DAY 1

I've never travelled further than New Zealand. Call Me Kuchu is my first movie of the 14 hour long haul and I'm already crying. When it's finished, the lights dim. I should sleep but I spend the next eight hours looking at everyone in the cabin wondering how they can sleep. And what they're dreaming of. Creepy. It's here my travel insomnia begins. I'm scared of flying. I wonder what happens if I have a panic attack. Or if I choke on a bread roll. Then I wonder if I should even be eating this bread roll because a while ago I thought I was gluten intolerant but then it kind of disappeared. I listen to Havilah on the in-flight music-player thing and think at least if I die, I'll die listening to something interesting.

DAY 2

The whole time I'm in LA I have Sheryl Crow stuck in my head. This makes me happy because when I was 19 I played guitar in a cover band where I sung the three girl songs. My favourite was All I Wanna Do “is have some fun until the sun comes up over Santa Monica boulevard”. Other classics included: Divinyls I Touch Myself and Ace of Base All That She Wants.

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DAY 3

We finally get to New York, we're staying in China Town but we walk to Dylan-famous Café Wha? to soak up some nostalgia but it's packed so we bail. I've heard people say “Man, I wish we had a scene like that, where people all hang out and play gigs and read poetry and drink wine”…then I think of (Melbourne venues) Old Bar, Some Velvet Morning, Fraser Island (RIP), Pure Pop, Tote, Monday Night Mass, etc and consider that nostalgia is made around us. Maybe we're too spoiled for choice. Also, it's hard work to start a movement. I fall asleep around 6am.

It's beginning to look a lot like Halloween.

Whoever's first to the bottom, wins.

DAY 4

Today we get the A train (now I realise where the song comes from/also we got the wrong train) to the American Natural History Museum. It's majestic and it's beautiful and it makes me feel humble. It reminds me how much I love nature over humans. Everything kind of looks like a 3D Graeme Base book. We meet Grace, our American publicist, outside the Bedford Av L station. In my head, she is some sort of demi-God with magical wings made of golden unicorn hair who has somehow convinced the world I am worthy of their listening time. When I see her she's wearing a koala jumper. I like her straight away.

Koala jumper equals one very awesome American publicist.

DAY 5

I was awake all night so when I wake up I'm already awake. Surreal. I go to Prospect Park to meet Derek who is filming me singing some songs for a blog. I see a squirrel running up a tree and no matter what happens from here on in, this will be the highlight of my trip. We have Mexican with Dave and Cam from Royston Vasie and now it's 2am and my busy week at CMJ is about to start. Hope I can sleep.