Inspired by Charley, here is a list of consumption and thoughts regarding my trip to the US. I visited Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York – 7 flights in all. It was a trip of museums, tattoos, wonder, good friends, new friends, chowing down, coffee, writing, listening, dancing, breathing… and pinching myself constantly.
BOOKS
- Miles from Nowhere – Nami Mun
- After Dark - Haruki Murakami
- Norwegian Wood – Haruki Murakami (the van was spotted in Soho, just after I finished reading!)
- On Writing – Stephen King
- One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel García Márquez
- I Love You More Than You Know – Jonathan Ames
- Shantaram - Gregory David Roberts
FOOD OF NOTE
- Reeses peanut butter cups, holy shit, you’re amazing. Addiction imminent. Peanut butter anything for the win – like Emma’s amazing PB shake at the Shake Shack!
- Diet Vitamin Water. Now I have a full blown obsession with this drink, I want the diet version at home, pronto.
- Pizza. In all its glorious and cheesey forms. Root beer (pray tell, what is the root?) was discovered to be a good friend of pizza.
- Pie crust flavoured soft serve ice cream with toasted marshmallows from Momofuku. It’s as weird as it sounds. Liquid… pie. Does not compute.
MOVIES
- The Hangover
- Wall Street
- Where The Wild Things Are
- Yes Men Fix The World
- Untitled
- Julie And Julia
- Up
- Once Bitten
- … and two others, the names and entire plots of which, I have lost in my brain to jetlag.
STORES
- Urban Outfitters, I love you.
- Uniqlo, I love you more.
- Jumelle, Bedford Avenue. Eclectic, beautiful clothinbg store with loads of thoughtful designers. Go buy yourself a beautiful scarf for winter.
- I loved everything about the New Museum (Contemporary art! Rooftop zen room! Cute French speaking staff!) but the shop was especially good – think art books and limited edition works. Also deserving of a honourable mention is the MoMA store – so many great gifts! I bought a mug.
- Strand Books. Aside from a moment when one wayward staff member called me baby, I had a fabulous hour browsing Strand’s excellent selection of art/design/fashion books.
- Beacon’s Closet in Williamsburg. I found a deliciously comfortable French faux leather jacket there. It has amazing power shoulders.
HALLOWEEN COSTUMES
- The unicorns of Brooklyn – prance little ones, prance!
- Girls dressed as bright pinatas. I think there was a stick sort of character involved too.
- Wayne and Garth from Wayne’s World (BEST MOVIE EVER).
- A man carrying an outhouse, which opened up to show a man sitting on a dunny reading. This was an elaborate one person costume and I am 99% convinced the dude was Australian.
- Edward Scissorhands. There were many Scissorhands but this one was special. He literally became Edward, and stayed in character the entire time – no talking, lots of fumbling.
- Numerous howling, stomping, Wild Things. Bravo!
Oh, be still my wistful heart. I loved everything about it. It’s a pretty safe assumption I’m going to go back as soon as possible…
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Lovely! It’s so lovely to see America through the eyes of a kiwi ;)
A superb recap, welcome home.
How did you read all those books AND Shantaram during your travels? The S is a big beast! Congrats
Adventures of a Sequin Cat
Nice blog! : )
http://thetrendyfashionista.blogspot.com
I just finished reading Norwegian Wood 5 minutes ago! I really loved it, I think it’s one of the best I’ve ever read! And I loved Shantaram too! I think we have a similar taste! How did you find After Dark and One Hundred Years of Solitude?
Whoa, this looks pretty good! Those pumpkins are great! (:
Oh, Edward. Poor thing!
New York misses you and will welcome you back always.
*Ooh I remembered another film – 500 Days Of Summer.
Sequin Cat: I devour books like other people eat cereal. Shantaram is MASSIVE, I agree, but a 14 hour flight, 4 hour stop over and another 3 hour flight saw to it.
Mausumi: While nice, After Dark didn’t appeal as much to me as the rest of HM’s work. It had a semi-experimental structure – it’s set over the course of one evening. I like Murakami when he lingers slowly over things, dawdles and kicks leaves. One Hundred Years was very compelling. Some strikingly beautiful lines in there, I wish I didn’t swap it out in a laundry for the Jonathan Ames book! Recommend me something?
Johanna: I’m rather quite gutted I can’t go out for tea & dancing with you every couple of weeks. Le sniff x
Oh I totally understand, I’m a fellow book smasher! Maybe not so much as you, but 5 or 6 books a month is totally normal. If you haven’t read any other Murakami as of yet can I recommend a Wind-up bird Chronicle? I think we may have similar reading tastes!
xx
Adventures of a Sequin Cat
I adore The Wind Up Bird Chronicle <3 Next up I think I will read Pinball, 1973 - it's the first of his books to be translated into English. Um, and I found this this Times article an interesting read. I found it through the Random House author site… which has loads of other good links and interviews. Woohoo, I’m a total fangirl.
I think I need an entirely new author avenue to explore next… I’ve found I really enjoy reading entire bodies of work, so any suggestions you guys have will be gleefully pounced upon. I really like: Joyce Carol Oates, William Gibson, Aldous Huxely, Nabokov. Crisp voices.
If any of you want book lists from me, put your hand up! x
I want book lists!
Oh, and I read through your post so fast the other day that I missed commenting on the stores you listed! I LOVED Beacon’s closet, I found so much there! And Urban Outfitters had so much cool stuff too! Did you go to Spoonbill & Sugartown, the bookstore on Bedford Avenue? I abselutely love bookstores like that, but we don’t have anything like it here.. Maybe I should start one? ;)
Haruki Murakami! I’m reading one of his books at the moment– After the Quake. I’m really enjoying it. I bought Norwegian Wood a few months ago, and plan on reading it next!