wiggolation

Tyler's Comin' to Town



In light of losing the apartment in Brooklyn I decided to drop this weekend's workshop at TC so I can look for a new place to live. There are several workshops I can take in the future so no problems there, and I'm getting a full refund.

But the best part is that I'll get to go to see Tyler Hamilton, who finished fourth in the Tour de France despite suffering a broken collarbone in the first stage, at the New York City Cycling Championship on Sunday. Hamilton will serve as the official race starter in the second running of the event, a 100 km criterium around the streets of Manhattan's financial district. Last year Lance the Man was there but he's too busy ironing his yellow jerseys, I guess. Or drinking beer. Would could blame him?

Time to dust off the old digital!

Gone before I had it

I can't believe it.

I lost the great little pad I thought I had! I called the Polish guy this morning to arrange a time to come sign the lease and he told me there was a 'situation' that had arisen, one in which he was forced to give the apartment to a 'relation' instead of me. Bastard! I tried in vain to win it back by making him feel super guilty but he kept to the 'family-is-first' argument. Well, what about the fucking 'don't-go-back-on-your-word' argument? We had a verbal agreement worked out completely on Monday; but today he said he had 'no choice' but to rent to a family relation. No choice my ass. Well, thanks asshole. I hope you choke on your kielbasa.

What makes me mad is that he gave me a big bunch of crap on Monday about how I was Irish and he was Polish and how 'European people' are 'good' and the people he prefers to rent to. Well, isn't that now pretty fucking ironic?

Ugh. Now it's back to looking for an apartment. Only two weeks left!!

In nomine Dei and other rhetorical figures

Reason #156 why I left the Catholic Church.

So what's up with that? The argument is inherently flawed anyway, at least from a non-traditionalist perspective. Children adopted by same sex parents would not be raised in an environment that is conducive to their human development? Well, if it sounds like a dodgy position, it is. In theory and practice. The director of the PC Fellows program at Columbia is gay, and he and his partner have two beautiful kids, who they adopted years ago. Both kids and parents are the most 'human' and 'well developed' I've met, John. Both parents are well educated and stable in every way. They're funny, warm, volunteers, good citizens, etc., etc. Why deny them kids of their own to raise? And why deny the kids good parents and a good upbringing? The very same kids could stay in foster care all their lives otherwise.

If I'm not mistaken, the number of people who leave the Catholic Church has been on the steady increase for years now. Well, is it any wonder?

I’m convinced that all homophobia is based on insecurity, weakness, and irrational fear.

Then again, look at the source. What advice would normal, working people take from those ‘asexual’ ivory tower dwellers? Why don't they work on cleaning out their churches of pedophile priests first?

Often wonder how much more human this world would be if man had not created 'god' and 'religion'.

Let's don't live in the dark ages.

Another cool Massive site.

Third NMA Show...and Still Counting



Yes, the Allstars are back! NYC August 8 at the Bowery Ballroom. I'm taking Marcin just so that he doesn't go back to Poland without a NMA show under his belt. That'd be terrible.

Nothing like a big loud night with some boys from Mississippi to take away from your school work....

Go Americorps!
Americorps has come through with funding for the oncoming year! What a relief! When I signed on as a PC Fellow back in spring of 02 I was told I'd get funding from Americorps for two years, but in the middle of the last school year they said they would have to cut all funding as they were experiencing budget cuts left and right. I don't know what changed things but the renewed funding agreement makes completing this program easier and the student loans a bit smaller....

Bustin' outta Manhattan--movin' out to Brooklyn
Looks as if I am getting the one-bedroom in Williamsburg (map). So I can relax knowing I no longer have to look for a place to live in after August 19th. It's a pretty nice neighborhood as far as I could tell--mainly Italian but there were some Polish and Hispanic people about as I walked to the apartment from the train. There are a number of ethnic restaurants and shops too. The area immediately reminded me of Chicago. I guess it's a lot less urban and more 'urban meets suburban', which is what greater Chicago always seemed to me. After my stint here in the City it's weird being in a place where the buildings are only five or six stories high. There's a little greenery in the small park at the corner of my street, probably a doggy park from the looks of it. The landlord is a middle-aged Polish guy who seems friendly and laid-back. (At one point he told me I would have to start thinking about having children soon. He has five- and seven-year-old kids and for his age it's a lot harder. Well thanks for the tip!) The hood is relatively clean and the people at the local diner seemed friendly enough. Good vibes so far anway....

Otherwise I'm a block or two from the L and G trains, and only three subway stops from downtown Manhattan. And just a couple blocks from the more lively center of Williamsburg. And I'm a good deal closer to Flushing. In fact, the route to Columbia is easy too, so it's all looking good. As for the digs the whole place is being renovated--so there are new hardwood floors, drywall, paint, fixtures, appliances, etc. Although it's a tad on the small side I'm stoked about being in a real apartment. To have dinner in a room that you don't sleep, eat, drink, work, and do just about everything else in! It's very exciting.

I guess the next task is to furnish the place. IKEA here I come.

Watched The Man Who Wasn't There. An interesting film at first but I didn't like the last half much. I knew nothing about it (I was actually looking for The Man Without A Past by Aki Kaurismaki) but it looked good. It's basically the tale of an out-of-the-way town and a married couple who live in it who get involved in a murder. It looked to be a good psychological study at first (something like Crime and Punishment) but it devolved into a rather cheesy murder-drama. The character-narrator husband makes dry but compelling observations about his wife and various people in town. He'd rather be anywhere else it seems. He'd rather have a meteor hit the town and wipe it out of existence. All very darkly comical or 'film noir'. So it's a shame the ending went Hollywoody and contrived, which are one in the same I guess. Excellent performance by Billy Bob Thornton as the husband though.

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Meanwhile the 2003 TdF is over after the riders sprint into Paris tomorrow. It's been the best TdF for many years. So many thrills, and spills....

Lance Armstrong
That he got his fifth Tour win in a row is amazing. His come back from cancer has been especially impressive, though most people outside the world of cycling don't realize that he wouldn't have ever been able to win a grand tour if he hadn't gotten cancer. It changed his body type (he lost more than 25 pounds after cancer, and that's not fat but muscle we're talking about). This year he got the toughest challenge he's ever had at the Tour, and he looked to be losing the race up until the Pyrenees, where he regained a lot of the strength he was missing in the Alps and the first time trial, in which he lost a minute and a half to Ullrich. He took only one stage win (not including the team time trial win by US Postal) but it was a major one atop Luz. He has proved again he has one of the top teams around him. I have to hand it to him--he played his cards perfectly and proved he's overall the best cyclist at the TdF. (Of course he's not world number one, as he skips most of the season so he can prepare for the Tour.) Nice one again, Lance.

Jan Ullrich
The only reason Jan has not dominated the Tour these recent years is because of Armstrong, who's just a little bit better than the German. Jan can't climb as well as the Texan but is probably equal in the time trial. But he seems to be back on track and he looked super lean and strong this Tour. He seems to have mastered his weight issues and kept to a good program, not including his ecstasy bust and driving his Porsche into a bike rack drunk. Of things for him to crash into!? If he keep things up he could have a great second half of 2003 and possibly win the World Championship Road Race and Time Trial. Otherwise he himself has said that this year's Tour was really a prep for next year, which he says will be the year he dethrones Armstrong and takes his second TdF win. Ullrich uber alles? Yes, if he just keeps off the donuts this winter....

Alexander "Vino" Vinoukurov
Third place this year, his highest ever finish at the Tour. He rode on another level than in years past. He has come into the crème de la crème of pro-cycling. A long way from his amateur days racing with obscure French teams. He needs a better team though, if he is going to win a grand tour. As it is he's got too many big guns on his team, a few of whom are capable of podium finishes in the grand tours--Kloden and Botero anyway. If he could get a new team or a deal with Telecom so he could be the GC man, he might be a top guy in the next five years.

Tyler Hamilton
The last of the men who are capable of winning the TdF, Tyler is awesome. This guy would obviously have made the podium if he hadn't been involved in the crash on stage one and broken his collar bone. The question is, Would he have been too much for Armstrong and Ullrich and Vino if he had not crashed so hard? He had a strong team in CSC, stronger than US Postal I think. He rode at the front almost every day and placed in the top five or ten every time trial. The saddest thing about the Tour this year is that he crashed because I think he might have beaten all the top guys on GC. Likely I think. But we'll never know. I just hope his team stays focused on next year's Tour. I think everybody will be chasing this guy next year.

Next up: La Vuelta a Espana and a return to the classics. And let's not forget the World Championships build up to October.

This final time trial is a bit of a joke really--it's pissing rain in Nantes and the riders can't go full throtle without falling down. It's all due to the rain. Nobody's fault of course but it's nonetheless a big anticlimax to me. Were it dry out I think Ullrich would've taken time out of Lance. Maybe not a lot but some. The rain slicked streets just preclude top performances.

David Millar looks to be the winner anyway. Should be the fastest ever time trial in Tour history. Almost 57 kph over 49 kms!! In the rain! Talk about Cool Britannia.

It's not over yet but it looks as if Armstrong is as fast as Ullrich in the TT. Feel sorry for the German but all in all it has been a grand tour, no pun intended. The best I've seen anyway. Next year could be the year for Jan though. Assuming the Texan takes this, his fifth Tour, will he be able to do what no other person has been able to do--win six Tours de France?? He's quite a specimen.

Who's Afraid of Finnish? and an intro to the language.

Been rather busy with classes, which are going fine enough. Both Phonology and Learning dis/Abilities are pretty interesting and the instructors are good. The former is pretty challenging as I’m not really the best student of linguistics, at least when it comes to the itty bitty parts. Though I like the deconstructing of languages, I’m not that interested in ironing out phonetic transcriptions and all that. I guess I’m an armchair linguist at heart. I prefer speaking languages at the end of the day, not transcribing them page after page. All in all I’m learning a good deal and it'll all help me teach languages more effectively.

Apartment-hunting has taken up a good deal of my time and patience. In the morning I’m meeting a Polish guy and we're going to look at one of his one-bedrooms in Brooklyn. I’ll be over the moon if I can get the place, but damned if I don’t. He’s a landlord of a friend. More tomorrow….

Otherwise on the Chicago front I’m scheming to get Whitty, bmac, and skrub to come out to NYC for Labor Day weekend. A little end-of-summer fun. At least Whitty is for sure. The other two characters are thinking about it. Would be a fun way to end what for me has not really been much of a summer at all.

In fact my only real sense of summer—besides riding my bike around Central Park, which is great in itself—has been watching the Tour de France, living vicariously through the speedy lives of others on TV.

Speaking of which. Le TdF finishes on Sunday and still the winner has not been decided. It’s going to come down to the individual time trial this Saturday. If Ullrich can take a minute eight out of Lance, he’ll win. Anything less than that means Armstrong will take his fifth Tour, tying only Indurain for five straight wins. Needless to say—Saturday is going to be the shit.

Thank god for OLN.

I, always, always, always pulling for the underdog, will be rooting for Ullrich. The smart money is on the Texan though. Still Tyler rides higher in the GC. After his escape yesterday he has been the Rider of the Tour, for this wanna-be Phil Ligget anyway....

Tyler wins a stage!

Marcin Noga, with Greg at left.

Tonight Marcin had his long-awaited photo exhibit at cafebar down on Houston Street. (Marcin is from Poland and has been living with my PC buddy Greg for a couple of months.) He takes really nice photos, but I don't have any to blog, unfortunately. He's a scream to hang out with.


My own snaps, this being one of my futuristic transporter, a.k.a. NYC Subway car.


Risa and Esther.


Dara, Greg's girlfriend (and a friend of hers I just don't know).


Esther at the best euro-frites chipper in NYC: "Really, I'm having fun!" (Should've gone for the 'petit' instead of the 'grande' fries, sister!)

So Lance comes back to take almost a minute lead on GC from Ullrich. Unbelieveable! He even wiped out on the Luz when his handlebar end caught a spectator's plastic bag. But there are still the days in between today and Paris, not least of which is the time trial, which should go to Ullrich. But can the German take back more than a minute?

It ain't over yet.

Giving Mozilla a go. Like the simple interface. Very straightfoward browsing.

If your Net surfing experience the last few years has been anything like mine, you'll laugh at this one. Give it a go.

The exams weren't too bad today. Getting up sucked as I got little sleep last night. The first exam was very short and ridiculously easy. The second, though, took me about four hours--80 rather challenging multiple-choice questions and a 300-600 word essay on the importance of parental involvement in a student's school work. I wrote a good essay, I think, but the multiple choice were annoying me. Probably because I was so tired. Anyway, I should be done with these teacher certification exams. Let's hope so anyway.

On the bright side I was able to hang out with some Fellows from the program who were also taking the exams. We had a long break after the first exam and had our lunch down by the pier near the Brooklyn Bridge.

As for Ullrich, he's getting closer to taking the TdF. Only 15 second down now. Who would have believed it?

Is Lance defeated?

Well, Armstrong's book is called It's Not About The Bike.

Taking two mandatory NY State teacher exams tomorrow. What better way to spend a summer Saturday? I'd rather catch up on some homework but I think that'll have to wait till Sunday.

Otherwise the TdF is a huge, lovely distraction. What great racing in the race's centenary celebration! Ulrich has finally come into good form. It's been a long time since he won a big race, and it looks as if he could actually take this Tour. Lance, it seems, has reached his limit. Or is he playing around? Probably not. You don't really bluff in a time trial in the Tour. I still think he'll be hard to beat in the Pyrenees. Only time will tell though. As much as I'd like Ulrich or Hamilton to win, it'd be a shame for Lance to miss out on a record-tying fifth win.

Like I'm going to be able to concentrate in the exam tomorrow knowing that the TdF is being won and lost in the first of four huge mountain stages in the south of France.

Silly French. When will the Academie realize language is not something you really can control?

A recent Yankees' win. Such a good time.

Are you a "highly qualified teacher"?

Ah, summer school. Love it; hate it. On the bright side I’ve got two excellent profs (actually one is only a doctoral student, but she’s very good). So I think I’m getting a lot out of both Phonetics & Phonology and Introduction to Learning dis/Abilities. I especially like P&P as it’s a thorough review of the English sound system and, as it’s part of the TESOL program, there’s a lot on how to teach pronunciation to ESL students. The instructor of dis/Abilities is organized and yet pretty goofy. A nice combo. She actually puts some of the other long-time full profs to shame.

On the less bright side I have to work my tail off reading and writing and thinking, heaven forbid. The ten days between the end of teaching and summer courses just wasn’t long enough. Boo hoo.

At the end of the day I have to say it’s nice to be in school, a good school, among dedicated people. And there are worse ways to spend one’s summer than studying all the time. One could be teaching high school!!

Otherwise today is the first “rest day” in the TdF, which is turning out to be one of the best in recent years. Really, this rest day consists of a three-hour ride for most of the racers lest their bodies fill up with latic acid.

Lance is either losing his crown or he’s bluffing and getting ready to kill the others in the Pyrenees. You can’t tell with that guy. I think he’s actually not bluffing and is really having a tough time in this, his fifth attempt to win the Tour.

Hamilton is still in the race! This is amazing, not to mention he’s doing great, with a good chance of climbing atop the podium in Paris in two weeks.

Beloki? Well, I never like him so I don’t miss him. He's a great cyclist but a bit shady, especially after attacking Ulrich last year when the German ran off the road on a fast descent.

Vinokurov lies in 2nd in the GC and is strong enough to win the Tour. But his inexperience at the grand tours is a potentially big problem. I met him while out training in Nice one fine day and he was just so friendly and quiet I just have to pull for him.

The only other name worth mentioning is Ulrich. My feeling is that he is riding stronger every day, but is still not on Armstrong’s level. But, considering the fact that the big Texan is not actually riding at his level of the last four TdFs, Ulrich is not only the next best candidate after Lance but also likely to challenge him very seriously. Ulrich’s climbing is still not that great—he’s just too slow and not explosive enough. He's a train.

I am sticking with my fave, Hamilton. If he could only get over the broken collarbone….

Apartment-hunting here just totally sucks. Just shoot me.

Has everyone seen this? I had to visit the page twice before I realized what it actually was. Guess I'm so used to not reading the fine print. Clever enough anyway.

Scott Riedman, a buddy from Peace Corps, was in this weekend. Hadn't seen him in four years or so, since Chicago. Scott and I were good friend since we met in pre-service training in Jihlava, CZ. He's now working in the Foreign Service Department of the United States. He finished his first two-year tour of duty this spring in Merida, Mexico. He's in D.C. for summer training for his next assignment (Quito, Ecuador). He told me a lot of wild stories about his job. Some scary. Mainly his job requires that he grant (or deny) visas to the US. He can do up to a hundred interviews a day. Said he grants about 80% of the applicants. But sometimes he has to do other things, like handle deaths of American tourists, lost or stolen personal items, arrests of drunk Americans who can't behave on vacation. One time he had to work with the coroner in town to identify the bodies of American tourists whose plane crashed. There were a few gruesome details I'll just have to leave out. To him it was not a big deal. He said I should look into the Foreign Service as it would suit me, but after hearing about some of the things he had to do I wonder would I be up to such a job. The most popular cause of death that he deals with? Scuba-diving accidents.

I told him he should start writing all his adventures down in a notebook. The exotic backdrop would already be there. He'd have a best-seller.


International Man of Mystery.

Otherwise we liked Crime and Punishment by Kaurismaki. Probably the "most normal" film of his, that I've seen anyway. Very weird, twisted humor but always entertaining and in some ways very honest observations about people on the outside of society. The adaptation is very close to the book. I still need to see A Man Without A Past.

We came across a very groovy Latin-themed club called Bembe over in Brooklyn. They have a Dj spinning from 10 o'clock on, while around the lounge there are various types of drums that the crowd is encouraged to pick up and play. The night we were there a few drummers were banging away in a circle and the crowd danced around them for several hours. Funny thing is that in certain parts of Brooklyn there are amazing clubs hidden in the seediest-looking neighborhoods and streets.

I'm going to pay back Scott and head out to D.C. for a weekend in August. Then to Quito during the winter break if all goes well.


The remote-control sailboats at Central Park.

Going to see Crime and Punishment Aki Kaurismaki-style at Bam.

Today I broke down and got cable installed so I can watch the Tour de France live on OLN, the only TdF coverage you can get on TV in the US. It's turning out to be a very good Tour this year. Lance is looking strong, unsurprisingly. Though he got seventh in the prologue, rather bad for him. Tyler Hamilton, my fave for the overall, even though he's something of an underdog, has been absolutely tough--he's riding with a broken collar bone, which he fractured in a couple parts in a nasty crash at about 40 mph in stage one. He's toughing it out like a champ. Go Tyler. I'm pulling for you!

Read the novel Lake Effect by Rich Cohen while on vacation recently. It tells the story of a group of friends who live in and around Glencoe, IL (if I remember correctly). It's a sort of coming-of-age story. The narrator spends much of the time talking about his buddy, quintessential cool dude Jamie Drew, otherwise known as 'Drew-licious,' a familiar troubled young man who waxes eloquent a little too easily but who is capable of making rather profound insights, invariably with an ironic philosophical twist. He is a kind of leader in the minds of his friends. There are stories about hanging around the 'burbs, road tripping to Chicago to see Cubs games and drink in bars on the South Side where nobody IDs, first sexual encounters, drinking, drugs, rock-n-roll. Later, when the kids grow up, most go off to college or get jobs. Drew-licious, the great wanna-be Beat, thumbs his way to the West Coast for a metaphorical baptism of sorts. (We learn later he actually sets out secretly to see his estranged father, who refuses him and sends him on the first bus back to the Midwest.)

Though this book was perfect as a summer vacation read, and I did enjoy certain sections a lot--especially the descriptions of Harry Carey at Wrigley Field and various scenes in which characters poke fun at life and death--I don't think the author really had a good handle of his overall story. And the book seems to have been put together wrong, almost in a hurry. There are scenes at the end of the book that take place in locations far from the heart of the narrative--the Midwest--for no good reason, as I can tell. Cohen seems to want to make a stark contrasts between the Midwest, his home, and 'other' places, as if to say 'We're not the same people we used to be.' Well, if this is the case, I think I've heard the story a couple thousand time already, thanks. This could have made for a good short story if certain later scenes were omitted. But as a complete novel I was disappointed with the thing. There are some corny events that take place at the end of the story that could have been left out too, as when the narrator begins talking about writing fiction (!!??) and making decisions about choosing to lead the life of a writer. Dude, save it for your autobiography! The only really successful fiction about being a fiction writer was A Portrait of the Artist. I personally hate it when writers write about writing, especially in novels. As Tom Stoppard once said, and I paraphrase, asking writers to talk about their writing is like a asking a plant to talk about horticulture. The suspended disbelief is ruined totally. The afterward seems very corny and kind of kills whatever aftertaste Cohen tries to serve up. Otherwise the writing is, at times, quite good and makes you wish the author had taken more pains in the overall design.

OK. It's back to studying, working, responsibility. Intro to Learning Disabilities began this afternoon. So far so good: the teacher seems very professional, organized, focused, friendly. The class is, not surprisingly, overenrolled. There are probably forty students in the class. Makes things seem more impersonal. This is a problem a friend of mine in the program is always arguing about, and he has a good point too. TC promotes itself as having a very personal touch, a low student-teacher ratio. But they don’t hire enough teachers to teach the students they admit. They’re making tons of extra money as a result.

Anyway, there’s reading to do from a book called No Pity: People with Disabilities Forging a New Civil Rights Movement, which seems to be interesting.

I’ve got to get back into the swing of classes again. It’s been a busy, playful month or so since last semester finished. Now, for the next five weeks or so, there will be several readings, papers, presentations, group projects. Not to mention that I’ve got Phonetics and Phonology starting tomorrow too. That should prove to be a more difficult course as we’re doing the same amount of work in half the time of the regular semester. Nothing new there necessarily; it’s just that I haven’t had such a technical course like it in a while. On the bright side the prof is excellent and well respected in TESOL and our program. So I should take a lot from him.

Otherwise, I had to interview today for the same job I’ve had since last September. The reason is that my school is merging with Project Blend in Brooklyn and all the teachers on the bottom half of the seniority list have to reapply. It is said to be a formality but I also heard that not everyone will be rehired. It’s hard to get a straight answer from the administration. So much for a formality though—I faced six interviewers from the Department of Education, Project Blend, and some others, including my assistant principal. They asked me:

“What does ‘alternative’ mean to you?”
“What are some ways you will work to include other teachers, students, and parents in the oncoming year in the new school?”
“What professional training have you had in your subject area?”
“Would you tell me about a successful lesson you have taught?”

And others. Well, I was not exactly ready for some of the questions but I think I managed to do OK overall. After they asked me what questions I had and I began firing queries about what exactly “accountability” is going to mean for teachers in the newly designed school, what teachers, who are really working for the benefit of the students, are going to have to support them in such areas as curbing slack attendance and inappropriate behavior, etc. I think things went especially well at the end of the interview as my questions to them opened up a rather long talk about the new school and “No Child Left Behind” legislation, among other concerns. I was surprised they did not ask me about anything on my vita, however. So much for pruning that thing at 2 A.M. last night!

Unfortunately, they probably won’t be able to tell me about whether I got the job till mid August. I hope to get it and, according to everyone I talk to, I shouldn’t worry about it. But if I don’t get it then I’ll have to find a new school in about two weeks at the end of August. That would suck.

Till then it's summer classes and reading in the park. I have to find a new place to live too for fall.

CNN article about consolidating those ominous student loans....

A lighthouse near Old Orchard Beach, Maine.


Old Orchard Beach, Maine.


Learning to eat lobster proper at Boone's Restaurant, Portland, Maine.


Server at The Great Lost Bear bar, Portland, Maine.


Hadlock Field, home of the Portland Sea Dogs.


Jim and friend at The Great Lost Bear.


Mini lighthouse, downtown Portland.

Maine was fun. The trip went fast but at the same time I was able to relax and enjoy the sites. It was about seven and half hours from NYC by train but well worth it. Besides, you get tons of space (unlike on a plane) and you can walk around and mingle in the cafe car if you fancy. You can totally stretch out. (I wouldn't mind taking the train to Chicago from NYC but it takes a whole day, if not longer.) The Amtrak's "Downeaster" train runs pretty much along the coast the whole way from NYC to Portland via Connecticut, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, states I'd never seen. Really beautiful coastal views.

The only snag was that in downtown Boston I, and about twenty other frantic passengers, had to go from Back Bay Station to the North Station by subway in about thirty minutes. None of us knew about this and Amtrak didn't seem to be on top of the transfer situation. They don't inform you of a transfer when you buy online. So that was a little annoying. On the way there I made it with only minutes to spare; on the way back the train conductor called the other station to ask them to hold the connecting train.

Otherwise, Jim and I got to burn our pale white skins happily on the beach and throw Frisbee for hours. In Portland we walked around, checked out the sights, ate seafood, drank local brews like Casco Bay, read in cool, out-of-the-way cafes. I highly recommend Maine. I want to go back. You could easily do a romantic trip or a fun group thing. Either way Mainers are very friendly, and eat and drink really well.

A year ago today I moved to New York City. Tempus fugit, eh? Keep on truckin'.

Portland is cool. And it's great to see Jim again. He's a true hipster, Beat, poet, man of the world. But he won't admit it. It's great to hang out with him and talk about his writing, books, traveling. I wasn't even planning on seeing a computer for several days but Jim wanted to drink coffee at this specific cafe, which is very traditional looking in every way except for the iMacs housed in bookcases. I needed to check up on the lead up to the Tour de France anyway.

The train ride to Maine was relaxing; I read some and stared out the window a lot. It's the way to go, I swear.

So far Jim and I managed to see a lot of downtown Portland -- its cafes, bars, waterfront, restaurants. Last night we managed to meet up with some locals who drank with us and told us about Maine. One of them worked as a figure skating instructor in Bloomington, IL. They invited us to their house and we talked about cats. Jim's crazy about animals.

Today we sat in the grassy area along Casco Bay reading and watching the sail boats sail past. So quiet here. Then again, a circus would seem quiet compared to NYC. There is constant, cool breeze here that is just so refreshing. Otherwise it's warm and sunny. I've never seen so many nice pubs and coffee shops. There are probably a few hundred boats in the harbor area. Not to mention lots of seafood restaurants. Tonight I'm going to try to get Jim to eat some lobster.

Met up with some fellow teachers from Queens for a pub lunch at McSorley's Old Ale House, where Rob, a chemisitry teacher, was talking about taking me to all spring semester. It's on the Lower East Side, on 7th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues.


Moi, Rob, Jerry, and Saji.

What fun too. This place is over a hundred years old. Original owner an Irish guy, surprise, from Killkenny. When you order "a beer" they serve you two small mugs of their own brew, which is really good. They serve up some good corn beef hash too. The walls are covered with various photos of different owners and patrons, newspaper articles about important events that took place in NY (and the pub itself), interesting bits of history. It's like a museum where everyone's drinking beer. A must see for visitors to NYC. Don't miss the dusty, hundred-year-old wish bones hanging from the ceiling. If you're lucky you'll even get to hear grumpy old men shouting "this country is going to hell" and such over an afternoon beer. Anyway, it was great to see the other teachers and talk about things other than teaching for once.





God, summer's a great time....

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As for yesterday...

In the middle of cleaning my pad from top to bottom last night, Greg Hesse called me out to a bar we go to every now and then called Yogi's, up here on the Upper West Side. The place is on the wild side for this area. I can't say I like that much it but it's so weird I almost do. They have a good-looking Web site, which is pretty misleading because the actual place is closer to a dump than anything else. It's a country bar with a huge wooden statue of a bear outside the entrance. Some over-served patrons constantly feed soggy dollar bills into the jukebox, which has only country and western and red-neck music. Peanut shells lay over the entire floor. The beer is cheap at 9 bucks a pitcher. (Yes, you can get pitchers in some Manhattan bars.) People smoke at this bar, which, though stinky, is satisfying in a pathetic way since it slaps Bloomberg right in the face. Lastly, the 'highlight' for many of the over-served is the servers. They are everything red necks idolize in women, apparent from the group of gawkers who stare fixedly amazed at the ladies in mid-drifts who try in vain to pour beer correctly. Someone at our table wondered out loud what the criteria are for successful applicants for the position of server at Yogi's. All in all it has the characteristics of a David Lynch bar, sans out-of-this-world freaky little man with distorted voice.

So why do we go there every now and then? It's a blast. And a nice break from the typical Upper West Side conservatism.