the journey from the metropolitan museum of art to reykjavik, iceland

hey there peeps. it's just after 2am new york city time and about 7am iceland time. i woke up in the middle of the night because i have a terrible toothache. my back molars are pounding, but i took this as an opportune time to blog about what's going on in my life as the pain in my mouth slowly subsides like a guilty conscience after one too many whiskeys. it's snowing outside my hotel window, and i can tell it's going to be a white christmas in reykjavik. holy shit, it's cold out here. it's so cold that even the sad little beer left on the steps of some random bar downtown was frozen. poor lil' fella.



i know, i know, it's been a while. but what's new, right? my days are dictated by my day job in marketing, and my nights are spoken for by my mistress -- band management. plus i'm trying to have a life (read: boyfriend and close gal pals), but if it's not obvious enough, i rarely have much free time. luckily, my friends and boyfriend seem to understand as they have their own busy lives, too. whew, crisis semi-averted.



and also luckily, my boyfriend kicked my utterly exhausted ass the other sunday, got me out of bed and off we went to the metropolitan museum of art. i hadn't been here since sophomore year of college when my german film class went on an excursion to see the anselm kiefer exhibit. sigh -- those were the easy days. back then i was so broke that i couldn't even afford to buy myself a vendor hot dog, let alone hand over the "suggested donation" at the met. back then, my friend and classmate brian was kind enough to lend me a dollar to donate, and i think he even bought me a hot dog.

the daytrip to the met provided me with lots of unexpected inspiration, so much so that i decided to take photos of art i saw that moved or spoke to me so that i could take the images and draw something that would turn into my next tattoo! here are a few of my favorite pieces:

and as you can see below, anselm kiefer continues to inspire me with "bohemia lies by the sea"



>>> see the entire set of photos here.

so yeah, this trip inspired me to again try and pursue my own artistic endeavors (yes, i decided to start sketching and drawing again after a 10 year hiatus...) and perhaps also find myself winking at the possibility of more personalized creative writing? of course that is yet to be determined... though due to some gentle coaxing from a new friend, i actually did start to write something -- but it's sitting at my desktop at work. hmmm, not a good sign, methinks. i'm still hopeful i will pick it up again and finish that novel treatment i've been itching to write.

at the met gift shop i picked up a set of mini-markers, a "tarot-to-go" set and one of those kaleidoscope camera viewers. for some reason i was drawn most to the tarot cards, and i've already done quite a few readings for people. it's a lot of fun, and you get to know people in the most deepest sense through the stories they tell you when doing a reading. i'm practicing so if you're into this kind of thing and want a free amateur (and confidential) reading, look me up.



my first sketch ended up being at joe's pub when jedd took his girlfriend and me (thank you!!!) to see country singer joe ely, who seemed to have a johnny cash vibe -- except the mood of his music was much lighter and the storytelling was simply delightful. jedd tells me that joe ely toured with the clash during the london calling tour. how fucking awesome is that? jedd had sent me a song prior to the show, but the music didn't come alive for me until the live show, which seems to be what most critics say about joe ely. i think part of the charm and magic is that his between-song-banter lights up and effuses the songs with so much personality. i found myself smiling a lot and writing down favorite lyrics during the show so i could look up the music afterwards. and like i mentioned before, i wanted to capture the moment so i took out one of those mini-markers i just bought and started sketching him. i also took some sepia photos... they turned out alright but perhaps didn't capture the joy of the performance. damn you, sepia. >>> see the full joe ely photo set here.

then mikers and i headed off to the capital of iceland, reykjavik, partly to see the sugarcubes reunion show (special thanks to filter). if you didn't hear, the sugarcubes reunited with bjork for one night in celebration of the 20th anniversary of their debut single, "birthday." back in the day, they started their own label to release their songs and subsequently put iceland on the map in the world of music. this concert also served as a benefit show for the label to help support the music and arts community in iceland. on the way over to our hotel, we ran into kids who trekked all the way from seattle to see this show. in line at the show, we met international folk from scotland who also came to see the show. it was truly an international event that brought together thousands of fans from around the globe. more on this later... i may even have some video footage to share (wink wink), but you'll have to bear with me and be a bit patient...

the flight over was like nothing i had ever experienced in my life. i probably will never get to experience it again either. for the first time in my life, i flew business class. holy moly, who effing knew the rich had it so good? even before the flight, we had access to the british airways travel lounge, which was a high-class operation. comfortable couches to sit in while you wait for your flight. a full open bar that is self-serve. sodas, water, snack foods, finger sandwiches, yogurt, newspapers, computers, etc... it was all free!! the bathrooms had molton brown soap and lotions, and the stalls smelled of rich mahogany. i sort of jest about the mahogany, but still... i couldn't believe it. most of the people in the lounge were full-on suits. you could also get massages while you wait. what the fuck!?

upon boarding the plane, aside from gawking at the extra-roomy comfy seats, we got handed champagne before we even buckled our belts and got an amazing free iceland air travel purse with free moisturizer, eye mask, lip balm, mirror and some earplugs to drown out any noise. wow... our blankets and pillows were golden like we were royalty or something. our seats leaned back even farther than usual. the staff keeps bringing you free drinks throughout the flight. the meal was also gourmet, complete with any kind of drink you can imagine, chocolate mousse for dessert, some pure icelandic water, coffee, tea, rolls, and more. it was simply way too much. i was so overwhelmed with all of the luxury. the only part of the meal that almost made me puke all of the good stuff in my stomach was the reindeer, which looked like it could still have been beating. (GROSS - it almost made me never want to eat meat again... almost.) not only that, during the flight, everyone in business class also gets their own portable dvd player that plays a movie of their choice from the given selections. you can pause, fast forward, rewind -- basically watch the movie at your own speed. i watched the constant gardner, which actually turned out to be a wonderfully moving movie. thank you, icelandair!!

today, mikers and i had the entire day to ourselves and wandered around the chilly streets of reykjavik. i still sort of can't believe i'm here. sometimes the city smells of rotten eggs -- this is due to the sulfur found in their warm/hot water, interestingly enough -- but besides that and the freezing temperature, it's gorgeous and so pure here, a truly revitalizing journey for me. the cold water is real spring water -- you can drink straight from the faucet because the water doesn't contain any pollutants. traditional icelandic food grosses me out (dried fish, ram testicles -- can we say yuck?), but the trendy fusion restaurants make up for it. the first day here we ate at this great restaurant called B5, which looked like it was straight outta SOHO, NYC. we ordered burgers and fries. the bun for the burgers was an interesting hybrid of pita/english muffin that tasted so delish with the cucumbers, lettuce, cheese and "special B5" sauce. the fries came in a small paper bag -- almost like you could order it for take out. we asked the waiter if that is traditionally how fries are served in iceland -- he said no. apparently, it's unique to B5. the thing i haven't gotten used to is that you don't have to tip the waiters. they are all on salary and don't work for tips. in fact, in many cases, it's considered sort of an insult to tip. i sort of wish new york was that way, too, so that i wouldn't have to go through and calculate tips in my head. i hate math.

then later in the day, we went to a spa called laugardalslaug, which is a relatively new spa that's only a couple years old, according to the tourist center here. to save some money (this city is so expensive - beer is a minimum of $10 and the average meal per person costs $30 to give you an idea of how the US dollar completely sucks right now), we walked over to the spa -- about a 25 to 30 minute walk in -7 degrees celcius. ouch. i started to lose feeling in my toes so every once in a while we would stop in a store to browse and defrost. special note: don't wear converse here, they don't protect your feet at all from the frostbite. anyways, mikers and i went swimming OUTDOORS in thermal pools. it was like we were those crazy polar bear swimmers from coney island, running like mad to jump into the pool without slipping on the ice on the ground -- except instead of freezing cold water, the pools were steaming with warmth. we dipped and waded for a couple of hours in the shallow pools. our hair was literally freezing like icicles while our bodies were therapeutically warmed in the pool water. it was completely relaxing, and awesomely enough, my skin feels amazingly smooth and soft.



today, when mikers wakes up, we plan to trek to another spa -- the most famous one in reykjavik called blue lagoon. miss modernage was telling me about this one before i left for iceland (she recently attended iceland airwaves). blue lagoon is near the airport, and she told me it was a true destination. in theory, i don't like getting professional massages because i don't like strangers touching me, but i'm making an exception this time because my body desperately needs one. it's been such a stressful couple of years for me because of my schedule and various other factors in my life, that i am taking a huge leap and getting my first professional massage. the massages are also outdoors in the geothermal pools they have here, and i'm a little scared and a little intrigued... it's not so bad once you learn that they wrap you in specially designed warm blankets like in the picture above...

anyhoo, more thoughts and photos later! i'm going to try catching a bit of shut-eye before we officially wakee wakee.