art school starts again next week

at least angie keeps her tools at school

i wonder if art school = music career for her too.....

More Wilco

Wilco fun!

Everyone knows Wilco are for lovers!

Wilco!!

Despite suffering a bad case of the "post-New York blues", crossed with a mild dose of "bad-to-workitis", the fast-fading Vancouver summer has been offering up some rare treats of late. One of my all time favourite bands played town this past Monday night in the delightful Malken bowl out in Stanley park. We ran into some friends there and the band was white-hot awesome, whatever the hipsters say about these ageing dad-rockers! Give me electric piano, sweet harmonies and a shredding avant-jazz guitarist and I'd say we have it about right.

Japanese Gardens in Brooklyn

With the stifling heat and humidity it was no surprise when the weather finally broke on the Wednesday delivering torrential rain and a mini-tornado to Brooklyn. The rains flooded most subway stations and lines leaving Andrea and I more or less stranded on the Brooklyn side - still if this tempest had not been visited upon the fair citizens of Brooklyn then we would have missed this hidden jewel! The Brooklyn Botanical Gardens are a modern wonder tucked away behind the Brooklyn museum. In the mid 1970s a Japanese themed garden was planted with Japanese elm and a stone garden and this amazing rock pool.

The Brooklyn Bridge

As much as these kinds of photos should probably be avoided, who can resist revisiting such an awesome moment. A kindly elderly gentleman offered to take this picture for us, temporarily leaving his post selling iced water on this cruelly hot day to furnish us with this ever-lasting testament to my love of cheesy tourist photos (much to poor Anj's chargrin/ongoing frustration etc). Still the walk across the Brooklyn Bridge from Brooklyn Heights into lower Manhattan was a real highlight. The view across the East River into Manhattan was breath-taking the whole way.

What is Painting?

No I don't really know either...

Lookout Upon the Myriad Harbour...

One of the best things to do in NYC is to take the free (!!) ferry to Staten Island - whilst there is little on the island to do the ferry travels past the Statue of Liberty and out into the harbour providing amazing views of lower Manhattan (see above), Brooklyn and New Jersey. The weather was absolutely perfect too as you can see.

Plus the Usual Famous Sights...

Andrea and Lexi in Central Park

More New York City Pix

Much deserved shout outs for Lexi and Adam in recognition of their charming hospitality and much appreciated good humour all through-out our visit to NYC. Andrea and I had a great time hanging out with y'all in Brooklyn, checking out the locals at the McCarran pool and generally just having a bang-up time! After searching high and low for "local facilities" we found ourselves on this occasion drinking beer in a local bar - funny how quick we all are to agree on drinking as an appropriate course of action...

Times Square

Like most things in NYC, everything just seemed that little bit too bright, too big and too glitzy in Times Sqaure but still it was quite the crazed spectacle. Perhaps not worth repeating considering all the crowds but I'm glad we saw it on our travels!

Anj in Manhattan

Half the fun in Manhattan was just letting our feet lead us in novel directions as we wandered about from place to place. Something interesting was normally waiting around most corners and so we spent most days just walking between galleries and lunch stops etc.

Anj at the Met

Rooftop Reflections

This is a great shot with the Central Park West skyline and the Met sculptures reflected in the glass next to the cafe. This was our first full day in Manhattan and it was a quite way to celebrate my birthday!

Birthday Fun New York City!!

Nothing quite like celebrating one's birthday in New York City - definitely one to remember - throw in a beer in brilliant sunshine in the rooftop sculpture garden at the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art and one has quite a tasty combination. I'm much too exhausted to add much by way of written commentary on the week's event and would rather let these fantastic pix tell the story of the week. Besides everyone loves the pictures and you've all heard more than enough prolix rambling from me in these here 34 years. Suffice to say however, on the birthday front, that I'm back in the evens as they say so I know it's going to be a good year. For some reason ever since I had a premonition at 23 that my 24th year was going to be a cracker (which it was - PhD scholarship, little bit of lovin' etc) I've had a real preference for my even numbered birthdays. So you can understand that to celebrate 34 in NYC has only confirmed this odd little superstition of mine!!

This is the very definition of irony...

OK so I'm bumming around at work trying to find new ways to avoid finishing a research paper I need to get done by the end of the week before we leave for New York and I come across this on a blog I like...so there you have it! Reasons why the internet is great and research papers are not!! Dinosaurs, bikini girls with rockets, jet fighters AND chocolate cake...updating my endnote file just isn't anywhere near as appealing.