon mini bike, his legs pumping twice as quick as a regular cyclist.

my friends Lu, Steph and Eveena

2005-04-30T00:37:00.000+01:00

Charlie's Angels

Tonight I played hooky from work and went to my friends Lu, Steph and Eveena's house in Battersea.

Eveena cooked me some noodles with tofu and vegetables for dinner. This was really special, especially since Eveena never cooks anything. This fact made it doubly as momentous. I put a lot of Thai chili sauce on it and thought about how Eveena is really great.

She is one of my favorite people of all time.

the moon is not only beautiful. it is so far away.

2005-04-29T02:02:00.000+01:00

Cat Power live at Queen Elizabeth Hall April 28th, 2005

This was the first time I had ever bought a ticket to see Chan play and for a woman in my sorry financial straights it was a very large investment. I'd seen her before, lounging like a lizard, chatting like a drowsy sparrow, lip syncing and jumping around in dirty summer Keds. I never gave much thought to her reputation for spotty performances and flake-outs before I had to invest my dirty Chinese mafia cash into it. I bought the seat and hoped for the best. . .

. . . and Chan sang and sang and played and played for nearly a stunning two hours.

--------

As a bonus to seeing Cat Power I also met a lovely girl named Krissy, to whom I sold my extra ticket. She introduced me in turn to a Shaggy looking boy named Dom and his friend Dirk. I kept saying Dom and Dirk, Dom and Dirk because the sounds were so terrific, but luckily, I don't think anyone noticed my strange game.

"I'm going camping tomorrow," said Dirk.

"Oh where are you going?" asked Krissy.

"I don't know. I am just going."

"You don't know? You don't have a place in mind?"

"Not really. I'm just going to take off. Someplace in the country."

"You should go to Scotland," I said. "It is really beautiful."

"That's a great idea!" said Dirk. "I've never been to Scotland. I've always wanted to go."

"It's colder than here though," I said. "That's the only bad thing."

"I'll just wear lots of layers."

This whole unplanned plan made me like Dirk. He was also wearing a khaki shirt that looked like a a boyscout uniform minus the kerchief. Dom decided he wanted to go too and asked me if I wanted to come, but I said I couldn't.

I wonder if they made it to Scotland.

"Heah das no coconut water, no mango, no fruits from da trees, no sun, no ganja leaves."

2005-04-29T00:52:00.000+01:00

Gang Gang Dance live at the Spitz April 26, 2005

Pumping arms flung beers half-hazardly into a heady cumulus of second-hand smoke. Plastic cups exploded under heels and miniature lightning bolts from personal electronics struck from all sides. All around there was mass hairdo meltdown as the whir and whoop, thump and fuzz of Gang Gang took hold.

Sean said it was the best show he'd ever seen them play. White Magic, who also played, performed a great cover of an Ethiopian song.

Later that evening some people went to a not so nice place called Mother Bar in Shoreditch, where everyone goes to settle with the devil, as it is one of the only bars in London open past the witching hour. Brian, being much smarter than most people, decided it would be more fun to stand in the cold for three hours by the tour van than to patronize Mother Bar-- and though it sounds like I'm being a smart ass, it was in fact the Buddha-given truth.

Brian, Josh, sometimes Sean, sometimes Doug and I perched near the van and talked about this and that and apartments and people and jobs and love and friendships and NYC vs London. No one had fire, so people were forced to chain smoke and then we passed the time making sneaker prints near a patch of fresh tar while some people took turns smuggling pints out of Mother Bar to share on the sidewalk.

Best of all we met Phillip, a 51 year old Jamaican man who wanted to smoke da ganja with us, but we didn't have any. We were all disappointed when we realized this, but Phillip sang us some beautiful reggae songs any ways and even some love songs just for me. We gave him all our change and he let us use his lighter and told us stories about Jamaica and the sea and the birds and the fruits and the sands and the ganja walk from here to there--all da way to da train station. It sounded so beautiful that we all said let's go! Let's go! Come on Phillip! But the van couldn't get us there so we had to part with promises to meet again some day under the Jamaican sun.

tell me what you eat and i will tell you what you are

2005-04-25T13:23:00.000+01:00

On Saturday I partook of my first Korean food in London along with Alec, Emily, Wah and Daniel.

We only recently discovered that Alec's name was Alec, as he had never told anyone before. We don't really call him Alec any ways, mostly because we are not used to it yet. We mostly call him Tutsu.

Korean is not the most accessible cuisine and I sometimes have anxiety about introducing people to it. Emily and Daniel really didn't know much about it and wouldn't use much kochujang on their bibimbap--so it probably didn't taste that good. I felt happy though and ate everything, as did Wah, as you can see from her empty bowl.

Britons think poorly of us indeed

2005-04-25T12:56:00.000+01:00

mysterious message from a girl named Akiko

2005-04-24T09:23:00.000+01:00

From: 南晶子
Date: Sunday, April 24, 2005 7:47 AM
Subject: こちらの送信アドレスに見覚えはございますか？

私のメールボックスに↓のようなメールが来てたんですが、どういったご用件でしょうか？送信者様のメールアドレスが私のアドレス帳に登録はなかっので不思議に思いこのように返信してみました。

I am in the States . Please do not bother me and get a happy life. I am sure you understand a bit of English.

----------------------

I awoke this morning to find this message in my email inbox, but wasn't sure what it all could possibly mean. Aside from the very obvious fact that it is in Japanese, I am also unsure if I know Akiko at all. Have I been emailing her in my sleep? Has some Japanese person stolen my email identity and proceeded to barrage her inbox? Is she angry with me? Why does she want me to get a happy life? Is she being as ironic as she sounds or is it the ESL? What is she doing in the States? If I have emailed her previously, why doesn't she know what language I speak? Have I sent her only dirty pictures? Does it mean something?

my friend Hidemo

2005-04-21T11:31:00.000+01:00

CutUp guerilla art in Shoreditch

2005-04-21T10:49:00.000+01:00

CutUp in Shoreditch, picture and text courtesy of Kemistry Gallery

There's a new CutUp billboard in Shoreditch.... it's opposite the
Foundry on the corner of Old St and Great Eastern... catch it while you
can, it won't be long before it disappears under another layer of
Colgate smiles...

For more info on the CutUp project visit them at the Kemistry Gallery site.

TeriTeri English vocab of the day: chuffed

2005-04-21T01:54:00.000+01:00

CHUFFED (chuft) adj.

Someone who describes themselves as being chuffed is generally happy with life. You can also get away with saying you are unchuffed or dischuffed if something gets your back up. Ex. I am chuffed to bits!

[From English dialect chuff (pleased, puffed, swollen with pride).]

The first time I heard this word used was when Joe at Kruger Magazine said the K-gang was CHUFFED about their mags official London release. I was immediately taken with this phrase and with Joe for being the first to charm me with it.

Then I learnt that TO CHUFF meant to break wind, which could do nothing but endear me further to this special word. Still later I discovered the UK's Chuffed Headshop, "the online store for tokers who need more". Shortly thereafter I found out that chuffed is also its very own antonym, as it is less commonly used as, but can also mean, to be displeased.
I can only guess what other magical connotations this little linguistic treasure might hold.