Day 2 - Sunday 8th February 2009

Woke up at 7am and checked out! I headed uptown to my new hotel, The Pod. It is amazo but I was too early and had to wait until 12 before I could check in. I was going to see Jeff Lewis do a kids show at 1 so I left my bags at reception and told them I would be back later. Jeff's gig was at the other side of town but I figured 5 hours should give me plenty of time. Decided to have a delicious breakfast of pancakes and syrup and bacon. It is wrong! I still ate but only after I had scraped the syrup off my bacon!
Found the venue really easily but it wasn't open yet. Cut about the lower east side for a bit and found a pub that was showing the Spurs vs. Arsenal game and the Scotland rugby game. There was a Scottish guy about my age at the bar but he was from Edinburgh and was a dick. The barman told me he loved Scotland and he had lots of ancestors from there. I asked him if he sold Irn Bru and he hadn't even heard of it. Dick!

Went back to the venue for Jeff's gig. I had e-mailed Jeff and asked him if he could put me on the guestlist as it was a kid show and adults had to be accompanied by a kid and vice versa. There was about 100 kids skanking it up when I arrived and thankfully the girl on the door had my details. Jeff spotted me and welcomed me to New York. He also introduced me to his other guest, a lady called June who was about 70!



Jeff did about 10 songs including 2 of his low-budget music videos. He got some kids to act as a video-prompter for a new song that he couldn't remember the lyrics to. June took some photos with a huge camera and told me that she has been friends with Jeff since he was a kid. Jeff then did a Q and A with some hilarious questions from the kids.



I went to thank him for getting me in and wish him luck on his Australian tour. He said he was going to the park with some friends if I would like to come. Yes, yes I would. His friends turned out to be Andre Herman Dune and his girlfriend Clemence, Dina from Prewar Yardsale and her kid Herman. You probably don't recognise these names but they are legends of the Anti-folk scene, and cool! I showed Herman my magic shoelaces and he thought I was amazo. He said he couldn't understand what I said though and that I sound a bit like Shrek?!? He is only 5. We hung out in the park and then when it got too cold Jeff suggested we go to his parents apartment that was nearby. So, ten minutes later I am showing Jeffrey Lewis' mum my magic shoelaces! She thinks I am amazo. She is about 60. Jeff showed me lots of cool records and comics he has been collecting over the years. He gets a call from somebody and asks if I want to go to Presentation Night. I have never heard of Presentation Night, but yes, yes I do want to go. He has to make a quick stop at Matt and Nan's first. They are also cool anti-folkers who I have met a few times at gigs in Glasgow. Yas! When we get there they have just finished recording Toby Goodshanks' new album. Yip, you guessed it, he is a cool anti-folker too! Matt and Nan remember me from their last gig. It was at the Art School and I got a parking ticket! We hung out for a while. Jeff pointed out that my lace was untied. Seconds later Matt, Nan and Toby thought I was amazo!

Presentation Night. Jeff said it was at a friend of a friend's apartment in Brooklyn. This lead to my first ride in a yellow taxi! We got to the apartment and the host explained the concept. People had brought along presentations to present to people. You had 10 minutes to present something. He then went on to do a half hour presentation on Autism! Turns out he had Asberger's and had writen papers on it. Next up, some guy that had made a powerpoint on some credit crunch conspiracy. This also lasted about half and hour! Then a girl who had spent a year working in Nigeria as a nurse told us all about a condition that affects thousands of women. There was a Powerpoint. Thankfully the next presentation was a quickie. A girl showed us how to do a handstand. Then a guy taught us how to make an origami frog. Jeff did 2 spoken word songs a la Woody Guthrie and then presented me. I told them that I had a 2 second presentation about shoelaces...

I managed to blag a lift back to Manhattan with a couple of cool guys and the handstand girl. One of them was a film-maker who had just sold his show to HBO. It follows the adventures of him and his brother. I asked him if it would be anything like Kenny vs. Spenny. He said no. Apparently they have climbed Mount Kilimanjaro and done other cool stuff.

What's on my iPod : "The East River" - Jeffrey Lewis