Friday 31 July 2009

The BIG Apple


I'm constantly surprised to be reminded of just how humongous the United States is. I had the notion that travelling from my uncle's house to Manhattan would take half an hour at most, and that Long Island was about 30 miles long.

Big mistake.

Long Island is 125 miles long. my uncle lives very near the beginning of it, just a 5 minute walk to the beach were I have a perfect view of Connecticut and of the general area of Billy Joel's humble abode. It takes nearly two hours to get to Manhattan as first we have to drive ten or fifteen minutes to a bus stop, taking the bus for an hour and then getting the subway for another 45 minutes to an hour, finally arriving in Times Square.

Not only does the expanse of this, the land of the brave and home of the free (or, according to the legendary Mr Pinnington - the land of the stupid, home of the exceedingly fat), never cease to blow my mind; but the size of the buildings makes me feel a mere mortal gawping up at Mount Olympus.

Times Square, Wall Street, the Financial District, the City Hall, the whole of Fifth Avenue, loom majestically up from the walkway of their minuscule masters, dwarf the denizens of this - the apple of the States' eye. Gargantuan blocks of marble, exquisitely carved sculptures atop stupendously crafted edifices look down and seem to challenge each one of us to conquer their dazzling heights.

It's cool.

P.S.V.

Thursday 30 July 2009

New York, New York




We took the 7 train into Manhattan today. As we got closer and closer, the train circled round the city so we got a fantastic panorama of the city skyline.

It was fit.

Stepping out of the subway station, we were confronted with the Chrysler Building. That thing is immense! Mind you, almost every building in the city gives you a crick in the neck if you try to see the top. Hopefully we'll be going to the top of the Rockerfeller centre, one of the taller buildings in Manhattan, on of the evenings this week to see the city at night from on high.

Time Square, dear reader, is phenomenal. The lights dazzled me and I was immediately seduced by them. I love this city.

Then on to Central Park (with a quick stop by Elmo for good measure) we witnessed some frankly dazzling street break dancing (videos to follow).

New York is fantabulous. You know it is. So do I. The only difference is that I'm only a train ride away from the place. You have the Atlantic to cross over.

Thanks for your continued love and envy.

P.S.V. (Post Script Video)

Tuesday 28 July 2009

New York State of Mind

Tomorrow (Wednesday the 29th of July), Luke and I will jet off to the land of obesity, intolerance and cheeseburgers. We will be leaving this miserable summer behind and be sunning ourselves on the choicest of beaches New York State has to offer and then travelling to San Francisco on the 9th of August to complete our trip with another week and a half in "The City".

You are not invited on this trip of awesomeness.

You may however, choose to browse the numerous photos, videos and blogs that will be appearing on my facebook page. www.facebook.com/sirandytaylor

As the purchase of alcohol is restricted to those over the age of 21. Sadly we will not be visiting late night bars cruising for ladieeeees. In N.Y. (we're on abbreviated terms now) there are many late night coffee shops where we will cruise for heart palpitations and wide eyed enthusiasm.

San Francisco, or "The City" as it is called, is the city where I will celebrate my 20th birthday. Go me for staying alive this long.

Anywhoooo - stay posted to feel envious. Yes, I am lauding this over you just to make you feel slightly jealous. It's very fun to do so.

Adios - have a nice life in England while I get a fantastic tan in the States.

P.S.V (Post Script Video)

Monday 20 July 2009

Music Monday 20th July 2009

As the vast majority of you know, I ADORE music. No seriously, I'm a junkie for the musicness. So it brings me great joy to stumble across brilliant new people who make my drug of choice. No, not caffeine, alcohol, films or tobacco (though it's always nice to find those people) I mean people who make sweet sweet music.

First off is Raven Zoe, who you should listen to just for her awesome name. I discovered Raven on YouTube.

Here's a little taster of her amazingness - on a MANDOLIN! Cool upon ice cream of cool. (I don't have a clue what that means)



So when she released her EP a few days ago - I rushed to buy it and I will tell you lovely lovely people just how much I liked it when it arrives.

You can also buy it here: http://kunaki.com/sales.asp?PID=PX00ZMN66C


Second on my list is Tom Felton. Yes, the very same Tom Felton who is Draco Malfoy. Not only does he look incredibly different on his website : http://feltbeats.com/ but he writes music.

His new album "In Good Hands" is out now and is available here along with YouTube videos of his coolness : http://feltbeats.com/2009/05/18/tom-feltons-new-album-in-good-hands-now-available-on-napstercom/


Thirdly is Lalouba Jane. She started randomly following me on Twitter (I don't blame her, I am awesome after all) and so I followed her back and talked to her a bit - she's quite funny. Then I noticed her link to this site: http://www.reverbnation.com/laloubajane and almost died with joy when I heard her music.

Her album/EP should be out any time soon - just as soon as she gets the artwork done. I can't wait.


Thanks for stopping by - have a nice life.


P.S.V (Post Script Video)
I have decided to shove one of these in after every post. Hope you enjoy!

This time, we see someone who doesn't make my list of good musicians...

Friday 17 July 2009

Andy Is A Technophile

Greetings citizens, denizens and general hangers on.

I would love to let you know that I am now the proud owner of a Mac Book pro, the new iPhone, £25,000,000 and a bright blue Lamborghini. I can't.

I hope you will be able to settle for the fact that I have decided (again, whether you like it or not) to deliver my Frog (for those of you who are new here, that's a blog written whilst in France) through the marvellous medium of blogspot.com.

This just means that in addition to me posting the Frog before your squinty little eyes on Facebook, I will be posting the link to it all on blogspot.com. It's quite simple really. I write something spectacular, post it in two locations on the internet, thereby doubly blessing humankind.

My blogspot can be found at sirandytaylor.blogspot.com (as if you didn't know - you're already here)
and may indeed feature interesting extras. As if you cared.

If you feel the burning urge to comment - then please do. If you don't feel the burning urge, I feel obliged to ask you why. If you look at blogs and frogs as a mere conversation but typed - then it seems oh so very logical (not to mention polite) to reply, retort and repent. Feel free to do one or all of the previous actions.

At this moment in time, precisely 37% of my readers now think that I am a needy nerd who just wants to have people see how good he thinks he is, laugh at his weak attempts at humour and casual references to the under appreciated art of eugenics for the mentally sub-par, and to praise him so that he can feel better about his current lack of home conversation. May I please reassure the remaining 63% that this is in fact, correct. Now go cry about it.

As ever, have a nice life.

Just Andy

Pre Frog Blog

I have decided, whether you like it or not, to do a regular blog during my year in France. I call it a year - it's not - that's just me being pretentiously melodramatic.

It's seven months in case you were wondering.

Said blog will be called a Frog for obvious reasons. However, I am well aware that a number of my readers may not see these reasons (bless their sub-cent-IQs) and so to furnish such peons with the knowledge that will get them precisely nowhere in life, I will elaborate below:

Reason number 1: Frogs are cool.

Reason number 2: So is the internet.

Reason number 3: I have nothing to do.

Reason number 4: Every self respecting person has a blog these days. (Yes, I am insinuating that if you don't have one you're not self respecting) and so I thought that I'd have something a little different. After all, how many people can say that they've written a frog? Even if the answer to that question is higher than I suppose it to be, how many people can say that they invented the Frog apart from myself and God?

Reason number 5: You love me.

Reason number 6: I love me too.

Reason number 7: I love you loving me.

Reason number 8: You love me loving you loving me.

Reason number 9: With such an abundance of love in the air, I have decided to create a frog. Out of words in my head.

Reason number 10: It's a friggin' cross between the words France and Blog dumbass.


The Frog will be a collection of musings, recordings of my adventures in the classroom and the no doubt crazy Italian and rather humourless German with whom I will be living, the occasional question, and possibly a rant or two.

Feel free to drop into my head and rummage around for some inspiration when I am gone. Please do this through the provided semi-amphibious medium I have just been talking about and not with a scalpel.

Adios

Just Andy

P.S. Tom and Lily - if you're reading this, I hope you appreciate the previous line.