Memoirs of a Gweilo

After my arrival at Newark Airport fifteen years ago first thing I did was buying the Village Voice, to see what I would be able to do the next few days, or rather what I would miss, there’s always too much going on in New York.

My eyes were immediately caught by the announcement of a party organized because Candy Darling’s diaries finally got publicized. He was one of the transvestites of the Andy Warhol scene, acted in his great experimental movie Chelsea Girls, Lou Reed’s song “Take A Walk On The Wild Side” is partly about him. He died in 1976.

Since I was fifteen years old I loved to read about Andy Warhol and the weird scene around him so I was most interested but afraid that I couldn’t get in. But because I knew that I’d never forgive myself if I wouldn’t try, two days later I was standing at the end of a long queue for Cathy 60, a disco in the Meatpacking District, which was extremely sleazy but trendy at that moment. Disgusting meat processing factories, not too inviting diners packed with junkies and butchers with blood all over their aprons. The entrance was guarded by a very trendy looking doorman, every now and then a drag queen arrived in a cab, and the Red Rope went up – “Ah, hello Doris, you look gorgeous today”.

I noticed there were two kinds of people standing in the queue: young hipsters who obviously knew the doorman, and older people, carrying an invitation – these were the people who used to know Warhol. Since I wasn’t a hipster and didn’t have an invitation either I didn’t think I had a chance. Luckily I remembered that a Dutch friend told me that if I ever found myself in a situation like that I should make clear I was European because many Americans find that kind of interesting.

So when I was well in sight of the doorman I rolled myself a French cigaret, Dutch style, noticed the doorman was talking about me with a hipster chick, and when it was my turn I asked with a very exaggerated pan-European accent: “Dddo I need an invitazzion for zzis place?”
The doorman smiled and asked: “Say, are you Dutch?”
“Yess, I am!”
“How nice, I’m half Dutch myself, please come in!” – and the Red Rope went up.

So I was inside. I enjoyed a long evening while quite a number of celebrities climbing the stage in order to read from the diary or tell stories. Gerald Melanga, who operated the camera for Warhol’s movie “Empire” – that’s to say, he left the camera standing on a tripod for over six hours filming the Empire State Building. But at least he changed the reels.

An unpleasantly loud guy wearing Woody Allen glasses and obviously on coke appeared to be Victor Bockris, only a month before I read his Warhol biography and had lots of fun. The guy who looked like an old heroin addicted hobo appeared to be none other than Gregory Corso, one of the founders of the 1950’s literary movement called the Beat Generation. Actually he was a heroin addicted hobo at that time. And the old ugly women who almost ran over me near the restrooms was the singer and actress Marianne Faithful, Mick Jagger’s ex-wife. She seemed about the only sober person on stage, which was quite a miracle, considering her reputation of alcohol and drug abuse.

When I was about to leave the place, tired of all these experiences, the great poet Gregory Corso approached me, tried to focus his eyes and mumbled “Hey Al, are you Al? I’m looking for Al!” Unfortunately he stumbled away before he could hear me shouting “No, but you can call me Al !!!”.

I’d waited all my life to say a line like this

A vending-machine dress, the brainchild of clothing designer Aya Tsukioka, could offer a woman walking alone a way to elude pursuers.

Hilarious

Good site about Akira Kurosawa, Japan’s greatest director. Lots of pictures of his paintings.

Well, I never will. Probably the most interesting dadaist and surrealist artist, who influenced a big part of 20th century art. This is a great site about him.

On this blog there’s a long list of bizarre bar names, like Bollock Paradium, Pub Smell or Bar Jerk. Hilarious

I once discovered a restaurant in Seoul, South Korea with the unusual sign “Folk Customs a Dining Room”. Obviously the owner tried to look up the Korean equivalent of “Traditional Restaurant” in a dictionary.

Another restaurant in that area was called “Moonbird only dreams of the moon” – how poetic.

Living with Legends: Hotel Chelsea Blog. In the Hotel Chelsea in New York William Burroughs wrote Naked Lunch, Andy Warhol shot his movie Chelsea Girls, Dylan Thomas wrote Under Milkwood, Sid Vicious killed Nancy, and according to this blog it’s still a lively place.

It’s a so-called Canto-Western restaurant , early Hong Kong fusion cooking. Borshtsh and steak or Eisbein (German pork knuckle) with Chinese broccoli. Not bad at all, but the reason for visiting this place is the beautiful sad atmosphere (pictures below) – it hasn’t changed a bit since it opened in 1963, it’s the Hong Kong that doesn’t exist anymore outside of these doors.

That’s why the great director Wong Kar-Wai shot here some scenes of “In the mood for love” and “2046″. I was having dinner in one of those booths where Tony Leung Chiu-Wai and Maggie Cheung were sitting. The friendly staff is fluent in English and will certainly point at a large film still of “In the mood for love” and ask you if you know this movie. My answer (“Yes, it’t the reason why I’m here”) was obviously appreciated.

It’s the Goldfinch Restaurant / Caf???? de Goldfinch, at 13 Lan Fong Road, Causeway Bay. MTR station Causeway Bay, exit Times Square.

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Can you tell the difference between Chinese, Japanese and Korean people? Test yourself here. There are also tests about food, traditional architecture and more.

My score is 8/17, quite bad, although on traditional architecture I did a 13/18 and on food a 14/18, somehow I think being able to distinguish these cultures is more important.

Here is a clip on YouTube with a song (the melody is from the Sound of Music), consisting of the names of most of the subway stations of Hong Kong, followed by some sound samples typical for the MTR (Mass Transit Railway). “Please mind the gap”. “Next stop Admiralty”, etc. Great pictures from the MTR stations too.

On the 31st of March I’ll be going to Hong Kong for the 6th time, for two weeks. The bad news is we have to fly with KLM, the Dutch national carrier, but the good news is the Hong Kong International Film Festival is on when I’m there.

Last time I was in China (september 2006) I was so lucky to see the divine Zhang Ziyi walking over the red carpet during the world premiere of “the Banquet” in Xientiandi, Shanghai. Ten days later in Hong Kong I saw Jackie Chan doing some weird promotional things on Time Square, in Causeway Bay.

I don’t know what will happen this time, but HK will be big fun anyway.