Winter Tour of USA : Part 1 - NYC / CHI / KC

lilium (29)in #travel • 7 years ago

SO this last winter I did a little trip back to theUSA (thrilling I know).

Mostly this blog will focus on my current life in Tokyo but since I'm new here, I'll be posting from out of the back log every so often (but don't worry, mostly these posts will focus on east Asia so follow for that).
These photos might not be the most exciting, maybe so , depends on your idea of what is interesting or exotic. To me USA is not so interesting, but, to someone on the other side of the world on a tiny island well Des Moines or some town might seem like paradise.

This post mostly focuses on Kansas City, but there is a lead in with New York and Chicago...

OK! Lets get started

Here you can see me realizing I have to go back to the states and having an existential crisis at Haneda. Wooo see y'all in 12 hours!

New York

Don't worry it didn't last too long... Hours and possibly days later I wound up in Brooklyn ready to play for a bunch of assholes at some hipster venue, there was some horrible rock bands that played before... to long and ... eh wait I'm not gonna go down this road (point is, I was missing Japan already). See that girl in the background? She's just focused on what drink she'll get at the bar as seconds vanish from her existence forever.

I'm not a big fan of the big apple and really have no intention of spending time on that one so let's just speed through to the next but had to mention SINCE I HALF TO BE HONEST ABOUT THE TRIP.

Chicago

A couple of cars, planes, and cars later I was in Chicago.
Basically the first thing I did after the airport was go to get coffee, why might you ask? Well I lived in Chicago prior for about 5 years and have a strong affinity for some local shops. For example "The Wormhole"

Not only do they make great coffee they also have dang good vegan lattes.

They also have a cool interior, styled in video games and nerdy movie stuff from the 80s and 90s, reminding me of my childhood (of being mostly alone in a fantasy reality staving off the fact that I would one day group up and have to deal with the dark realities of "adulthood" and challenge these societal norms on a daily basis).

Yes that is a Delorean... and it is sitting inside the shop with Christmas lights on it. Nice touch eh?

When I lived in Chicago (in my younger days alas I'm ancient now) - I even had the opportunity to be educated by some folks at wormhole about their techniques, for example - they literally have someone who sits in the basement all day taking tasting notes on coffee brewed at different grinds during different times of the day, they also take the room temperature and humidity down in the notes... they send all these notes to the coffee roasters and mostly they reply "what the hell is this shit y'all have lost your damn minds".

So the point is, Chicago takes coffee very seriously, as the Wormhole is one shop that sets standards in that city... and you can play Super Contra in the shop while you get jacked up on mama C (thats Caffeine and yes she's a woman).

After hopping on the train, getting vegan lunch at Handle Bar, getting more coffee, and showing my Japanese husband the exotic and beautiful Chicago we wound up at my friend Pei's place.

The misty air and glow of the city had me feeling like I'm in Blade Runner.

So ofcourse, here I am reenacting a scene from Blade Runner.

Was there more to Chicago? Why yes but alas WE DIDN'T TAKE ANY DAMN PHOTOS.

Kansas City y'all

Ahh... a return to my birth place, the nest, the shire, aka hell. We are both artists and romantics and decided to take the train (uh and its cheaper). It's no Shinkansen (Japanese bullet train) but eh it looks like we are going fast in this photo! (Idk just go with it it's artistic)

So we arrived in KC late that night and crashed at my friend Kevin's place. The next day we decided to head over the world famous (dare I say galaxy famous?) Nelson Atkins Museum of Art And Old Breakable Things.

Pictured below is a metal tree made by aliens on the Museum lawn.

Ah this is me navigating some sort of zen glass maze of emotions.

So time passed and night drew in on us. On our return to Kevin's place we noticed this idol to some sort of local deity, possible a water goddess since there is an artificial pond beneath her.

The next day we took the train to the Cross Roads. A part of town that is seemingly artist focused but in recent years has been a bit too gentri-fried for my taste. That being said, there are still some local staples there worth checking out that have been there for years. Such as...

Birdies - this place has been here since ... well I guess since I was a teen (a lady never says her age you son of a...). It's a pretty cute designer lingerie shop. I tried on a few pieces here but passed on them as they are the primo shiz and I didn't really have the American dollars to burn on sexy night time at that moment. Though I must say I'm pretty sure the teenager infant girl assisting me who wanted to talk about my tits was totally fucking high as shit.

Ok ok ok so next door is a place that is very important to the story of me. It's a cafe named

"YJ's" -

Basically this was the bohemian cafe I used to ditch school to go to and read Noam Chomsky books when I was 16. So of course I had to reenact that a little this time... reading the newspaper. Hell! It's ok! Chomsky has probably read sooo many newspapers to make all them fancy books I loved to much. And now that I'm all growed up it's about damn time to do the same.

A side note - the beverage in the photo is my favorite ginger ale brand CockN' Bull. It's so spicy that every time I drink it I end up coughing uncontrollably... I love it, call me a glutton for pain. Mostly I just forget the coughing part each time I buy one and am reminded after the immense pain.

Oh geez I almost forgot, another reason I love this place is basically I can just tell them (and by them I mean someone I have known for years who works in the rotating cast of YJ's crew members) "could you please make me something vegan?" and like magic, they throw some left overs together and create a plate of plants!

After YJ's we walk over to a place I used to live above, The Leedy Volkous Art Gallery. This place was the first gallery in the Crossroads and got the ball rolling on the whole scene. I had the opportunity to live in the lofts above this place during my "dark and fast" days (aka black outs and bong resin, not eating and constant speed habit) when I was performing in the art collective known as SSION. I've got some really amazing photos from that time... but that's for another day...

This is the "courtyard" of the Leedy, in it's day it was actually really pretty but now in the dead of winter after the place has been run, it's a bit dreary. I heard they made the inside really nice though, and all these christian bible study people live there now.

I stare at the dilapidated fire pit made of old beer bottles and remember the times I was on a fuck ton of drugs transcending space and time in this courtyard before going to the YJs Halloween mushroom party, or the weird "Smith's Night" at the taqueria in the barrio... ah those were the days... or years... time was kinda dilated. (Yes I picked the dark photo for effect to reinforced the dark times of a recovered degenerate).

Checked out an antique shop in the River Market area and bought some american gifts for my friends back in Japan. It has like six floors and oh yeah I forgot to mention my friend Essy used to live near this place, I found out she commit suicide last fall. Well her real name was something else, but when I was spending time with her she went by "Essy". I feel like she is still with me, and remember back then to when we had fun together, I miss her. No one really told me, of course I changed everything about my life, my name, and moved half way around the world and have not lived in Kansas City for years so...

Yikes so sorry it got dark but yeah I'm not. People do die, bad things happen, its hard but come on, we are all here together. Let's try and be there for each other because just chasing something fleeting will never really make you feel free. I enjoy the journey getting there, try to grab the tale of that illusive dragon... wait what are we talking about? Yea so after I took a stroll down memory / hell lane me and the man beast husband guy were starting to get pretty hungry.

Füd
This place is one of the two best (and only proper) vegan spots in the city. Füd was started by a couple of former (or current idk something?) vegan raw-foodists who wanted to make raw and cooked comfort foods for everyone. Actually the original name and business plan apparently came from a former friend of mine Jason from years prior when I was a teen in Kansas City. I used to hang out with Jason and his girlfriend Leah in their parents basement. I found out about them from his myspace band, this shoegaze solo act. Actually it was totally amazing and he had this whole world with a lexicon based on hermeneutics, raw foods, veganism, cannabis, anarchy, and mushroom culture. The idea totally inspired me and we made these pamphlets advocating a "simple edge" movement. More or less vegan straight edge but you can use entheogens , but don't use chemicals. Oh I forgot to mention he was a 40 year old white guy living in his parents basement... and they fed me mushrooms for the first time. Basically I saw light as a particle and a wave during that trip but thats neither here nor there, the point it, he was clearly super sketch and I was a naive teen. My bandmates noticed it but I didn't. Oh and on top of all that, his girlfriend Leah clearly had a crush on me so that was weird.
A couple years later I found out how he smashed her head with his laptop in a drunken rage and well fuck that piece of shit guy he's worthless and serves him right what Füd did!

Oh wait none of this story makes sense there at the end does it?
Ok so basically Jason claimed that Füd stole his business plan for the restaurant without paying him when they agreed to or something... thats the missing piece.

YEA so anyway
The actual food at Füd? Well they make a BBQ jackfruit sandwich that is really good, yet really greasy. Which after being in Japan it was a nice break. I mean if you check the picture above again you can see me eyeing my husband's sandwich.

So this was right around trump's inauguration, and the protest was going on. So lady passed me by and said "come on join us!" ... just visiting sorry... not into civil unrest personally... I have my reasons.

So as a surprise Kevin took me & Aya to the KC Symphony!!! So stoked... here's a pic of us being super party people...

After the symphony I swear I saw my father in the crowd and about had a panic attack. Like I have not talked to him in person in years now and uh... I have my reasons.
Oh yea... I also picked up this groovy outfit from that antique shop but was a little late for the Christmas season

After that it was off to Ashley's studio! Gonna record the new smash hit single or something (since I cater to the needs of mass appeal modifying my artwork to stimulate the dying attention span of the general public) NOT.

We stayed in Ashley's daughter's room. So if you have some sort of child fetish this is the moment you've been waiting for, and also thats super fucked up dude get a fucking grip (but totally normal and acceptable here in Japan... yea...).

So we started working on the record, over a period of a week or so... off and on. The whole vibe and process is very chill.

I love this place. It's one of the few places on earth I can dub a personal sanctuary, and I always find something new about myself after visiting.

Ashley is an old and dear friend, remember that group SSION I mentioned? We were in that together, touring USA and writing songs for Cody years prior.