It might seem like all of my posts from now on are going to be about riding the bus, but I promise that’s not so. In just a couple weeks I’ll be flying to the US. It’s only been five months since I left, yet I feel like I’ll be going back to a very different place.
But that’s what’s ahead, here’s the now or recent:
I dreamt I was at liberty in New York City, down on a subway platform, and decided I could go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, always one of my favorite places to visit in Manhattan. In my dream it hit me how at the admission desk I wouldn’t be able to say I live in New York any more to get the Pay What You Wish admission, which always felt like a point of pride for me, even when I didn’t live there—I always imagined that living somewhere else was a temporary condition. But in the New York of my dream, I felt like I’d closed that door in a deep way I can’t get to when I’m awake. And I woke up sobbing.
But maybe the only way to fully be where you are is to let go of what you were holding onto, and it felt like a switch had been thrown. In real life I was on a train down to London for a few events, and I felt so at ease it was as if I’d lived here for…at least half a year. I knew how to change trains, where to grab a coffee, the automatic till system at the station’s M&S to buy snacks and water (I knew to call the checkout a till, and Marks & Spencers “M&S”) At Liverpool St. Station I knew the way out and with my shiny new bus pass, knew that I only need show it to the driver. (Here’s where I tell you I googled “How to use bus pass on London bus” - remembering being shouted at by a London bus driver the last time I was here, how it threw me off balance happening so early in the trip - I COULD NOT let that happen, so found myself plunged into the world of Gransnet…the elder version of Mumsnet, an online discussion forum for just what it says—Mums and now Grans—in amongst the Ten Best Slow Cooker recipes I found NO LESS THAN 75 responses From a Trembling Gran Up North query “Can I use my bus pass on a London bus??”)
It was so simple, just show it to the driver. I almost expected a bell to sound and balloons to fall down since it was my first time using the pass since it arrived in the mail, but just got a slight smile from the guy or maybe it was a smirk. Anyway, that done I hauled myself up the bus stairs to ride on the top deck, right at the front, as we plowed towards Hackney. It was a gorgeous spring day and it was refreshing to head east, the buildings getting smaller and more humble instead of towards the center where it all gets business-like and fancy.
I’d chosen Dalston Premier Inn because it was right down the street from the film festival at the Rio Cinema where the Dory Previn documentary On My Way To Where was showing, and well over the years Premier Inns feel almost as familiar and consistent as home. My pal Julia Greenberg is one of the directors of the Dory film, and Emily Hubley did the animation, I guess you could say I’m part of the Dory appreciation society and I was thrilled Julia had invited me to the screening. First, I met up with Angela Jaeger. If you read Girl To City, this is the Angela who was such a girl about town in my early NYC days —we had a band the Stare Kits briefly and then the first version of Last Roundup before Ang went off to join Pigbag and Instinct. She documented her cool teen years growing up and going out in the East Village and beyond in diaries that have just been published by Hat & Beard press as I Feel Famous: Punk Diaries 1977-1981, and was having a book launch at Rough Trade in Denmark Street London. She and her boyfriend Alan were staying in the same place. Angela and I were speaking to each other via phone “How was the trip?” “What time did you get here” etc and then it occurred to us wait we’re right upstairs/downstairs from each other! Our friendship goes back to postcards and letters from each of us living in other countries/cities, long phone conversations—the meetups in person spread out to once or twice a year—how lucky to have a friend I go back so far with. We met up for tea in a charming garden with red checkered table cloths and daffodils, all of London seemed in a happy mood.
The Dory film was wonderful, Julia introduced me to a lovely actor Sam who’s a huge Dory Previn fan - when he was up on stage with the film team for a Q&A, I realized he was Sam West, son of Timothy West and Prunella Scales. I’m almost glad I didn’t know that when I met him —he’s apparently a fan of Eric’s, and Eric and I have a routine where we’re Tim and Pru on their canal boat in Great Canal Journeys. In some ways I almost hold them responsible for us getting a boat a few years back…anyways it was a fun night and I even bumped into some London friends at the screening which made me so happy and reminded me “I actually know people here!”
That feeling continued the next day when Eric arrived by train in the afternoon and we headed to Denmark Street (by bus of course) for Angela’s event. We were rounding the corner to take a look at Mick Jones’ Rock n Roll Public Library when a tall guy with shaggy hair said hi - it was Thurston Moore who would be interviewing Ang, it was really nice to see him, another New Yorker now living in London. The library display was beautiful, full of old TVs, tape machines, posters, publications and ephemera from Mick Jones of the Clash’s apparently massive archive. I especially enjoyed the New York section, remembering how huge it had been for all of us when the Clash finally played the Palladium, well apparently New York had been huge for them too. The big boombox with graffiti by Futura and Dondi…I saw a guy standing in the corner and thought cool there’s a cardboard cutout or hologram of Mick Jones looking over us all and then I realized it was HIM, in a ballcap and overcoat. I wish I’d urged Eric to go say hi but we all felt a little shy, as if you were in a church full of antiquities and Jesus himself was hanging out, maybe even with a feather duster to make sure everything was looking right.
Over at Rough Trade there was a great crush of people for Ang’s fun conversation with Thurston and book signing. I felt so proud and happy for her! I saw more friends from over my many years coming to London: Gina Birch and her husband Mike Holdsworth and Dick O’Dell, from the Slits/Raincoats days, some of the Pigbag guys, our old friend Katie Webb, the Rock and Roll Book Club gang. It made me feel reassuringly at home, like it isn’t all Eric being English that brought me here, I’ve always gravitated to this place.
We all hung out at the Angel pub after and then Eric and I hopped on another bus to get back to Liverpool St. These bus passes are like gold! We caught the train up to Norwich, and thought how easy it would be to head down for a gig or show another time. I cracked open a can of gin & tonic on the train and thought I was fitting in pretty well.
A few days later, when I went to use my bus pass on a Norfolk bus, happily holding it up to show the driver like I did in London, he scolded me: “You need to put it on the reader!” But- but, oh wait I forgot to ask Gransnet. That’s me told then.
A blog entirely devoted to bus rides would be excellent.
I love these stories. I visited London a few years ago and mastering the mass transit system, buses and tubes, was a real point of pride. I took one bus that seemed to make another turn every block, I had no idea how the driver ever remembered the route. And it let me out at a huge flea market that ran about 10 blocks, which was a joy to investigate. Keep 'em coming! (also love the Emily Hubley shoutout! I used to play softball with her.)