1979

In 1979 I went to the USA for the first time. I flew Laker for £50 or something cheap like that from London to L.A. Talk about low fares! I brought my own food and drink like other passengers on the no frills nor basics airline.
I had been waitressing in Covent Garden at a restaurant called Penny's and saved up enough money to go to the States and stay for a while.
It was February and I arrived in sunny warm LAX with palm trees and wearing a sheep skin fur from Brick Lane Market. I had chronic bronchitis from living in London's East End in Acme housing for artists. Luckily I got a ride from some guys with a pick-up truck at 5 am. I sat in the back with the warm wind in my hair. They left me in a Dunkin' Donuts somewhere in OC! At 7am I called my host and they had trouble finding me I daresay!
" Hi I am here! Where are you? At Dunkin' Donuts! Which one? Oh, is there more than one? Yes. Oh. Let me ask the waitress..... She says it is in Orange County."
In any case after LA I went to NYC and instantly fell in love. Fell in love with the city. It was spring and it was lovely.It was 1979.
I got a job waitressing at the Ear Inn on Spring St. They had music and poetry events on the weekends and the owner was a really nice guy,Richard Hayman, another redhead.The Ear Inn is still there and quite the same, which is remarkable. I got a tour of the basement which we had to go to to get supplies and they still do now, and it smelled exactly as I remembered 25 years ago. A Proustian Madeleine experience!
Here are photos of the Ear Inn today and it does look the same. The art work is an assemblage by Sari Dienes made in 1979 a Mandala for James Brown the original owner of this very old house.
The Ear Inn is well worth a visit.
PS I shall confess that I was not a very talented waitress but I felt very sunny at the time and got good tips. The kind owner gave me quarters for the juke box and I would play favourite records and dance to them as I worked!

A colourful neighbourhood in many ways

Rodinky's Room in colour. A documentary photo of the room where David R. lived for a good part of his life. This was in 19 Princelet St.

Fournier Street where Gilbert and George live.

Princelet Street

I want to post some more photos of Huguenot Whitechapel. These relate directly to Rodinky's Room by being of 19 Princelet St where the synagogue was.

First Snow!

Quite exciting to awaken to a white world outside. The sun was shining and the cats went out to test the snow.
I had editing to do on John Agard Live! and could not really even go out for a walk. Deadline is coming up soon. Too soon.
Hope we get more snow and then I can go out and enjoy it. So much better than rain.

Whitechapel

The book Rodinsky's Room which I have been reading this past week, see posting below, has brought me back to my own early forays into that neighbourhood.
I wandered those Whitechapel Streets in the seventies.Exploring around the markets and the backstreets interested in the Huguenot architecture in and around Princelet and Fournier streets. In Rodinsky's Room this is the axis around which the story rotates; 19 Princelet St.
I have a friend who lives nearby and I have just re-connected with her after 25 years which I am very pleased about! I am looking forward to re-visiting the area.
The buildings around there are very special, see above. The top doorway is on Fournier St.

Unison founder dies

John Hersey an artist and co-founder of the Unison Pastels workshop has died this week at his home in Thorneyburn, Tarset.
The pastels are some of the best to be had worldwide, handmade and using a special recipe John Hersey created. As an artist he was looking for great crayons and decided to make them himself when he could not find what he wanted for his own work. His wife Kate Hersey will continue the operation out of the converted stable in their back garden, and the pastels go all over the world. A friend of mine, Terry in NYC, uses and loves them!

Rodinsky's Room

I am reading this book Rodinsky's Room at present. It is written by two authors Rachel Lichtenstein and Iain Sinclair and it is published by Granta. They write every other chapter and very much from another perspective than the other. It is a fascinating book. I am treasuring my reading time. Iain Sinclair uses a large vocabulary and I am learning new words too.
This book is about so many things but I can say that it is an autumnal book for those early dark evenings. Slow down and take this journey with these two people.