FINALLY. It has been weeks of gentle pestering from Camille and the nagging feeling that if I leave it much longer I will start to forget what I want to write down that has prompted me to forge my inaugural post. And to be fair i have a whale of a tale to document - a long weekend spent in Boston, Massacheusetts. Thanks to extremely benevolent employers and some clever positioning from me, I got the opportunity to take my mate Brad King to Boston over Labour weekend on the Warner Music ticket. Brad happens to program The Rock Network - as well as being a mate he is an extremely important client of mine and lets face it, if being friendly with me was the only reason for coming on the trip then I would have chartered an entire plane. Or got Grant to fly one of the Airforce Hercs....hmmm, one day perhaps. And the reason for the trip? Seeing the Red Hot Chili Peppers in concert, one of Warner Music's most important bands. Their recently released double album Stadium Arcadium has been my main focus since i started working for WEA 7 months ago.
Right, got enough back story? In a nutshell, I am a very lucky bastard. Work perks don't come much perkier than this. Having said that, I HATE INTERNATIONAL AIR TRAVEL. Sardine Class was not measured with my lanky frame in mind and I'm sure that by the time we reached Los Angeles I had the word Sealord stamped on my forehead. And to make matters worse, US domestic air travel is even worse. But first, 9 hours in Los Angeles. 10am Thursday morning, sunny day - lets go to Santa Monica. Why not? Very Baywatch, but the pier rather looked like they were stashing all the rides that appeared at Big Day Out. Bloody big though. But then, everything in US and A is bigger than your average.
Check out the photo - yes Brad is looking staunch but in the background you'll see a dirty old man taking photos of two girls young enough to be his daughters but not behaving in a very daughterly fashion. Such a magnificent American cliche signposted the remainder of our day in Los Angeles. We sat in a cab for an hour at 2 in the afternoon and the cab driver complained that he was losing money and the traffic jam was our fault becuase of where we wanted to go; went to a SHITTY movie in Hollywood (The Grudge 2; DO NOT go and see it or i will be the one holding a Grudge - against you). The King of Cliches rounded out the day - we drank Budweiser, ate wings and watched baseball at Hooters. It was marvellous.
Right, US domestic air travel - American Airlines to be exact. Have you ever been in an Air new Zealand Link plane from Nelson to Wellington? The ones so small that they actually fire you into the sky with a rubberband? Remember the seats? Air NZ bought them off American Airlines. Oh and the plane was dirty, the staff were rude and to rub flaky sea salt into an already jagged wound, the movie was The Lake House with Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves. Both thespians I'm sure you will agree are among the finest actors of our generation. We couldn't get to Boston quick enough.
Thanks to the date line, we arrived in Boston Friday morning (we left Auckland Thursday evening). Cool. Not quite as cool was the jet lag - that and 30 hours with no sleep. Still, Chili Peppers tonight and by crikey, we're in Boston! After the short cab ride from the airport and vaguely registering that Boston looked very, very cool we checked into our hotel at 9am and slept till 4pm.
Awake! First stop, figuring out where the venue for the Chilis show is. Brilliantly, I'd booked a hotel that was half a block away (thats what it said on the website). In reality it was about 200 m down the road. Sweet. Next stop, coffee. This wasn't quite as successful as find-the-stadium and we wandered for half an hour through downtown Boston past loads of people holding the ubiquitous Starbucks cup, but with no luck. Eventually we found a coffee kiosk - not Starbucks though! Suitably revived we wandered back towards the hotel and found a top notch seafood reastaurant. I ate a LOT of seafood in Boston and all of it was wonderful.
Aaaaaanyway, Friday was all about the Chili Peppers and yeah we were pretty excited. The venue (TD Banknorth Garden) is the home of the Boston Celtics (basketball) and Boston Bruins (ice hockey). Both teams have History and this 20 000 seater indoor arena is, so I'm told, about as good as it gets. VERY user friendly; great acoustics, great facilities - ah jeez, I'm sounding like a venue nerd here but when you're used to making excuses for the Supertop this place was like Buckingham Palace. The Chili's weren't bad either.
In fact they played magnificently - John Frusciante the lead guitarist is riveting. He alone is worth price of admission. I cannot adequately describe how good he is without wanting to repeatedly type swear words. Lets just say i don't think I've ever seen a better guitar player than this man. And then there was the light show, another eye opener. I guess it is too costly for bands to bring their rigs to New Zealand - we're lucky if they bring a big sheet of material with the band's logo painted on. Check out the photos - see what i mean? The only bummer about the evening was that the show started nearly two hours late; traffic problems caused by shitty weather meant the Chili's were late getting to the venue. Late show equals tired band so Brad and I didn't get to meet them post-show save for a quick hi to Chad Smith who looked utterly bemused when we said we'd come over from NZ to see them play.
How good was the sleep that night - a chance to catch up fully with the glorious promise of a weekend in Boston to come.
Friday rain gave way to the kind of crisp, clear autumnal day that makes its way into sightseeing brochures. So, we went walking. We walked for most of Saturday as a matter of fact - right across town through
Boston Common (oldest park in America) to the kind of shopping disctrict that makes Newmarket look like Henderson. Bought a Red Sox cap for James and a Red Sox cap for me (Brad bought a Red Sox cap too) and had lunch at a small Italian place that did great calamari. Did i mention how good the seafood was? Saturday night saw a very bloody exciting return to the Garden - this time to watch NHL, the Bruins vs Buffalo Sabres.
Huge! HUGE! Live ice hockey is phenomenal. It is brutal, it is balletic and it is damn exciting. It helps that you're watching it in a stadium built for enjoyment of the game (New Zealand Stadium detractors take note). We drank lots of beer from large plastic cups - American beer, by the way, is piss-weak. Post-game we had a short to an Italian restuarant in the North End - a district noted for its culineray reputation. I had Veal Aubergine Parmigiana - it was the best i've ever tasted. You could cut the veal with a spoon. Did i mention how good the food was here?
Sunday morning time for a spot of sightseeing. Not that we hadn't been sightseeing all along but we actually paid to go on a boat ride and listen to a taped conversation about the history of Boston harbour.
It was bewdiful - perfect morning and the cityscape was glittering. Saw more than a few familia buildings from the Boston Legal cut-away shots and yes it was very cool. Tried and tried but didn't see Denny Crane - or Alan Shore. Something tells me they don't film the program in Boston.
Next some sightseeing of an unusual nature - we took a cab ride to a suburban neighborhood - the kind that has a strip mall - franchised buildings cascading down the length of 8 lane highways with residential sprawl falling away behind - quintessentially American. We were on a mission to find the Boston Harley Davidson dealership so i could buy some memorabilia for Jez, my boss. Something remarkable happened as we were trying to find a cab back to town - for starters, we couldn't. We eventually wandered into a service station and were trying to translate our Kiwi accents to the zombified attendant behind the bulletproof glass when a hispanic boy racer screeched to a halt alongside. He lumbered out of his car, hitched up his jeans and asked us if we needed a cab. Yes, we said. No problem, I'll call one for you he said - and quick as a flash he was on his cellphone ordering us our ride back into town. And the whole time he was acting like we'd just asked him for the time. Pretty cool huh?
In an effort to soak up more American culture we spent the rest of Sunday playing pool, drinking beer and watching World Series baseball - all at the same time thanks to the two storey sports bar just round the corner from the hotel. Bloody lovely.
Monday morning in Boston town and time for the lads to do some power shopping. I had lists, i had requests and i had "You'll find me something nice" which are the words that always raise the bar just that little bit higher than your previous best jump. I had my trump card though - a shop called Urban Outfitters. It may as well have been called Camille's Closet. Sweet. Baby Gap was my secret weapon for James - and my back up trump card for Camille. Just quietly, i get a buzz from bringing cool stuff back for my family.
Stink, airport time - 20 hours of air travel stretching ahead like a never ending queue for the loo after you've just drunk 2 litres of water. Oh and the first part of it was on US dometic so imagine you're standing in the queue and someone is poking you in the kidneys for the first 6 hours. Actually it wasn't that bad, clear night skies and me with a window seat meant that apart from cramped leg spasms i watched America fly by beneath me as clusters of light. It was pretty cool. 1 hour at LAX and everything on time meant that apart from not being able to find the Qantas check in we hopped planes with ease. Qantas is fantastic but i won't bore you with the details of their in-fligt entertainment program or the top drawer service - by now i'm itching to get home and see my family so i could've watched Julia Roberts films for 12 hours and it would've been okay.
And besides, I've just been to Boston for a long weekend with a mate to watch the Red Hot Chili Peppers and i get to say its part of my job. I really am a very lucky fella.
