July 12th: Day 2

What’s up what’s up, day 2 was bangin’. Like super hella tight. Sorry I’m trying to get down with the language of the people here but it sounds ridiculous coming out of my mouth onto the virtual paper so Imma be me for real you feel me.

Day 2 was a lot of fun. I left Sanam’s house at about 10am. Her roommate was lovely and had given me a bottle of water during the night for no reason and we had chatted sleepily about lots of nothings. She had left early for work in the hotel so I had a shower and left pretty quickly. Check in the our flats was at 10am so I thought I would be proactive and arrive early.

The walk was longer than I thought with the bags and Zippy but it was nice. Not too hot at that time and good to see the local area and familiarise to the neighbourhood. It’s just so funny how the streets are literally blocks. You just can’t get lost, even if you tried.

There was a welcome party at the reception for us. The brilliant Claire Yale, a girl from Newcastle/Brixton, a dead ringer for Michael Cera like seven years ago and two head honchos, Mr Palmer and Mr. I forget although I shouldn’t have. Maybe Mr. Goldberg or something like that (I’ll find out and come back).

It was all pretty easy. Up to the room, unpacked the bag and looked out at the view. My room is on floor 20, looking out I can see Manhatten business district, Statten Island and The Empire State Building in the distance. In other words the view is bloody incredible.

My new roommate is called McKenley. He is dope, Enough said really! He’s a musician and rapper from Florida who has been in the school for eleven months already. He’s also been signed by a label. Needless to say Zippy came out before the rest of my clothes and we were jamming hard, fusing acoustic locks with killa beats…it worked too. Stayed tuned for more developments.

I went and bought a plug socket which didn’t work for my labtop but does for my phones. I also bought some groceries and boring stuff that doesn’t make for interesting reading. I just tried to settle in. At about 3pm I went for my usual run to check out the neighbourhood.

This was a great idea. I went up Livingston St. Down Montague and hit the promenade pretty quickly. The Hudson is like right there and the facilities close to it are just unbelievable. I have some photos of the courts. Needless to say as soon as I saw the courts I hit a pickup game and we were playing hard. Those guys don’t go easy. I basically played awfully. We lost out mini  game for court 11-9 after being 9-6 up. It was awful but brilliant at the same. The sun was out, the basketball was bouncey and we were just there. It was a nice moment man and I’m gonna be down there a lot to get fit. No better way to shed some calories than to get involved in team sports, it’s so much better than lonely gym work.

I came back to the dorms at 67 Livingston and tried to recover from heat stroke. 7pm we headed up as a posse to a talk for kids about being safe in NYC and how to follow the safe cross code in crossing the roads etc. Brixton gave us our cards and we met some pretty cool people. The course is going to be tough, that much is very clear. They take it seriously and try to emphasise that to the students. These posts will probably get far shorter as I am going to push this place to the limits to take home some good knowledge.

At 8pm we drew moustaches on our face, at 8.20 I asked a two year student did she want some dinner and at 8.30pm we were sitting opposite each other in a Sushi restaurant. This place moves fast, it suits me grand. After good and a cheeky beer we headed down to The waterfront and just chatted away on a bench. She has a boyfriend which is one of my ticks, but she’s not Dutch, so I didn’t fall in love with her immediately. It was a nice chat though.

We strolled back for 11pm and at that stage I was hella tired so I said hello to Prince Shakespreare (our other roommate whom I had met online and briefly when he entered at 8pm) and literally put on my onesie and went to sleep. I know already that I will sleep hard over here after an honest days work. The only time I sleep poorly is when I have a dishonest days work put down. Here it’s going to be nothing but hard work and knowledge enhancement. I’m really looking forward to it. B x

NYC: July 10th-11th

July 11th 2014: Day 1…  I can’t change, even if I wanted too. She keeps me warm, She keeps me Warm. I love Macklemore, back when I used to drink I used to call girls up twisted and sing this line down the phone to them. I just love the general sentiment to it. If she keeps you warm, then what is the problem with loving her, no matter what the sexual orientation, skin colour, religious preference etc. In other words, I went to Macklemore and it was Ace. My cousin text me the previous day when I was travelling from Tipperary to Galway to see my little brother in Spanish College, and asked me would I like a ticket to the concert. Ammm…do nuns get hot and bothered when the priest takes off his white collar thing…Yes I would!

We were standing about four rows from the front of the stage. TPJ should have been there but my brother needed him in Galway so he decided to stay there instead where he was needed most. It was a seriously cool concert to be at and one I wasn’t expecting to go to. He is now one of Ireland’s favourite performers, not usurping Garth Brooks or U2 just yet but he is definitely getting there. His costume changes included matador, dirty wife beater tramp and Irish soccer player. We were bouncing with the crowd and I even met a lovely married woman who had no problem grinding up against me until we couldn’t bounce anymore. It was just a lovely day and I’m very thankful to Ray and Lisa for the ticket…and obviously the poor girl who couldn’t make it in the end. Ray dropped me to the airport at 1am and I made a very comfy chair bed which proved to be my best sleep in days. Tried to charge my phones but no luck.

Woke up at 6am for the flight at 8.55am. Checked in my mah-husive bag full of books and kitchen sinks and Zippy, my beautiful new Gibson Guitar. They wouldn’t let me bring her on the plane but promised to treat her with the respect she deserves. Women’s Rights for All Guitars of All Nations…power to the Guitars!!! Briefly chatted up two Irish teachers. They were babes but none of us were in the mood for foreplay because it was too early so we just chatted, standard-ly realised that one of them was previously taught by my aunty in Seskin (that stuff happens all the time in Ireland) and went on our way. Frisked, Beaten and talked dirty to and then sent on our way to our next our next molestation site in the airport, we finally got through security at about 8am. Took a photo with some flags and read some of John Hayes’s autobiography…they were literally the most exciting things that happened. Oh and I charged my phone.

Airports are boring when you aren’t suspicious looking! On the plane, went to America, buff said about that. You know what a plane is so it doesn’t need an elaborate tale. Took some photos though, nice blue sky. I love the contrast between the blues of the sea into the sky with the horizon splitting heaven and earth.

Very picturesque indeed. got off the train, went into the city and met a lovely Turkish guy who wants TPJ to come to Istanbul and South turkey in 2015. Might take him up on the one. He was a really nice internet programmer, visiting his missus in New York. He also had some sick equipment which he displayed openly. I gave him a feel of Zippy but he played percussion so didn’t know what to do with the strings. We parted on 42nd street and I walked to 19 W 37th street from the stop. Called into the Standard obviously for a chat (I love it there) and departed again for New York Conservatory of Dramatic Arts (my home for the next five weeks). When I arrived I looked at my address again. It had somehow changed to 37 W 19th Street…Shit! Taxxxxxxiiii!

Arrived at NYCDA and immediately met one of the coolest cats I had had the pleasure of meeting in LA last summer. Jarayne the legend – I think that’s his full name. We greeted each other like brothers and headed up to the second floor. Claire Yale showed me around and I left happy about leaving my bags down, and with the direct intention of getting lost for a few hours in this beautifully Big Appley city. I walked around, sat in Madison Park for a while where I got a lovely compliment on my newly styled hair ‘Hey man, great hair…the back looks so animalistic. I mean a lot of people have the front Mohawk but the back is unique…like a badger or something!’ Ammm…thank you???…I think.

Walked to the Churchill Bar, had a lemonade, posted some photos on Instagram which I can now upload easily here edited nicely and went back to collect my bags from 19th street. sweet Jesus they were heavier than I remembered. I had to go to Park and 29th to meet a dear friend who was putting me up for the night so I clawed my way to her hotel and arrived sweaty and breathless. Sanam Skelly and I attended Trinity College Dublin together in 2005/06 and we have remained as close as ever. She still gives out to me for not calling her on my 4 hour lay over in NYC last year so I made it my business to contact her ASAP this time. She showed me upstairs to the rooftop pool which was beautiful. Gansevoort Hotel is really beautiful and I got to chill with some of the owners family randomly while I was waiting. They were more than friendly and warm and offered me as much cranberry juice as I wanted. It was also so nice to dip my trodden-on feet into the pool.

At 8pm myself and Sanam departed the hotel and made a beeline across the Brooklyn Bridge in a $25 dollar taxi. We ate at a beautiful Italian restaurant called Frankies who did the most delicious Pannamere Lamb for me a Fussilini pasta with Sausage for herself and some delivious Lemonade. We even indulged in a solitary glass of chilled white wine which I thought was from Ghana but actually was called something like Lubgana.

It was a really nice day and I’m glad I am documenting it for memory sake because I will undoubted forget most of the little details. I hit the couch and hit it hard at 3am Irish time, 10pm US. what a fun first day. Excited about tomorrow. I love being excited for tomorrow. Makes me know I am on a good path in life when one is looking forward to the future. Too Philosophical? I don’t care, I love thinking about that stuff…makes me live in the present. Haha. Looking forward to getting the Tiger here so I can write for him. I’m not the best at writing as Brian. Hope y’all are well wherever in the world you may be. Have a good day…wait scratch that…Gave a day that you can write about. Fuckin go out there and smash it. Brian xxx

image image

 

image
imageimage image         image

image

image

Tiger Paws Juniors Adventures: New York City: Day 1

Hi Everyone,

It’s Brian here. You might be wondering why I’m posting this and not my Tiger pal…it’s because the little fucker is still in Ireland or he might be in the air already. He decided to stay with my little legend of a brother David for a night out in Galway, got way too drunk in a Spanish College and missed his flight with me. He had to change his flight last minute and now he is flying Registered Post across the Atlantic. How much fun would it be to go to the States for $30 registered post on the same flight as the public who have paid like $800…he really is a genius teddy bear who just does what he wants. I usually don’t like writing posts as Brian but it’s necessary here because my penname is MIA

Soooo…I am in New York City. How exciting does that sound. I travel a lot with my work as an actor and a dancer so I have been lucky enough to been given the opportunity to see many parts of this beautiful world. It gets tiring sometimes and I know some airline checking girls by first name at this stage, but I love it. There are so many places I want to hit in the next four years but NYC was at the top of my imaginary bucket. This diary, as with last years LA adventure is to preserve the memory and to publish some decent photos. TPJ prefers the wordsmithing, Brian likes the photography, thus in this post I will try to be more visual than verbose. I can already tell it is going to be one hell of an adventure. I’d love to say ‘I hope you like it’ but it doesn’t bother me if you do or don’t, it’s not meant to be crowd pleasing…it’s just meant to be honest…as is all of TPJ really. It’s a fun ride, thanks for tagging along.

14,000 Views

Thank You all so much! We have had 14,000 visitors from 139 different countries. We appreciate every one of your views, opinions and comments. You have been nothing but friendly in following what we do. Honesty, Integrity, Friendship and Respect are the mantra for those of is who work here. We try to live by these rules of life and everything we post resembles one or all of these words. Thanks for liking us, plenty more to come! Love always, TPJ x