Halfway Hip

Flu Music

So, I have the flu. No wonder I was so cranky for my last post. I started with cold symptoms Sunday and Monday. On Tuesday, I progressively felt worse and worse throughout the day. I knew that a student of mine came down with the flu the week before, and she and I had handed off a few things to each other, so I suspected it right away when I felt feverish. After taking Advil, my temp was still 101, so I went to urgent care that afternoon and got the diagnosis. Now that it's two days later, I feel somewhat better, but definitely not back to normal. Fever goes up and down, and I'm having a really hard time sleeping at night. Last night, I gave up trying and came out to the living room, where I happily discovered the VHI Classic was playing 120 Minutes! Even in my sickened misery, I felt giddy joy at watching some of these gems again: First up, Sinead O'Connor with MC Lyte: "Going Underground" by The Jam. Check out how fresh this would be now!! What goes around comes around! Elvis Costello's "What's So Funny About Peace, Love, and Understanding" played, too, but I can't share that with you b/c it was ganked from youtube. Boo. So, weird coincidence. I was just reading in Hillary's blog last night about her favorite album. Mere hours later, I'm watching this video, and I haven't thought about Lemonheads in years. "It's a Shame About Ray." So, not all 90s music was horrible. There was also the Pixies, whose "Monkey Gone to Heaven" was also played, much to my fevered delight. There was also "Tonight" by the Smashing Pumpkins. I have a love/hate relationship with this band, and still feel that they were waaaayyy overplayed, but this video is gorgeous. They were doing steampunk 10 years before the rest of the world was: Then, they had to go ahead and play one of the main reasons 90s music got so bad. Sony BMG disalbed embedding on this one, but you can follow the link. Actually, it's really not a bad song. Just way overplayed and then it started a huge downturn in "progressive" music that lasted til about the year 2001, when Interpol and The Strokes came along. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCgFYz7VX74 Though, to be fair, my access to true indie, underground music at that time was very limited. No more 120 minutes. No more true college alt. radio. Enid, OK didn't have a quirky little record shop. I should have paid more attention to the reviews in Entertainment Weekly, and then I would have discovered Pavement and Pulp when they were timely. Okay, 90s music ramble over. I don't think this song by The Fixx would have EVER been on the real 120 minutes. It's probably just as well that I can't embed this one, either. It's like being Rik Rolled. Really. Hearing this one, I know I've been unfair to 90s music. Oh, how I loved James!!! I don't think I ever saw this one back then, which is so hard to believe!!!! "Girlfriend in a Coma" by The Smiths. The only video I remember seeing from them was "Stop Me If You Think..." and then of course Morrissey vids. What would 120 Minutes be without a New Order video? This is the one they played last night. Mom, I swear this song isn't about drugs! Why would anyone think that?! If you're still with me, hope you enjoyed this little stroll down memory lane. Kristen's probably the only one still with me. :)

Better late than never: My New York trip

Outside the hotel, March 12, originally uploaded by Halfway Hip.

I'll again have to rely on ye olde bullet format to recall info that's gone a bit stale!

Air Travel Lots of factors came together in a perfect storm on Friday, which caused multiple delays all day long. Almost nothing about my travel day on the way there went smoothly. I left my house at 7am and arrived at Hotel Chelsea at 10:30pm, about 5 hours late. I wrote down a blow-by-blow account of the day in my paper journal, but I will spare you. Luckily, my flights back on Wednesday were the complete opposite.

Trade Show Basically, for me, this meant a lot of sitting and/or standing around and/or fetching things since it wasn't my line of work. By the last day, I felt like my brain had been turned off a little too long, and I was ready to return to my own planet. It was really interesting, though, to see what my best friend goes through in her working life. I'm really grateful, too, for the fact that I could come along on the company's dime. I would have easily traded that, though, for five days of freedom to roam the city.

The City Unfortunately, the trade show stuff kept us from seeing a lot. We got the experience, but there wasn't a lot of time for the serendipitous roaming around that I crave when I travel. We did slack off on Monday afternoon, and it was the best day, by far. We went to SoHo for lunch (the only bad meal we had there) and a little shopping. Most of the shops were way out of my league, but it was fun to dream. I've decided that I want to shop at DKNY when I grow up. I had a real New York Moment when I said, "I could go for a coffee and cookie right now," and found that we were across the street from a cool, TINY shop. I almost killed myself on a student's power cord in there, but the coffee was divine.

I was continually amazed at how friendly everyone was, everywhere we went. A friend of mine, who happened to be in NY at the same time we were, commented on her blog that she didn't want to pull out her camera and look like a tourist. I found that in the moments where I was obviously a tourist, people just got friendlier. People seemed to eat up the fact that we were there from Texas and Oklahoma.

Hotel Chelsea I knew a little about its history, but I wish I had read this blog before I went. However, if I had known all about the ghosts, I probably wouldn't have stayed in the room alone at all, though I don't technically believe in ghosts. I have to wonder, though, if the drag-queeny voice I heard for two hours early Weds. morning was actually the ghost of Nancy Spungen. He kept saying over and over, "God dammit FUCK. God dammit FUCK," like he was stuck on something. I kept wondering if he was stuck in the elevator or something, but I was in too much of a sleep-funk to think it through. I couldn't tell if it was coming from the floor below ours, where Sid Vicious is rumored to haunt, or from the room beside ours.

The hotel was extremely noisy in general, which I had remembered from an old episode of Globetrekker. There's a club in the basement, which didn't help, especially on Saturday night. There were lots of meathead guys on the street yelling and fighting in the wee hours. Friday night, in a room somewhere near ours, we could hear singing and tuba playing. That was the type of noise I fully expected and enjoyed. The radiator banging at 6am sharp every morning? Not so much! The jackhammers on the street at 8am Saturday morning? Not so much!

The Chelsea is covered with artwork. I really wish I had walked the entire stairwell and halls to see it all. I barely left enough time to take pictures. The photos in the Hotel Chelsea Flickr group are better than what I could have taken, anyway, so look through those.

Our little apartment was amazing. Lots of space in which to spread out and entertain guests. (Not that we had that many, but still.) You can check out pics on my Flickr by clicking on the photo above.

Food It was mostly great! It's not hard to eat vegetarian there. I did splurge on some sustainably-raised chicken at Cookshop, just because I could. Patsy's, which supposedly serves the best pizza in the city, was just down the block from our hotel. Now I'm sad that I didn't try the famed pizza, but I was really in the mood for salad and pasta. My God, it was the best salad I've ever had. Angelica Kitchen in the East Village was phenomenal. The staff there was so friendly. When I went up the hostess stand to remark on their choice of music (the entire Joy Division "Substance" album), we got into a nice chat about where were were from/what we were doing/the show "Dallas," which she happened to love (and few of us who actually had lived in Dallas had actually seen). I asked about where we should go next, based on the fact that we loved their music, and one of the servers went back to the kitchen and compiled a whole list for us.

Nightlife We had the best time on our first night there, even though by the time it was over, I had been up for 24 hours. We went to Mondo. I had pretty low expectations for being able to fit in to any club in the city, but this place felt like home as soon as we walked in. We heard songs we already love, including New Order's "Age of Consent," which I had never gotten to dance to at a club, "Fa Fa Fa" by Datarock, which the DJ played at my request, "Crash" by The Primitives, and loads of new stuff that we didn't really know but loved anyway. The crowd was age-mixed, and people were friendly and in no way too cool for the room, which we found a bit the next night we went out. I hope Kristen makes good on her promise to try to recreate something like this in the Dallas scene. It's desperately needed!

Saturday night, we stayed in due to exhaustion, the time change, and the fact that our dinner at Cookshop didn't end til 11pm. Sunday, we went to Sway Lounge, where it was Morrissey/Smiths night, on suggestion of the fine folks at Angelica Kitchen. The music was great, but there really wasn't a real dance floor, and the crowd was a bit too hip and fashionable for our taste. All of that would have been easily tolerated had it not gotten so damned crowded. When we could no longer move, we bailed. Made us appreciate our new friend Mondo even more. On Monday, after looking up some bar reviews, we chose to go to Hi-Fi to check out their famed jukebox. It was dead, but we had a good time watching Pop-Up Video minus the sound while we waited an hour or more for our songs to play. Next, we headed to Niagara, which was very cool, but a little dead, too. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, though, especially looking out at Tompkins Square Park, which played a prominent role in East Village Inky, a zine I still love.
While I was away, the kids and Matt seemed to fare just fine. The kids didn't really ask about me til the last day or so (when I was wanting to come home, too!) and Evan never asked to nurse. I don't want to be away from home too much, but I think it was great for all of us to realize that it could be done. Overall, I'd say that my trip was about one day too long, but I did have a great time. It was a little hard to come back to so many demands upon my personal space and time, but now that I've had a week to settle in, I'm used to it again. Being away also had an unexpected bonus. I got to see a bit what Matt goes through when he has to travel. I realize more how important phone conversations are to the person who is away from home. It's the only connection with the kids. There were days when I didn't make enough time for quality phone calls, and I regretted it. Also, I got to feel what it's like for him to come home and try to get back into the swing of homelife. It takes a while!

The Interpol show

It was fantastic. This band has completely gotten under my skin in a way I haven't experienced since I first heard New Order. Those who know me well know that's a serious claim! I was thinking that my Interpol experience really does mirror my NO experience. Before my first New Order concert in 1989, I had heard of them and really dug the sound of their new album, Technique. On a whim, I asked Kelly from down my street to take me to the concert when I heard that they would be in town. We had been flirting for years, and I knew that he had a car. His parents ended up driving us and waited for us in the parking lot. (Wow...talk about belated appreciation!) I knew I liked New Order, but I wasn't prepared for how much I would fall for them at this show. I couldn't help but dance the whole time, despite others around me who may have appreciated me sitting down. (Poo-poo on them...who the hell sits at a New Order show?) After that, I had to get my hands on any New Order recording that my very tight allowance/budget would allow. Years go by, and I make sure to have every recording (that isn't a tired, unnecessary "greatest hits" compilation. I'm looking at you, International.) I've seen them in concert 3x, including when we had to drive halfway across the country to see them perform in 2001, despite being pregnant and broke. Planned a trip to England to see them in 1998 (for their big comeback performance), but the festival was canceled. So, you can say I'm a fan.
As for Interpol, I heard "Untitled" on Morning Becomes Eclectic back when we lived in California, but I never really knew who the band was. Summer of 2004, we went to San Diego a lot for Matt's work, so I had the luck to be able to listen to 94.9 quite a bit. That summer, Interpol's song "Evil" was on almost everytime I got in the car. I loved it. Didn't know it was about a serial-killer English couple til just a few weeks ago, though. That song drew me in and led me to buy the album "Antics," which I played all the time when we first moved here in 2005. For a while, I think it was the only CD in my car. I really liked Interpol over the years, but they never really got to me til I was listening to their new album "Our Love to Admire" and then their first albume "Turn on the Bright Lights," in preparation for this show. I wasn't even going to go to this show. I had already been to 2 concerts the week before, and our Sept. had already been crazy enough. However, after repeated listenings to all Interpol all the time, I just had to go. Plus, Kristen's husband Mike was all in for babysitting. How could I turn it down? Like the first New Order show, this Interpol night really stamped them into my brain. After I got home, I couldn't stop thinking about their music. I joined the message board, looked up all the videos on Youtube (don't have regular access to music videos, so I had actually never seen any of them), and looked up pictures, interviews, etc. Now that a few weeks have passed, I've started living my life again. Don't have the time anymore to sit on my bed and listen to music all day like the early New Order days. I do have to drive a lot, though, and Interpol has been played so much lately, Aidan is learning some of the songs.
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Like a big slice of fried gold

In more happy, frivolous news:

1. At the consignment store, I discovered that I had $70 credit! Amazed me b/c I still saw a lot of my clothes on the racks. I think it might have been the gorgeous B & Lu dress I bought last year that I never got to wear b/c I didn't go to the 2 weddings for which I bought it, and I lost weight. Anyway...the store has a new section of premium denim jeans. Brands like Lucky, Seven for All Mankind, Earl, etc. On a whim, I decided to try a pair of 32s on. I haven't been able to wear a 32 or even consider any kind of jean that is sized with a waist measurement like that in about 12 years, at least. These Paige jeans fit me perfectly, and they were only 30 bucks!!!! For a like-new pair of $200 jeans! I had no idea that these jeans were so expensive til I came home and looked them up on the internet. I took Paige's fit test, and as it turns out, these were the jeans that were the best for my body type. Living in a town with a disporportionate amount of sorority types and bitchy rich soccer moms can sometimes pay off! Speaking of sorority types...I was wearing these jeans while waiting for my to go order at a cafe that's right near campus and attached to a Harold's store. The sales girl from Harold's came over from the store to tell me how cute my jeans are. Score! :) The only problem I have now is that I can only wear them with high heels til I get them hemmed. I'm not sure that I want to get them hemmed, b/c then I won't be able to wear them with high heels at all. What to do?

2. We've had Shaun of the Dead for over a month from Netflix. I was really hesitant to watch it b/c I thought I had really had enough dead people for one month. We finally saw it on Friday night. What a hoot! If you haven't seen this one, please do, even if you don't like horror movies. Kristen, this is required for you since you're such an Anglophile.

3. Provided that I get enough rest this week and get some help for my health problem, I have tickets to go to Interpol in Dallas this Thursday. Doing stuff like this is getting easier and easier. Aidan is in school all day, Matt can shorten his day to take him/pick him up (since he's not flying), I can take Evan with me (after 10 hours to NM, 3 hours to Dallas is like nothing...we don't even have to stop anymore), and Kristen's husband will babysit while we go to the concert. Hopefully, Evan won't wake up crying at 10:30 like he did when I was at Arctic Monkeys. I do think he's old enough to know that I am coming back.

4. I think Aidan is at the age where he's developing internal thought. While playing with Legos the other day, he told me out of the blue that he has an imaginary friend. "Oh, yeah?" "Yes, he's in my brain and he tells me what to think about. He helps me do my thinking." Also, while going through his Friday Folder from school, I came across a cute drawing that I knew wasn't his. It was of a boy and girl holding hands, and it had the name Faith on it. When we asked him about it, he turned red and started stammering, "I don't know how that got in there! I don't know!" He didn't get angry, but he was clearly protesting too much. Faith is a girl in his class, btw.

5. The Ian Curtis biopic Control is set to come out Oct. 12 in the states. It might show here in OKC at the art museum, but I won't hold my breath. May need to travel to Dallas for this one b/c I really want to see it in the theater. I've been watching this trailer at least once a day. I'd like to reread the book, but I think I gave it away. I saw that it was for sale in Hot Topic recently. That just makes me smile.

6. The soundtrack drops Oct. 1st. It will include The Killers cover of Shadowplay, which is just awesome b/c I really enjoyed listening to their version at the concert. Here's one version, but I think the one they played at Nokia had more a more keyboard, new-wavey sound toward the end. Wow...how stoked and nervy those guys must have been to be playing Joy Division at the NME Awards in England with Peter Hook (the famed Joy Division/New Order bassist) sitting right there in the audience. (I am nursing Evan right now while typing, and he was clapping along to The Killers. Together, we're quite the little machine.)