Let me just preface this update with the following; this is long but I am massively behind in entries so get comfortable, grab a beverage and settle in for lots of stories.

Brooklyn

I scored the coolest place to stay while I was in New York, Tim hooked me up with good friends of his Jeremy, Cricket and Sam in Brooklyn. When I first arrived I was worried that I was going to be killed, but I think that is just to much crap American popular culture eating my brain, I did stand out like a very sore blonde thumb though. Turns out I was staying in an extremely cool apartment with some awesome people! The place I was in was a studio that Jeremy, Cricket and Sam had built rooms into, it was very cool, my bed was on this raised platform (I only hit my head on the ceiling once which was a minor miracle). The view form the roof was spectacular, the entire east side of Manhattan Island and the skyline, brilliant, check photos!

I was very sad to leave New York and America in general, I had such a good time and met so many seriously cool people. Everyone was so good to me, I really appreciated being looked after by so many beautiful people ( you know who you are!) 

CBGB & OMFUG

So on my last night in New York I wanted to go to to CBGB & OMFUG (if you don't know what this is go here to learn more www.cbgb.com and shame on you!). So after a few warm up drinks at Botanica off we headed. We had previously checked the web and could not figure out who was playing, imagine my excitement when we rocked up and found out the DEAD KENNEDYS were headlining!!!!! I could not believe my luck once again everything had fallen into place so perfectly, I cannot think of a better band to see at CBGB the home of Punk and underground rock in America.. It was such an awesome show, I am so lucky! And to think I could have rocked up on any of the other nights I intended to go and seen some no name band, would have been good yes, but it would not have been THE DEAD KENNEDYS! Who by the way rocked out, I have video which I will be posting as soon as I figure out how. It was truly one of the best gigs of my life. (By the way OMFUG does not stand for Oh My Fucking Unbelievable Genitalia as I decided it does, but it should).

CBGB is amazing, the toilets need to be seen for themselves (I did take photos but I suspect they will be too big to fit on this blog, like everything overwhelmingly colourful that I photograph, especially since the walls are kind of like flyer/sticker vomit) I had the fortune of being there when the ladies was flooded, extra double bonus fun. The walls of the entire place are pretty much held together with flyers and stickers. The floor is as far from level as you can get and not legally                       be called a ramp, there was a pair of (Mens) underpants hanging from the ceiling above where I was watching (on a chair, convinced that I was going to plummet to the ground very suddenly at any moment, but I didn't - did obtain mysterious and impressive bruise to the left calf though). It was in summary everything a music venue should be in my humble opinion! Rocking! I can't believe it is closing, this is a travesty of epic proportions especially for everyone who has not had the chance to go yet...

Metropolitan Art Museum

Amazing art museums have this awful ability to make me angry. The main problem is jealousy and rage, I get so pissed off that most of the stunning art collections are all held in Western, overpriced monoliths, why can't they share? I love art, so I love the chance to view works that I would otherwise never have seen, but why should I - and the rest of the people in the world who do not live in large cities in America or Europe - have to pay thousands of dollars in Airfares to get to see them? More sharing please, and maybe you know tour them in poor countries. And yes I am aware that most of the artists on display are European American etc but that doesn't mean they shouldn't be made more accessible to the rest of the world. Everyone I know should get the chance to see what I was privileged enough to view, without having to spend what I did on airfares.

I got to see a fantastic Cezanne to Picasso exhibition my highlights were; Gaugin`s etchings (much prefer them to his paintings), Picasso's sketches (I had never seen any sketches before and they are spectacular), paintings from Picasso's blue phase, Van Gogh and Renoir (2 of my favourites).

I spent about 3 hours in the Egyptian section, where I was simultaneously blown away and enraged. they have entire sections of tombs that have been removed from Egypt (angry!), massive sarcophaguses (sarcophagi ?), perfectly preserved linen from 4000 years ago, tiny miniature statues and vessels (the Egyptians believed that the dead could use the miniatures, I suspect it was because they got sick o f making massive full sized things to be left in tombs forever, I would). The collection spans pretty much oll of the dynasties so it includes stuff from 4000BC right up to about 1000BC, incredible. I was enamoured.

The Met also has an awe inspiring collection of Greco Roman statues. And most likely a while lot of other cool stuff that would have made me upset while I appreciated it.

Body Exhibition

This is one of the coolest, weirdest, most interesting things I have ever seen, it is coming to Australia next and I strongly recommend you see it for yourself. Basically the artist uses a process called plastination to preserve cadavers. The bodies are posed in different positions so you can see various parts at work, you get to see the cardio-vascular system, muscle groups, the spine and much more, all up close and personal. There is also an entire body sliced horizontally into 1cm peices. It is a little confronting (these are actual bodies of people who died and donated their bodies to be exhibited so the people knew what was going to be done, the artist has been doing this since 1975), but it is very cool, especially for someone who studied anatomy and physiology.

Central Park

I love Central park, it is stunning, such a beautiful break from crazy overwhelming Manhattan. It is massive and has so many different sections, woods, strawberry fields, lakes, ponds, pines, playgrounds and much much more. I roamed over most of it and it took me all day, I think I walked about 20 kms and loved every section of it. The only downside is the roads that run through it, meaning traffic sounds in many parts of it, but the woods are tranquil and quiet. It is full of wildlife (squirrels!!) and tourists. But for a tree hugger like myself it is a must see.

The entire park was once owned by some dude who donated it to the city on he condition that it remain a park forever, I like very much.

Roubelad

Apparently when it is at home in Brooklyn Roubélad is this awesome party with nakedness, art installations, absinthe bars and hash brownies. Unfortunately when it is Manhattan it is not quite so cool. I still had a great time, saw the fire people, appreciated the art and drank overpriced gross beer. It was a cool party but I kind of wish I had seen it in Manhattan.

After the party we went back to the flat in Brooklyn and I watched the sun come up, very pretty. Pollution does make for some amazing sunrises.

General Impressions of New York

New York is great, I almost stayed for months, but my budget wouldn't allow it (and America made me fatter, which was a little annoying and probably my fault). It was good to have the buffer of Philadelphia to ease me back into huge crazy sprawling cities, after San Francisco, Burning Man, Seattle and New Orleans, it was a shock to the system. The subway rocks, it is cheap and unbelievably comprehensive (you can get everywhere and it runs on time, take note cityrail). There is heaps of awesome food and so much to see and do. I had a blast. The weather was really warm and lovely even though I was there in autumn (fall!), without the stupid intensity of Australian sun to deal with. People are generally lovely and helpful (I did have a traumatic experience buying shoes but I think that is more about shoe shops then New Yorkers and eventually I discovered the Discount Shoe Warehouse and finally replaced my crocs with something that did not destroy my feet utterly, yay!). New York = lots of fun.

Crap! Once again I am a week behind on this thing, if only I'd have less fun and spend more time writing about it!

So Philadelphia is America's 5th largest city (I'm assuming population), it is clean and very pretty and has some really beautiful architecture. It has reinforced my beleif that some of the most interesting buildings (and prettiest) are train stations. I could say the same about most municipal buildings but train stations appeals to me, and yes a lot of it is because I am a tree hugger. Oops tangent. Through Philadelphia runs the Schlollklykl (yes it is mis-spelt but only slightly, Tim some help) River, despite it's ugly ugly name it is very pretty. It is only an hour and a half by train from New York and passes through New Jersey (I have now officially been in 7 stares in America, 8 if you count going to Dulles Airport twice). Pennsylvania is old, well ok only compared to Australian Eurpoean occupation  but shmeh. It has some of the most expensive rreal estate in America... Maybe because the houses are enormous and really pretty -  in a capitalist I shit in the face of poverty way. it is also very green and has woods everywhere and I saw the first squirrel of this trip there!! Yay! It also contains the liberty bell, which I ignored and didn't see.

I checked out the Art Gallery which was spectacular, the building is beautiful and the collection impressive. It does reinforce my belief that all curators are mad, this may have been helped by the fact that  I failed to acquire a map/giude thingy. I thoroughly enjoyed the modern art and they had some of my Eorpean favourites; Manet, Renoir et al.

While enjoying Pennsylvania's capital, the birthplace of modern Americam City of Brotherly Love etc, I also made room for some more liver punishment. Apart from Wayne Beef & Ale there was non trivia Wednseday. We went to the bar expecting trivia, there was no one else there apart fom the bartender, who informed us the dud who runs trivia hadn't shown up or called or answered his cell. All was not lost though, 2 of Tim's friends came down and the bartender proceeded to pour shots for everyone on the house, then Tim's friend was behind the bar with the list of shots doing requests... Then my liver tried to crawl away but I caught it and punished it suitably.

So on Tuesday I jumped on a train down to Pennsylvania to see my friend Timothy Lezgus who moved down there 3 weeks ago. After an uneventful trip (see the photo of the giant inflatable pig for the only interesting feature) I arrived in Philadelphia where I was met by aforementioned friend - who for those who know him, is extremely well and selling wind, much better then gas - and we set off to see a friend of his band play.

We adjourned our walk at the art gallery for a brief sojourn where Tim told me about the Rocky statue controversy. Yes that is right folks the Philadelphia Musem of Art has a bronze statue of Sylvester Stallone in Rocky, the controversy arose when they dared to move it to the West side of the art gallery. Hmmm. There was so much backlash the statue is now safely back in its original setting. Thank God for that hey? if only people cared so much about the environment.

So I learnt a lot that day, including the fact that the county I was staying was called.... Wayne. I am truly lost for words to describe how funny I find this.

Anyway after seeing this band, which BTW were spectacular (Paper Trigger), we moved onto a pub and then finished our journeys at 'Wayne Beef & Ale (pronounced Wayne Beef 'n' el). This was my first encounter with the bar that I would become very well acquainted with. That evening when we rocked in there was a movie playing, a dreadful movie about baseball and socially retarded adults playing in a children's league, all the other patrons were totally into it, all 4 of them. Tim and I paid $1 to play a computer game in which women took their clothes off if you win at cards.

Wednesday after an evening of non-trivia, Tim and I planned on finding ourselves once more inside the happiness that is WAyne Beef & Ale. How could we stay away with Tim living 175 metres away, the possibility of stupid movies, girls who take there clothes off for a dollar (onscreen images from Penthouse, woo hoo) and the saltiest deep fried food you gave ever tasted? However the train we were on took so long getting back to Wayne (mainly due to the police removing someone from the train) we had instead to go to Waa Waas. Non trivia and Waa Waas will both be explained in more depth later.

We returned to Wayne Beef & Ale on Thursday after Tim's soccer team had finished runnning around in the rain. To everyone else's delight it was free buffalo wings (deep fried chicken wings) with every pitcher of beer (jug), so many chickens had to die for that evening, our guestimate was at least 30. 

The evening of the chicken slaughter I also played my first game of shuffleboard; a thoroughly entertaining game that involves sliding puck like things down a very long table with sand on it, love it, too much fun.

I did more then just this in Philadelphia, but that will be another entry, Wayne Beef & Ale deserves to stand alone.

On Monday the 11th of September I happened to be in New York for the 5th anniversary of the World Trade Centre and Pentagon attacks. I didn't really want to go to Ground Zero but I did. I went to the Speigel Tent (yep same one guys), which is this amazing 100+ year old tent with a bar and wooden floors and stain glass windows, extremely cool, where I saw Reverned Billy from the Church of Stop Shopping http://www.revbilly.com/ 

It was a very moving performance he and his choir sung about peace love and hope. Then Reverend Billy preached about the need to look not at events of 9/11 but the motivations behind them; why was it the financial hub of America rather then the Statue of Liberty if truly it is the USA's freedom that inspires such hatred. It was excellent, I enjoyed it immensely and wanted to go back. He also made the point that if their is no reason for evil, then there is no reason for good. So to deny any reasonig behind the attacks makes retribution an equally unreasonable thing.

After the show he lead a procession to Ground Zero where we all launched paper areoplanes with the last words of people who were inside the towers written on them. We sailed them into the site, the choir sung of constituional rights, it was really beautiful. In fact it is the only I could see myself going anywhere near the area on that date.

I like any healthy normal person hate airports; I'd like if I may to share some anecdotes about my travels...

I was in Dulles airport in Washington, hungry and angry (mainly because there was NO vegetarian food in that place at all, unless you count the $9 pizza the size of my hand), when an alarm sounded, this caused many people to look around fearfully (it being September 10th and all), what they saw was remarkable; a couple of dudes (plain clothes, slightly overweight and a Japanese tourist resplendent with camera and all other  stereotypes) casually strolling in off the tarmac through security doors. Admittedly they looked sheepish but after the 4th time this had happened I did start to wonder why they bothered taking my water and lip balm off me (I should have known better but I was slightly inebriated from the previous night) if they couldn't even secure the doors to the runway. Who these people were and were they coming from/going to remains a mystery.

Also in Dulles airport Washington; a smoking room, yes that is right after x-raying everything (including everyone's shoes) and metal detecting the hell out of everything, there was a little fishbowl of smokers puffing away. I wondered to myself how it was that they had lit their cigarettes since no matches or lighters are allowed in your carry on luggage, or on your person or in your checked baggage.

I am also a little confused by the fact that the further away from Australia I travel physically, the closer I get in time. WTF? Now I may not be an astrophysicist but that makes no sense to me. I know there is a date line involved blah blah but my head hurts every time I try and think about it... In San Francisco I was 17 hours behind Sydney, now in Philadelphia (all the way over on the East coast of America ie very far away) I am only 14 hours behind.... OW!

I would also like to note here that United Airlines has a class called Economy Plus (or as I have dubbed it 'Geneva Convention Compliant'). This marvellous class has seats 1.5 times the size of it's poorer more socially awkward brother; ecomony and LEG ROOM!!! It is a revelation in flying comfort. I have had the good fortune to be in this class every flight I have had within the States, I don't know why this has happened but, I love it!! I have also been on virtually empty flights with most of them, therefore having no annoying neighbours in the seat next to me! Victory is mine!!!

If ever you need to fly out of Seattle Airport (even at 7:45am) arrive at least 3.5 hours before your flight and yes I'm including domestic travel. I got there 2 hours before and got to queue jump the 17 5342 people in front of me and then had to run with a security escort to get my flight.... I have never seen such lines, even the frozen alcohol drink lines at Big Day Out pale in comparison.

Just a quick note about photos... I have many more snaps of Seattle but they are too big to fit on this site, if anyone knows a way to bring them under 3MB let me know because they are stunningly beautiful and I would love to share, meanwhile enjoy the Burning Man shots.

New Orleans is a party city, it is called the Big Easy because everything is so laid back, easy going and anything you may want; wine women and song is plentiful. It is a bsolutely heart breaking to see the devestation that is sitll there. So little has been done to clean up, rebuild or relocate people back into their homes. 3/4 of the homes you see are abandonded and falling down, they still bear the marks of the rescuers who searched for bodies. It is extemely sad to see a city of 150 000 survivors whree once there was 500 000 party animals living.

That said the spirit of New Orleans is still burning strong. It is so much fun!! The music amazing, the French Quarter needs to be seen to be understood, the food, I'll get to that, there is a fantastic energy and a spirit of fun through the french quarter. the hostel I stayed at was really cool, there were quite a fw natives living there and they showed me the places to go.

I went out every night and found fantastic music and cool bars. I watched an awesome jazz band over breakfast. Everywhere i went the music was spectacular. If you love blues and jazz like I do then New Orleans is your city. I have no idea of the names of any of the bands I saw sorry... I wanted to see Marva Wright and the POW's on my Dad's reccommendations but they played the night I left, bummer.

The hostel (India House on Lopez) had one of the coolest features of any hostel I have ever been to... a vending maching that sold beer, and for the princely sum of $1. Too perfect. If anyone makes it to the states - or you live here - New Orleans should be visited. They need the tourism and you will not regret it. It is really sad to see how little has been done to rebuild, but the best thing you can do to help is go and party!

I appear to have developed an annoying habit of getting on planes having not slept the night before (and possibly still intoxicated from the previous hours activities). I do not reccommend it, it makes packing hard (I am currently trying to get my glasses couriered from NeW Orleans to NewYork), it makes airport food even harder to take and it generally leads to drooling on oneself in public, which is alwasy classy. I have had so many flights early in the morning that every single one of my flgiths in the states has been a messy ordeal.....

So after arriving at San Francisco airport at 4am straight from the burn, filthy, tired, dusty, hungry, filthy, thirsty, dusty, messy and did I mention FILTHY (no shower for 5 days, had been in a desert dancing for 4 days). I spent an hour in the bathroom with some baby wipes, and at 8:20am jumped on a plane to Seattle a shadow of my former glory.

My beautiful friends Sonya and Robert picked me up from the airport and took care of me. They didn't mention the odour, or the lapses of brain function, they ignored the filth and loved me anyway, bless their little cotton socks. After the longest shower in the world we went to West Seattle and checked out an Indian festival, ate REAL food, for the first time in September and I was a shabby shabby mess.

Seattle is an awesome city, it is a twisting maze of streets, lanes and tunnels, with architecture from all eras and a musicians on every corner. Pike Place Markets is the lomgest running marketplace in the states and it is extremely cool. It has beautiful fresh produce, flowers, jewellery and a random assortment of art, curiosities and other ways to spend time.

Seattle is so green. It was a complete shock to the system, it is on a harbour and surrounded by mountains and lakes. Having come from Sydney, San Francisco (dry summer wet winters, andi was there at the end of summer), to the desert; Seattle was mind blowing.... I had forgotten what green looks like.

I stayed with a lovely friend of  Roberts and went to 50th birthday party and got pissed at the local, great times. I met back up with Claire (hey Claire, I'm in New Orleans!) and we did the sight seeing thing, had a night on the town and now I am in New Orleans (which is obviously another post, watch this space kids!).

I didn't have enough time in Seattle, so when I come back next year for Burning Man, I am going to leave from there and get more time in that pumping city, so much amazing music, so much to do, so friendly and relaxed. I did not see a single person in a suit the entire time I was in Seattle. Very cool place, oh but to discourage people from moving there I am supposed to tell you all it rains all the time and is cold (31 degrees every day I was there).

Stayed tuned for Meg's adventures in New Orleans and photos... Eventually.

Ok I know there are no photos up yet, but I have a DVD with 1.4G of stuff to post, can't do it from this internet connection, SORRY! meanwhile here is a lnk to someone elses photos... Just pretend they are mine. I know the girl who took them, we were camping together and my photos are nowhere near as good, so yeah, will put the ones with me in them up ASAP. And I have photos of Seattle.

http://www.oddculture.com/travel/burning_man_2006/photos1.html

I have to confess; Claire and I feel responsible for the death of Steve Irwin. You see neither of us have ever cared about him, thought about him or discussed him. We come to America and everyone we talk to wants to discuss him. We drew all of this attention to him and now he is dead. We are truly sorry and promise not to talk about anymore Australian celebrities (maybe Mel Gibson).

As we were leaving the burn we talked about how anything could have happened in the outside world and we would have no idea. Little did we know that the only Australian people know would have died, we didn't believe the first 753 reports, it just seemed to surreal.

Ok so highlights; Free grilled cheese sandwiches, the Petting Zoo (free bar, well there is no money, only gifts), the burning of the man, The pyrmaid with turf inside you could chill out in, 40 degree days 5 degree nights, alkaline dust everywhere, the Thunderdrome (where peopple on bungee swings beat each other with foam paddles while the audience watched from everywhere, including climbing the roof of the dome they were competing on), Dance Dance immolation (dance dance revolution but if you made a mistke you had huge flames shot at you, you did get a flame resistent suit to wear), the art cars, the nudity, sex over 60, the costumes, Piglet (mmmmm Pig,you are so tasty), the Belgian Waffle, pancakes, the 100m smoke rings, the sky divers, the art, the Katrina memorial, the Cathedral, the Opulence tent, Critical Tits, Nipple Dipping, Pachecopolis, the unadulterated freedom.

I also hung out in a tent full of Alex Grey's paintings, and found out later that he was there with us and I said Hi to him. For the philistines out there Alex Grey is guy who does all of the art for TOOL.

I have never felt so free, liberated, over-stimulated, welcomed, awestruck, amazed in my life. Burning  Man to be experienced. I will be back next year no matter what it takes (yes Pig I promise). I have never been so hot, filthy and happy before.

So, yeah come with me next year or die wondering.