Day 5 UK Adventure - Show Time

I had two performances Friday; one at the book fair and the second at the Frankfurt Slam. I didn't know what to expect at the performance at the book fair because I wasn't aware of how many people in the space spoke or understood English. So they had a slam at the book fair with some amazing slammers (don't ask me what their poems were about because I don't speak or understand German, so I made stuff up as I listened LOL). It was amazing however, because there's so much that you pick up just based on the emotions and the sounds of the words, it's like some how you can understand even though you don't exactly understand. I featured at the book fair slam and I just decided to go in. I took it a little slower than usual just because of language but outside of that I rocked my poems just like I would if I was anywhere else. The audience enjoyed themselves and responded well then we had to pack up and move on to the next venue.

On our way to the next performance we saw some cool street performers. Irony, they're performing infront of a bank. Talk about hustle, so if you like what you hear and you don't have cash you could just go into the bank to the ATM and pull something out for them LOL...pretty smart LOL. Also notice, they have product...what??? Ultimate hustlers LOL. We had dinner at a middle eastern restaurant and then walked over to the Frankfurt Slam!!!

This was most interesting. First of all they get 10mins to slam (in America it's 3mins and after that you're penalized). Then there aren't just 5 judges, EVERYBODY judges each slammer (they're given score cards with a list of 3 things, how was the poem, the performance and the subject matter - insane) and they sum the scores to see who goes on to the next round. Needless to say this makes for a long process but I like it because it seems so much more fair than the 5 judge rule....it's kind of hard to sway the judges when everyone is a judge :). There's tons of funny poems, one about finding the right jeans, a political piece and just a lot of great stories (Dirk translated some for me and the rest I just guessed what it was....).

My feature was awesome, I realized that most everyone understands English so I just rocked. I told a few jokes and did my thing. Everyone was so awesome to support and I sold a ton of CDS (my goodness) and I met several people who frequent NYC so I made some new friends :). It was absolutely beautiful and at the end of the night I got to have a couple drinks!!! How great is that ?

Oh, then we caught a cab because apparently the trains in Germany don't run over night (I keep expecting everywhere else to be like NYC, so spoiled). And the cabs in Germany are all Benz's WHAT?? Such luxury....you know how many cabs would get stolen if cabs in NYC were Benzs LOL....it was super cool though, I honestly felt a little hollywood and pretended to be Hale Berry with a German Driver in Frankfurt on my way to the presidential suite after shooting LOL...sooo silly. It was Awesome and Saturday was even better....tell you about it soon!!!

UK Adventure Day 5 - The Hood....

So, Friday morning we got up bright and early (not really early but early enough for a woman who still hadn't adjusted to the 6hour time difference). Durk served me a wonderful breakfast of bread, venison (which I had never had before) some great cheese and tea. Lovely, especially for a person who is in the habit of skipping breakfast ;).

We then headed to the bank to change my pounds to Euros and we took a little stroll through the town which Durk informed me has a bad rep for being a not so safe place. SO pictured left is what the people of Germany consider 'The Hood'...Now look at this people, does this look like the ghetto to you? I mean really, where's the trash, the graffiti, the crack heads? LOL. I had to take a picture and share this with someone....Don't we wish East New York looked like this LOL :). Wouldn't that be nice.

So anyways, after our stroll through 'the hood' we headed to the Frankfurt Book Fair. Now this Book Fair is the largest Book Fair in the world and there were people from ALL OVER THE WORLD here. There 10 halls that each were the size of 4 foot ball fields full of Books and books and more books and art!!! INSANE!!! I've never seen anything this huge in my life!!!
There were tons of food vendors and tons of performances so I'll have to give you the details in another blog ;).... Chat soon, Happy Turkey Day Loves!!!

UK Adventure Day 4 - Frankfurt

I headed out to Frankfurt on my 4th day in Europe and for some reason I didn't think to transfer my pounds to Euros so I was theoretically there with no money...Nicely done LOL...I had to take public transportation from the airport to the main subway station....Let me tell you about public transportation in Germany. The subway system is on an honor system. Meaning there are no swipe machines. Therefore, if one is not aware of this one might become a thief in Germany LOL. The most fascinating phenomenon is that everyone who knows actually buys a subway card (which is like 2 euro) and then walks on the train. This would NEVER work in NYC LOL...People steal rides even with the cops right there so I couldn't imagine what we would do with no cops, and no swipe machines. The fine for getting caught without a ticket on the subway is 40 euro so it's really not worth stealing the ride but again, if you don't know and you don't speak German you might accidentally become a thief; not saying that I did but maybe not saying that I didn't, I'm just saying....you should know and maybe there should be signs....in English maybe...I don't know LOL....

So, I successfully made it to Frankfurt main station and met up with my contact Mr. Durk of Frankfurt :). Who made sure that I had a wonderful dinner at a really cool Turkish restaurant. The food was mostly good LOL...they got me y'all. First of all the restaurant is really cute and owned by an actual fisher man so all the seafood is basically the food he caught earlier that day. I had figs for the first time which was awesome and they got me....There was a lovely pink meat on my plate and I wasn't sure what it was...it didn't really smell or anything and wasn't quite ham so I thought, I'll be adventurous and give it a whirl....my friends it was raw salmon....ewww so gross.....damn it...worst, I didn't want to feel rude so once it was in my mouth I decided that I had to finish it...ssssss aaaaahhhhh awkward, so awkward and sooo slimy.....they got me LOL. Worst though, I asked for water thinking I'd just clear the taste a bit and they gave me sparkling water LOL..and I'm so slow that when it comes to me and it has bubbles in it, I'm thinking oh, she gave me a sprite instead how lovely...not at all....so gross. Apparently when one is in Germany one must ask for 'flat' water if you want real tap water. LOL. Again, not wanting to be rude, I drank it....shm...the joys of socially acceptable behavior LOL... Other than that the night was lovely and I got to bed around 11ish which was great because I was exhausted and we had to be up early to catch the Frankfurt Book Fair the next day :)...

UK Adventure Day 3 - Play Time

Okay, day 3 didn't quite get off to an early start. I had been waking up at 5am EST for the last two days and not exactly sleeping soundly (I never sleep well in new environments...) but when we did wake and get it together. We took a stroll through Camden which was pretty cool. It's basically a huge shopping area, total artsy place to be. I saw this really fly leather coat but wasn't willing to spend 200 pounds ($400 US) on a coat...not happening lol...but I did get some really cute jewelry and while walking through Camden I got to get a pretty interesting perspective of what the British think of Americans. We're walking through the shops and tell me why do I come across a newspaper with the following headline 'How To Have Sex Like an American'....Really London? This is what's important? More important than the students protest against paying for higher education? More important than the elections? WTF? And what does that mean anyways? Hell I'm American and I don't even know if I'm having sex like an American LOL....Needless to say I had to take article with me because I just was too curious. So I asked the man who's paper it was if I could have the article and we joked and he gave it to me LOL. We'll discuss the article later LOL...

So after Camden we headed to my feature at Close Up in Queens Head...this place is pretty fly. It's kind of retro but new age and hip all at the same time. The food was good (not cheap but good) and I met Greeds, and Ms. Chloe and Tshaka Campbell came through to show love.

I was the first artist to perform so I kicked a poem and then rocked a few poems with the house band who may I say were bad ass...The last piece I did was Promise but we completely improved and the Lovely Ms. Chloe KILLED IT on the vocals...She's amazing!!! The audience was extremely supportive, I sold 27 pieces, in a crowd of about 80 people... A lovely night indeed!!! The other artist were fun, It was cool to see (forgive me for not remembering his name) this artist who's on Dizzy's label (I love Dizzy's stuff and honestly didn't know he had a label so it was an extra special treat for me). The artist was dope the crowd was dope and there was tons of talent there for the night!!!

I couldn't leave London without hitting the club so we made a trip to Lester Square to check out the night life. First of all on the bus ride there some random British business man (a banker) was all in our conversation and in the process of this conversation he insulted us twice with a smile and had us thanking him when he was done LMAO....example, we're discussing which club we're going to go to and he makes a suggestion and tells Belinda and I that there are lots of good looking strong men there not like these guys (Josh and Greeds) we were with ROTF...I couldn't believe it. It was so awesome ROTF....

We wind at this club called Rumba (I think) and I had a couple of shots and a couple of drinks and tons of dances....my god tons of dances. First of all, I didn't see a bunch of grindin so I definitely looked mad american in the spot, secondly there were too many people sitting around...really people, you paid 10 pounds to sit and drink? I can do that at home LOL....SO my song comes on (Dynamite by Mr. Cruz) and I hit the floor and I'm dancing with this guy, all is well, he's got no rhythm but I don't care and suddenly he grabs a hand full of my hair tilts my head to the side and licks my neck....Party DONE WTF?? Who does that....I was too shocked to do anything but get out of dodge and wash my neck in the bathroom....really London, this is what's poppin' on the streets? LMFAO!!!!

Then some slap happy Nigerian/Russian chick comes to our table cause we're the fun place to be and is play fighting with the boys and somewhere in the midst of it all decides it's okay to slap people in the face....really London? This is what's poppin' on the streets? Needless to say that didn't end too nicely....Sort of stopped the groove a bit....but then we moved on. I had way too much fun....and there's soooo much more but what happens in Rumba stays in Rumba my friends.....so we headed home around 5am and I got ready for my flight....Next stop Frankfurt.... :)

UK Adventure Day 2 - Night Life....

Okay, so I didn't have a feature on the second night but I did perform at the legendary Poetry Cafe. My escort/friend/tour guide/all around baby sitter, Josh, had to work that night so I was left in the care of the lovely Belinda and the amazing Ray(I think I remembered the name right).

We were there pretty early so I had a cappuccino (courtesy of the lovely Elly of France, pictured left; I think he felt sorry for me and my horrible french lol) and a tomato feta garden salad. The salad was AMAZING!!!! I mean dance worthy good lol. The coffee was lovely too but I really really enjoyed the salad (this could be a biased opinion given that I skipped breakfast LOL).

If I had to compare the poetry cafe to something in NYC I would say it's like The Bowery (as far as the design and books for sale etc). However, the performers and the way they run the open mic is NOTHING like ANYTHING in the states LOL....(this is a good thing mostly LOL).

First of all the open mic list is about 30/35 people deep and secondly each performer has 5 minutes. And when Nail (I hope I spelled that right) says you have 5 minutes, he means 5 freakin' minutes. He puts a HUGE timer behind you with 5 minutes on it and when that thing hits 0 he doesn't care if you're mid sentence he will stop you without a second thought LOL....While my poems are short, I still found myself feeling uncomfortable/nervous/worried about the time while I was up there. Insane. If that bothered me as a professional I can't imagine what first timers feel like. Some people used every last drop of their 5 minutes (and I don't blame them because I did lol) and others talked as fast as they could to get as much as they could said within the 5 minutes. It was mania.

Nail was an awesome host, he's super funny, the poetry was a mix of amazing mind blowing work, short stories and such and some very candid, I just want to get something off my chest type of work. Which made for a very lovely night!!!

After the poetry we walked some of London and went to an area that is basically the British Time Square only it's WAY Smaller and MUCH EMPTIER LOL...it was weird. Ray says it's because it was a week night (Tuesday) but if you've ever been to NYC you know that Time Square is NEVER Empty no matter what day of the week or what time of day....then we bought McDonald's and had to sit inside a burger king to eat it because the McDonald's dining area was closed...I never felt more nervous in my life LOL...for some reason I felt like the burger king police were going to come down and ask us to leave because we weren't eating their food....I believe we inhaled the food and started walking again.

We met with Josh after his shift ended and sat in a like a chicken king fast food place until like 3am when they kicked us out. We took the bus home and life was good. BTW, if you're ever out in London the tube apparently closes late nights.....just fyi. This came as a shock to me since as a New Yorker you know you can catch the subway at any time of day....we're so much alike but not really LOL.....

Last day in London coming up :(.....

UK Adventure Day 2 - Tourist Life

My second day in London began around 10am (5am EST) with a beautiful view of the sun peeping in my window. It was surprising that for the entire time I was in the UK I had wonderful weather, not one rainy day....a threat of rain but not a drop to fall...Baller!!!

Josh gave me a quick lesson in money, was kind enough to feed me some super spicy Nigerian rice and chicken for breakfast; which I tried my best to pretend wasn't scolding my taste buds but after the first spoonful and 2mins of bulging eyes I decided that pretending wasn't going to work and just let it go LOL....My god. Then it was off the Internet cafe so that I could let my parents know that I made it safely and all was well (My Mom watches too many movies and she thought I would be like the girl from Taken, I'll save that for another blog lol). From there it was off to play time and pure tourist joy!!!

We took the tube (which as clean [I mean no rodents in sight, no trash, no smells of urine], small and simple [no uptown downtown, no express/local] looking as it is I still haven't quite figured out lol...and might I add that the British are SERIOUS about knowing the whereabouts of their citizens. You have to swipe in and swipe out of the tube....Really? I mean Really?? You gotta know where I am at all times? Do me a favor just put a GPS chip in my ass at birth, save me the hassle LOL) and we were off to Trafalgar Square.

Oh wait, before Trafalgar Square, there was a very entertaining exchange where I really showed off my American Public School Education....we were walking along a road and you could see Big Ben from where we were, so Josh offered to take me there and I was like 'I'm not interested in the clock' LOL LMAO.....I didn't think about how insulting that must have been....it's like someone calling the statue of liberty a torch....so effffed up....my bad LOL. Needless to say after that comment he didn't take me LOL....

Now Trafalgar Square, It's awesome!!! People feed pigeons, there's a really cool boat in a bottle (it's freaking huge), a museum and most importantly the Lions!!! First of all, I couldn't get on the bloody thing because my jeans were sliding so these lovely ladies helped me get up there (I think they may have been LGBT because the really held on to my bum for a little longer than necessary....awkward turtle.....LOL :) anyways once I'm finally on the thing we take mad pictures. I think of the silliest poses I can make and go for it. The only thing that could have made it better is if I could have tagged the Lion and snapped a shot of it LOL. So Brooklyn....And the whole time that I doing all this silly business I'm thinking how uncomfortable we must be making natives feel because they all seem soooo proper....but it gets even better during the week.....

There's a dope museum in the square and an amazing bathroom (I know that shouldn't be my biggest concern but a girl likes a nice bathroom) lol.....From there we were off to another gig but that's an entirely separate blog.... oh, the delight.... More about that tomorrow ;)

UK Adventure - Day 1

Sooo, people have been asking about my recent tour through Europe and rather than have to tell the story 100 times I figured I'd just blog about it.

My first stop on the 10 day tour was London and the first day was anything but ordinary ;). I arrived in Heathrow around 10am (5am EST) and my knight in shining armor, Josh (pictured left), made a 6 hour journey on skateboard (okay really by bus lol) to rescue me. Why did it take him 6 hours....because it was my luck that the fabulous tube workers were on strike that day lol. Best thing about it was that I got to do some writing while I waited, worst part...I had no international service on my phone and wasn't sure what the pay phone was charging me on my credit card so I think I only checked in with him twice AND I had actually never met Josh, so I really didn't know what he looked like lol.

Upon my rescue we headed towards the city at a beautiful rate of 18pounds (which is like $36) and arrived in time to attend an album release for a friend of Josh's. First of all the city is crazy clean...really! No rats, no trash, no funny smells (at least not where we were) and second of I never realized how American I am until this trip lol. I almost got ran over every time we crossed the street because I kept looking the wrong way LMAO, I kept getting strange looks when asking for the restroom because apparently a toilet and a bathroom are two different things and I kept freezing my hands to death because the hot and cold water faucets are set in reverse of how they're set in the states lol.

At the album release I couldn't get over the fact that they reference 'The Queen'. That's such a strange thing to hear as an American because while you know what they're talking about and you know it's a real person; you can't help but feel like you're in a fairytale and start to see visions of the queen from Shrek or something lol. So silly but this is where my mind was. I met the lovely Belinda (pictured above) at the album release and she accompanied us to my first feature of the week @ 'Kid I Wrote Back'.

This event was off the hook. I met some great new friends and saw a very different aspect of poetry. I mean people were really going in; there were people who performed in masks, people performed very experimental/theatrical poetry and I saw some really cool amazing traditional poetry as well!! My set was fun, we laughed joked and then the audience was kind enough to support financially as they purchased albums. May I just say that London currency is easy once you know it but until you do, you just have to trust that people aren't going to rip you off and you're not ripping them off when you're giving them change lol...I'm sure they'll say something in the later case but there's a lot of trust involved in the earlier case.

We wrapped up our evening around 12am ish which is like 7pm EST, ate Kebab & Chips (which were not what I expected lol...I asked for a side of chips and thought I was going to get a small portion, these suckers gave me like 5lbs of fries...really? WTF lol) and I laid to rest in Hackney, thrilled about my first day and looking forward to the remainder of my trip.