First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin

My mom just sent me this link. It kind of represents all that I hate about 80s Leonard Cohen, but it's also kind of awesome. Or at least fitting in a very literal way...
Check it out!

Prospect Park

Today Kunji and I met her friends Michael and Helene at a great brunch cafe called Cheryl's Global Soul on Underhill Street near Prospect Park. Grand Army Plaza and the Brooklyn Public Library were around the corner and really impressive. It was like the WPA and New Deal coming to life.

Helene is from Denmark and has a fascination with both Berlin (where she spent some time in the 80s) and Portland (to which she has never been). Naturally we got along great. Plus they've got a very cute little blonde boy named Turner. She was speaking Danish on and off through the day and it sounded like Swedish-German. Very odd.

After brunch we met Alice, Boden, Manny and Emily for a walk to a playground in the middle of Prospect Park. It was a play date for the kids, but also for the adults. We definitely outnumbered the babies and could've taken them down easily. Instead we let them play peacefully with sandboxes and slides. What a nice group of fogies we are.

At one point we were cowering under a play structure to stay out of the rain when this baby pushed right by me to the slide. Ah, New Yorkers. I guess they are born that way.

It was nice to see Boden and Kunji hanging out. Glad that we could get together as a family here.
Later we went with Michael and Helene to a bar called Commonwealth on 5th Ave. & 12th St. It had been raining all day, but luckily their back patio had a huge umbrella. When the downpour started again we were protected.

Kunji and I finished up the night with grocery shopping trip to get ingredients for the Potato Leek Soup that I really like to make. Normally you wouldn't really want that in the summer, but it's such bizarre weather that it was perfect. The kitchen in her apartment is really cozy and the soup turned out delicioussss.

Now I'm blogging, or finished blogging and Kunji is hand-stamping business cards.

Sweet.

I think tomorrow I'll head into Manhattan for a few hours. First time since the 2004 Republican Convention.

Maybe I'll buy a camera first to spare you the grainy photos.

East Coast Romp '09 Begins

I've left Portland.

After an epic day of BBQ and fire-fueled dance partying it was time to go. Gabe drove me. I barely made the plane - not his fault, I swear.

This morning at 6:20 a.m. I landed at JFK with Alice and Boden.

I barely slept. Spent most of the flight channel surfing between La Liga soccer on GOLTV and a History channel special on the world without humans. I'm not sure which was better, but it made for great flicking back and forth. Also saw some wonderful infomercials.

Boden fell right to sleep after we got to altitude and only his randomly kicking my leg or knocking my headphone cord loose reminded me that he was squirreling around on Alice's lap.
Generally it was a great flight.

Once we landed we waited for our luggage and Boden tried to chase the small birds that have made a home inside the baggage claim area of JFK. Sometimes he would see them before I and go running off after word yelling "Bird! Bird?"

My bags are heavy. I'm not quite sure how heavy because the woman at the JetBlue desk in Portland didn't even bother weighing them in, but lugging these two bags plus my huge backpack through JFK and then through NYC mass transit and finally to Kunji's third floor apartment took its toll.

The area around 5th Ave and Degraw here in Brooklyn is a big leap from Portland. Lots more tire rim shops and gas stations. After hanging in the kitchen and decompressing, I ended up taking a much needed nap. I'd been kind of buzzing from the long trek to Kunji's abode, but a guy's gotta sleep.

I woke up to talk to C as she opened my birthday package that had finally arrived in Berlin. Finally! We also talked about her prospects for housing in DC later this summer - looking good.

At 3, Kunji and I met up with Tara, her roommate Daisy, and her boyfriend Tim. We had coffee. We looked at a potential apartment at 7th Ave and Garfield. We booked it the hell out of that bizarro place and had a beer at the Park Slope Ale House.

Eventually we headed back in at Tara's for a little board game action. As we began I noticed Mr. Alex on Gchat. We spoke a bit and it turned out that Todd, Jarratt and he were about to play some Settlers of Catan. Sounds like fun guys. Wish I could be there, but oh well, I've got a new game for ya. It's called: Pimp City. You pick the prostitute figurine that most represents you, then walk around the board, in very Monopoly-like fashion (there's even fake money), until a. everyone gets bored playing truth or dare, b. enough whores run out of money that one comes out the winner or c. you decide it'd be more fun to sit out back in the rain and finish Tara's brand new bottle of Lovejoy Vodka from Portland.

We settled on c. Pimp City ain't got nothin' on Settlers.

Tara and I took a walk around the block for beer at one point, coming back with some vegan popcorn and a bottle of Radeberger for me along with a bottle of Krusovice for Tim. Awesome. Radeberger is somehow about the same price in Brooklyn as in a Berlin Spaetkauf (bodega). Crazy. Eventually the umbrellas came out so we all sat around the table with them perched on our shoulders discussing things like gnosticism and why Tim had this certain kind of tobacco pipe.

Eventually Kunji and I headed back to Park Slope where we met up with Allen at the Union Hall to catch the end of a set by The Loom (picture). Turns out that their horn player went to Oberlin with me. I thought she looked familiar. They're playing another show on the Lower East Side on Friday night. Maybe I'll go.

For now I'm jetlagged and it's way past my bedtime.

Hello NYC.