Today is the first day that I will be in St. Barthelemy, the beginning of what will be exactly 29 days on the island. I am going to take part in an artist residency named, Me.di.ium, where I will have a studio to work, a place to live and show at the end of my stay, in their gallery. My stay will be just shy of a month because Jonathan and I have tickets to go see Stevie Nicks on July 1st. At the moment I’m on an American Airlines flight on my way there. I left Harlem this morning at 5:00AM, which isn’t too bad because I splurged on car service instead of the subway which I usually take to the airport. It was nice being in a car, and not underground...nice to see the city in the morning, still dark enough to see the lights on the Chrysler building before they turn them off.
Over the past week or so, I bragged to friends that I was going to start a BLOG to record my goings-ons while away on this trip, mostly to share photographs, photos are everything. I’ve been excited to start the writing but it has been a little difficult starting for several reasons that I’ll get into as I go along. I’m new to BLOGs, I’ve never read one and I’ve never created one. I don’t understand who has time to read someone else’s blather and I don’t know who would want to read mine. There must be something to BLOGS though, since they are everywhere and are effecting things like elections and politics. The way I’m looking at this BLOG is that it’s mostly a diary for my own sake. I though it would be a fun project to do while I’m away from New York in St. Barth for exactly 29 days....a kind of tether connecting me back to the mainland, and something to construct my time, because god knows I don’t know what to do with unstructured time, even if it is on a beautiful, Carribean island - although maybe that will change and I’ll become a complete beach-bumb alcoholic for the entire month. I doubt it, but I’m open to the possibility.
The other idea I had, or an excuse I was thinking about using to start a blog, was to write a blog about blogs. You know, the phenomenon of thousands of voices on the internet, exchanging ideas and thoughts, but then I thought, there probably already is a blog about blogs so then I thought, what about a blog about blogs that are about blogs and blogging, like a meta meta blog, by then I thought, maybe I should just get over it and just start writing. Plus, that meta meta blog idea I’m sure must exist already, and to be honest, my therapist came up with that idea, not me.
My ex boyfriend, Justin is a really impressive keeper of a diary. I’ve seen them (although I’ve never read one, I swear), volumes and volumes of notebooks, all handwritten in odd, tiny, left handed script, over year and years. I was always impressed by his diary upkeep and he is also an inspiration to start this diary/blog. I wonder what Justin will actually do with all that writing. If no one reads your writing/diary, why does one spend the time? It’s theraputic? It’s a record of time and events? I suppose there are lot’s of reasons.
Anyway, I could think about this for a long time, but instead, I should just start....but before I do, I have to remind myself that I have some thoughts I’d like to share about the winner of the 80th National Spelling Bee that Jonathan and I watched on television last night....this kid was amazing, and an inspiration. I’ll write about him later, but I figured in the free-wheeling spirit of BLOGGING, I’m allowed to interrupt myself here and there and jump off topic.
Since I’m on the plane somewhere over the Atlantic and haven’t actually landed in St Barth yet, this seems like the perfect place to begin, in the netherworld betwixt North America and a tiny island, that I think, is just above South America. Actually, before St. Barth we land in St. Marteen at which point I have to switch to a tiny plane for the 15 minute jump over to St. Barth, which supposedly features a harrowing landing that I’ve read about on the internet.
As I sit here on this American Airlines plane, I have to say a few things about this airline, or at least this flight. It sucks. It’s only a four hour flight, but compared to Jet Blue, which is the airline I’ve use most, flying back and forth to California, this Airline is the worst, and here are a few reasons why:
They charge you for everything. For instance, headsets are $2 and on Jet Blue they are free. I don’t even know why you would want the lame two dollar head set they offer anyway, since there are not TV’s in the seats, like on Jet Blue, for you to watch. They still have those crappy, ‘community’ TV’s stuck on the ceiling, that plays only one movie that is clearly coming from some VCR in the belly of the plane, because it has those little glitches that you don’t see anymore on digital television or DVD’s. Another reason American Airlines is lame: they charge for their snacks and if you want to ‘upgrade’ from tap water to a bottle of ‘spring water’ they charge you, where as other airlines the water is free flowing, as it should be. I guess all in all those aren’t really dramatic reasons to dislike this airline, but you know, it’s the little things. To be fair, there are a couple other things that are not the Airlines’ fault that make this particular flight slightly annoying, such as the woman in front of me who just had to push her seat all the way back. I have long legs, or at least they seem long when I’m in a plane. Also, there is a couple sitting next to me that are a litle nutty. They are going on vacation, or so I’ve gleaned from their ‘two bloody mary’s each’ buzz they’ve got going. I’m on the aisle seat, ALWAYS on the aisle seat, (who needs to be trapped by the window?) and I guess they are pretty harmless, but there’s something about them that is a little annoying, maybe it’s the louder than necessary talking, or the shoes they keep taking off and on.
Ok, we are getting ready to land, I have to put my computer away for now and will continue later. I’ve never been to the Carribean.
