The Wake

I’ll preface my writing with a little about the basis of my traveling. I’ve developed a travel philosophy. The gist of it is, be as social as possible when you’re out living or traveling through new places. People are far more receptive than you’d ever imagine. Obviously, there’ll be encounters with non-responsive parties, but you can never let that deter you. They could be behaving in that matter for any number of reasons, and to allow such a response to lower your confidence is asinine. By starting casual conversations with the occasional stranger, or furthering your familiarity with a mere acquaintance, you could end up with breakthrough career connections or a life long friend. At the very least, you’ll open yourself up to an entirely new forum of education. Exchanging viewpoints with someone of an …

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My night out on the town with my Japanese and Polish friends was a smash. We hit the Karaoke bar with full force. Everything from The Rolling Stones to Madonna was performed with mild and expressionless enthusiasm, with the rest of the patrons laughing drunkenly all the while. Karaoke is a very communal experience. It’s a great look into Japanese culture, as its serves as their primary source of recreation, according to my doctor friend.

After the bar closed, we went down to a Shisha Bar (or Hookah bar in the states) and ordered up some Strawberry flavored product. Along with that, we ordered 4 cherry and banana juices. Delicious enough on their own, they became even tastier upon Radek suggesting I empty the rest of our large carton of screwdriver into the each glass, …

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Im in an internet cafe in Berlin, with a 25 year old doctor from Japan, who was studying abroad in Poland, and is traveling Europe now. He was in the same room as me, and we saw some sights today. His English is.. .limited.

When I got in last night, I didnt have a place to stay but this Columbian girl who´d just missed her train to Poland was crying on a bench I was sitting at. When she stopped, we chatted about my time in Venezuela, after exchanging pleasantries. We had a really intersting chat about Columbian/Venezuelan relations, as I am pro Chavez, and she´s out spoken about her disdain for his stance on Columbia´s violations in Ecuador. Venezuela has no military deployments in Columbia, rather it has only defended, verbally, the sovereignty
of Ecuador. …

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I was going to about 5 shows a week on average here in London between my internship at Helter Skelter Agency LTD and my job writing for Music-news.com.

Here are some of the best gigs I hit:
The first show I saw in London was The Lionheart Brothers at The Social in Soho, I saw then later on in the spring at the Hoxton Square Bar in the Shoreditch area. Everyone needs to give this tune a listen. Norwegian Psych pop at its finest, “50 Souls and a Disco Bowl”

The second show I saw in London was Texan quartet, Explosions in the Sky. The show was at the Astoria, which has just been controversially shut down to make way for public transportation, read news story here.

The other band I saw at …

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In the hectic pace of my sleep deprived, London life style, I had very little time to relay all the great new bands I’ve discovered. So I write to you know from a café in Madrid with some suggestions and news.

Initially, I was quite disappointed with the proclaimed hot new bands of the moment in London. Bands like: New Young Pony Club, Does This Offend You Yeah?, Scouting For Girls, The Hoosiers, Guillemots, Pigeon Detectives, The Enemy, Ipso Facto. They’re all either boring electro groups trying to ride that long past new wave revival, sad Libertines rip offs, weak piano soft rock, or just plain shit.

The next level is bands that are a good listen and pleasant enough, but are incredibly over blown given the quality of their tunes. Within this I would include …

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Two of my professors here at school are surely to be some of the most memorable you could ever hope for.

One teaches my International Marketing course. He spends most of the time in class telling stories of his foreign excursions, which serve to illustrate his points. He’s been all across the world and knows a great deal about the nature of foreign relations. One Particular story of note involved his attempt to broker a deal with some businessmen in Nigeria. He explained that the only way to accomplish such a thing was to arrive with a brief case full of Rolex watches, and 3,000 dollars in American cash. He did just that, and upon paying his way through airport security, he crashed in his hotel room. The man whom he was to meet, a …

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I attended a club night north of London last night (Watford area to be exact). It’s a good 50 minutes outside of the city. I took the bakerloo to then end of its line, and was picked up from there in a car for the remaining 20 minute drive. We stopped by a house out in the London burbs. The kids there were watching Superbad, and we’re qute intrigued to meet someone who had actually owned a fake id. We took off from there and hit the main drag of clubs on Watford High Street. The evenings events reminded me of a particular song on the very subject of clubbing in England.

The song is called “From the Ritz to Rubble.” It was on the Arctic Monkey’s debut album. The song starts out with the lyrics, …

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It’s 3.30 a.m. and I’m exiting through the back gate of Camden’s Roundhouse with several of my co-workers. We all bid each other farewell, and take off in our different directions towards home. Each one of is walking with a noticeable affliction given we’ve just left the all you can drink after party following the Supergrass party that night.

I’m walked with extra care and caution toward my bus stop across from Chalk Farm station to catch an N28 back to Kilburn. To protect me from the soft drizzle, four carry out boxes rest stacked atop my head. They’re filled with Chicken and Squid Paella, a Spanish dish of sticky, rice mixed with green and red peppers. It’s been wonderful, as I haven’t had to buy groceries for the last 2 and a half weeks thanks …

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It was two Sundays ago that I went down to the Oxford Arms in Camden to watch the Carling Cup final with Charles, his uncle Ola, and the usual rowdy crowd. Tottenham vs. Chelsea, two London clubs going all out for a some coveted hardware. The die-hard fans were out in full force all across London. It had been 9 years since Tottenham had last one any title, and win would salvage their lack luster year in the premiership, and ignite a celebration of riotous proportions.

Given Camden’s proximity in North eastern London, and it was primarily Tottenham fans filling the pub with their crisp, white jerseys, scarves and t-shirts. I had on my own Tottenham jersey, number 25 Aaron Lennon, which won me the favor of some particularly boisterous Spurs fans in the back. …

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On Saturday February 10th I was in Camden for the day, losing myself amidst the market mayhem. It’s like a whole other world. You’ll enter one of the markets at point on Camden High Street, and emerge and hour later hundreds of feet down the road, with no idea of how you got there.

I took out my headphones and enjoyed the sites and sounds as the colors of the crowds burst into life. The smells of delicious ethnic foods overwhelm your senses, and leave you no choice but to indulge. I’ve developed a trick for getting discount dishes from these vendors. You just walk by and look casually interested. The eager salesman will start a dialogue, all you have to do is look like his rhetoric is making even the smallest of effects, and he’ll …

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The race for top songs of the summer is going to be a heated battle. With mammoth releases set to drop in every genre, it’s hard to tell which albums will make the splash. There are a few certainties though, particularly in terms of what the club and bar DJ’s will be playing to get patrons off their feet and dancing.

Firstly, Dr. Dre’s third full lenth LP, Detox, is scheduled to flood the airwaves this June. He’ll be releasing each of the 12 or 13 tracks as singles. There won’t be a city block safe in the country safe from the earth shaking beats.

One of my all time favorite groups, NERD, will release their long anticipated third album, N3RD, sometime in late Spring. Given Pharrell and Chad’s consistency for boundary pushing, line blurring beats, …

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My days of running the point for the Imperial College Medical Basketball Team may be numbered. Team captain, Xu Wang, has grown weary of my months worth of excuses for not yet paying my dues. A hefty forty pounds, which I’ve been able to avoid through an intricate web of stories. However, he’s finally layed down the law, “pay at the game or you’re out.” We’ll see what a few carefully worded emails can’t do, but here’s a summary of our season so far.

We’ve lost four of the five games we’ve played since I’ve joined, but this is not to be taken as a poor showing. It’s a step up from last year’s zero win season. Coach Yanni (the one kneeling in the center dressed in all purple) , enjoys flashy/ stylish play, which …

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Last Sunday (or was this a few weeks ago…) I went down to Trafalgar Square for the Chinese New Year Celebration. They had a large stage with several Kung Fu and dance acts. I then went over to the China Town area for some authentic Chinese cuisine. The festivities concluded with the last of a series of hourly fire works displays in Leicester Square. I then separated from my friends, and went to go find a pub that was playing the Cameroon v. Egypt match before going to a concert in the area that night. It was the final of the African Cup of Nations. I went to four different pubs and they were all playing the Liverpool v. Chelsea, a regular season premiership match up.

Finally, I tired out the Basement Bar. I went …

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I finally attended my first premiership game, Fulham v Aston Villa at Fulham. Given the number of Americans on the Fulham team, we opted to support them. They hadn’t won in several months, and Aston Villa was towards the top of the league. We went down to a local pub before the match and took down a few with the faithful. We went to the Fulham store and bought scarves, and then headed down to the field. Down 1 goal early, the energy was momentarily stolen. American Clint Dempsey continued to play well, and Brian McBride made a dramatic return from injury late in the game, his first bit of action in months. He was the former captain of the club for several seasons. The Cottagers stormed back to a 2-1 victory, the winning goal …

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One of my four jobs and internships here in London is with a Media, Touring, and Management firm called Airmtm. They handle the careers of artists like Jamie Cullum, The Bad Plus, and Manchester’s I am Kloot, among hundreds of others. They also handle all the media work for the world famous jazz club, Ronnie Scotts. It served as a place for the Jazz obsessed Londoners in the 40’s and 50’s to see the greatest artists of the day. It still serves as the premier Jazz venue, and has been a popular hot spot for local artists and celebrities to take in a show. Read the bio here.

On this particular night, I decided to go down and see the award winning vocalist, Liane Carroll, and brought a date along with. As we walked …

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