not in kansas any more

So it seems that due to a last-minute script rewrite, Dorothy was beaten to the Emerald City by a week, but the main thing is she followed the yellow brick road and of course looked fabulous in her ruby slippers (care of John Fluevog in Soho). What movie she ended up in is harder to say. Possibly Bambi. Squirrels, rabbits and jayhawks frolicked gaily around the pretty suburban streets of Lawrence, Kansas where I just spent the weekend visiting my friend Jorge who I had met in Baltimore at the start of my trip. And after week upon week of late winter in New York, bright sunshine and temperatures in the high 20s made Kansas something of a relief. And it has to be said that Jorge played the perfect hostess, driving me to see local sights, making breakfasts and cooking a very yummy paella. On the Friday, I pottered about the town which is actually really pretty and quite interesting in a mini-Berkeley kind of way. Lots of kitschy antique stores, cafes, second hand clothes, all catering to the large student population. And as you can see from the picture of Jorge's house, the streets have this classic American charm that looks to an outsider like a movie setting.

Saturday, we went for lunch and window-shopping to Kansas City's hilariously faux-Spanish but authentically aspirational shopping mall (complete with a small scale replica of Seville's landmark tower). Amongst a whole lot of beige men in beige shorts and teased-up bottle blondes in platform slides, Jorge and I didn't quite belong. But there's nothing like being the most stylish two in the crowd. By far. I got a serious up-and-down-and-up-again checking-out in Banana Republic - twice - by a straight man who was there with his wife. Or perhaps he was just deliberating where to aim the first shots of the hunting rifle he probably had back in his Hummer.

Then that night we met up with two of Jorge's colleagues, who were an absolute hoot, had tapas for dinner, and then hit the town (if that's not too grandiose an expression here). First, we went salsa dancing at a Latino bar in a strip mall where there were approximately six other patrons but, unperturbed, the four of us got up on the caramel-tiled floor and worked it out. Earlier, Jorge's friend Yajaira had concluded that I was "the right kind of white", but even though I had some serious snake-hip action going on, my stomach muscles and I started to wonder if I was in fact the wrong kind. A quick Salsa 101 tutorial from Yajaira and I was working a pretty efficient, if basic, set of moves. I'm not sure if the Latino guy staring at me suspiciously would have agreed. Next, we jumped back in the car and went back to the centre of town and, on a whim, snuck into a nightclub via the back door to avoid the $14 cover (Yes, $14. In Kansas.) Within two minutes, a staff member had busted us. I should add at this point that Jorge and his friends are all college professors in Lawrence and all the staff at this bar are students. I guess this is what academia can drive us to.

Back to NYC last night where the weather has finally turned decent. Everyone has been going a little bit mental with the late winter but in the four days I was away, the temperatures have risen from 8 or 10 degrees to high 20s and blossoms have magically appeared on trees everywhere. And I feel very confident the spring is going to bring more well-earned positive changes. Stay tuned.