Monday, September 26, 2005
Apartment one, hurricanes nil.
The breaking news stories of the weekend...
1. I have an apartment... it's awesome... more details soon, especially the really scary sign-up time and the cost of furnishing a place from scratch.
2. The hurricane came nowhere near Dallas. And I didn't really see many people here from Houston/Galveston either. However, I was on four UK stations talking about it last Friday (which is always fun) and it was quite windy on Saturday.
3. There are more brands of cider here than there are in the UK.
1. I have an apartment... it's awesome... more details soon, especially the really scary sign-up time and the cost of furnishing a place from scratch.
2. The hurricane came nowhere near Dallas. And I didn't really see many people here from Houston/Galveston either. However, I was on four UK stations talking about it last Friday (which is always fun) and it was quite windy on Saturday.
3. There are more brands of cider here than there are in the UK.
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
Right now I'm watching CNN...
...and they're showing an aeroplane circling above an airport. Why? Cos it's landing gear is stuck and won't go up or down. How awful for the people on it.
And here we are, watching it on TV as if it's the next episode of Casualty. And I guess the cameras will stay trained right through to the successful/grim end I suppose. How awful.
There's a grim fascination about the whole thing. It's a bit like when you watch a film and try to look away when the gory bits happen, but you're actually peering through your fingers.
Prayers and crossed fingers for a painless landing...
And here we are, watching it on TV as if it's the next episode of Casualty. And I guess the cameras will stay trained right through to the successful/grim end I suppose. How awful.
There's a grim fascination about the whole thing. It's a bit like when you watch a film and try to look away when the gory bits happen, but you're actually peering through your fingers.
Prayers and crossed fingers for a painless landing...
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
I'm in love with a jazz star...
...and no, it's not Jamie Cullum before you humour-slayers speak up.
It's the one and only Katie Melua! Aww, she's fab, and so is her new album (especially track 3). A mate in radio in the UK sent it over which was very kind of him.
And then another mate recorded this... ah, if only it'd come true!
http://www.devaweb.demon.co.uk/surprise.mp3
She's perfect.
It's the one and only Katie Melua! Aww, she's fab, and so is her new album (especially track 3). A mate in radio in the UK sent it over which was very kind of him.
And then another mate recorded this... ah, if only it'd come true!
http://www.devaweb.demon.co.uk/surprise.mp3
She's perfect.
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
After much research...
...I can confim that the easiest take-away meal to eat on the move is a Chicken McNuggets meal. Automatic cars also make the task easier.
Saturday, September 10, 2005
"Keane" - a common language
I spent a couple of hours this afternoon sitting outside my local Starbucks, writing emails and scrips and suchlike. And I was wearing my Keane T-Shirt from the gig I went to a couple of hours ago.
Then a girl (well, woman walks up). "Oh, I really love Keane, they're so good..." Blimey! Turns out that she's a massive fan of them, was at the same gig as me, and so on.
Anyway, this isn't a romantic thing - the point of the post is that Americans seem a lot happier with the concept of walking up to strangers and starting a conversation. It's not something that most Brits, particularly in cities, seem very good at doing. After all, we just sit in the bus/tube/cafe/park and say nothing to anyone. In fact, if we can, we'll wear headphones and bury ourselves in a magazine or paper.
In other news...
There are lots of shops and cafes here. Loads of them. Everywhere. And most of them seem to have more staff than customers. At the bottom of my road, there's a row of shops... Starbucks, Matress King, UPS Shop, about 3 or 4 small cafes, a tanning shop... but they all seem to be empty, all of the time.
I popped into Matress King as I'll need a bed for the forthcoming flat and apart from the guy working there, there wasn't a soul to be seen. He was very helpful though, gave me lots of info and prices, gave me his number, and told me that if I need furniture, a friend of his works for Furniture Warehouse down the road and can help me out.
My conclusion? Well, there isn't one really. Except that it's all very customer-focused, which I think is a good thing. Why don't they go bust? I'm not sure - maybe staffing and customer care is considered more important here than back home. And that's never a bad thing.
Then a girl (well, woman walks up). "Oh, I really love Keane, they're so good..." Blimey! Turns out that she's a massive fan of them, was at the same gig as me, and so on.
Anyway, this isn't a romantic thing - the point of the post is that Americans seem a lot happier with the concept of walking up to strangers and starting a conversation. It's not something that most Brits, particularly in cities, seem very good at doing. After all, we just sit in the bus/tube/cafe/park and say nothing to anyone. In fact, if we can, we'll wear headphones and bury ourselves in a magazine or paper.
In other news...
There are lots of shops and cafes here. Loads of them. Everywhere. And most of them seem to have more staff than customers. At the bottom of my road, there's a row of shops... Starbucks, Matress King, UPS Shop, about 3 or 4 small cafes, a tanning shop... but they all seem to be empty, all of the time.
I popped into Matress King as I'll need a bed for the forthcoming flat and apart from the guy working there, there wasn't a soul to be seen. He was very helpful though, gave me lots of info and prices, gave me his number, and told me that if I need furniture, a friend of his works for Furniture Warehouse down the road and can help me out.
My conclusion? Well, there isn't one really. Except that it's all very customer-focused, which I think is a good thing. Why don't they go bust? I'm not sure - maybe staffing and customer care is considered more important here than back home. And that's never a bad thing.
Thursday, September 08, 2005
Odds and ends
They find that phrase quite funny. Almost as funny as "bits and bobs".
I watched Layer Cake at the weekend with an American friend - it's so full of all the typically gangster lines, it was fantastic. I'd love it if foreign students learnt English from films like that... apart from anything else, every line would have the f word in it.
The Killers were fantastic in concert. Really good. Though it took about an hour to get out of the car park which was a bit of a bind. There's three blinding gigs coming up in a couple of weeks - Doves, Coldplay and Oasis. Once night after another, and I don't think I can get to them all, so I'm trying to decide. Currently, Oasis are in the lead. And I might be off to see Interpol tomorrow... tickets are expensive so we were thinking off seeing what the touting lark is. Would be a shame to get arrested though!
Flat-hunting is complicated.
Car-hunting is equally complicated.
More importantly...
Look at this place! Heaven!
www.worldsrvice-uk.com
I shall *so* be heading there at the weekend!
I watched Layer Cake at the weekend with an American friend - it's so full of all the typically gangster lines, it was fantastic. I'd love it if foreign students learnt English from films like that... apart from anything else, every line would have the f word in it.
The Killers were fantastic in concert. Really good. Though it took about an hour to get out of the car park which was a bit of a bind. There's three blinding gigs coming up in a couple of weeks - Doves, Coldplay and Oasis. Once night after another, and I don't think I can get to them all, so I'm trying to decide. Currently, Oasis are in the lead. And I might be off to see Interpol tomorrow... tickets are expensive so we were thinking off seeing what the touting lark is. Would be a shame to get arrested though!
Flat-hunting is complicated.
Car-hunting is equally complicated.
More importantly...
Look at this place! Heaven!
www.worldsrvice-uk.com
I shall *so* be heading there at the weekend!
Vehicles
America has, quite possibly, some of the most incredible vehicles I've ever seen. Pick-up trucks larger than the biggest transit vans, town-cars that surely must have rappers behind their darkened windows, Hummers that old ladies use to do their daily errands in, and SUVs that you could probably move an entire school of children in.
And, just like in the films, there's bright yellow school buses, dozens of non-descript 'sedans' (saloons), and hardly any hatchbacks at all.
They also have dozens of makes that have never made it to Europe. Chevy, Dodge, Buick, GMC, Mercury, Saturn, Oldmobile, Pontiac, the list goes on.
And fuel has hit 3 dollars a gallon. They're up in arms. As far as I'm concerned, it's great value.
And, just like in the films, there's bright yellow school buses, dozens of non-descript 'sedans' (saloons), and hardly any hatchbacks at all.
They also have dozens of makes that have never made it to Europe. Chevy, Dodge, Buick, GMC, Mercury, Saturn, Oldmobile, Pontiac, the list goes on.
And fuel has hit 3 dollars a gallon. They're up in arms. As far as I'm concerned, it's great value.
Fame and glory, one call at a time.
Fame and glory. Having signed off the airwaves in the UK (in fact, having been forced off thei airwaves a few times), I'm now back on, albeit in very small doses.
Each evening at around half past seven, I do a daily showbiz update for Core Fresh Hits (it's on Sky Digital, DAB and the net)... info on the latest stateside gossip and showbiz that's happening here.
And the other morning I was on BBC Radio Oxford, talking to Anne Diamond about how Dallas has reacted to the influx of evacuees into the town. She does the breakfast show, so it meant being awake at 3am, but I quite often am anyway.
Two opposite ends of content, but it's lovely to be speaking on air again. It's like Red Bull... however hard I try to give it up, I can't!
Each evening at around half past seven, I do a daily showbiz update for Core Fresh Hits (it's on Sky Digital, DAB and the net)... info on the latest stateside gossip and showbiz that's happening here.
And the other morning I was on BBC Radio Oxford, talking to Anne Diamond about how Dallas has reacted to the influx of evacuees into the town. She does the breakfast show, so it meant being awake at 3am, but I quite often am anyway.
Two opposite ends of content, but it's lovely to be speaking on air again. It's like Red Bull... however hard I try to give it up, I can't!
Friday, September 02, 2005
Katrina and the waves
The Katrina disaster has reached Dallas.
Not the water, or the wind, or the lack of power... not even the looting, but people. People have driven here to escape. And it's not just here, it's Houston, it's pretty much everywhere. And it's at that point, the disaster becomes real.
We see a lot of disasters on TV. From the Tsunami through to the problems in Africa highlighted by Live8, we're always getting images of hardship and bad times. So much so that I think it's easy to become sanitised by them. Add into it all the man-made images we get in films and dramas, and it's not unusual to see sights of hardship, disaster, desperation.
Now though, it's in my backyard, which makes it harder to file to one side in your mind. The hotel I'm staying in is suddenly full... and I'm guess by people who have the money and transport resources to get here and pay here. People sit outside the hotel, looking stunned, unsure what to do, where to go. Unsure what they've got left in the way of possessions, loved ones, unsure if their home is still there.
I was listening to a guy on the local radio this morning who's driven here from the flood zone. He was saying that even if his house is still there, chances are it's been looted, or that someone else is living in it. His outlook was that he was happy for someone else to stay there, eat their food, drink their water, even steal their electronics, as long as they leave the personal items.
The debate in the US is now starting to get political, and that's an area I'm keeping well out of. Either way, it seems that not enough was done, and it certainly wasn't done soon enough.
One of my colleagues here (who's from Luisianna) has been emailing everyone in the building asking them to bring various supplies which she's taking to some of the areas where escapees are gathering. I stopped by WalMart this morning and got a load of drinks, non-perishable snacks, that kind of stuff, and dropped them off at the back of the building. And I was really amazed by how much was there, box after box of stuff - loads of it. It was like the Blue Peter appeals we used to do at school.
Except this time it's real, and it's happening here. And that means you're giving help because people really need help. Not just because some guy on TV says it's the thing to do, and you kinda know it is.
And the TV pictures get no better.
Not the water, or the wind, or the lack of power... not even the looting, but people. People have driven here to escape. And it's not just here, it's Houston, it's pretty much everywhere. And it's at that point, the disaster becomes real.
We see a lot of disasters on TV. From the Tsunami through to the problems in Africa highlighted by Live8, we're always getting images of hardship and bad times. So much so that I think it's easy to become sanitised by them. Add into it all the man-made images we get in films and dramas, and it's not unusual to see sights of hardship, disaster, desperation.
Now though, it's in my backyard, which makes it harder to file to one side in your mind. The hotel I'm staying in is suddenly full... and I'm guess by people who have the money and transport resources to get here and pay here. People sit outside the hotel, looking stunned, unsure what to do, where to go. Unsure what they've got left in the way of possessions, loved ones, unsure if their home is still there.
I was listening to a guy on the local radio this morning who's driven here from the flood zone. He was saying that even if his house is still there, chances are it's been looted, or that someone else is living in it. His outlook was that he was happy for someone else to stay there, eat their food, drink their water, even steal their electronics, as long as they leave the personal items.
The debate in the US is now starting to get political, and that's an area I'm keeping well out of. Either way, it seems that not enough was done, and it certainly wasn't done soon enough.
One of my colleagues here (who's from Luisianna) has been emailing everyone in the building asking them to bring various supplies which she's taking to some of the areas where escapees are gathering. I stopped by WalMart this morning and got a load of drinks, non-perishable snacks, that kind of stuff, and dropped them off at the back of the building. And I was really amazed by how much was there, box after box of stuff - loads of it. It was like the Blue Peter appeals we used to do at school.
Except this time it's real, and it's happening here. And that means you're giving help because people really need help. Not just because some guy on TV says it's the thing to do, and you kinda know it is.
And the TV pictures get no better.
