Tonight i've finally realised why i've been feeling confused and anxious towards people for the past two months. In america i met few and far people i actually wanted to talk to. I think i've figured it out...
"While misanthropes express a general dislike for humanity on the whole, they typically have normal relationships with individual members of society. Misanthropy may be motivated by feelings of isolation or social alienation, or simply contempt for the perceived prevailing characteristics of humanity...Misanthropes can hold normal and intimate relationships with people, but they will often be very few and far between. They will typically be very selective with whom they choose to associate"
Now i know why i liked Catcher in the Rye so much. Cheers JD Salinger, you've made me feel like it's alright to be a misanthropist.
Thursday, 10 September 2009
Thursday, 20 August 2009
I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning
Jetlag has destroyed me. I fell asleep at 6pm watching friends and woke up again at 3am. Layed in bed for the next, god knows how long, i might have fallen conciously asleep but next thing i new i had twilight in the dvd player. It was either that or the watchmen as blockbuster had provided me with cheap titles to buy however watchmen probably would have sent me into a coma at that time in the morning. I dont stay to finish the end of twilight, i drive to the beach and go running. Seven weeks of crappy american food will make you want to run a mile or ten.
All i want to do now is cook and read all day. I have a massive urge to read camus or bukowski but the library has apparently never heard of camus or the lady who looked it up is wrong about knowing her literature.
I will slowly add extracts of the trip in between my tired eyes and soul, maybe starting from toronto later however LA is fresh and exciting so i may get muddled up.
Hannah xoxo
All i want to do now is cook and read all day. I have a massive urge to read camus or bukowski but the library has apparently never heard of camus or the lady who looked it up is wrong about knowing her literature.
I will slowly add extracts of the trip in between my tired eyes and soul, maybe starting from toronto later however LA is fresh and exciting so i may get muddled up.
Hannah xoxo
Wednesday, 19 August 2009
Better In Manhattan.
Day 2 New York-wake up pretty early to change hostels. Go to the metropolitan museum for the day. Walk around acting like pseudo-intellectuals. It's hot and i'm wearing skinny jeans. We later get ripped off at a place called metro diner by our new hostel by a shovanist italian waiter, i do not tip. Me and dan head to the cinema to see proposal on times square because i am twenty years old and still have a thing for ryan reynolds. Dan now has a thing for sandra bullock. Mark and jamie head to a comedy club and we all meet up later on, attempt to find the rockerfeller center for about half an hour. Me and dan eat mcflurrys, i feel sick.
Day 3 New York- I go for an early warm sunday morning jog in central park where i come across a triathalon and battle the competitors. I swear i see hilary duff jogging. Later, Dan, mark and i go to set your goals, four year strong, the swellers and fireworks in new jersey. Great show. I feel 17 again. Jamie gets caught up in a tornado back in manhattan. We meet some local new york natives who come from the show back at the train station heading back. They seem ignorantly bliss as to why we have come to new jersey for a show, does this sum up most of the americans i meet on this trip? Quite possibly.
Day 4 New York- I venture out on my own today. I take the subway to times square with an ipod and armed with an OK magazine. I try to find the rockerfeller center again, this time in the day time and get miserably lost thanks to google maps and my altered perception of north and south in manhattan. I give up and start heading south on broadway as thats the only direction i have figured out. I look out for the jazz club my parents tell me about, the village vanguard, i eventually find it somewhere near chelsea or greenwhich. I've walked so far i dont know where i am anymore. I stop at starbucks and treat myself to a smoothie and a piece of marble cake while i read my ultra stupid american gossip magazine. I walk a few blocks and all of a sudden the heavens open and it storms right over me and lower manhattan. A traffic warden takes shelter with me and makes small talk about the weather. I tell her it could be worse, like a tornado but she fails to understand my british humour. The rain gets heavier, i get slightly wetter. A dude from california starts talking to me about how he didnt bring the sun with him. He then asks me where times square is as if i live in the city. I say about four miles north. He asks me whats the other way, i tell him ground zero is about 10 blocks south and he freaks out and starts rapidly walking in the rain towards it. I contemplate if i give off a radiance of new yorker in me? The skies clear and i head to ground zero. It's a lot different from the first time i saw it five years ago and i'm somewhat disappointed they've made no progress except a building site. I think about heading to brooklyn bridge but it's nothing i havent done before. I take a packed subway to columbus and get stuck in another rainstorm. This time i just pull out my magazine and wait it out. I find the rockerfeller center this time and decide to go up it. The views are amazing, much better than the empire state building in my humble opinion. I take aimless amounts of photos. I start to walk back to the hostel through central park but its dredgy from the rain and my flip flops are destroyed, undearneath my feet want to give up but i am determined not to spend anymore money on subways. I eat macdonalds on 73rd. It's not amazing, but it does the job.
Day 3 New York- I go for an early warm sunday morning jog in central park where i come across a triathalon and battle the competitors. I swear i see hilary duff jogging. Later, Dan, mark and i go to set your goals, four year strong, the swellers and fireworks in new jersey. Great show. I feel 17 again. Jamie gets caught up in a tornado back in manhattan. We meet some local new york natives who come from the show back at the train station heading back. They seem ignorantly bliss as to why we have come to new jersey for a show, does this sum up most of the americans i meet on this trip? Quite possibly.
Day 4 New York- I venture out on my own today. I take the subway to times square with an ipod and armed with an OK magazine. I try to find the rockerfeller center again, this time in the day time and get miserably lost thanks to google maps and my altered perception of north and south in manhattan. I give up and start heading south on broadway as thats the only direction i have figured out. I look out for the jazz club my parents tell me about, the village vanguard, i eventually find it somewhere near chelsea or greenwhich. I've walked so far i dont know where i am anymore. I stop at starbucks and treat myself to a smoothie and a piece of marble cake while i read my ultra stupid american gossip magazine. I walk a few blocks and all of a sudden the heavens open and it storms right over me and lower manhattan. A traffic warden takes shelter with me and makes small talk about the weather. I tell her it could be worse, like a tornado but she fails to understand my british humour. The rain gets heavier, i get slightly wetter. A dude from california starts talking to me about how he didnt bring the sun with him. He then asks me where times square is as if i live in the city. I say about four miles north. He asks me whats the other way, i tell him ground zero is about 10 blocks south and he freaks out and starts rapidly walking in the rain towards it. I contemplate if i give off a radiance of new yorker in me? The skies clear and i head to ground zero. It's a lot different from the first time i saw it five years ago and i'm somewhat disappointed they've made no progress except a building site. I think about heading to brooklyn bridge but it's nothing i havent done before. I take a packed subway to columbus and get stuck in another rainstorm. This time i just pull out my magazine and wait it out. I find the rockerfeller center this time and decide to go up it. The views are amazing, much better than the empire state building in my humble opinion. I take aimless amounts of photos. I start to walk back to the hostel through central park but its dredgy from the rain and my flip flops are destroyed, undearneath my feet want to give up but i am determined not to spend anymore money on subways. I eat macdonalds on 73rd. It's not amazing, but it does the job.
Wednesday, 5 August 2009
Washington Failure
"I think the main thing we have learned from this trip will have been...do not use greyhound bus service if you want to get somewhere"
Bus from charlotte 12.30. Time we left, 1.30am. We were scheduled to get to DC at 10am. We get in at 4pm. The time our bus is meant to leave for new york is 4pm. This was due to a disablede woman who was rude and irritating (dont feel sorry for her) and she basically broke the bus and shouted at staff. We don't get Nandos or get to the white house. We get to new york around 8 or 9. Dan's booked the bus a day early so turns out we dont have a place to stay as our hostel on broadway is booked up until our room becomes free the next morning. We wonder around broadway and the upper west side looking for a hostel that has availability on a friday night. We finally find a HI (hostel international) of which i am a member so i recieve discount so this makes the rip off rates seem slightly redeemable for me. Unlucky boys. We're only going to be at the hostel for 12 hours but we take it anyway. Get dressed, convince the boys to go to times square at ten at night because it's a cool place to look at with all the lights n such. We eat pizza in a Sparro's, i have fruit too. Jamie and Dan decide to walk back. It is warm and muggy. Times square is busting with humans. Me and mark go to get cake and walk about and explore instead. It's $17 bucks buut we only have $15 and some change between us. The guy at the counter kindly lets us have the cake for that. Fucking american tax charge. I have strawberry cheesecake, it's possibly one of the nicest i have ever had and mark has vanilla and chocolate cake which he dosen't quite finish-understandibly. Mine was sickly sweet bus amazing. We stroll into a three storey m+m shop and i instantly regret not bringing more money out. Peanut m+m's are one of my favourite chocolates. We find madison square garden and get lost in penn station. Get continually panhandled but we dont have a cent to our name. They dont believe us. We try to find the empire state building and when we do mark is disappointed with its size. I am too, it seemed bigger when i went up it before. We get the subway home.
Day 2
wake up pretty early to change hostels. Go to the metropolitan museum for the day. Walk around looking like pseudo-intellectuals
Bus from charlotte 12.30. Time we left, 1.30am. We were scheduled to get to DC at 10am. We get in at 4pm. The time our bus is meant to leave for new york is 4pm. This was due to a disablede woman who was rude and irritating (dont feel sorry for her) and she basically broke the bus and shouted at staff. We don't get Nandos or get to the white house. We get to new york around 8 or 9. Dan's booked the bus a day early so turns out we dont have a place to stay as our hostel on broadway is booked up until our room becomes free the next morning. We wonder around broadway and the upper west side looking for a hostel that has availability on a friday night. We finally find a HI (hostel international) of which i am a member so i recieve discount so this makes the rip off rates seem slightly redeemable for me. Unlucky boys. We're only going to be at the hostel for 12 hours but we take it anyway. Get dressed, convince the boys to go to times square at ten at night because it's a cool place to look at with all the lights n such. We eat pizza in a Sparro's, i have fruit too. Jamie and Dan decide to walk back. It is warm and muggy. Times square is busting with humans. Me and mark go to get cake and walk about and explore instead. It's $17 bucks buut we only have $15 and some change between us. The guy at the counter kindly lets us have the cake for that. Fucking american tax charge. I have strawberry cheesecake, it's possibly one of the nicest i have ever had and mark has vanilla and chocolate cake which he dosen't quite finish-understandibly. Mine was sickly sweet bus amazing. We stroll into a three storey m+m shop and i instantly regret not bringing more money out. Peanut m+m's are one of my favourite chocolates. We find madison square garden and get lost in penn station. Get continually panhandled but we dont have a cent to our name. They dont believe us. We try to find the empire state building and when we do mark is disappointed with its size. I am too, it seemed bigger when i went up it before. We get the subway home.
Day 2
wake up pretty early to change hostels. Go to the metropolitan museum for the day. Walk around looking like pseudo-intellectuals
Wednesday, 22 July 2009
Searching For a Former Clarity.
Wilmington, NC...where do i start? Well refer to previous blog about North Carolina and it will help you.
We (Mark, Jamie and I) hired a car and took a 3 hour drive from Charlotte to the coastal town for the day. Straight down route 74 east, our sat nav didnt have much to do until we got there. To describe the place, i would say its full of water, creeks, murky rivers, green trees, colonial buildings and coffee shops. My expectations were high and they were met. It's much smaller than i thought and it is not hard to find a Dawson's Creek or One Tree Hill set/location they have filmed. Two minutes after we parked i found the Rivercourt, famous for the earlier days of OTH where the Scott brothers used to battle it out on the courts. The second scene i managed to find was the last episode of season six where Peyton and Lucas drive off into the town and the camera pans out from across the rivertcourt. I could envision them on the last day of filming, where the car was placed, the weather, the production. I saw it all in my head but i was actually there breathing and seeing it. So yeah we took a boat to the rivert court, explored a bit, took photos of the huge war battleship that is also there. We walked around downtown, i found Clothes over Bro's store and CD alley from OTH and Hells Kitchen from Dawson's Creek.
Later we set the sat nav up and went to Airlie gardens, google it, it's a beautiful place. This is the pivital location for "the ruins" in Dawson's Creek and i remember a scene between Peyton, Lucas, Haley and Nathan from OTH possibly after graduation (?) there too. By this time it was sunny and i took lots of photos of the trees, creeks and wildlife cos it was a must. Seriously my mum would have loved the gardens, someday we'll go back. We hopped back in the car and drove to Lucas and Peyton's house, because...? Because i'm a bloody loser hardcore fan and wanted to see what the area was like. Much small house than i expected, but was in a nice little green neighbourhood. We went back to Hells Kitchen to eat and ended our day here. Ate some grub and i was content with life.
It's the kind of little town wish i grew up in. I wonder how the hollywood stars cope with living in such a beautiful little area?
Hannah xoxo
We (Mark, Jamie and I) hired a car and took a 3 hour drive from Charlotte to the coastal town for the day. Straight down route 74 east, our sat nav didnt have much to do until we got there. To describe the place, i would say its full of water, creeks, murky rivers, green trees, colonial buildings and coffee shops. My expectations were high and they were met. It's much smaller than i thought and it is not hard to find a Dawson's Creek or One Tree Hill set/location they have filmed. Two minutes after we parked i found the Rivercourt, famous for the earlier days of OTH where the Scott brothers used to battle it out on the courts. The second scene i managed to find was the last episode of season six where Peyton and Lucas drive off into the town and the camera pans out from across the rivertcourt. I could envision them on the last day of filming, where the car was placed, the weather, the production. I saw it all in my head but i was actually there breathing and seeing it. So yeah we took a boat to the rivert court, explored a bit, took photos of the huge war battleship that is also there. We walked around downtown, i found Clothes over Bro's store and CD alley from OTH and Hells Kitchen from Dawson's Creek.
Later we set the sat nav up and went to Airlie gardens, google it, it's a beautiful place. This is the pivital location for "the ruins" in Dawson's Creek and i remember a scene between Peyton, Lucas, Haley and Nathan from OTH possibly after graduation (?) there too. By this time it was sunny and i took lots of photos of the trees, creeks and wildlife cos it was a must. Seriously my mum would have loved the gardens, someday we'll go back. We hopped back in the car and drove to Lucas and Peyton's house, because...? Because i'm a bloody loser hardcore fan and wanted to see what the area was like. Much small house than i expected, but was in a nice little green neighbourhood. We went back to Hells Kitchen to eat and ended our day here. Ate some grub and i was content with life.
It's the kind of little town wish i grew up in. I wonder how the hollywood stars cope with living in such a beautiful little area?
Hannah xoxo
Tuesday, 14 July 2009
Welcome to Miami...
1am-Cancun 12th July
Buy M+M's from an oxxo in cancun. Start eating them at the hostel and get weird stomach cramps so i stop. I possibly fall asleep or pass out from the pain. Wake up and grab a taxi to the airport. We find out our flight has been delayed just over two hours so i catch up on some reading at the airport. I am reading The Time Traveller's Wife, slow i am enjoying it yet utterly confused by time travel. I Sleep through take off and landing at Miami airport. Our hostel turns out to be a really cheap hotel. We have a private bathroom and even a kitchen area with a fridge. There are two double beds and a tv for quiet tims. We go to dinner at IHOP (International House of Pancakes). It is like little chef but the quality of food is superb compared. I have a toasted sandwhich patty burger with grilled onions. It might be vegetarian, i'm not sure. After dinner mark feels ill so he goes back to the room to sleep. Jamie, Dan and I take a really long stroll to South Beach down Collins Avenue. We start at 63rd and end up at 13th. Miami ink is on 14th washington ave. We all go out dressed in our sunday best as we've beent old South Beach is where all the beautiful people are. My impressions of Miami are good. It is full of pretty tall buildings that reach the skies. It is immaculately clean and superb. The waters are pristine as it is situated on the lagoon and beach. You are never far from water. I have always like cities that are built around water. The cars are new and shiny and big. We dont see one bad looking ugly car on our walk. We even walk down a stretch on mid beach that smells beautiful and we all notice it. We walk past Miami Ink but just glance so we dont seem like typical tourists even though its about 11 at night. Lots of people we walk past have tattoos. On the way back our legs and feet start to feel the burn of our ten mile walk so we grab some huge gatorade bottles from a convinience store. The energy drink then later stops us from sleeping. When we get back we cant get in because we left Mark the key. This old lady reluctantly lets us in and calls the room to get confirmation from Mark. He does not answer. She takes us to the room and knocks on the door. After a while he answers in his boxers half asleep looking really pale. He is confused about it all but finally tells the lady that we do belong in the room. She tells him we better not be joking, but this time we're in stitches at her southern accent being so stereotypical. We're not sure if shes seriously or joking. We laugh and hate our legs.
July 13th
Wake up around 9. Dan talked in his sleep again. Something about "Kings cross". We all woke up and found it hilarious at the time. I get pancakes for breakfast. We take a bus to south beach and spend around two hours sunbathing and swimming in the heat of the day. The sand is hot and the water is calm and see through. I swear a shark nuzzles me in the belly button but mark says its just fish. My ipod wont work. This makes sunbathing dull and i have to lay on my front and read. We are all red and roasted by the end of the day. We take a walk back though a shopping district that has nice shops but its too hot and we have no money. Dan enquires about tattoo prices. We bump into aussie aaron. It's a small world. He's heading to madrid tomorrow. We eat at IHOP AGAIN and see Bruno in the evening. We laugh.
July 14th
Jamie wakes up telling us we have to get up and check out. We take a bus to Adventurer mall up in North Miami. Its about 140 streets from where we are staying. Mark buys a trilby hat from the quiksilver store and the woman in there talks to us about england and her son. She is mid 40's, blonde, ex sufer type and tells us to get in contact with her son in California cos hes in a band. She gives us his number. I buy All Time Low's new cd and and a Black Tranformers vest from Hot Topic. Hot topic is not punk rock, MC Lars once said. Am i selling out? We take the bus back and some guy shouts at us about Tony Blair in a friendly manner. In subway a woman asks me if i'm from australia, i reply england but thanks for the compliment. She's from birmingham. I say we're from high wycombe. Close. I eat an Italian BMT. Bus to catch to Atlanta.
Hannah xoxo
Buy M+M's from an oxxo in cancun. Start eating them at the hostel and get weird stomach cramps so i stop. I possibly fall asleep or pass out from the pain. Wake up and grab a taxi to the airport. We find out our flight has been delayed just over two hours so i catch up on some reading at the airport. I am reading The Time Traveller's Wife, slow i am enjoying it yet utterly confused by time travel. I Sleep through take off and landing at Miami airport. Our hostel turns out to be a really cheap hotel. We have a private bathroom and even a kitchen area with a fridge. There are two double beds and a tv for quiet tims. We go to dinner at IHOP (International House of Pancakes). It is like little chef but the quality of food is superb compared. I have a toasted sandwhich patty burger with grilled onions. It might be vegetarian, i'm not sure. After dinner mark feels ill so he goes back to the room to sleep. Jamie, Dan and I take a really long stroll to South Beach down Collins Avenue. We start at 63rd and end up at 13th. Miami ink is on 14th washington ave. We all go out dressed in our sunday best as we've beent old South Beach is where all the beautiful people are. My impressions of Miami are good. It is full of pretty tall buildings that reach the skies. It is immaculately clean and superb. The waters are pristine as it is situated on the lagoon and beach. You are never far from water. I have always like cities that are built around water. The cars are new and shiny and big. We dont see one bad looking ugly car on our walk. We even walk down a stretch on mid beach that smells beautiful and we all notice it. We walk past Miami Ink but just glance so we dont seem like typical tourists even though its about 11 at night. Lots of people we walk past have tattoos. On the way back our legs and feet start to feel the burn of our ten mile walk so we grab some huge gatorade bottles from a convinience store. The energy drink then later stops us from sleeping. When we get back we cant get in because we left Mark the key. This old lady reluctantly lets us in and calls the room to get confirmation from Mark. He does not answer. She takes us to the room and knocks on the door. After a while he answers in his boxers half asleep looking really pale. He is confused about it all but finally tells the lady that we do belong in the room. She tells him we better not be joking, but this time we're in stitches at her southern accent being so stereotypical. We're not sure if shes seriously or joking. We laugh and hate our legs.
July 13th
Wake up around 9. Dan talked in his sleep again. Something about "Kings cross". We all woke up and found it hilarious at the time. I get pancakes for breakfast. We take a bus to south beach and spend around two hours sunbathing and swimming in the heat of the day. The sand is hot and the water is calm and see through. I swear a shark nuzzles me in the belly button but mark says its just fish. My ipod wont work. This makes sunbathing dull and i have to lay on my front and read. We are all red and roasted by the end of the day. We take a walk back though a shopping district that has nice shops but its too hot and we have no money. Dan enquires about tattoo prices. We bump into aussie aaron. It's a small world. He's heading to madrid tomorrow. We eat at IHOP AGAIN and see Bruno in the evening. We laugh.
July 14th
Jamie wakes up telling us we have to get up and check out. We take a bus to Adventurer mall up in North Miami. Its about 140 streets from where we are staying. Mark buys a trilby hat from the quiksilver store and the woman in there talks to us about england and her son. She is mid 40's, blonde, ex sufer type and tells us to get in contact with her son in California cos hes in a band. She gives us his number. I buy All Time Low's new cd and and a Black Tranformers vest from Hot Topic. Hot topic is not punk rock, MC Lars once said. Am i selling out? We take the bus back and some guy shouts at us about Tony Blair in a friendly manner. In subway a woman asks me if i'm from australia, i reply england but thanks for the compliment. She's from birmingham. I say we're from high wycombe. Close. I eat an Italian BMT. Bus to catch to Atlanta.
Hannah xoxo
Thursday, 9 July 2009
...Best in Mexico
Leave San pedro at 8am. Get to belize city an hour later. Make our way through shanti town to the bus station, leave Belize at 10am on the craziest local bus ever. It`s going to Chetamul, the town just across the mexican border. We have to pay 30 belizian dollars to leave their country which i do not agree with but i am in no state to argue. Just after we cross the border at around 3 we get talking to a guatamalen "emo rock" chick called Chloe. She has an aunt in colchester in essex where dan is from. Its a small world when you travel. She is also going to cancun to meet up with her Aunt. We use her spanish to order us burritos and taxis to the next bus station in Chetamul so we can catch a bus to Cancun. She takes dan`s email address. She says it takes around 2 and half hours to get to cancun. We leave at 4.30. We do not get there until 10pm. Chloe goes down in our estimations. We check into our hostel and ten minutes later a small mexican dude called josh (kinda like a club rep) invites us to this huge club on the hotel zone. $40 entry and the bar is then free. We all get drunk and dance to hip hop all night. Josh brings some nice english guys called Jools and Yan with him from another hostel, they party with us and this aussie dude also staying there called Aaron. He is the kind of guy your mum would like and has done a lot of travelling. Dan gets so drunk he passes out on the road in front of the police who just laugh. Six of us get in a four people taxi and go get tacos for post pre lash. We go back to our hostel and all fall asleep until my phone wakes us at 6am from a phone call. I still cant figure out who called.
We go to get burger king for breakfast as its the first thing we see. We sit in there while it rains horrifically for about twenty minutes. We take a stroll down to the beach and chill there for the rest of the day. We bump into josh, aaron, yan and jools and spend some time with them in the waves. Cancun is beautiful but the surf is crazy. I may have sunburned my legs. We decide to all get slot machines tattooed on us in california and talk about ghost stories, politics and religion all night long on the roof of our hostel. Some guy called Hose from Michigan also staying there tells us about how the Mexican mafia owns most of Cancun and how the police force are corrupt. This scares us just in time for bed.
I am still trying to perfect my Bret Easton Ellis style of writing.
Hannah xoxo
We go to get burger king for breakfast as its the first thing we see. We sit in there while it rains horrifically for about twenty minutes. We take a stroll down to the beach and chill there for the rest of the day. We bump into josh, aaron, yan and jools and spend some time with them in the waves. Cancun is beautiful but the surf is crazy. I may have sunburned my legs. We decide to all get slot machines tattooed on us in california and talk about ghost stories, politics and religion all night long on the roof of our hostel. Some guy called Hose from Michigan also staying there tells us about how the Mexican mafia owns most of Cancun and how the police force are corrupt. This scares us just in time for bed.
I am still trying to perfect my Bret Easton Ellis style of writing.
Hannah xoxo
Monday, 29 June 2009
All Of a Sudden I Miss Everyone...
I am unable to sleep with a million and two things going on in my mind right now and i was just thinking of what i am going to miss when i am away for six weeks. Thinking about it when you travel there are going to be a lot of inconsistencies compared to everyday normal life and you never know whats going to happen.
Things i will miss:
Justjared.com
The power shower in my flat
My car
My cachorras at work
Jordan
Book Club
Tuesday nights
Nandos food
Cineworld
Is this all my life consists of? This is a bit worrying...
Hannah xoxo
Things i will miss:
Justjared.com
The power shower in my flat
My car
My cachorras at work
Jordan
Book Club
Tuesday nights
Nandos food
Cineworld
Is this all my life consists of? This is a bit worrying...
Hannah xoxo
Saturday, 27 June 2009
Book Club.
With six weeks in america fast approaching (6days) i am taking it upon myself to choose the books i shall be reading out there, scarcely relating to the states i am visiting.
The choices are (and reasons behind them...)
The choices are (and reasons behind them...)
Jack Kerouac: On The Road-I think this would have to be the ultimate american road trip book (bear in mind i havent read it before so it could be a huge failure on my behalf). Places in this book involve New york, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles all of which we are visiting so it would be good to vicariously live through the book whilst in some of these cities. Harper Lee: To Kill A Mockingbird- Described in the southern gothic genre this is a book i can see my self reading this while in Georgia and North Carolina as it relates to the southern states but i have tried reading this before and it was a hard read...will it get better and is it worth taking? John Steinbeck: The Grapes of Wrath-I am a big fan of steinbeck but the shere size of this book will take up half my luggage although i could finish it easily in the two weeks we have in California as it is the main setting in the book. There are many californian and LA books i am considering though...I could re-read one of my favourite all time books Less Than Zero and pretend i come from a rich family in the san fernando valley while in LA? Or Option for some Charles Bukowski short stories based on this quote "Since I was raised in L.A., I've always had the geographical and spiritual feeling of being here. I've had time to learn this city. I can't see any other place than L.A". I feel i could learn a lot more about the city since my first visit two years ago. Alternatively, however not quite geographically specific to anywhere particular in america but something i want to read if my mum remembers to give me the book later this week is Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife as i am secretly hoping to catch the LA premiere of this when we're over there, poor excuse i know. Okay i do actually want to read it as i like to confuse myself with time travel and of course, read a hopeless love story.
Am i putting too much thought into this? I hope not. I see it as just trying to fully embrace the culture...
Hannah
Sunday, 21 June 2009
Behind, the dirty south.
So i have this strange fascination which has recently all kind of...come together recently and all ties in with each other. The "fascination" in mind i write about is this thing called "the dirty south" but to understand where that came from i have to rewind back nine-ten years to where it all started.
The early beginning...
Strangely enough it started off when i began watching WWF (now WWE). I think i even recall the date...it was sometime in october 1999 and i'm going to take a wild guess that it was the pay per view event No Way Out that i first glimpsed the raw energy and power of two young daredevil brothers called The Hardy Boyz. It was probably some crazy ladder match that the two of them were entered in and me and my best friend who lived across the street at the time became totally entrolled in their abilities to fly across a ring and do this crazy backflip stuff off the ropes. So yeah i became obsessed with them and ended up reading their autobiography they co-wrote a few years later. Y'know when they announce where the wrestlers come from when they're walking down the ramp into the ring, well this place was Cameron, North Carolina. Being the young impressionable kid that i was i thought this must be a cool place to come from. So when i read their autobiography it all made sense. They used to play in the woods as kids and their dad used to grow tabacco and such. This i thought was cool. A nice family, in a small town. Maybe a secret desire of mine? So at the same time as this going on i got into a tv series called Dawson's Creek. Boy that was even cooler to me at that age. Teenage kids in a small town, with not much to do but play by the creek (the sea in my case) and watch films (back on vhs in these days). I became intertwined by this tv show and the characters and lives they led. We had also just got the internet (aol dial up, what a joke!) so i was "surfing" imdb and the official sites for all this finding out and taking in as much information as i could about the creek. Anyway, it was filming in this place called Wilmington, North Carlolina..."oh wait thats near where the hardy boyz are from, thats so cool!" were probably my youthful thoughts. I was a member of some Dawson's Creek messageboard and i remember always reading about these people who lived in Wilmington and got to see it being filmed and meeting James Van Der Beek and Katie Holmes, et all. Then the fans would also travel into this small coastal town as tourists and tell of their stories and adventures there. I was hooked! Plus while i was watching the show i could relate to the type of town they grew up in, being a young teenager n' all. Wilmington just looked like the place i wished i had been born in. So DC finished, i was upset. I turned my back on the new tv show being filmed there, One Tree Hill. Nothing could replace Dawson's Creek in my eyes.
The Middle...
I kind of floated for the next few years, not much had drawn me closer to North Carolina other than Dawson's Creek re-runs and boxsets and i eventually grew out of the wrestling phase. I wrapped my life in music and bands. I have thought long and hard about where i stole the term "the dirty south" from but have been unable to pin point an exact, genre of music or film i heard it in. All i do know is that when i was 16 i created a Photobucket account called the dirty south because i felt that living where i did, by the seaside in a crummy little town that has no clubs, no real cinema, just a beach...that i infact did live in the dirty south. It is by far the worst town to come from on the south coast, albeit i was not born here (thank god) but i spent most of my youth attempting to find things to keep me occupied down here. The teenage pregnancy rate is one of the highest in europe, making it a dirty town and its the most south you can get in england. So i'm guessing this is where my theory came from and therefore i felt i really related to the term at that age.
Recently...
...it all came together. I'm not sure which came first, but it all began around november 2008. I have always had a fascination of knowing what James Van Der Beek is up to after Dawson's Creek had ended, guess it's kind of a teenage school girl crush to remind me of the "old days" but anyway news came in he was going to guest appear in One Tree Hill, as i mentioned earlier the current tv show being filmed in Wilmington. So i thought as a bit of nostalgia i thought i'd "download the episodes from itunes" and have a bit of a sesh. This sesh then turned into watching six whole seasons of One Tree Hill over the course of a few weeks earlier this year. Oh no, i was hooked. Back on the messageboards and forums i went to find out every last bit of information i could about the show. Oh and hello my love for wilmington and experiencing different locations in One Tree Hill that wernt shown in Dawson's Creek. Some way shape of form i am convinced if i came back in another life i would live there. Running alongside my OTH sessions, i became obsessed by a tv show called True Blood as well, this was set deep in the american south as well, only to leave me for fascinated with the true meaning of the dirty south. Throw in my enthusiasm recently for reading lots of american literature and soon poetry and short stories, i came across a term called southern gothic. Add in a bit of googling and wiki later and i find i have already begun my path into reading southern american literature as i had recently purchased To Kill A Mockingbird which is amongst this genre. Add in some southern gothic films i have watched over the years, the green mile, the gift, monsters ball, the cold mountain, the skeleton key, frailty, texas chainsaw massacre, the reaping...etc. Plus add a good southern rock band from Wilmington, He Is Legend who also have links to OTH. Put it in a pot, mix it all together and my strange fascination for North Carolina and The Dirty South becomes evident.
What exactly is it that i like about all of this you may or may not be asking yourself? Well i'm not sure to be precise but i know i like the hot weather, the scenery, views, trees, green landscape, winding creeks and rivers and simplcity of a town like wilmington, it reflects the easy life for me, always has and always will. I like the dark stereotypes in southern literature including the hope that the slaves had to overcome and the heirarchy of the confederacy. Knowing that there is a content love story between the southern beauty and the chivalrous gentleman with that accent you swoon over and then you have the christian preacher that knows there is a dark and deeper force out there but will keep it to himself. I always have had a thing for escapism and vicariously living through other people's stories...
Now it is 13 days until i embark on my adventure to america, add a few more days onto that and i get to travel through the dirty south itself including Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Virgina, could my dream be anymore real of visiting these states and realising i grew up in the wrong dirty south?
Hannah xoxo
The early beginning...
Strangely enough it started off when i began watching WWF (now WWE). I think i even recall the date...it was sometime in october 1999 and i'm going to take a wild guess that it was the pay per view event No Way Out that i first glimpsed the raw energy and power of two young daredevil brothers called The Hardy Boyz. It was probably some crazy ladder match that the two of them were entered in and me and my best friend who lived across the street at the time became totally entrolled in their abilities to fly across a ring and do this crazy backflip stuff off the ropes. So yeah i became obsessed with them and ended up reading their autobiography they co-wrote a few years later. Y'know when they announce where the wrestlers come from when they're walking down the ramp into the ring, well this place was Cameron, North Carolina. Being the young impressionable kid that i was i thought this must be a cool place to come from. So when i read their autobiography it all made sense. They used to play in the woods as kids and their dad used to grow tabacco and such. This i thought was cool. A nice family, in a small town. Maybe a secret desire of mine? So at the same time as this going on i got into a tv series called Dawson's Creek. Boy that was even cooler to me at that age. Teenage kids in a small town, with not much to do but play by the creek (the sea in my case) and watch films (back on vhs in these days). I became intertwined by this tv show and the characters and lives they led. We had also just got the internet (aol dial up, what a joke!) so i was "surfing" imdb and the official sites for all this finding out and taking in as much information as i could about the creek. Anyway, it was filming in this place called Wilmington, North Carlolina..."oh wait thats near where the hardy boyz are from, thats so cool!" were probably my youthful thoughts. I was a member of some Dawson's Creek messageboard and i remember always reading about these people who lived in Wilmington and got to see it being filmed and meeting James Van Der Beek and Katie Holmes, et all. Then the fans would also travel into this small coastal town as tourists and tell of their stories and adventures there. I was hooked! Plus while i was watching the show i could relate to the type of town they grew up in, being a young teenager n' all. Wilmington just looked like the place i wished i had been born in. So DC finished, i was upset. I turned my back on the new tv show being filmed there, One Tree Hill. Nothing could replace Dawson's Creek in my eyes.
The Middle...
I kind of floated for the next few years, not much had drawn me closer to North Carolina other than Dawson's Creek re-runs and boxsets and i eventually grew out of the wrestling phase. I wrapped my life in music and bands. I have thought long and hard about where i stole the term "the dirty south" from but have been unable to pin point an exact, genre of music or film i heard it in. All i do know is that when i was 16 i created a Photobucket account called the dirty south because i felt that living where i did, by the seaside in a crummy little town that has no clubs, no real cinema, just a beach...that i infact did live in the dirty south. It is by far the worst town to come from on the south coast, albeit i was not born here (thank god) but i spent most of my youth attempting to find things to keep me occupied down here. The teenage pregnancy rate is one of the highest in europe, making it a dirty town and its the most south you can get in england. So i'm guessing this is where my theory came from and therefore i felt i really related to the term at that age.
Recently...
...it all came together. I'm not sure which came first, but it all began around november 2008. I have always had a fascination of knowing what James Van Der Beek is up to after Dawson's Creek had ended, guess it's kind of a teenage school girl crush to remind me of the "old days" but anyway news came in he was going to guest appear in One Tree Hill, as i mentioned earlier the current tv show being filmed in Wilmington. So i thought as a bit of nostalgia i thought i'd "download the episodes from itunes" and have a bit of a sesh. This sesh then turned into watching six whole seasons of One Tree Hill over the course of a few weeks earlier this year. Oh no, i was hooked. Back on the messageboards and forums i went to find out every last bit of information i could about the show. Oh and hello my love for wilmington and experiencing different locations in One Tree Hill that wernt shown in Dawson's Creek. Some way shape of form i am convinced if i came back in another life i would live there. Running alongside my OTH sessions, i became obsessed by a tv show called True Blood as well, this was set deep in the american south as well, only to leave me for fascinated with the true meaning of the dirty south. Throw in my enthusiasm recently for reading lots of american literature and soon poetry and short stories, i came across a term called southern gothic. Add in a bit of googling and wiki later and i find i have already begun my path into reading southern american literature as i had recently purchased To Kill A Mockingbird which is amongst this genre. Add in some southern gothic films i have watched over the years, the green mile, the gift, monsters ball, the cold mountain, the skeleton key, frailty, texas chainsaw massacre, the reaping...etc. Plus add a good southern rock band from Wilmington, He Is Legend who also have links to OTH. Put it in a pot, mix it all together and my strange fascination for North Carolina and The Dirty South becomes evident.
What exactly is it that i like about all of this you may or may not be asking yourself? Well i'm not sure to be precise but i know i like the hot weather, the scenery, views, trees, green landscape, winding creeks and rivers and simplcity of a town like wilmington, it reflects the easy life for me, always has and always will. I like the dark stereotypes in southern literature including the hope that the slaves had to overcome and the heirarchy of the confederacy. Knowing that there is a content love story between the southern beauty and the chivalrous gentleman with that accent you swoon over and then you have the christian preacher that knows there is a dark and deeper force out there but will keep it to himself. I always have had a thing for escapism and vicariously living through other people's stories...
Now it is 13 days until i embark on my adventure to america, add a few more days onto that and i get to travel through the dirty south itself including Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Virgina, could my dream be anymore real of visiting these states and realising i grew up in the wrong dirty south?
Hannah xoxo
Wednesday, 10 June 2009
Blogging, I see...
24 days until we leave the weathers of the unpredictable United Kingdom and enter an adventure of a lifetime...or a miserable attempt to seize the day. The butterflys are kicking in...
While most kids (i say kids, we are all 20 and above) this summer will spend it back home at their parents houses away from university or spend it getting drunk in parks and at festivals we will embark on six weeks in Belize, Mexico, USA and Canada.
I will no doubt adapt a short, Bret Easton Ellis style of writing and blog as we go (it is easier to record in a diary, short, witty sentences of what we are doing that write boring long paragraphs that fail to keep my own attention) Imagine the short travelling segment in The Rules of Attraction when Victor goes to europe, it will somewhat turn into a story like that. We can only hope.
Hannah
While most kids (i say kids, we are all 20 and above) this summer will spend it back home at their parents houses away from university or spend it getting drunk in parks and at festivals we will embark on six weeks in Belize, Mexico, USA and Canada.
I will no doubt adapt a short, Bret Easton Ellis style of writing and blog as we go (it is easier to record in a diary, short, witty sentences of what we are doing that write boring long paragraphs that fail to keep my own attention) Imagine the short travelling segment in The Rules of Attraction when Victor goes to europe, it will somewhat turn into a story like that. We can only hope.
Hannah
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