Chicano Chicago

In Chicago, this day last year, I visited the Pilsen neighbourhood to see some murals painted on its walls.

Coincidentally, a Mexican Independence Day parade was taking place.

The parade was a very festive occasion, with floats, trucks, vintage cars, motorbikes and riders on horseback making their way along a long, straight street.

Along the way I saw...

• Comedy with a man pushing a trolley-like cart with three female mannequin heads wearing sunglasses perched on top. (Sadly he went past me too quickly for a photograph.)
• After the parade, lots of families gathered in a park for a picnic and an American football game amid shouts of "these ladies need water ASAP" and "double bubble, double bubble!"
• It was interesting to see these Mexican and American traditions mix and mingle, which on a sunny day in Chicago felt like the American dream coming true.

Circle Lines | On the Loop in Chicago

Chicago's L train doesn't actually have a circular line, but a group of lines which come together in a circle line effect in a part of the city called The Loop.

So with a few strategic station changes, it's the next best thing.

I rode around, amid lots of people on their phones, and saw and heard:

• A middle-aged woman speaking into a walkie-talkie: "OK, I'm on!"
• A young Woman pulling on a baseball cap like armour
• A woman pursing her lips and momentarily bopping in her seat twirling her hands around
• Two girls with bright pink coats, with white, blue and red beads braided into their hair.
• "It's going be alright. It is going be all right," says a woman into her phone.
• A boy in a purple hoodie looks derisively at a woman's bright pink phone holder.
• Young woman cheerfully declaring, "I noticed it! I noticed it!"
• A middle-aged lady with resplendent red accessories (shoes, spectacles, handbag and shoulder bag) intently reading the Bloomingdales' catalogue.
• A woman sketches a large drawing with dashed lines and arrows into her sketchbook.
• A doleful man slumped against the train wall while carrying a book of torts and laws.
• A woman wearing a bright peach and yellow blouse chewing and popping luminous green gum
• A cheeky young boy propping his feet up on a seat between two men, both of whom studiously ignore him and his feet.

Angels in America

Whenever I sit in a window seat in a flight, I always think of a scene in the TV miniseries of the play Angels in America (first broadcast 11 years ago today!) in which a character - Harper - sits in a window seat (go watch it, it's brilliant!).

And as one of my recent flight was to New York, this led to remember more scenes from the play set in and around Manhattan - including the memorable final scene set at the Bethesda fountain in Central Park.

This led me to go in search of more Angels in America, dotted around New York.

This angel above holding a globe is part of the large monument at the centre of Columbus Circle.

This small angel - perhaps more a cherub or maybe just a little baby - is one of a pair perched on a lamppost on Grand Army Plaza right by Central Park. Take a look: https://goo.gl/maps/sjyrL

These two angels are to be found on the bronze base of a flagpole outside the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue.

These two angels are upon the Federal Office Building at 90 Church Street, just near Ground Zero.

But many angels I thought I had found actually turned out to be eagles - the symbol of the United States - like this above Grand Central Terminus.

London to New York from above

You don't see much land on a flight from London to New York (especially if it's a cloudy day in the UK Ireland) - otherwise, it's the Atlantic Ocean all the way.

But, as you descend along the eastern seaboard of Canada and the USA, there are lovely views of islands, coasts and cities like these.




(This is Plum Island - I saw this on my last flight to New York too.)

Buffalo Ghost Signs

I stayed overnight in Buffalo, New York after my trip to Niagara Falls.

There isn't a huge amount to do in Buffalo, but I did enjoy walking around and finding lots of ghost signs - a sign or painting kept on a building for longer than needed. Wikipedia helpfully says that "the signage may be kept for its nostalgic appeal, or simply indifference by the owner".

Though, on reflection, maybe some of these aren't Ghost Signs, and are still thriving businesses - much like the signs in my Words on Walls post.

Words on Walls

As a fan of graphic design and typography, I particularly love seeing words painted on walls, signs, billboards and elsewhere.

So much so that I started a Words on Walls Pinterest board to collect my favourites.

To me, typography on walls, signs etc is an equivalent to public art and sculpture. You can get a sense of a city or country through them.

There's something about words painted on brick or metal which strikes me as very American. I took these examples on my trip to New York and Chicago.

Voices from Fifth Avenue

One evening, in New York, I started walking from Central Park to my hotel on West 48th Street. It was a short walk of 11 blocks. I walked along Fifth Avenue and became intrigued by all the voices passing me by. So much so, that I stayed walking for a lot longer, listening, listening, listening.

I heard short snippets of conversations, people passing - some zipping, some sauntering, some on their phones.


I've already got that ...... You've got to go for it when you can ...... I dunno ...... Pretty sure he just drives around ...... Are you excited? I don't think it's open ...... See the grid, Lady Gaga walked out there at midnight ...... T-Mobile's good for the most part ...... I've never been to the top of New York ...... I'll take it back with me, I'll take it back with me ...... You want me to come with you when you get your licence? ...... I mean what's the purpose of that? To make sure everyone knows how to do everything - is that it? ...... Thank you for helping. I know that's the last thing you wanna do ...... And whoever they're with, they're not right ...... So I don't intend to lose it ...... But they never actually do it ...... "Oh because of the cut?" "They cut the pay?" "Yeah" ...... We hadda sweet-talk one of the security guards ...... I'm so slow, everything's so slow ...... I told him I'd buy him a ...... There's nothing to do; it's like there's always something to do ...... Hot as hell. Tall, big old man's man ...... Confidence and cockiness are just totally different ...... I think she's tired ...... He's such a dawg, he's such a this, such a that ...... I didn't wanna go ...... I typically work at home ...... I was, like, so hoping she would call me out ...... I need to get some basic pants ...... I was teaching and the kids were sitting ...... It wouldn't have happened and it wouldn't have been fine ...... None of them will get married ...... Are New York girls like that too? ...... My boyfriend, when he comes to pick me up, he walks from 34th ...... Right. Where are you working? ...... So come for anything and everything, you can sleep over ...... When I was sitting in the precinct ...... The one at the bottom has pistachios ...... Two days off! I have a big job ...... No, I step on it and it moves ...... I'm just walking around a lot cos I'm playing cards in a couple of hours ...... I wish we could call Maurice  ...... What kind of food are you in the mood for? ...... That, like, makes me crazy ...... Help me out today! ...... Gourmet doesn't have to be expensive to be gourmet ...... We're going to walk to 50th and here we are ...... Yay give me a hug!

In a New York moment

The last time I went to New York, I looked up a lot and took hundreds of photographs of skyscrapers.

This time around, I looked more to street level and listened at all the teeming life around me on the streets of Manhattan.

A woman on a bus re-telling her love life story to a stranger, specifically her second husband: "He was strong and tall and handsome and shit so I had to marry him."

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A young Asian-American man sitting in a park answers his phone: "Hey, I'm good. I'm sitting in Union Square writing in my journal, I've had a soy latte and I'm enjoying this beautiful fall day in New York."

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On the subway, a labourer with hard hat and clothes stained with paint and cement wearing three large rings on one hand, one silver and chunky, one like Darth Vader's head, one polka-dot and glittering.

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Two men in Central Park discussing where to park their cart.

"I'll go in the middle lane."
"But you can't clog up the middle lane"
"I will!"
"Well, you're funny as hell!"

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A man outside a courthouse trying to be restrained, but jumping up and down shaking his fists above his head saying "yeeeeaah man I can't believe I got that lucky!!"

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Two fire engines and a police car trundle along 9th Avenue with their sirens set to a low plaintive wail (like you'd imagine a banshee to have), prompting a dog to howl with them, prompting its owner to straddle the dog and try to calm him, prompting a German couple to look and enthuse "beautiful dog".

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An elderly woman with her little granddaughter are transfixed watching a man play a Chinese musical instrument. A wobbly old dude cones along and starts doing a silly dance. It's all taken in good humour. (He'd get a slap in London.)

What people talk about in the USA

I'm off on my travels next week, to the USA. I'm taking in Long Island (the Hamptons!), New York City, Niagara Falls, the rather random city of Adrian, Michigan and Chicago.

Last time I went to New York, I loved the people-watching, seeing those glorious travel moments.

This time I think my ears will be attuned to hear more than three examples.

In anticipation, I've been looking at one of my favourite phrases to search on twitter: "people talk about in" - seeing what people talk about in certain places. It almost always seems to be America.

All people talk about in LA is their health. All people talk about in New York is their rent.
— Phoebe Lovatt (@PhoebeLovatt) July 3, 2014

1. Brunch 24 Things People In NYC Love To Talk About http://t.co/Vj69TpWgyx via @mkruvant
— BuzzFeed Travel (@buzzfeedtravel) June 21, 2014

What people talk about in Texas: Falling asleep while driving. You never hear this in the East.
— tom ricks (@tomricks1) March 6, 2014

I swear all people talk about in Nebraska is corn
— Gitau (@wildboyfrazier) February 16, 2014

All people talk about in Northern Michigan is the weather and other people
— Alexa JP (@lexajp) January 26, 2014

Things that people in LA like to talk about: 1. Traffic 2. Freeways 3. Alternate freeway routes that could have been taken
— Julian Bialowas (@julianbialowas) November 29, 2013

From what I've overheard, most of what people talk about in San Luis Obispo is either San Francisco or Los Angeles.
— Alex Volberding (@avolberding) July 26, 2013

Things people talk about in utah: The weather, church, turning eighteen, and missions. #cool
— jewelysa ☪ (@jewelysamarie) April 12, 2012

Here's hoping I'll be able to tweet my own version of these.

Europe in USA

For many years, I've been interested in the way towns, cities, villages and more in the USA are named (I wrote about in 2010).

Reading the article which inspired that blog, I realised that nearly all of Europe was accounted for in American placenames.

So I set about making a map of some European place-names in the USA.

Sadly, there isn't a place for every country in Europe, though sometimes there are more than one, e.g. Norway, Kansas, Norway, Iowa and Norway, Maine, so I chose the place which sat best on the map.

In some cases, a country name is not accounted for, but the capital city is e.g Vienna, Georgia or Sofia, New Mexico.

And occasionally, you really can't be sure that the European placename is the inspiration - e.g. Turkey, North Carolina or San Marino, California

I'm fascinated by the breadth and number of places with names inspired by Europe. I suppose the next step is to start visiting them!

Country + Continent Cards

I've been making a lot of cards recently from maps and recycled paper - take a look at some below - showing map shapes of countries and continents.

I love how recognisable some countries and continents are, simply by their shape. But I also wonder why some countries are not?

Next Saturday morning, I will be selling these cards - and my Christmas and Valentine map cards - and notebooks at a table top sale at The Dog House pub in Kennington.

The sale is in aid of people who have haemochromatosis, so do come along and say hello.

Sketching North America

It's been a while (2 years) since I went collecting continent maps at London festivals. I've decided I want to collect the world, so this weekend I went in search of North America.

Eleven people drew maps, and here they are all over-laid.

On Friday, I went to Trafalgar Square for Canada Day celebrations. There was hockey, mounties, beer and curly fries. It was all very good fun, with people wearing red and maple leaves all over. The 6 people who drew maps for me were fun and friendly.

On Sunday, I searched out 4th of July celebrations. The first event I went to (in Portman Square) was a bit too private, so instead I then went to King Edward Memorial Park where I expected to find a big American picnic.

The turn-out was in fact smaller, but 5 people obliged me. One man had a flag on his hat. Swell!

So, thanks to Alisha, Jen, Jo and Lauren from Canada, Amy, Jessica, Jon and Tim from the USA, Christina and Grem who are English, and Izzy who is English (and Austrian too). Here are their maps individually:

Adrian, USA

Whilst reading the article on the nomenclature of American towns, I got to wondering about places with my name. It turns out there's quite a few Adrians in America, stretching all the way from New York to Washington. 

The majority of American Adrians are quite small, with no more than a couple of hundred people in each. Some are named after settlers, with one, Adrian, Oregon, named after another Adrian: Adrian, Illinois.

Adrian Minesota, one of the larger Adrians, with more than a thousand inhabitants, was named after the mother of the local railway's directors. She was called Mrs Adrian Iselin, and he was Adrian C. Iselin. So really he named it after himself. The locals, apparently, prefer to believe the town was named after St Adrian.

Adrian, Michigan is perhaps the most exciting of all, with a plentiful 21,000 inhabitants. During the late 19th century and early 20th century, it was known as the "fence capital of the world," as it was where the first successful wire fence was invented. Fancy that. 

On the nomenclature of cities and towns in the United States

I recently found an article from 1885 on JStor with the exciting title On the nomenclature of cities and towns in the United States. It sounded fascinating - I've always wondered why certain cities in the USA were so named.

I was thinking about places I've seen on maps, places like Malta, New York, Zurich, Kansas or Lebanon, Oregon. I imagined fledgling Maltese, Swiss or Lebanese immigrant communities founding new towns and making new lives in a new land.

The actual reason is much more prosaic. Early railway companies and postal companies basically picked names at random or from long lists of places (maybe listed in almanacs)

The article speaks of certain parts of New York state with classic names like Ithaca, Syracuse, or Troy, so named as "a pedantic surveyor-general of the last century took ancient names, at random, out of a classical dictionary to scatter broadcast over this new land".

Years ago, I read Sweet Liberty by Irish writer Joseph O'Connor (brother of Sinead). In it, he travelled around the US, visiting nine towns and cities called Dublin. But despite finding something to write about in each place, he found very little connection to Ireland.

Practically all of Europe is accounted for: from Armenia, Wisconsin to Lisbon, Ohio, from Athens, Georgia, via Vienna, Missouri to Oslo, Minnesota.

These places are not named in the ways we might first think... but they could be, and that's what's brilliant.

American-style, London-style

I first featured American-style venues from my 'foreign venues in London photos' on the day of the 2008 American presidential election.

More than a year on from Barack Obama's inauguration, it seems his profile could do with something of a makeover.

Maybe he could pop along to these venues - New York Nails, Las Vegas Nails and Hollywood Barbers and Hairdressers. Glam-o-rama.