Crosstown Traffic

Apparently you never get a day in Seattle without clouds. The place must be a bit abnormal currently as the blue sky has yet to be marred by any white or fluffy. Yesterday I went for a walk up Queen Anne hill to the lookout and thanks to the clear weather got a great view right past the Sky Needle (I refuse to be igven grief about not experiencing this touristing hihglight, all towers are the same and it's nice to be able to take a photograph that includes the architectural feature once in a while- big ups for citites with hills), over the city and out to Mt Ranier which the guidebooks say is lucky to get. If you were needing inpiration to write about some mythical mountain where the goal of a great quest, probably involving a dragon, lay then this semi-dormant volcano would be a good place to start what with its snow covered cone rising up out of the mists hounding its base.

Once again I have been getting the feeling of just being carried along on a wave of good fortune. I gave up on the idea of stopping in Rapid City and going to Mt Rushmore as it was turning out to be one of those places that would be pretty much impossible without a car and there wasn't really anywhere to stay bar hotels. So this meant that I arrived in Seattle a day ahead of schedule, on the way I had called both the hostels in the city only to learn that both were full, so it was looking like an uncomfortable night in the Greyhound station. But I figured that I might as well try and hope that there had been a cancellation or something and thankfully this was the case - a hostel bed never felt so good. Both of the places here are really good with teh best feature being a really extensive complimentary breakfast - eat that Chicago you overpriced so and so.

This hour of free internet is coming to you from a prety amazing library. You get a lot of building for $135 million and there are 300 computer stations to choose from!!!

I just about cried this morning at breakfast when I was reading the local free newspaper and reached the gig guide to see that Kings of Leon had played in town on Saturday night. And all I did was go to a baseball game, dammit.

The whole Seattle area is really beautiful, kind of similar to home with lots of mountains, water, pine trees etc. The harbour setting sets up some pretty impressive views, the city has a huge port and judging by the names of the ships and on the sides of the containers is where most of the trade imbalance with China arrives.

The Pike Place Farmers Market is a lot of fun with a huge array of every type of produce. The highlight, however touristy, is definitely the fish stall where they throw the fish around and all yell out in unison, kind of hard to explain but compelling viewing. There were some Alaskan crab legs there that had to be over a foot long I was trying to picture what the creature would look like whole.

Today I have been up to Bruce Lee's grave and am about to head out to where Jimi is buried. Oh yeah - Matt - I made it up to Espresso Vivace and finally got a good coffee in America.

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change busses

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change busses

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FOR TWO WHOLE DAYS!!!!!!

Paw to paw with the king of beasts

Wrigley Field totally lived up to expectations. It's pretty impressive when you can draw 39,000 people to a Thursday afternoon game especially when it's only against the Pirates who by any definition suck. One of the coolest things about Wrigley is that because it is so old the stands don't enclose the whole field only really following the first and third base lines out and so all of the buildings on the lucky sides now sport mini bleacher stands of their own. Most would hold 100-150 people I reckon, pretty nice perk to living there.

Chicago is definitely one of the cleanest cities so far and seems to be environmentally aware also which is rare for the East Coast. There is even a recycling program which as far as I have been able to discern is unherad of east of the Mississippi.

Also in the positives column is the Lincoln Park Zoo. I wasn't expecting too much with it being free maybe a glorified petting zoo for inner city kids to see sheep or something but it wasn't that at all but a very extensive collection and an attempt was being made to house the animals in native like enclosures whcih the Bronx Zoo surprised me at its lack of. Auckland Zoo and Orana Park are really right up there in terms of zoos.

An incredible moment came when I walked past the lions and around from the screaming children to where there was a side viewing window. Here, hidden from the horror, was a lioness streched out against the glass and it was quite a buzz to hold my hand up against her paw. Another highlight was seeing a bald eagle that was recovering from an injury sustained in the wild, and a couple of polar bears.

You truly have to despair at the American public, the place was filled with kids on day trips from their summer camps and the only way I can describe their attitude is that the performing monkey days are missed - "make it move daddy." It freaked me to see otherwise respectable men beating their chests and grunting in an attempt to make the gorilla copy them. They were only getting two disdainfull looks though, one from me and thankfully one from the gorilla who, when it was a little quieter, did perform a little.

Seeing all of the different animals got me very excited about Peru and especially the Amazon section of that trip. It's not too far away either.x

Civic Space

A city is defined by its public areas, art and architecture and in all of these Chicago is top notch. I have gone a bit photo wacky these past couple of days.

The new Millennium Park is one of the coolest civic spaces I've ever been in with truly breathtaking sculpture and an outrageious outdoor stage. It's at the northern tip of the huge Grant Park which stretches along the front of the magnificent Lake Michigan, it's not like you need to build right up to the water when you go up 112 stories.

Apparently I can post photos on here but it doesn't seemto want to co-operate so you'll just have to wait.

Amid all of the architectural splendour rises the impressively ugly Sears Tower again confusing the issue of world's tallest building by claiming the highest occupied floor. The funny thing it that it seems to be the fashion to copy it with two other black monoliths with twin white antennae sprouting forth. One of these I went up last night, all you have to do to get to the 96th floor is buy a drink in the bar there which is a win-win situation really. Minimised tourists, no lines and sometimes it is better to view the giant rather than stand on its shoulders.

Speaking of deals, it seems to be the latest trend among panhandlers to come up to you and start a conversation, pretty easy to target someone lugging a 20kg pack and then a short way after "so where you from? Let me guess Sweeden, the Czech Republic, England? Noo Zeeeland that's by Switzerland isn't it? Say man can you help a brother out ..."
Now I still stand by what I have written previously but this is often coming from people who are better dressed tahn I am. Also I'm getting pretty sick of getting singled out cos I'm white - what makes you think I've got more change in my pocket than these black guys in suits around me, honestly it happens all the time. When I think about it it doesn't seem like such a bad rub getting a buck or two for a conversation I don't want to have, but to pay and commune is just a rip.

One thing that I haven't mentioned yet are fireflies which I first encountered in Nashville. Impossible to record on film unfortunately but fun when you're walking down a street to have all these little flashes of light flitting about.

Today I'm going to go to Lincoln Park Zoo, apparently it's free - booyah, and a Cubs game a Wrigley Field. Pretty much just leaves Fenway Park in Boston to go in terms of iconic baseball fields to visit.

Something that definitely helps when travelling is seeming to being blessed with an innate sense of direction. So far I have had little trouble with any of the places I've been and been able to navigate without a map fairly easily, even when exiting subways and the like I seem to know what way to head. But Chicago is messing with me. It's as if the compass has been turned around 90 degrees counter clockwise and I can't quite get used to it.

Gateway to the West postponed

Well Dennis finally caught up with me. With the bus not leaving for Chicago until the small hours of the morning I though I might as well go catch a movie. While St Louis is a very nice place (more about that later) it does have the misfortune of being one of those suburban cities. A very good book about the place is Johnathan Franzen's 27th city; anyway this meant going miles out into St Louis County by metre and then, according to Mapquest, a short walk. Well it took an hour all the while the remnants of Dennis were falling from the heavens. St Louis is also a place where is seems all but impossible to spend money, I didn't see one McDonalds, BK, Wendys etc and hardly anywhere else to get something to eat. Then the one place you think would charge to get a tour of doesn't, but then when you sell 1 out of every 2 beers sold in the US I'm sure you can afford to show a few people how for free. The Anheuser-Busch brewery was actually quite beautiful and ornate, well worth it and you get two free brews at the end. While some may think two free Buds is hardly worth it I would agree but there are other options that actually do have some flavour.

The Gateway Arch is a spectacular peice of engineering and truly beautiful. The trip to teh top is pretty cool too, you get in these little egg shaped capsules and get hauled up 630ft and great views of the city and the might Mississippi. I haven't said anything about that the aorta of America yet. It's not as wide as I thought it would be but you can see that it's still formidible and the fact that it's going to take me three days by bus to follow it right up is mind boggling.

And so just about dead from tiredness and after a thourough soaking I'm heading north to Chicago and not West as so many others did.

Dash from Dennis

I have done it, the night is conquered and now I can escape. Just as the birds heralded it the sky is beginning to lighten heralding the end of the toughest four days of the trip. All that was needed was one of the last cloves to dull the hunger and a can of coke for some much needed caffeine. Thankfully it has been a warm evening and this station they have in St Louis is grand in its imperial style and cute little forecourt equipped with picnic tables which are perfect for watching the busses pull up and spill forth their contents. Always a mixed bunch from your truckers and army brats being shipped around the country to your old people whose social security won't stretch to a plane ticket - like the gent who was next to me from Nashville to Atlanta who for some reason kept his bag in the overhead tray but needed access to it all the time. This part was fine I guess but the act of sitting down seemed to be just about too much for him as he realised that the final part of that action is a fall and requires faith that the seat will still be there upon completion. This made him hesitate at the last second and invariably meant that instead of falling into his seat he ended up on me. Not helped was his size, though compared with the two four rows up from us he is positively fading away. The four people occupying this row are all generously proportioned with the two in the aisle being genuinely huge which leads to the incredible sight of them having to balance out with only one cheek (which is probably about as wide as me) on the seat closing the gap for the front of the bus to get to the toilet to about 6 inches.

The plan on leaving Atlanta was an overnight journey to New Orleans where accomodation was booked for the weekend and then up to Memphis etc. However upon reaching Mobile, Alabama expecting to transfer busses the disinterested customer service representative informed a small group of us that the Greyhound terminal had been closed due to the hurricane and that actually Mobile was in the process of being evacuated itself. Not being able to get any more help out of this person and with the clock reading about 4am I had to make the executive decision to get back on my original bus which was going all the way to Houston. At this point I think it would be relevant to take out a map of the US and a coloured pencil, actually this is what I started doing, and draw a line from Atlanta through Montgomery and Mobile, AL; out to Houston; up to Dallas wait for three hours in the dive of a terminal, surprising as the big D is Greyhound HQ (did get to quickly escape and visit the grassy knoll which means I have now been to the sites of the three most famous assassinations in US history Lincoln, JFK and MLK jr.) and then finally on up to Memphis Tennessee. And there we are Sunday morning after leaving Atlanta sometime Friday.

Texas was refreshingly hot - 95f and with a good hot wind rushing over the burning earth. None of this muggy bollocks.

Hallelujah, praise the Laawwwd

The Full Gospel Tabernacle was where Memphis began for me with Rev. Al Green in full voice. A surprisingly small place way out in the suburbs and perhaps the most amazing thing being that the big painting they had behind the choir of a baptism scene had Jesus as white but all the other characters black. The choir was blow your mind stuff but even they struggled to match the musicians three kids representing a truly righteous organ, guitar and drums.

Called past Graceland which I had psyched myself into going to pretty sure that it would be as unbearable as most Elvis fans usually are. And so I was surprised how gutted I was when they said that the queue was running at two hours which meant that with my limited time in the city that I wouldn't be able to see anything else. So on it was to the Gibson Les Paul Showcase which toured past these beautiful instuments being crafted out of solid blocks of wood. And another super effort from the Smithsonian with the Rock and Soul Museum. Oh and past Sun Studios.

Memphis impressed me with the amount of art they had around the town and it would've been nice to see it with a few more people around but being the weekend pretty much the only populated street being Beale which just oozed the blues with bands every 100 yards or so all mixing together in the middle. On Heather's step-dad's advice I called in to have some ribs. Even though it was the first thing I'd eaten that day the half portion left me stuffed, I have no idea how people could manage the monstrous portions walking past.

The timing of the busses meant that I had to leave far sooner than I would've liked, missing out on Destiny's Child too.

Newsroom

What a day to go on a tour of the CNN headquarters in Atlanta! The place was going mad covering all the events in London which I had only found out about while queueing for my ticket. Such is the isolation of the backpacker. Horrible twist for a city which only the day before had been celebrating so.
The tour itself was excellent and quite inspirational, maybe even something other than teaching that a history degree may be useful for. Apart from the obvious CNN is a pretty impressive organisation, I would like to see the BBC and compare, however in the atrium - the one with the longest free standing escalator of 8 floors in the world - the NZ flag they had was wrong, white stars bordered by red. The tour leader was most embarrassed and i hope a couple of fact checkers get shot. The most mystifying part for me is how could a flag maker of the size that someone like CNN would buy from get it so wrong.
In my pursuit of culinary diversity in the US I felt that grits really needed to be tried. Again taking cues from Lonely Planet the Flying Biscuit (read Scone) was visited and grits promtly served. And with assurances from the guy sitting next to me that these were about the best grits to be had anywhere I stared with trepidation at the thick grey sludge before me. Apparently it's some sort of ground corn cooked with cream with the end result coming out something like coldish porridge made from tapioca - like two nightmares combined. Thankfully there was a generous portion of scrambled eggs to chase it down and finally a place with an espresso machine and not just deli dreck.

In the time it took to eat this every MARTA station had been issued 5 heavily armed troopers menacing around the entrance. It's so obvious - ratchet up the alert to orange, post the army and wind everyone's tensions that little bit tighter. Yawn.

The Martin Luther King birthplace, church, gravesite etc was very moving and I'm glad that I braved the walk. A bit like Fiji there is nowhere to hide when you're the only white guy on the street and you're instantly a target for the abundant panhandlers a situation made worse by having absolutely no money still needing to visit a bank. I'm really glad that I read John H. Griffin's book Black like me before coming as it really helped me view the South, just wish I could've got to New Orleans where most of the story takes place.

I was going to go to the Braves/Cubs game but Greg, the guy I was staying with, was having a cook out and so I went to that instead to meet some southern folks. And very nice they were too, extremely enterprising all of them seemed to have started their own businesses and as a group had started a church a couple fo years ago.

Athens

Right from the outset the South proves itself to be markedly different from the north-eastern pressure cooker. Being greeted with a big smile and similar "Howdy, how may we help you today?" at the Nashville visitors centre surprised me so much I just about turned and left. And help they most certainly did do making sure that I was able to use the few hours I had there to the best advantage.

It's a pretty cheesy place, even exluding the country, with a full scale replica of the Parthenon with some flimsy excuse about being the Athens of the South.

This included a visit to the Bluebird Cafe whose honour roll includes the Cowboy Junkies, dave Crosy, Steve Earle, Emmylou Harris and is credited with discovering both Garth Brooks and Lucinda Williams. Tonight however is was four unknows performing in the 'round' though apparently Willie Nelson has recorded one of the guy's songs. The concept is pretty cool really, a circle where everyone takes turns singing a song and so you get a nice flow as themes are taken up and dropped with some good banter in between.

I even found myself enjoying straight country music for a bit before the straight up honesty started to get to me. I the end I think that I need a bit more subterfuge. Lonely Planet reccomended the catfish sandwich which of course I followed and was well pleased with the result. Catfish seems to be pretty big down here.

Nashville was also the first 'car' city I've encountered. The Bluebird is quite a way from the city centre and after the 18hr bus ride from DC I quite fancied a walk. But was there a footpath to be found? There wasn't even a sidewalk! I got honked at a couple of times for daring to take up a little bit of the grass verge, at least I think that's what it was for.

South

My watch has stopped. I don't know what sort of omen that is but it sure feels like its only the mechanics failing the idea anyway with New York already feeling far away and Montreal barely raising a flicker on the memory scan.

A few days ago when I left DC, Heather and Grader behind I have to admit to wondering about just heading back to LA and then Christchurch's warm embrace. As usual it was a book that saved me - Jack Kerouac On the Road, kind of a fitting choice I figured when making the purchase. I am actually glad that I'm travelling while reading it as the mad excitement it contains would be too much to bear otherwise.

After a few glorious days in Maryland where everything was as described - cheesy Canadians, being plied with drinks by Heather's step dad, cool as basment and refreshing pool - the 4th of July soon rolled around and a second huge crowd in three days as we headed down for the fireworks etc. One of the best things about Washington is that all of the museums and memorials are free. There is simply far too much to see but I made a point of finally getting through the Capitol Building, the one major thing that had elided me on previous visits; the newly completed WWII memorial which they have done very well - Heather wasn't the only one surprised at how tasteful it was; and the National Museam of the American Indian which also wasn't complete the last time I was in town. Forget every other minority's sob stroy the Indians in North America simply got screwed, and even in a setting that has to be as neutral and unconfrontational as the Smithsonian this fact leaked through time and time again through stories from all parts of the continent.

I also managed to catch up with Alex and Susan Fleming who kindly had me over for dinner and it was really nice to hear how they've been the past couple of years. I sure have been treated well in the home cooked meals department the past few days with Susan even creating a semi pavlova.

It was cool walking around and seeing skyrockets littlering the place, definitely something we need to bring back. Washington remains right up there in the favourite city stakes and I guess we'll see over the next three weeks whether anyone else can top it.

Click...click...click...

Again my freakish timing holds, and along with Grader and Heather, I am able to be a part of the Live 8 movement. I'm not really sure why Philadelphia is one of the cities, I think that it maybe had a Live Aid concert as well, but it has certainly worked out well.

The stage was on the steps leading to the Museum of Art, which you will all know from Rocky, and meant that the crowd could fill in the avenue right back to the Town Hall. Some reports say that a million people were there, others 200,000 in any case a shitload and probably the biggest crowd I've ever been in - beating Time's Square for New Years 2002. Heather coped admirably seeing she doesn't really like crowds. And we had no troubles with traffic and parking somehow fluking everything making the whole trip about as smooth as you could imagine - well until we got to the site.

Apparently in America a blanket placed on the ground holds the same legal property rights as a fenced off plot of land. It was one of the craziest things that and none of us could really believe these people who had got there early, set up huge picnic areas right near the front - some even having charcoal barbeques going- and who then were getting really really angry when the other few hundred thousand people tried to enjoy the experience.

At first, me the naive little kiwi boy just went strolling through and was shocked at the reaction engendered. One particular guy who the term red neck hardly covers it started going on about his Grandma who had made the blanket - "so why would you bring it to something like this, what is this a music festival or a fucking picnic?" and then called me a hippy, I think it was the hair good thing he didn't see Grader's pink shirt. You have to wonder what he was expecting really with it only being about the most left wing event since the anti-war marches. This was a common thought that only grew through the day.

The hopelessness of the idea of convincing the general American population that there is something bigger out there was amply proven by the three ample black girls next to us. I don't think I have ever witnessed such selfish behaviour amplified all the more by the nature of the event we were at. Actions include grabbing the 'One' campaign beach balls thrown out for everyone's entertainment and deflating them so they could sit their fat asses down. The worst was yet to come when three cops suddenly came through the crowd from the direction of the medical tent clearing a path for the stretcher carrying team of medics following. The importance of this didn't seem to register with these girls who were just about to get a deserved knightstick to the head before they loudly moved.

One of the coolest things ever was right at the start when Will Smith kicked off a round the world shout out getting Philly to shout howdy to London to say good afternoon to Paris to say Bonjour to Rome and on to Berlin, Moscow, Ontario and back to us. The global community is fucking cool! A bit later they re-established the connection and after being told about the sobering fact that one child needlessly dies every three seconds all the venues followed the lead of a video clicking our fingers every three seconds.

We got to see some pretty good bands, nothing compared to London which had the mother of all line-ups. But those to come to the party included Kaiser Chiefs (who? who? who?) to kick it off which they did well. Black Eyed Peas followed by Bon Jovi - booyah!!! Destiny's Child, Kanye West, rubbish, rubbish, rubbish, Dave Matthews aaaarrrrgggh, Def Leppard!!!!! Alicia Keys for confusingly only one song, Linkin Park which song are they doing they all sound the same joined by Jay Z why are you giving these little dicks credibility. And then it was too tortuous to wait around for Stevie Wonder so we left.

I may seem pretty down on America in this post and I apologise to all of those who I know are out there who do see some of these issues and feel the same. It kind of seems that those people I meet are cool and know what's going on and the rest are happy to kill in ignorance, so I guess I also apologise to those who I'm about to meet in the next few weeks :)

It was unbelievable the reaction of the crowd when they were being told about the reasons behind the whole event. It was as if they just thought it was some free concert for their benefit. So many people around us had brought enough food to pretty much consume non stop for the entire day, and continued doing so even while being told that their lifestyle, which seems to be considered some God given right, is directly causing millions and millions to suffer. It became clear that the most dangerous thing in the world is the American Dream. I can't remember where I heard it but 'your average American doesn't want restrictions put on the rich because they don't want them to be there when they get rich themselves.'

I can also understand why Americans struggle to see why they should be sending aid overseas when there is so much poverty at home. This became especially evident on the day itself travelling through Philly with huge areas so derelict they were one step from falling down. I can only imagine the hopelessness those living there must feel. But surely a country as full of resources as America should be able to take care of these things and so you look around to see where some solutions could be found and it's hard to look past the size of that defense budget. The country doesn't have a health system, as Grader found out last week, and even cheap health insurance is $200 a month! Land of the free indeed.

By the end of the night Chet will own your heart

Well the clock has wound down on my time in New York with a very mellow final twist given by The Eels. Always one of those bands that flies somewhat under the radar but one that is consistently genius for which no exception was made tonight.

For this tour the band consisted of frontman E, obviously. Four lovely ladies on strings and a mohawk adorned double bass player. And then there was the freakishly talented Chet showing off at various times on the slide guitar, keys, organ, percussion, drums (simply a tom housed in a garbage can and an old leather suitcase for the bass drum) and a soaring saw echoing around in the wonderful accoustics of the Town Hall providing a beautiful melancholy for E's somewhat dark lyrics.

It's been great to be back in the city and to have a chance to fill out the picture a bit by experiencing it in summer. Big thanks to Amanda and Jimmy for their hospitality and good luck in your new places, I hope the move goes smoothly.

Now just got to hope the crazy Chinese will let me on the bus in the morning. When I went down there yesterday to check the timetables and buy a ticket the lady selling them wanted to put me on the next bus to DC. This was despite the fact I didn't even have a day pack or anything, I don't know too many people who travel a light as shorts and a t-shirt but maybe it's more common in Chinatown.