The View From Here- NYC continued
The day after Halloween, the city seemed to casually shrug off its Satanic hangover and get right back down to the business of being the modern-day Babylon it is. The next few days in NYC were spent making the rounds of people, places and things there and getting reaquainted with my old home after all these years in happy exile.
To sum it all up, the recent visit to NYC was a good and satisfying trip all around. But after so many years away from the old home that was once the center of the universe to me and so many exiles, I find that I really like NYC a lot better now that I live and work in a kinder, more laid-back enviornment. Like the man said, “it’s a nice place to visit.”
Still, it was just like old times for the few days I was there, sharing a few brotherly moments with old friends like Jim Jarmusch, Gibby Haynes, Bonge and some of my other old NY cronies. As the days went by it became more and more like old home week. Even my fellow Ukrainian Gypsy transplant and Cigano Carioca, Eugene Hutz showed up in town with the rest of his band, Gogol Bordello, taking care of record company business and getting visas for their upcoming South American tour. It was real nice to see Eugene and Frankie from Gogol at my reading the next day. In the blink of a fly’s eye, NY was a non-stop whirlwind of people and activity.
But the main event, for Narcisa at least, was over in Brooklyn where I begrudgingly went limping across the bridge for yet another book signing and reading the night before my great escape from North America. By that point I think I was pretty much just glad to get the whole thing over with. Alotta people turned out for my final literary gasp of the year which, like most things in NY, went by in the wink of an eye. Mercifully perhaps, I barely even remember being there now.
This public reading shit is starting to run on Auto-pilot for me already. Big thanks and a big shout out to my old friend John Bloodclot of Cromag fame and Max G Morton, my co-readers. Also thanks to Eugene and Frankie from Gogol Bordello who showed up. Mixto, prala!! Also props to Kembra Pfahler, my gracious NY hostess and her glamorous sidekick, filmmaker, Bijoux Altamiro. Thanks as well to the notorious Gibby and company, and the good Dr. Bruce Paly, one of my oldest living friends who showed up out of nowhere. The thing even got a nice little write-up in the reptilio-spawned NY Press (ARTICLE HERE) — Henry Kissinger’s personal butt-poodle. Fuck it. I’ll take whatever small kindness I can wherever I can get it.
So after a final hang after the reading and a delicious dinner at a nice little joint in Brooklyn, I hung until late with Kembra, Gibby, Bijoux and the great Dustin Yellin, an artist friend of Gibby’s over at his impressive and innovative Red Hook studio.
Finally, after sitting up till the wee hours with Bijoux in a Macdougal St coffee house talking about possible future film projects and collaborations, I made a bee-line back to Kembra’s place at dawn to pack and sleep a few hours before another upcoming travel day.
Kelly said,
November 26, 2009 at 3:46 am
This blog is stuffed with goodness of verbal and optical yum yums!
jonathan shaw said,
November 26, 2009 at 9:40 am
thank you…