Small Town America & Niagara Falls.

The first week of vacation has got off to a very good start. The first two days were slow, as expected, slept a lot, had a piano lesson, read, listened to music, tried to hunt down Amelie on DVD but was unsecsessful. Went for walks. It rained a whole lot so it didn't really feel like summer.

Friday morning was a fairly early start, slightly manic packing, desperately hunting down all the CDs I wanted to take. (I have a thing that can only carry 25--having the exactly perfect selection of music is a key element for a good summer). It took forever because Primal Scream were hiding. Anyway, set off about 1:30, drove for a couple of hours, got a snack. Listened to 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Manchester Orchestra records, the Sweeney Todd soundtrack, Rihanna, Arctic Monkeys, and Elbow. We drove through western Massachusetts and into New York state. It rained a lot, there were a lot of hills, and at one point we drove through loads and loads of fog so you can barely see ten feet in front of you. Turns out this part of the world is absolutely beautiful, in a very sort of southern England way. Loads of greenery and what have you, rivers and stuff too. So unexpectedly different from where I live, which isn't really that far away. Additionally, it is also for the most part very quiet and rural and...deserted. Like, you drive through some really small, eccentric town centers, where they have decaying chinese takeouts and thrift shops on every corner. Some of the places look like they could've jumped out of like a wild west film, which is mad considering this is the effing northeast, right? That's what I thought. But, y'know, they're kinda fantastic in their wholly eccentric ways. Makes where I live look like a bustling metropolis, whereas I always regarded it as little more than an average(if disgustingly wealthy, bigoted, and ignorant) New England town. Huh. We drove through the evening until we got to where we were staying, a beige four star hotel in some town in western New York state, right next to a loud psuedo Irish bar(which, upon reading their panflet in the hotel room, I discovered is riddled with inaccuracies, mainly concerning the differences between Ireland and Scotland, both culturally and geographically). There's an open pool so the hotel always smelled of chlorine but nevertheless, it was a decent enough stay. As we got to the hotel room, my dad flipped through the tourist brouchure, only to discover that the town's high-security prison is listed as one of its main attractions. I love Small Town America! it gets better, though--we needed to go somewhere for dinner, so my dad finds this place and we go there, and it happens to be literally just across the street from this prison. And the place(the restaurant, not the prison) is awesome, it's small and dark and squalid and it's filled with baseball memorabillia and the waitors perpetuate too many New York stereotypes for their own good. For some reason, it's filled with A.) couples in their fiftes B.) Groups of drunk women in their early forties and C.) Girls in cheap, tacky prom dresses. I don't see how it could be prom for them this late in their year, but whatever. Just imagine living in a place that's literally nowhere, and it's your prom night and the place you go to eat after is across the road from a town prison. Believe me, this place is begging to have a YA written about it. Someone go tell John Green about it, now.



Saturday morning was good enough, breakfast, then out of the door. Same scenery, same music, but a lot of fun. Drove past the finger lakes and to a glass museum somewhere in New York State. It was genuinely amazing--the modern stuff was the best though, it all looked so awesome and I had no idea how much stuff you could do with glass. I mean, one sees those tree-like structures made of translucent glass and you think well 'okay, cool, whatever' but there's a whole other world to it. Someone made a glass structure of the inside of a human torso. Also comical chess sets and what have you. Plus, it was a great moment for me, as a northern european, to discover that while the ancient world, asia, the east, and basically everywhere else were playing with these really groundbreaking artistic techniques with glass, we busied ourselves with making comedy glass drinking glasses, that were structured so that they were virtually impossible to drink out of and made your friends laugh at dinner parties when you spilled your drink everywhere. Ha. On the way home we stopped by this small waterfall, which would've been great had it been a hot day, and walked for ages, then went to a racetrack. We had seafood for dinner in a local town, to the sound of an old folkie doing godawful 60s covers, while my parents exchanged snide remarks about the whole event. Sunday, another early-ish day, set out for Niagara at nine oclock, got there by midday. Obviously, it was spectacular, unlike anything I'd seen before. However, my brain felt like being mildly crazy that day, and was far more interested in the tacky, desserted-looking Canada across the falls. It just looked awesome in a very sort of English seaside resort town way. Like, it was amazing. And so we walked around there a while, and got lunch, and went on the walk around the side of one of them, and walked to the islands and stepped in the water even though we shouldn't have, and then we went on the boat which was infuckingincredible. You disappear completely in the mist, it's a world of white, it's amazing. We walked around that bit for a while, got an ice cream, and watched a movie about the myths about the falls and the various stories of people sending themselves over. For a cheap little 40-minute documentary it was surprisingly interesting. However, my family and I did spend extended amounts of time mocking the family of the 7-year-old boy who fell over the falls. ('Just a normal boating trip on the upper niagara'. WAIT WAIT WAIT JUST A NORMAL TRIP WHO DOES THAT. Also the way the documentary showed it, there was a small 'dangerous waters ahead sign' which I would first argue is a stupid way of advertising there's a fucking huge waterfall ahead. Additionally, the family seemed to go 'oh, dangerous waters ahead, I'm just gonna put my cheap little sailing boat five feet away from it, nothing can possibly go wrong out here!' It's entirely possible that these were not the exact details of the event, but I mean, come on.) We went over to canada. 4th country I've been to, pathetic but what are you gonna do. It's the first time I've been to a country right at a border, beforehand where I've been has been seperated by seas so I find it very odd to just step over a border and that's it. we got stuck in customs or whatever(is 'customs' an applicable term outside an airport?) for ages because everyone there was foreign so there were a thousand and one complications. The town, as I said, was awesomely tacky, and we went to these tourist shops and it's all life size bear toys and English candy and maple syrup and then we saw the falls from that side and they were so, so amazing with a rainbow and everything. and then I went to my first Hard Rock Cafe! it seemed outdated but fun. They played Taio Cruz and the Script inbetween death metal and I think all parties involved were a little confused. I'm going to the original London one this summer, by the way. Then we walked back through the park, and got back really late. Monday was merely a travelling day, though we did stop by one of those towns where it's supposed to be like a quiet 1800s colonial town. Again, small town america. (small town america I know is so hipster, so I dressed hipster to celebrate.) all we did is walk around and get ice cream, and it was weird because the only other people there were a group of loud and irritating mix of Americans, Brits, and French(at first I thought the French were some Brits pronouncing curiously long names of wines with very impressive accents). They were annoying as hell, hence our swift departure.


It's been a very nice few days coming back! Most people are away at the moment so it's nice and quiet. Also, the weather is bearable and for some reason I'm not bored out of my mind this summer, though I'm doing nothing different to last year. I'm listening to Manchester Orchestra's discography a whole lot. I only just got round to buying the first album. My god, there's so much angst there! Makes their recent work look like Owl City in comparison. It's good nonetheless. Don't know why this band stand out from a lot of other guitar bands at the moment, but they do. I think so anyway. Also the Sweeney Todd soundtrack, I love that, I'm gonna get a DVD showing of the Broadway cast doing it. V is now in 50 days--they have almost all the lineup there and it's very exciting. I'm going through the list and it's looking good. More excited for Eminem at the moment, must listen more to new Arctic Monkeys record. I'm getting into Glasvegas. We're in a Glasvegas backlash at the moment(Glasvegas>>>Coldplay. END OF. SHUT UP.), it's a shame. Additionally, Patrick Wolf writes flawless summer music.

Festivals may be hell on earth but I love them anyway. I missed out on most of Glasto, unfortunately. Apparently Beyonce is the first female headliner of Glasto...after 51 years. Hmmm. I missed my beloved Killers' performance at Hard Rock Calling, also. I hope they write a new record soon, six months or so would be lovely. Their tours go on forever.

Sadly, the tickets for Richard III in London this summer seem to be sold out. it has become the big show of the year and it's getting great reviews. However, it's okay because my mom will take me to see another smaller show this summer, she says. Also it's going to Broadway this winter so I get to go see a fucking Broadway show, how about that? I have to be like all the Broadway Kids at school, AKA annoying as hell. I should ditch all adjectives other than 'fabulous', loudly sing songs from Avenue Q at inconvenient times, announce to everyone how Neil Patrick Harris has something to contribute to society. My ego will soar. It sounds like a blast.

The other day I bought Doctor Who(don't know the series--but the Ten/Rose one) and the Office(UK) Season 1 on DVD . Doctor Who is for 5th grade nostalgia. At 11 years old, the Ten/Rose relationship seems groundbreaking and interesting. Also, while I may be behind the entire developed world with the Office(which I'd never actually seen before), I've got to say how hilarious and clever and awesome it is...even though I'm only 5 episodes in. I love it. Especially Gareth. And Tim. But that's mostly just cause how could you not love Martin Freeman? Summer means comedy shows in the early hours of the morning. This and then I'm going back to Peep Show, because not even the most critically acclaimed British comedy of the decade can beat Peep Show for me.*Which is sad, I suppose. oh well. Is the US Office worth it? I have difficulty judging things without bias; this will be one of these instances, I'm afraid. I hear it's very funny too so I suppose I should watch it but I just don't want to become all YOU AMERICANS DON'T UNDERSTAND OUR SENSE OF HUMOR BLAH BLAH BLAH and then I'll feel and look ridiculous after. Just some foresight on the matter.

Oh, one last thing--my report card came in the mail. Six As, two A minus, one B. A- in the sciences, B in gym(haha). Mediocre and what have you. Oh well. I lost two much sleep the past ten months to care.

Slow days, slow summer. Speak to you soon.

* For those who don't know, I would like to point out that as far as critical acclaim for UK comedy shows, Peep Show really is only a little bit behind the Office. Honestly. But of course the Office is massive and Peep Show just goes along its merry way, with its small band of highly dedicated followers. The world is crazy.