Today is Day 3 of the MTA strike that has wiped out public transit in New York City, and I’m working from home again.

Yesterday I was supposed to have a meeting (although of course it was cancelled 10 minutes after I’d set off), so I joined the massed throngs and cycled into work. Cycling in was OK, and even quite exhilarating at times on a crisp cold sunny winter’s morning, but it was also quite dangerous, as I had to weave through crowds of people and thick, aggressive traffic to make any headway. Crossing the Brooklyn Bridge was also a pain (despite the spectacular views) because it was super-crowded.

I also had an incident. Just before I arrived at my work, I somehow managed to take out another cyclist at the intersection of 6th Ave & 14th Street! We were pulling up parallel at the junction with him slightly ahead and to my right when he suddenly decided to take a sharp left and cross the street with the pedestrians, right across my path. I jammed on my very loud squeaky brakes, at which point he looked around with a “rabbit in the headlights” expression and fell on the floor — even though I never actually hit him! I apologised profusely, and he admitted that he should have looked behind before cutting across the street like that, but I think he hurt his leg, so that was unfortunate. There were a LOT of people on bikes who didn’t really seem to know what they were doing yesterday.

Anyway, the novelty of this strike is definitely starting to wear very thin.

Here’s some very good news: Giant Step are now making an archive of Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide shows available for streaming download. Not only do they offer multiple shows — there are 11 there now, whereas the Radio 1 GP site only offers last week’s show — but their jukebox player also allows you to pause the stream — again, unlike the Radio 1 player.

Good job Giant Step!

I can’t believe Bush’s arrogant and bombastic defiance in the face of revelations that he authorized completely illegal spying on U.S. citizens without any congressional approval process whatsoever!

What other crimes will he attempt to justify using 9/11 and the threat of future terrorist attacks? How many more outrages will the American people (not to mention the rest of the World) take? Surely he has to be impeached now!

Perhaps even more shocking is the fact that some Democratic senators, for example Nancy Pelosi, were informed (although not consulted) about the spying program, and did nothing other than express strong concerns.

Two days after getting the welcome notice, and I have the real thing — I now have a Green Card! And it’s white…

Today is a red letter day. After a wait of over 5 years, today I received an I-181 Welcome Notice from the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services – which I’m reliably informed means that my Green Card application has been approved, and I will shortly have both the elusive card and Resident Alien status!

According to some Italian scientists, romantic love is caused by an increase in the amount of a protein in the brain called nerve growth factors, and typically only lasts for about a year.

I wonder if this means that a cure is on the horizon?

Here’s a quick plug for my friend Djurdja Watson’s website, where she showcases her high fashion jewellery collections. Djurdja’s jewellery is regularly seen in magazines and at fashion shows, and various celebrities frequent her boutique shop on London’s Portobello Road.

I just revisited the website of Banksy, self-professed “art terrorist,” and it was a very entertaining 5 minute web browsing session. Check it out.

Last Friday (11/11) I went to see Bauhaus at the Nokia Theater in Times Square. Bauhaus were a band that I listened to in the mid eighties when I was a goth, and although they were never my favourite goth band, they were pretty much the archetypical goth band, so I thought that it would be fun to take a trip down memory lane.

It was actually fairly entertaining. Pete Murphy had a pretty good stage presence, although his voice wasn’t always as strong as it could have been, and although still suitably skinny and gaunt, with age he reminded me a bit of my Uncle Derek. The Nokia Theater was packed, as both nights were completely sold out.

After a suitably spooky intro, the band came out onto the dark stage and the excellent lightshow started. The sound quality was also very good. They played a bunch of old numbers, such as Hair of the Dog, Kick in the Eye, She’s in Parties, A God in an Alcove, Hollow Hills, In the Flat Field etc., some of which I hadn’t heard for twenty years. They played for about an hour, then went off stage until the crowd brought them back for the first encore. This included a version of Telegram Sam that wasn’t that great, and ended with Ziggy Stardust, after which they left the stage again.

But the house lights stayed down, and the crowd started demanding another encore, shouting “Bela! Bela! Bela!” until they came out one last time and played their biggest and best hit, Bela Lugosi’s Dead. This was a great track to end on, and I was surprised to notice/remember how much dub reggae influence was evident on the track.

Overall, it was an interesting gig.

Had to post this cute picture of me with my godson Oscar on the promenade at Brooklyn Heights last month (the Statue of Liberty is just about visible in the distance).