Other atlas cedar
Silverlake

I woke up last Tuesday morning with this song already in my head after a dream about being back in America. Hence, I thought I'd write the lyric about the summer I just spent working in California, and which allowed me to visit LA and New York for the first time. I met some truly wonderful people there, both at work and elsewhere, and its a time I will cherish and never forget for the rest of my life...

I took the cover photo in Silver Lake, LA on Independence Day, 2015, where I spent the day with my good friend Craig and his girlfriend Hillary, who were kind enough to invite me over so I didn't have to spend Independence Day alone. We went for tacos and beers on Sunset Boulevard, and I didn't even realise that's where we were until we'd already been there a half hour.

I spent one of the most memorable and fun evenings of my life in Hollywood with some friends I worked with at UC Irvine, Claudia and Mikko. We went to the legendary Whisky-A-Go-Go and had dinner at the equally legendary Rainbow on the Sunset Strip, where the air was positively filled with barely legal smoke! The infamous 'door' incident will live long in the memory too...

After 10 weeks working in CA, I spent four amazing days in New York exploring, walking so far that my feet bled. I stumbled upon Greenwich Village and the legendary venues 'The Bitter End' and 'Cafe Wha', and went out drinking until 4am with some fellow travellers I met outside, courtesy of a strategic pack of cigarettes I had bought especially for the occasion (I don't smoke, by the way). The next day I cleared my head by walking to Brooklyn and taking a trip to the Statue of Liberty, before saying an emotional goodbye to the city I've always dreamed of being in...

Before heading back to the UK, I went back to CA and spent my last few days back in Irvine, where I had been living and working with some truly amazing people, particularly Navid, Babu, Ramtin, Alex, Giuseppe, John, Craig, Ben, the amazing Eric, as well as many others too numerous to mention...

This song is dedicated to and inspired by everyone I was lucky enough to meet during my time in the USA, and I miss them all very much.

Lyrics:

Though the room is spinning
My head don't feel too bad
From a night out drinking
On Sunset Boulevard

We can take an Uber
Out to Santa Monica
And walk to Venice Beach
To watch some movies

Then I'll go to Hollywood
To spend an evening
At the Whisky-A-Go-Go
And smoke at the Rainbow

Then I'll take an aeroplane
Out to New York City
And go out drinking there
On Bleecker Street somewhere

And I'll smoke some cigarettes
Outside The Bitter End
And on MacDougal Street
With the spirit of Hendrix

And I'll take a selfie
With the Statue of Liberty
Freedom's light still burning warm
All across America

Then home to L.A.
I can take an Uber
To get back to Silver Lake
For Independence Day