Michael Henley

I have just headed down to San Diego from New York after spending a few days there. It was my first time in New York and I had a lot of fun there. Not quite as I expected, but that is hardly surprising considering it is one of those cities that is a little different to everyone who goes there, and considering that my preconceptions were borne out of Will & Grace, Friends, and the countless movies and other TV shows set in New York.

My first impression of New York was that it was amazing, awe-inspiring, but lacked the character that a city like London has. I feel that as efficient and easy as the grid system is as a method of city planning, it makes the whole place feel a lot more sterile, at least for an outsider. One street truly does look like all the rest, at least once you get uptown of 14th street. Even after spending a few days there I stand by that initial impression. It was an amazing place to visit, and I reckon that if you lived there and began to understand the dynamics of how it all worked that this would change, but from my very superficial visit I left feeling impressed, but not gob-smacked.

I cannot recommend the Pod Hotel on E51st St, between 2nd and 3rd Avenue, enough. Amazing location in Midtown Manhattan, with pretty reasonably priced rooms; @alexmuller and I shared a bunk room and the final bill was $660 for the two of us for four nights. The rooms have no en suite, and are fairly basic, but they are clean have a sink, and there is free wifi provided too. All in all it did exactly what we expected, and was exactly what we needed.

Following the advice of @therealdvorak, via No Agenda, we took the AirTrain to Jamaica Station, and then caught the E train subway to 53rd & Lexington. We bought an unlimited subway MetroCard on the first day and although a little pricey at $27, I felt it was well worth it. We walked a lot considering how close the Hotel was to most of the places we wanted to visit, but the luxury of being able to escape the downpours into the subway to get back to the hotel without worrying was very nice. This method of getting from the airport into the city was a lot quicker than a yellow cab, and was a lot cheaper too.

The subway was a mixed bag. The trains themselves are air-conditioned, which coming from London was a lovely change and considering that their lines are about as deep as the cut-and-cover lines in London really did make me wonder about why we haven’t seen that yet, at least on those lines. I was really quite shocked at how poorly the infrastructure was maintained. Every station we went into had rusted steel, a leaking roof, and looked so blackened as to suggest that there had been a recent fire. Also, in stark contrast to the trains, the stations were baking hot at this time of year. My only real complaint about the subway was the inability to change platform directions once within the barriers at a lot of stations. Many times we would dash into the nearest entrance without reading to avoid the rain, and only realise once we were on the train side of the barriers that we were in fact facing the wrong direction meaning we needed to go out and back onto the street. While for us with our unlimited tickets this wasn’t a major issue and only a minor inconvenience, but it is worth thinking about if you only have a normal ticket.

As well as the standard touristy attractions, I would highly recommend taking a tour bus, at least around Downtown Manhattan. While a little expensive you see an awful lot, learn a lot, and if the weather is nice then it is just a genuinely pleasant way to see the city. As I say, highly recommended.

New York was, for us at least, a very expensive place to visit and I have some major grievances about the american service charge and donations culture. While in the UK a tip is for service, and averages at around 10%, there it seemed to be more a fee for them serving the table, and expected regardless of the quality of service. The percentage was also double which meant some pretty outrageous charges for service. While they are still technically optional, we felt fairly unsure about how to act and pretty rude if we didn’t tip to the expected level. One other thing to be aware of is that in those states like New York which charge sales tax, often the menu prices are shown without this and so the bill ends up being a fair bit more than you expect. Coupled with tipping this can make meals pretty expensive. We did find an amazing little sushi restaurant – Matsu Sushi – a few blocks away on 52nd st and 1st avenue, which served very generous amounts of fish on their nigiri, offer a $23 all-you-can-eat sushi option, and a highly recommended $17 dinner bento box. Our best meal of the trip was undoubtedly a steak at Houstons on 3rd Avenue. While more expensive at around $32 each without drinks, the quality was second to none and even despite the lack of a bottle of red – the higher drinking age here saw to that – it was really very excellent.

All our flights this trip are with Delta, and they have been ok so far. The London flight was fine, but cramped, while the check in at JFK was absolute madness. @alexmuller was stood at the front of the queue for over 40 minutes without having his bag checked. Once we finally did clear the security we would have been almost too late for the flight, had it not been delayed for 40 minutes. That being said, the flight was fine, we had more room and everything arrived. Plus there was wifi on board, and those who follow me on twitter would have seen a few bursts of tweets going on about this. A great novelty, and at $8 for the flight it was pretty over-priced, but it is certainly the way of the future. I was getting a better bandwidth at 37,000 feet than I do in Oxshott, and at one point I had a skype conversation with @alexmuller. While admittedly he was in the next seat it was impressive that it would sustain the connection and it worked really very well.

Now I am chilling at a friend’s place in Coronado, California enjoying the beautiful weather. So far the USA has been really good fun so heres hoping it lasts!

Was riding the tube up to High St Ken on Monday to meet @alexmuller and having forgotten my headphones was staring blankly into space. We were joined by a really very impressive busker who hopped on and for two or three stops played some very entertaining and impressive Irish/Scottish jiggy-sort music. Seeing as I often can’t stand easily on the moving train his feat of playing (well!) while it was on the move was all the more impressive. Big thanks to the random busker for brightening up our day. Check out a short clip.

The District Line Player from Michael Henley on Vimeo.

So here I am sat drinking a glass of fizz having spent an afternoon at the pub, in a punt, and actually in the Isis. Great fun on all accounts. The thing is that when I got back I put on Palladio, and the I put on the Ode to Joy from Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. As soon as I did, I was reminded of a BS article I read recently about Susan Greenfield, and how she had some kind of spiritual experience while listening to this movement of Beethoven’s 9th, and how she felt that those of my generation would be missing out on this by their (our?) infatuation with raves etc etc yadayada

I have to say that in my humble opinion she is full of it. Beethoven’s 9th, and the Ode to Joy are undoubtedly amazing magical moving pieces of music which give me shivers every time I listen to them, but that doesn’t mean that not listening to them will in some way adversly effect the development or the spiritual understanding of ‘the young’. It comes down to a matter of taste. I can sit here and listen to a movement of Beethoven, perhaps Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, the Jupiter Symphony by Holst, or even Karl Jenkin’s Palladio and love every minute of it. Meanwhile I have had equally, possibly even more, moving experiences listening to ‘Smile like you mean it’ by the Killers.

I have to say that it is absolute snobbery for her to be using her position to suggest that the kind of things she, and possibly I, felt listening to the Ode to Joy in her most miserable times at this place (and believe me, there are some very miserable times) suggest that there is some kind of shortfall in my generation. For one, she forgets that not everyone in her generation was listening to the same kind of things she was (personal taste?!?). Secondly, she suggests that everyone in my generation ISN”T  listening to the same thing as her. I just jammed ‘Ode to Joy’ into Spotify and have eneded up with something amazing by The Deadly Snakes after listening to a couple of renditions of Beethoven. This is variety. This is progress.

Ms Greenfield might feel superior to my generation. She might even feel sorry for my generation, but she should not. Just because the music played at clubs and raves isn’t Beethoven’s 9th, we shouldn’t forget that mine is probably the most muscially and legally literate generation that has lived. The previous one, rightly or wrongly, has guaranteed that by their actions. We are humans, just like her, and it would do them well to remember that. We have the same kinds of responses to moving pieces of music, and just as members of the previous generation are moved by different things, so are we.

Susan Greenfield should get off her high horse. She may think that she is doing us all a favour by saying that we are not exposed to this, and maybe we aren’t, but don’t use that to suggest that we are missing out on these experiences. Just as she felt moved by the Ode to Joy, I might feel moved by O Valencia. Don’t suggest that just because it was written 150 years later it is any less melodic, moving, or influential than Beethoven. That is simply closed minded and petty. Just like Alex DeLarge, we all like a bit of the old Ludwig van.

I’ve been reading recently about plans by Rupert Murdoch’s news empire to begin charging for their content and I thought I’d throw my two cents in as to why I don’t think it will work.

While the dead tree press is undoubtedly dying, I get the feeling that the majority of this I because its readers are dying. While I never buy a newspaper and get all of my news online, my parents do both but rely on papers more. While my dad will go onto the BBC news website and may forward me the odd link they still buy the newspaper almost daily. I, on the other hand, have bought one maybe three times in my almost 19 years on this planet. Every time I do I undoutedly find myself skimming most of it and only reading the odd article or opinion column with a good title. In short, I read the newspaper like I read the Internet.

This morning I picked up a copy of the Observer lying on the table in the coffee shop where I was having a pastry and flicked through it. A few interesting pieces here and there but I honestly don’t think I got anything more from it because I (in theory) paid for it. When hearing arguments in favour of print one of the commonest things I hear is that we will lose people reading opinions other than the one they already hold but I can’t see how this I the case. Newspapers often have obvious bias and people are often very loyal to their newspapers. Therefore already we have the situation where people are not really encountering opinions other than their own. Meanwhile if you take the blogosphere you encounter many thousands of opinions, some of which will be in line with yours and some which won’t be. If you chose not to read the ones that you disagree with then I expect you would have done that with the newspaper as well.

The other thing which confuses me about what Murdoch wants to achieve. His companies recently laid off a lot of their Internet sub-editors and gave their work to the print sub-editors. I know this to be the case because a friend if mine was until recently a freelance Sun online sub-editor. What does that say about the priorities being placed on the web division over at News Corp?

Just like the record industry we are seeing another example of them taking their old business model and a big hammer, and then bashing hell out of it until it vaguely fits a shape to wrap around the internet. If they don’t totally throw out the old and bring in the new we will see their demise sooner than later. Opinions are nice, but I don’t have to pay for them for them to be any good. Some of the best I know have been heard over a pint. Free speech, but not free beer…