Music x3

After seeing the Maccabees supporting Mumford & Sons at Coney Island, they announced they were doing a little show at Le Poisson Rouge, the intimate Bleecker Street venue that we seen Mumford & Sons earlier this year.

We got there about 35 minutes before they went on and timed it just right to get a great view from the left of the stage. It filled up nicely and there seemed to be quite a lot of fans who knew all their songs going way back.

Heather even asked nicely just before they came back on for the encore and the sound guy was nice enough to give here a copy of the setlist to add to our collection.

That was Tuesday. Wednesday night I got to go to Radio City Music Hall for the first time as we saw Belle & Sebastian.

The sound was awesome. The large screen behind them was pretty cool the way it was worked into some songs. They had a few dancers on stage all the way from Scotland and then even brought a little bagpipe action into the end of one song.
It was all seated but pretty much everyone stood after the first song. Combined with last night and running a hard-ish tempo that morning on the way to work killed my quads and calves though, ha ha.
After the next 10K I am definitely getting a massage or two.

Then the following Wednesday we took our camp chairs over to Prospect Park to see, well, listen to Damien Rice. It was a paid Summerstage / Celebrate Brooklyn show so the fences went up but you could obviously still hear it, quite well it turned out.

It was a cold-ish 14 or 15 degree night, combined with it being Damien Rice, meant it was pretty quiet where we decided to sit off to one side on the top of a little hill.

Amazingly when he came on stage he stood right in the gap between the poles and bandshell frame so we had something to focus on rather than just hearing the sound. Sitting in your camp chair, drinking and eating a snack is more like it. Although we left with about 4 songs to go as we were just too cold by that point.

The view in front of us

The normal view

The megazoom view!

Definitely looking forward to going back for more free cheap seat shows, Interpol, Punch Brothers and Willie Nelson to come.

MORE gigs?!

The past 10 days we redeemed the last of the concert tickets we'd purchased way back in the day, when I actually thought I had money to buy things like this.

We went to Carnegie Hall last week to see Ben Harper play an acoustic set. It was my first time at this famous venue and it's much more like an old theatre back home. We were in the second tier of about five, sitting on moveable thickly padded comfy red chairs with only three rows (deep) of people and with our own little door to get into our section which the red jacketed staff opened for us.
This was the sight that greeted us on stage.

I think he just about used them all although at times it seemed he was deciding there and then which one he was going to play. 

Then on Tuesday we went to see Fiona Apple, as this crappy iPhone photo shows.

Really good, really loud compared to the albums and just the right amount of crazy as she rolled about on stage.

As we had to be there early to get a good view it means missing out on food at a regular dinner time so I enjoyed my first experience of being able to go to a diner and to be sitting having an omelette, fries and toast at midnight. The forty minute journey home gives you time to digest before bed!

I made a little error this week too. I was asked to walk our neighbours three dogs at 10pm but once out, I realised I had accidentally left the key on their worktop so was now locked out of their flat. They were at the cinema so didn't get back until just after midnight. As we have two cats, Heather kept them in the other room as I sat watching the laptop and keeping them out of mischief for a couple of hours. After a while the two little ones settled down on my lap to keep me warm.

Chris, Newt, Tubbs

In work permit news, it is now "In Production" according to the government website. So hopefully in the next couple of weeks I will have it in hand and be able to leave behind my life as a house husband and get out of bed before 9am... assuming I can get a job of course.

We are off to Washington DC this weekend to take part in the Army 10 miler. I am set for a PB... as I've never raced a 10 mile distance before! I'll try not to sight see too much, both before the race and during.

Brooklyn's finest

In my pursuit of my work permit I was told by the USCIS that I could get back in touch 75 days after the application was received in order for them to chase it up, so to speak.
Of course, the average processing time according to their website is currently around 90 days and when I called earlier this week they gave me another code/number and said they'd look into it and to please allow up to 15 days for them to do this. Thus taking it up to the 90 days anyway!

Last night we went to one of the eight sold out Jay-Z concerts taking place at the brand new Barclays Centre. The novelty factor was for once it's under 2.5miles from us and I love sports arenas anyway!

There has been the usual controversy about the arena being built in the first place and what it has done, or was supposed to have done for the area. Lots of stories involving the developer, the Russian billionaire owner of the Brooklyn Nets basketball team that have moved from New Jersey and some good publicity from co-owner and local boy Jay-Z.

It marks the return of major league sports to Brooklyn, which has been absent since the departure of the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team to Los Angeles in 1957. Their old Ebbet's Field Stadium used to be in the same neighbourhood and the Jay-Z intro was pretty cool with a massive projection onto the stage of this and all the people that came from Brooklyn.



All the food concessions come from local Brooklyn restaurants so we shared a pulled pork sandwich from the Fatty Cue stand. I think I've said before, but that's one thing that is definitely better than back home, I don't know why they don't make a bigger deal of the food on offer at UK stadiums.
They even had a little Brooklyn Farmacy (the soda fountain place we went to a few weeks ago) cart in case you fancied a coke float!

The tickets only cost $30 and we were seated about three rows from the very very top. Plus it has those real steeply banked stands so you don't want to sit there if you suffer from vertigo!
Like flying above the clouds, we were so high we were above the lights, ha ha:

I didn't know all the songs he played, unlike probably 90% of the crowd but it was still really good. Still find it funny to see people sparking up a joint at a show like this. Heather did comment that it was probably the most mixed types and ages of people at a gig ever.

Update

Been a slightly frustrating time recently as I am still awaiting my work permit letter. The green card type thing will probably follow later but I need the work part of it in order to physically sign on at a job. As money is now tight I have been trying to time it perfectly by having something lined up as the letter drops through the mail.
I have applied for a couple of jobs and "unfortunately" got an interview and a quicker than expected offer of a job at the SoHo REI store which is a big outdoor style store. Would have been a great job for a large very well respected company (in a really nice building in a great location) but I had explained to them the situation and they couldn't hold the job open. The USCIS can't check up on my  case until 1st October, very annoying.

Maybe I shouldn't have spent money on buying tickets to gigs! I could've picked up a ticket for Andy Murray's US Open final victory especially after it was held over to the Monday but I couldn't justify spending the $100+ on one. At least I was able to watch it all on tv and didn't have to stay up to 2am!

Previous money was spent on upcoming concerts like Jay-Z in the new Barclays Centre in Brooklyn and Peter Gabriel away out at Jones Beach. But last week was Maximo Park at Webster Hall. They were big in Britain back in about 2005 but haven't been as popular since. It felt like a fan club show as there was probably only a couple of hundred people there and we were about seven from the front despite walking in literally as they walked on stage. Really good and plenty of English voices in the crowd!

©Heather Sina!

On 9/11 they had some memorial lighting at night after the remembrance ceremony. We could see it from our window but other people had better photos on Twitter.

Mumfords in NJ

One of Heather's favourite bands is Mumford and Sons. We recently went to their opening US tour gig across the Hudson River in Hoboken, New Jersey.

Held on a pier just across the water from midtown Manhattan made it pretty unique.

There were great views from the pier to lower Manhattan too, including the sun setting on the new One World Trade Centre develoment.

While waiting the FOUR hours before the main act came on, there was passing entertainment in the form of one of the big cruise ships heading past. The people on one of the ferries to the nearby terminal were waving to us too.

Once the sun had set the Mumfords came on and they were really good. They're not totally my cup of tea but they did sound amazing and the crowd seemed to love them and know most of the songs too.

You're getting hotter... you're getting cold

On Wednesday around 11am I went for a run around the nearby Prospect Park.

I ran about 15mins, felt okay... in the shade of the trail, but when I came out down the far side of the park and had to do more out in the open I really started to feel the heat.

I could feel that these were the hottest conditions I've run in! My heart rate monitor really gives you an idea of how hard you are exercising compared to normal... as if I didn't know. But the numbers were extraordinarily high.

Normally I could cruise (jog) along at 150bpm but when I was forced into walking every three minutes, and after each stop at the water fountains my HR was sitting at 155. When I started to run again, despite trying to go slow now, it jumped right up into the high 180's!

So I ended up jog/walking the last 30 mins of the run. Even funnier was stretching my calves outside the house (134bpm), walking up the three flights of stairs (165bpm), then coming inside and trying to untie my shoes (191bpm). A delayed reaction to the stair climb plus the heat inside the kitchen.

Unknown to me it was nearly 100 degrees outside! Although I must be acclimatising somewhat, as I've found myself thinking at times "It's okay, it's just 75º".

Then at the back of 4pm the sky darkened and all hell broke loose. Thunder, lightning and torrential rain. The weather website made for a funny picture.

So basically it dropped 17º but was still 20º!

Then because of the storm the next day was a lot cooler. Indeed, I read that the high temperature in Central Park was 76º which was the first time since June 26th it hadn't hit at least 80ºF.

Then on Friday, the most complete polar opposite in one persons body reaction to weather happened.

I finally bought a new bike! Tracked down the one I was after away up on West 81st street in Manhattan. I paid for it, was just away to leave and the sky just opened and started more rain of biblical proportions. To be fair it had been darkening with a chance of rain but c'mon!!

Once I realised it wasn't going to stop I just went for it.

I've never (at least not for along time) felt so cold on a bike. By the time I was halfway down Manhattan I was shivering.

I've also never seen Central Park, the Manhattan Bridge or Brooklyn Bridge park so quiet!

The prescription insert in my Adidas eyewear started misting up too. Of course by this time the glasses themselves were covered in water and I couldn't see out of them anyway! So I took them off and cycled a few blocks without being able to see, oh yes. At nearly 4pm on a Friday of course it was practically rush hour traffic too.

After I deemed that too dangerous I stopped and thankfully found putting the cap that I had with me on under the cycle helmet and then putting back on my regular glasses was alright to continue.

Took me 1 hour 40 mins to get home and then ring all the water out of my t-shirt, socks, etc and empty my shoes out.

Of course, you can't just chuck your stuff in the washing machine either. And because it was Friday, the washing is now held over to Monday as the weekend is apparently far too busy a time to go to the laundrette unless you get there by 8am.

Other than that excitement, my final resident paperwork is posted and I have been job searching in the hope I have something lined up by the time I am actually allowed to sign up for work somewhere.

We also went to see a gig on Tuesday, Delta Rae. Not 100% my cup of tea, but amazing voices and a couple of really good songs including a brilliant Fleetwood Mac cover version (The Chain). Read Heather's music blog for a gig report.

I only mention them in case they go on to be massive and I want it noted we seen them before they were big.