Gimme the beat boys and free my soul

Originally uploaded by kuchen.

A lot of trucks park outside our window every morning with their engines running. The Fed-Ex guy also likes to stop for a smoke break which can last an hour. Many of these drivers like the classic rock'n'roll. The other morning I woke up to Santana's "Drift Away". It's been in my head ever since. It's magic or something.

The deli next door to our apartment, which you can see in the photo, sells a 24 ounce can of Coors for $1.50. If I'm sitting around reading and feel thirsty, it takes about 15 seconds to be back in my chair with a beer. Unfortunately, the deli closes at about six o'clock every day. So this evening I turned the corner and walked a half block to another bodega. I discovered 99 cent Pabst in a 22 ounce bottle! Now that's Brooklyn! It was an exciting emotion, but also melancholy when I realized I have such little time left here in South Williamsburg.

The end of fargone

Well, the initial impulse behind this blog was to try to stay sane in Fargo, North Dakota. Having accomplished that, I managed to visit London this summer and now I'm living in Brooklyn once again. So I think it's time for a new idea. A new blog. We're going to be moving to the Prospect Park-Lefferts Gardens area, so maybe the new neighborhood will inspire something.

My two week break from the restaurant is almost finished. I've eaten Thai at three different places in Brooklyn and Manhattan, drunk a lot of beer in the Read Cafe garden in Williamsburg, watched Jia Zhang-ke's "Platform", biked to P.S. 1 in Queens for an all-NYC show, and read W.G. Sebald in Central Park's Sheep Meadow.

We walk through an unfamiliar Mexico City neighborhood at dusk, past street grafitti depicting Hitler under the word "peyote". Our all-night train arrives in Vienna just after sunrise, when the bakery and newsstand are the only shops open. A small, unattended boat filled with vegetables bobs in a shadowed Venician canal.

Reading W.G. Sebald is like listening to someone else's dreams and not only being interested, but finding hidden meaning and memories of yourself.

I'm full stomach and languid

I was at MOMA earlier today to see Cezanne vs. Pisarro, with Lee Friedlander refereeing. Overheard comments from the spectators included, "Well I've seen enough. Let's get something to eat."

And eat Teri and I did. We took the Q down to Canal St and went to Doyer's. Teri ordered this amazing hot soup which had watermelon in it. After dinner I got a lychee green tea with tapioca balls, and found the straw works quite well as a blowgun. Those tapioca balls really stick to clothing!

M.I.A. in Central Park last Sunday

, originally uploaded by kuchen.

Back in Brooklyn

, originally uploaded by kuchen.

, originally uploaded by kuchen.