Mid-August, E Street, Davis California. This was Uncle Vito’s Slice of N.Y., a pizzeria and bar that I used to come to occasionally (if you call about once a year or so ‘occasionally’) for a beer, but since the pandemic they have closed down and the spot stands empty. It’s always sad to see spaces sit empty (or stand empty, whatever the correct verb is, maybe it’s lie empty) but at least the amazing 1930s New York style mural along the E Street wall is still there in what I like to call colourful black and white. Some day another business will finally move in, a boba tea shop or a frozen yogurt shop and they will paint over this with some ugly pastel, and it will be a loss for Davis. Anyway, I needed to sketch one day, and I stood looking down E Street along the big mural down towards the contrasting colourful trees and panelling outside the Hotdogger. That violinist I don’t like much wasn’t there on the corner that day, but someone did start playing some music on the piano across the street. I listened to my football podcast, as the Premier League season was just starting later that week, though I was already bored of it even before a ball had been kicked. It’s already the international break now, England have a new interim manager, and as for Spurs already we have won, drawn and lost, not in that order, so our season will be another Spursy season. I would like to go to New York again. The last time I was there was for my 40th birthday, an increasingly long time ago now already. I want to go everywhere, but I always want to visit New York. Go back to Pete’s Tavern, I liked that place. As an urban sketcher, it’s one of the cities you can never be bored of sketching. I presume, anyway. If I lived there I’d probably be longing to go and sketch somewhere else, that is usually how it works with me. Right now, my travel itch is getting to me as I keep looking at Instagram and seeing people sketching places far away and wishing I could just get on a series of trains and explore with the sketchbook. I’d probably get tired, and need a rest. After a while sketching this, I had to go back to the office, and my legs were feeling stiff anyway, so I decided to finish it off later at home.