I am in New York this weekend, apartment hunting. I scored a roundtrip ticket and two nights at the Waldorf Astoria for less than $600. Part of me wants to keep this a secret, because its just so damn special, this whole Travelocity.com weekend getaway thing... where they offer amazing deals on flight/hotel combo packages. But I'll let the cat out of the bag, whatever the hell that means. Often times you can get the flight and hotel for less than the price of the flight on its own. Last weekend was the same. I also just scored round trip airfare and a week at a hotel in the center of Paris for $569. For another $200 I got another week. [Granted, these are two star hotels, but they will do] I will spend two weeks there at a school studying French after our shows in Atlanta, and before our shows in NY. Don't say no one gave you the heads up. Great deals can be found out there with how competitive travel is now. You can live like a king on a pauper’s ransom. It’s awesome.

The best idea I have had so far is to put everything I own into storage and just travel around for a while. just go from place to place. Been speaking to Giovanna lately. Turns out she is moving from Rome to Egypt to open up a café. May go hang out with her a few days.

The most amazing dinner tonight at the waldorf. the best one I have had in recent memory. Beef tenderloins, cheese crusted mashed potatoes, sautéed artichokes, roasted vegetables, and a pinot noir to wash it all down. God it was good. 

A brilliant haircut by Federico at John sahag. Hadn't seen him in over a year. He is Italian so I told him about my trip to Italy last year to trace the roots of my family, hopping in planes, trains, and taxi cabs going from town to town all over the country meeting people and introducing myself and asking them about my family and all. He says it sounded like an American movie. Indeed it does. “Hey. And you coming over here from Italy to be a world famous hair stylist in new York city sounds like a movie,” I tell him. “And look at this, you made it.”

I went to central park to smoke and write tonight because there is a smoking ban in the entire city now. you can’t smoke anywhere in public. I can understand cigarettes of course, but cigars? The nerve. Anyway, I did find a few groovy smokers lounges where men go to smoke and drink. That was cool. but I wanted some fresh air with my smoke. So I hit the park. At night. with all the homeless people. There was this hunched over old black guy on the bench sitting about ten feet away from me. I called to him, ‘should I be scared? Sitting here?’ “How do I know? I'm not.” “Yeah but you're black. And from what it looks like, poor. I'm white and middle class. We’re scared of everything” “Aint you something. asking me that.” “Look man, I'm just asking, is it safe or not? If I'm going to whip out a laptop and start smoking and writing and relax here, I want to make sure that one of ya’ll isn't going to jump me in five minutes. You know, with all due respect and all.” “Man you’s crazy. You aint from here, that's for sure? Where you from?” “I live in Miami right now. I'm moving back here now. Ten years ago, you'd never sit in central park at night with your computer on your lap.” “You probly shouldn’t be doing it now. But you do what you want. I'll watch out for ya.” “Thanks man.” Passersby keep staring at me like who the fuck is that white kid sitting on the benches with his laptop with all those homeless guys... is he just crazy? no one knows what to think. But the Transcendence Diaries don't sleep. They just keep going and going.
Well things have changed here a lot in ten years. this guy didn't even ask me for money. imagine that. no one does. Five years ago even you couldn’t walk five blocks without someone asking you for money. its like that on South beach now. every five minutes someone is asking you for money.

I haven't lived here in almost ten years. But I'll tell you this. I've noticed something, and forgive me for narrowing the conversation so that it may only appeal to new Yorkers, but I noticed this back when I lived here before and I notice now just looking around for somewhere to live. when you live uptown you romanticize downtown. like somehow that's the place to be. and yes when you live downtown, you cannot help but wish you were living uptown. The only solution would be to move every year to a different neighborhood. In five years or so you could take the whole city in.

I have seen more beautiful and eligible girls here in the last ten hours that I have seen in Miami in three years. every minute you look up and you see some girl you would be more than happy to talk with or go out with. Its not like that in Miami. Not for me anyway.

One more thing. it’s the middle of august at about eleven o'clock at night and I'm cold. I'm not freezing but seriously, we’re smack dab in the middle of summer and I have a chill from how cold it is outside. I cannot believe these laptops don't come with temperature gauges, that's bullshit if you ask me, but I swear its gotta be at least sixty degrees right now out here. crazy. I guess you just get used to it. but seriously I don't know how the homeless people take the winters here. maybe they just don't know about South Florida or southern California.