US here we come

This afternoon we took the train into West Fourth Street, Downtown. New York University has several buildings there. We walked through Washington Square – there were jazz bands playing at different ends of the park – really good musicians – bass, sax, a violinist. People laying around, relaxing in the beautiful sunshine. The weather was just perfect, if anything a little too warm.

We’ve walked a lot and made our way through the bustling sidewalks and crossings of Little Italy and Chinatown. It was good being Downtown – again, it made us realize that this one place, Manhattan, needs several weeks of daily activity in order to be appreciated. At best, we might scratch the surface. And Manhattan is only one part of New York City.

 Speaking of Little Italy reminds me: there’s a statue of Garibaldi in Washington Square.

 The area around New York University is very English in architecture and design – small cobbled streets.

We also wandered through SoHo. This is the upmarket spot – the place where ‘Sex and the City’ was set. Very attractive women and everyone well groomed, though even here there is the occasional homeless person. On this occasion, we were approached by a very down-and-out dishevelled man, who had a club foot and walked badly, who requested money for a drink. He said he was a Vietnam veteran and showed us his identity tag, which featured his photo and an American flag in the background. He approached us at a pedestrian crossing (the Americans seem to call these ‘cross walks’) and we didn’t give him any money. It all happened too quickly and the lights changed, so we crossed. We then talked briefly with Hannah and Joey about whether or not we should have given him something.

We made it eventually to the southern tip of Manhattan, and we visited the site of ‘Ground Zero’ where the Twin Towers were destroyed by terrorists on September 11, 2001. There’s a huge hole in the ground, needless to say, but the site has been cleaned up considerably and I’m sure that an even bigger and better building or buildings will replace the old towers. The area is surrounded by huge sky-scrapers of breath-taking beauty. This is a city that won’t be defeated.

I was emotional on seeing the memorial to the New York fire fighters who perished on September 11th. The fire station is there, near the site, and one of the fire-engines had the words “We support our troops” inscribed on its front. There were tourists going into the station – it’s an active functioning station, by the way – to be photographed with individual firemen. They still have a heroic status.

I was tempted to go in myself, to be photographed with some of them, but Joan and Joey and Hannah had kept walking and it’s very important to stick together in this chaotic, bustling, place. My friends, Ken and Pat, with whom I played music for a number of years, will remember how, after September 11, we met for our regular weekly jam session and signed a card, which I sent to the New York Fire Department. Anyway, as with every other day here, I took heaps of photographs – it’s such a pity we don’t know how to load them onto this blog.

We finally walked to Rockefeller Park, by the water, and I caught my first glimpse of Lady Liberty, way off in the far distance, hazy in the mist. We’ll take the ferry next week and see her close up. The park is beautiful, with people of all races and backgrounds lolling around, relaxing and having fun. There’s a section called “The real world”, which contains sculptings by an artist who designed the little area for children. ‘The real world’ is actually the childrens’ fantasy world, with sculptings of monkeys and frogs and so on. (Leslie, I photographed the frog sculpture for you).

We were very hot, tired and thirsty by this stage and we came across a very high class restaurant by the water, near the ferries. We were surprised at how reasonable the prices were, even there, and Joey and Hannah ordered banana splits. They were the biggest, classiest, banana splits I’ve ever seen – and only $6.90 each. In Australia, they’d be much more. We’re finding that prices here, especially food, are cheaper.

Our waiter was a black American called Gus and he was a real charmer and entertainer. Joan asked for his autograph as we were leaving. We’ve found that the waiters and other tourist-related workers are really professional but more than that, they seem to genuinely care for you and go the extra mile. Everyone is interested in Australia – we have considerable novelty value, it seems.

I have developed a new taste over here – every day I drink at least one bottle of iced tea. It’s very popular in Manhattan and on all the shelves. It’s very refreshing and has replaced Coke as my drink of choice.

So far so good. We’re having a terrific time.

The only down-side is that my back is getting sore and that’s usually a sign that it will soon ‘go’ on me. Anyhow, so far so good, as I said.

Yesterday we took the Long Island Rail Road to Huntington to visit the Walt Whitman Historic Site and Interpretive Centre. I’m probably using the word ‘amazing’ too much but it really was an experience to enter the house that Whitman’s father had built in the early 1800s. It’s in very good condition.

Tomorrow (Wednesday), we go upstate to the rural hamlet of Roscoe, about three hours by bus. We’ll be there for two nights, staying at a local inn, and then we head a little further west to the city of Binghamton. I suspect that Binghamton will be more typical of America than Manhattan. I’m thinking of hiring a car at Roscoe, so we can drive into the Catskill Mountains, and also so we can drive ourselves into Binghamton.

We’ve used the rail system a lot. It’s very efficient and inexpensive.

During the day I frequently take note of things to mention in the blog but, alas, by night-fall, I forget them. There’s just too much. It’s all so concentrated, physically, socially, culturally, and a very intense experience.

We could spend three months just in Midtown Manhattan, not just three weeks on the whole island.

We were going into Times Square tonight, to see the lights, and also to pop into the Comedy Club on E53rd Street. Might still do it, as we purchased discount tickets from a street hawker a couple of days ago.

Till next time,

Barry

Hi,

Just a quick note to add some comments to my last post called New York New York. We’ve been looking around town some more and have found (from my point of view) that as with Hollywood there is a sharp divide between uptown and downtown. And when I say Downtown I mean loads of everyday working people who look like they probably don’t have much money in the bank or assets to speak of. There are similarities between here and south america in that on most corners there are a series of stalls that are selling hats, tourist things, and various cheap items (that I’ve not seen many people buying) that are serviced by generally black americans or latinos. The classes are mixed up on the street along with the thousands of tourists who are focused on the landmarks, but the buildings they pull in to clearly mark the social divides. Like I said when we went to Queens the differences were marked and now that we’ve looked around here a little more these differences are becoming apparent. The island of manhattan is really long and we haven’t been from the north to the south, as yet, but there is obviously a lot more to it than fabulous to capture something of the experience. I think, for the moment, I’d better leave it at that and we’ll get out there and see what we can find. Unfortunately, in the night when we get back generally Barry and I are exhausted and can hardly get ourselves to the computer let alone write out our thoughts. Rembering that now we are sleeping in the same room it is more difficult for us to get up through the night and get to it – if you know what I mean.

take care and love from us, JBHJ

Hi,

We’ve been here now for only two days, but so far, the word I would use is fabulous (like everyone else I’ve ever talked to about N.Y.). Its great having the blog because, at least, its an excuse to reflect on the day and spit out a few words. We are staying at the Travel Inn Hotel in west 42nd street. We are really happy with the hotel. We are on the 6th floor with a beautiful view of the skyline and if you look down there is a trainline that goes under the street (and the hotel) making it real. We are sharing the same, one room, and so far so good. We’ve got two double beds and one roll away (for an extra $15 a night) and we are happy. We’ve sorted out our bags and spread ourselves out over the room. When we get home we watch the tele, and/or Hannah’s been practising her rubic cube (she’s got it down to something like 2 minutes from scrambled to totally sorted) and she’s still working on it to see what else she can find, or do with it. Barry or I on the computer looking things up or writing the blog, and Joey something in between the computer, the fridge, his music, or just chilling on the bed. There is a diner just downstairs that Barry mentioned earlier and loads of restaurants and food outlets all over town. We are staying in the area where West Side Story was set.

The hotel is about 5 blocks east and 1 block north from Times Square, and to visit the square is a real treat. The three or four times we’ve been there, there were hundreds of people with us. It is much better than i have imagined from TV scenes or accounts. Barry was blown away – in every direction there are huge screens, artworks, and flashing lights. I must say I wonderd while we were there how many kilowat hours were being used every second – but there you go – it was a blast. I’ll take up the video camera and get it on film to be reminded again and again.

All over New York there are groups of tourists stopped on corners and being spoken to by a guide. While in Times Square (last night with kathy) there was a huge group, with some of them screaming, or something like, and we thought there might have been a celebrity nereby so we crossed over to get a glimpse – but no – they were taking photos of each other and just having fun – basking in the experience.

We found a huge record shop the other day at Times Square, split up and spent some time looking around, but as Joey pointed out, we’ve seen very few other record shops, so far. We’ve also seen very few book shops, but then we haven’t been down to Soho or Greenwich Village as yet. Each day we are walking miles and miles. Today we went out to Queens and the local cemetary to go to the dedication to LaVern Bakera Jazz singer from the 1940s, 50s. That was a terrific experience. The people were thrilled that we had made the effort to come out and as it turned out the ceremony that was to take place at 1 o’clock was changed and they were getting ready for a cabaret that was to begin at 2pm. We talked with a few people including Eddie Brigato from the Rascals, his girlfriend/wife/lover (one woman), the organiser, and a black guy who was wearing a white collar (church). It was great to talk with them and we told them that we have enjoyed both Jazz and Blues for many years and were delighted to be there. A guy pulled us over on the way out and got us onto film and asked us to say something about why we were there. They offered us to stay, have some food, and listen to the music, but everyone were paying $20 a head and other than paying the $100 for all of us (including my niece) to stay (as well as putting up with the kids grumbling – we would have had to wait another hour and a half until the show started) so we cut our loses and thanked them, saying that we had things to do. By the way the church guy talked with us and after discovering that we were from Australia, he said to Barry, and you are travelling with your daughter – for a second, or two, I wondered what to say, and then realized that he was obviously making a joke – good one!!!

Queens was really different to how I imagined it. To think it is so close to New York and so very different – where the people live. We hung around for a while, had some lunch in a fast food place, and then walked the streets for a while looking for the house that the Marx Brothers used to live in. We walked down one of the residential streets and lots of people were looking at us wondering why we were there. We found a house that Barry thought might have been it, but realized, after looking on the web when we got home, that we had found the right street but not the right house. Anyhow, it was worth it. The ride on the train, and coming up into something closer to reality for the vast majority of Americans. In NY there are street cleaners all over the place, sweeping up cigarette stubs and any little bit of litter, but when we came up from the subway in Queens the streets were lined.

After this we went to Central Park with Kathy, a real treat, and I got about 10 DVD minutes of a demo of breakdancing that Joey thought was truely awsome. I gave the crew a reasonably good contribution and they gave me their own DVD, so something to follow-up with later. There were again hundreds of people, and you could overhear all kinds of languages from around the world. (Though by-the-way I’ve been surprised by the number of times I’ve overheard people speaking Spanish. Not tourists, but locals.)

Anyhow, enough from me. We are going to Ellis Island tomorrow which should be good. It will be interesting to see what Barry says about the same day.

For now, hope life is treating you well, and best from us, with our feet definitely up.

Joannie

PS: I should mention something about the show, Gypsy Rose Lee that we saw last night. Kathy and i set off about an hour and a half before the show was due to start (two blocks over and about 5 blocks up) we walked up, took some more snaps in Times Square, and looked for somewhere to eat. Even though there were dozens of places we didn’t have a lot of time left so we went to a fast pizza place, which was lovely. Our tickets were in the balcony and near the back, so a long way from the stage, though we could see okay. The show was really about Gypsy Rose Lee’s mother – who was driven to make one of her daughers into a star. The first one ran off and got married along the way and the second one (who had played the bottom part of the cow in their vaudaville style song, dance and comedy act) was the one who became Gypsy Rose Lee. After many years of trying the family realized that vaudaville was over and they ended up at one of those cheap Burleszue theatres. The mother resisted and insisted that her daughter not give too much, show some leg, but then take it back, keep her womanliness, her pride, or what-have-you, and she let her daughter do it, saying it will only be for a while. But it came to pass that the daughter loved what she did, you could say she found herself and at some point had it out with her overbearing mother, saying at last she was happy and doing what she wanted.

But, as I said the play was really about the mother, who then sang some wonderful renditions that captured her frustration in the fact that she was forced to live through her daughters and received a couple of standing ovations.

Unfortunately, the night we arrived (Friday) I hardly slept a wink – I just couldn’t sleep – I was feeling okay but they i mistakenly downed a glass of red and when the lights went down, would you believe it for a lot of the show I was fighting my eyelids that didn’t obviously share my joy… cest la vie

Just had an amazing start to our first day in Manhattan. Joey and Hannah were fast asleep and so Joan and I decided to go down to the cafe next to the Travel Inn Hotel. Joan had arranged to meet her neice, Cathy, who has popped over from London. Anyway, it’s quite chilly here so we waited in the foyer of the hotel. It was crowded with a group of secondary school students and their teachers, who were on an educational tour of New York from Georgia. We stood back and listened as a couple of students stood up and read out some reports they’d be writing. Then, one of the teachers got up and, in a broad Southern accent, read an excerpt from Walt Whitman’s ‘Leaves of Grass’. It’s the bit about life being a song, a tribute to the everyday people, the workers, the boatmen, the carpenters, etc. It was just great to hear Whitman read so well, in such an authentic American accent, albeit a Southern one. (Whitman was very much the Northerner).

I approached the teacher and told him how much I liked it, pointing out that I was not an American. He thanked me and then we started talking about Australia. He told me, with a perfectly straight face, that he was originally from Australia. I asked him where he was from, which part, and he said from “out the back”. I figured this was a strange way to say “outback” and then he started laughing.He was just stooging me! He was really born and bred Georgia. I thought his humour was very similar to what we in Australia would think of as Australian humour. Interesting, too, that he assumed I’d get the joke. I told him that, thus far, Americans seem to me to be like Australians’ cultural cousins.

We had breakfast with Joan’s neice – but I’m sure Joan will write at length about that, a very special experience for her and Cathy.

We’re just taking Joey and Hannah for breakfast now, in the cafe next door. A very typical NY cafe, by the way, quite 1950s in style. (When I say “typical”, I am basing it on what I have seen over the decades on television shows).

“I sing the body electric”,

Barry (with thanks to Walt)

We are now in New York City – Manhattan – in a very small hotel room on W42nd Street. Too late at night to make any comments on NYC but I’d like to make some reflections on Hollywood and LA.

Hollywood is an industrial town – movies and tourism – and its working-class is largely out of sight internationally. The big stars – like Richard Gere whose mansion we saw as part of a movie stars’ homes tour – are not the ‘real people’, as a cab driver enthusiastically advised us. It seemed to me that outside a few blocks of central Hollywood, the glitter vanishes very quickly. It’s more akin to Parramatta Road (in Sydney), quite polluted and gritty. We took public transport the other day and the faces in the street, and on the bus, were definitely those of lower-income working-class battlers.

None of this is to deny the sense of excitement and enjoyment of that portion of Hollywood that is based on the film industry and tourism. It was great being there, especially seeing Grauman’s Chinese Theater and walking along the Hollywood Boulevarde with all the engraved stars with movie legend’s names on the pavement. I had photos taken with the stars of Theolonious Monk and also another cultural hero of mine, Charles Bronson.

Our tour of Universal Studios was another highlight. It was fun and educational; though, yes, the commercial aspects, such as sale of food, were tacky and disappointing. But it was thrilling to be part of so many familiar stage sets, and to see behind-the-scenes and to experience how the effects are done. Just amazing to be attacked by King Kong, feel the heat of explosions going on around you, to see the ‘Bates Motel’ of “Psycho” fame and the sets of “Jaws” and Wisteria Lane (“Desperate Housewives”). The educational dimension made it all worthwhile in itself. But to repeat: Hollywood is an industrial town, a big factory, basically a dream factory, as I think Speilberg has said.

Hollywood is ethnically diverse and we saw no signs of racism. In fact, it made me feel good to see Hispanic and black Americans working together, joking, laughing, and getting on naturally and normally with everyone else. I caught a brief glimpse of the problem of black separatism; the sub-culture that shuns everyone else and isolates itself from wider opportunities. But it seemed very marginal.

Yesterday was May Day and there was a march in central LA – it was much smaller than the one last year that was ruthlessly smashed by the police but this year’s still had about 20,000 in attendance. The beauty of it was its focus on the immigration issue. Mostly Hispanic people, families, demanding the right to be permanent residents in the US. It’s a stupid situation that millions are locked into ‘illegal’ status. They sure are patriotic – there was a sea of Stars and Stripes flags on the demo. Not a red flag in sight, unfortunately, and the local LA Chief of Police warned that agitators who tried to take over the procession would be dealt with so that the “international day of the workers” could proceed peacefully.

My impression is that the black Americans tend to dominate among cleaners while the Hispanics dominate the gardening and maintenance occupations. Of course, they are everywhere else, too. Richard Gere’s huge mansion – not sure how he justifies it in terms of Buddhism – had about half a dozen Hispanic gardeners working on the vast grounds. I guess having a place like that makes him internally peaceful and happy.

Prices in LA are akin to those in Australia, perhaps a little cheaper, and it all balances out with our lower dollar exchange value. The fruit is much cheaper and excellent quality.

We’re tourists here, and our contact with locals has been limited. However, everyone was very friendly in Hollywood and curious about Australia. LA is like Sydney or Melbourne and it disappointed us a little that it was so similiar to ‘back home’. We strolled down some Hollywood back-streets and felt like we were in Balmain.

I would have liked more than our five days in LA. I like the vibe there. Apparently NYC is very different, and I’m keen to see if this is the case, and how and why.

Till next post,

Barry

Some of you may remember the hassles I had in obtaining a visa. Normally Australians are covered by the Visa Waiver Program but due to my police record, dating back to participation on demonstrations more than 30 years ago, I had to obtain a visa. It was very time-consuming and costly (around $900, I reckon). Anyway, I’m writing this for the benefit of others. It was always an option for me to deny that I had the record and to take my chances that they wouldn’t know. I didn’t opt for this because I’m basically an honest person. However, I also now know that I did not necessarily need to obtain the visa or, perhaps I should say, that I could have legally entered the US without it.

Here’s how it works. When you’re on the plane, they give all passengers a green card to complete and sign, issued by the US Homeland Security Department. The card has questions similar to those on the visa application form but the wording is different and much more flexible. Whereas the visa application form says you need a visa if you’ve ever been convicted of an offence, no matter when, the Homeland Security card asks:

“Have you ever been arrested or convicted for an offence or crime involving moral turpitude or a violation related to a controlled substance; or been arrested or convicted for two or more offenses for which the aggregate sentence to confinement was five years or more?”

I could have honestly answered this with “NO”.

C’est la vie,

Barry

Hi,

I got up at 4.30 this morning and thought I’d make an entry. I typed it out and when i went to publish it, unfortunately, all was lost, bugger. So I’ll do a shortened version and get on with the day. I called the entry america america because I wanted to talk about some reflections on everyday life here, much as it is for a tourist in Hollywood. We brought some transistor radios with us so we’ve been listening in. We’ve come across loads of talk back and opinion makers, or breakers, on the airwaves. They’ve been going on and on about Rev. Wright and Obama and it looks like the road to the whitehouse has been stuffed for him.

Of the 80 to 100 television stations (including National Geographic and the History station) there is loads of the usual crime shows, cartoon and kids stations, and we found the American Broadcasting Commission station last night that was airing a talk show hosted by Bill Maher (a liberal (I think) babyboomer) and he had as his guests, Phil Donaghue, Gary Shandling (Larry Sanders Show, comic) and a woman called Adriena Huffington. it was a mix of politcs and comedy and Adriena seemed to hit the spot with the audience and was applauded from time to time. Donaghue was talking about a documentary that he had put together on the war in Iraq called Body of War – and Huffington about a new book, Right is Wrong. Barry found a community station where an old hippy was talking about his views on the world, the cosmos and everything in between and he was set up with a phone number and waiting for the plebs to ring in and have a talk with him. This was funny and entertaining for a while, the first caller was drunk, or something and was making less sense the guy himself, and the second caller talked about his nice hair and asked what shampoo he was using – i think we turned off after that.

The universal studios – should you go – well I wouldn’t jump at it. There were hundreds, maybe thousands of tourists from all over the world, as you might imagine. We all lined up to get in the front gates, only to find that the studios is surrounded by an amusement park, and we all rushed to the second gates for the studios and linked up again to then be filed into trolly buses that were linked together that eventually set off for a 45 minute tour of the studios. The rest of the day was to be spent in the amusement park that included rides called The Mummy, Jarassic Park, the House of Horrors and a couple more, and there were a few behind the scenes presentations showing techniques that are used, for example with the movie Backburn, and how they use a mix of computer generated images, stunts, and dramatic effect that get the final result. The main impression i left with was the highly manufactured nature of the medium.

The 45 minute tour drove past studios 23, 32 and more (where I guess work was taking place inside though not much sense of it from the bus) and then they drove us past loads of acerages that included street scenes, and backdrops for the movies, Jaws, Bruce Almighty, Evan Almighty, and the TV show Desperate Housewives and Wisteria lane. How they got from what we saw (the raw material) and the final product is amazing but I’m not sure the description of dream weaver captures it.

Joey was keen to leave. We went on some of the rides and visited some of the presentations but left early. The food on the grounds looked pretty awful and typical of these places. then we left and headed back to walk quite a few blocks of the Hollywood Boulevard, which was intersting, loads of tatoo shops, cheap tourist outlets (3 T-shirts for $10), and loads of local doods.

In the last post I mentioned about the land of free enterprise (that kept playing in my head along the lines of Howard’s incentervation) the result as we’ve experienced it over these days has been quite a few very nice, and enthusiastic, service people both in the hotel and in the buses, the workers go that extra mile, but then their pay relies on tips, and I just keep wondering what their base wage might be. It is May Day today and the big news is the predicted demonstrations that they are expecting in Los Angeles city – mostly focusing on issues related to immigration.

well there you go, better sign off for now, at least i’ve managed to savage something of my entry.

Hope you are well!! take care and love from us, JBHJ

Hi,

We’ve got a few snaps to attach now, which I know you’ll like. We did two tours today. One was of the Chinese Theatre, built by Sid Gauman in the 1920s (a google search brings up some history and photos). It has been kept in beautiful condition and there are currently something like 80 premiers of movies there a year. (In fact there is a permier tomorrow night which we are hoping to go to, though we are also doing the Universal Studio tour tomorrow and we may get back a little late for a good position. We’ll see. It is the premier of the movie Iron Man and there will be stars, directors, etc and invited guests that we can spy on – on their way in.)

The theatre is inspired by Chinese artwork, lush red decorated carpets, chinese scenes and motifs on the walls, a carved statue of Confucius (my mistake – Lao Tzu), a beautiful lantern that carries incense (not today), red velvet seats and a beautiful red curtain that pulls back from the screen. It feels like something a kin to visiting Mecca for movie goers and film buffs to be walking along the pavers out the front of the wonderful theatre. Some of the stars Bette Davis, John Wayne, Joan Crawford, Eddie Cantor, Lana Turner … with more recent, I’m sorry their names escape me, and would you believe Mel Gibson is in there as well, hands and feet with the big stars. There are dozens of other actors that are represented on the footwalk with a star and their name inside but no hands and feet in cement – so Mel’s done good.

The second tour was of the Hollywood houses. The tour guide named Danny, himself a photographer of reknown who was born in Hollywood and often works for private parties of many of the celebrities. As you would imagine we saw loads of big gates and fences but it was really interesting to drive through West Hollywood (were there were loads of restaurants that the stars frequent) and to drive through the streets like Orange Grove. It goes to show with big time money, the streets were really beautiful, with big trees, beautiful gardens, lots of flowers, almost quaint. I guess i must have expected the area to be more brash, gaudy or something, but no, beautiful. Loads of huge houses, but certainly Madonna’s house was amongst the biggest, though there may have been one bigger and that was the home of the executive/director Aaron Spelling who produced loads of successful TV shows. We drove through the shopping area that you always see on the TV where the stars shop and there were paparattzi waiting outside for someone or other to come out. It looked exclusive and there weren’t many people walking along, though I saw one woman with some shorts and sneakers who looked like she was out shopping. Joey found out that Eminem and Snoop Dog lives nearby but we didn’t go to their streets. Joey is pretty sure that he saw Steve (I think it was) from Jackass and the driver told us that some of them live around here and that is was very likely that it was him (so Joey is stoked).

The driver as I said was an interesting character in himself and he told us one story about an Australian Rugby Team and Ossi Osbourne (a short version). The driver of the tour was an old school guide who prided himself in customer service, he went out of his way. One day he had the Australian team and the coach on a tour and they saw Ossi outside the place where they have meetings for alcoholics anonymous and as it happened Ossi’s driver couldn’t pick him up because he’d been in an accident. Well, the driver said he would drive Ossi home as we was going by there on the tour, so Ossi hopped in. Anyhow, when they got to his house Ossi gave the driver $300 for his trouble and then offered $800 or so to pay for the lunch of the players. Then Sharon came out and said, well, why don’t you come in here for lunch and the driver keep the money – but the driver said, oh no, we should keep on with the tour and did so. Well, the team were so pissed off that they gave the driver such a hard time – bad things turned to worse and somehow the driver was said to have pulled a gun on the one or two of the members. The end of the story was that the driver lost his job – so a funny story but certainly a sting in the tail and doesn’t speak all that well of the Auzzie boys?!

well, there you go, the kids are now having a nap and we’re talking about getting ourselves up to West Hollywood to do some star watch.

Have a look at the snaps – and thanks for reading.

take care and best from us, JBHG

PS: have had problems with downloading pics – will keep trying

We finally made it – a safe 13 hour trip from Sydney to LA. The shuttle bus, which we’d booked on-line, was at the LAX curbside, under an orange sign saying “shared vans”, as promised by the company.

When the plane was a couple of hours off the California coast, the sun started to rise. We were above the clouds and they looked stunning, especially when the sun’s rays created a hue over them with all the colours of the rainbow. I quickly plugged in my MP3 player to Miles Davis’ album, “Kinda Blue”. It’s the most perfect piece of music I’ve ever heard and, with a vikew like the one I was observing, I just had to have it as my leit motif. It was a magic moment.

Hollywood is hot – over 40 degrees today. The evening has been very warm – I’m writing this post at midnight on Monday – and so we all went for a walk down to the Boulevarde, Hollywood Boulevarde, that is. It’s just amazing. People everywhere, mostly tourists, but lots of locals cashing in on the attraction of Hollywood: impersonators of Marilyn Monroe, Charlie Chaplin, even a dwarf in a horror mask. Quite surreal. Also lots of street musicians: a Latino band, a black guy beating out rhythms on a range of buckets turned upside down, white folk musician with acoustic guitar.
Grauman’s Chinese Theatre is a remarkable piece of architecture and much bigger than it seems in the tourist brochure images. Joan and Joey and Hannah and I checked out the hand-prints in the cement pavers in front of the theatre. We found the Marx brothers! On the sidewalk outside, we checked out the stars dedicated to leading lights and I was thrilled to find the star in memory of Charles Bronson. It was all so exciting and I reckon one would have to be a total stick in the mud not to be moved by it.

We returned to the hotel and Joey and I couldn’t resist a late night swim under the stars in the hotel’s outdoor swimming pool. The water was warm and the night still. The Magic Castle Hotel, so far, has been better than we expected. It has a Spanish architectural feel, plus a couple of large palm trees in the courtyard.

The Spanish influence is very apparent and, like Australia, Hollywood is multicultural, but with Hispanic and black Americans being prominent minorities.

Some other differences: doors on white-goods over here open backwards compared to Australia’s. Light switches switch up to go on – ours have to be switched downwards. They still use one cent coins over here. Also, the power-points don’t have on-off switches – they’re on all the time.

More later,
Barry

Hi,

 We had a few friends around this morning for something of a send off – which was great fun – thanks!! We (Barry and I) are feeling a little trepidatious before we go – the countdown and all but we’ll survive. I need to warn anyone thinking about such a trip – both of us have worked like dogs over the last months to get ready for this – we’re almost over it – but i’m hoping that all our work will pay off. Barry’s done heaps of organising, writing lists, booking things, making contacts, looking things up and trying to educate the rest of us (who have been somewhat unwilling) for our own various reasons. I’ve been very much pre-occupied with my job (being in my last year) and have been trying to get as much work done as possible before we leave. Yesterday (would you believe) I sent in an article to hopefully be published some time down the track. Talk about cutting it close – but as the saying goes – that’s life – not always as you would like it. Its just the final little things tonight and off to bed, hopefully to sleep.

 Thanks for watching and we’ll see you in cyberspace. take care and love from us, J.B.J.H. isn’t the internet incredible