A Reminder

Morning coffee with my buddy Luke!

# san francisco

# potrero hill

# friends

# family

I was 20 when I first heard In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.

I popped the CD into my Volvo probably around 10:30pm, some weekday in June or July, 2000. My friend Adrian gave it to me minutes after I picked him up at his parents’ place.

We drove over to the Federal Reserve building to go skateboarding. I always had my sunroof open. Minnesota summers are hot as hell. Breezes came in. Music went out.

We listened to the entire album on the way there and on the way back. And often for the rest of the summer.

I hadn’t yet moved out of my parents’ place but I had a lot of freedom. They bought me that 1985 Volvo DL. It was my third one. (I got into a lot of car accidents). Each one had a sunroof. Not that I could make demands on them since they financed my early driving years, but I always requested a sunroof. They always caved.

Long since I’ve moved out, happily carless, I have to pack. I’m leaving Berlin next week and moving to San Francisco.

Soundtracks. Lyrics. Déjà vu.

But now we must pack up every piece
Of the life we used to love
Just to keep ourselves
At least enough to carry on

(Thanks, Thom).

# in the aeroplane over the sea

My friend Dean McNamee was in town last week and stayed with me for six days. He took this photo of me on top of the dome at Teufelsberg last Saturday.

We hiked up and in and snuck around like kids.

We took photos and recordings for the better part of two hours.

It was scenic and sound therapy.

In fact, we laughed and took the piss out of each other all week, infectiously, like the children we still are.

He chose to be in town at just the perfect time.

Grab a Dean-like-object and put him in your pocket.

To all of my friends like these…

You make me so happy.

Love.

Realizing that nearly everyone I’ve talked to this week is at a crossroads.

Not sure if it’s just now.

Or if it’s just always.

Oddly comforting.

Three sets of my friends who’ve never met before.

My worlds colliding in New York.

Golden people like these… are golden.

:)

(Taken with Instagram at Ace Hotel)

After a long, beautiful and sobering day filled with a personal account of pre-and-post-conflict history, I was able to top it off with a ride up to the higher hills on top of Sarajevo.

Just in time for dusk.

Starting with graves. Ending with a beautiful melting sky.

“If you can keep the hills, you can keep the city.

They were always hiding in the hills.

Only their gunfire could identify them.

We had to keep the hills.”

One of the great things about occasionally being up early in Berlin is chatting with my homeys in SF. This came in through my old friend Andy as we did our bi-weekly gchat voice catch-up.

Combined with nine hours of sleep: my jetlagged is cured!

Anyway, the video is a neat….and it seems we’re now back to my blog being a temporary Radiohead repository. :/

Back to regularly scheduled programming soon, I promise.

:D

Yayayayayayayay! :D :D :D :D :D

I can’t tell you how smiley this made my overly-jetlagged-sleepyhead self tonight. Seeing them still enjoy each other’s company after all of these years is so sweet and nice! What a rad bunch of Oxford homeys.

It also gave me signs of life on the ‘is-Radiohead-going-to-tour-soon-or-at-least-play-a-couple-shows-live-somewhere-sometime?’ paranoid thought path. (I know, I know…hard to believe, but a homegirl had her doubts!). And now, perhaps some live performances aren’t too far off the mark…

This was now just the first time hearing this new track and I like. (I mean, duh. This is Emily you’re reading here :P).

Oh, but make sure not to miss Thom smiling over a a quick positive exchange at the end. He’s actually pleased with the results straight away? A Radiohead happy! :D

*Guten Nacht*

Played 31 times

[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

A track I’ve had on repeat the days leading up to my trip to NYC and still on heavy rotation now that I’m here. Walking around. Doing my thing.

I had been thinking about social, online connectivity all week before I left Berlin. The pros. The cons.

I decided after I landed here in NYC that I’d take a bit of a break from the social networking “usual suspects” of Facebook and Twitter and focus on spending time catching up with the friends here I haven’t seen in awhile and also clear my head. I think that like so many other people, I get lost into thinking that the photos and virtual updates of various friends in my life are a way to really connect or understand what’s going on in their lives no matter how geographically near or far. And vice-versa, that my updates or online habits and quick virtual actions are a way to know what’s really happening with me.

But of course, it is all rarely the case.

Beyond sharing a link or an article, it is sometimes a lazy and numbing way to make assumptions about the awesome and honest happenings of actual life and forget to really connect. Even when we are at home. You know, like IRL. :)

So now I’m gonna take my social networking break a bit further and extend it to every other service and site while I’m here and see how it feels to just think and walk and write and listen and catch up. Maybe this will become a longer-term trend. Easing back a bit in general, who knows. Sounds easy but for someone who is fairly social and loves to share, I bet it will be a challenge, hence this post. :P

Maybe it took the NYC streets and good hip-hop in the ears to remind me how rad is it to just think and be present. I mean, I figured this out a long time ago - I have spent and continue to spend plenty of time alone, just existing and wandering around - but somehow, I so easily forget…and sometimes I also feel judged.

So I leave it with this track. So good! Bob your head and take a walk and look up:

“Brooklyn you crazy. Look how you made me, razor blades in my mouth walk around behaving all demented.

Black hoodies and timberlanded. Always scheming, ‘You see the gleam on that n*ggas pendent?’

Hello Brooklyn, you bad influence look what you had me doing but I ain’t mad at you.

Look at my attitude. It says my life’s too real. Check out my ice grill. Baby I’m cold as ice like I’m from Brownsville.”

@Nat_s left me her cute little Chelsea studio for some days. Perfect for coffee in bed and solo hang out time. :) (Taken with Instagram at Natalie’s Cute Studio )

# Google Creative Lab