Lyrics Walkin' in Auckland - Jim White, Mark Kozelek, Ben Boye

Walkin' in Auckland

Some hotel, Auckland, room 1028
Got in late last night, Ben and I went to some Turkish place
And around 2 o clock in the morning, we ordered pizza to go
And some bottled wine, the guys said it was the best sparkling water in the
world
I said, «Really?
How’s that?»
He said «At the bottom of the bottle is a [?}»
I said, «Well then friend, consider it sold.»
The music was so pulsating and loud, I couldn’t think
I walked to the bathroom and there was vomit in the sinks
And tissues with blood and plastic cups all over the floor
And when I came back to meet Ben
Young people were gathered around tables and smokin' hookahs
Or dancing on the dance floor
And in that moment, I felt so old
A girl near the bar was by herself gyrating
While the people there smoking were yelling at each other across the tables
aggressively communicating
Ben and I just sat there in a daze waiting for our pizzas just yawning and
gazing
I got back to my room and ate my entire pizza and didn’t fall asleep until
maybe 4 o clock in the morning
I was up emailing
Woke up at 7:30 and went down to the lobby
The girl in the breakfast room could sense my weariness and she went and
politely got me a banana and an orange and a yogurt and green tea
I didn’t feel like sitting down in the breakfast area
There were too many people and it was so noisy and cluttery
I told her thank you and I started walking to my room to eat my breakfast in
privacy
I had my slippers on, my hands were full, I was feeling so out of it
I was walking back to the elevator when the front desk guy got in my face
Started giving me shit about spilling water all over the place
I said, «What water?
Show me where its wet on the floor?»
He said, «There is water everywhere, let me have one of my staff members bring
your things up to you.
Please sir, you are spilling water all over the place.»
I said, «In your disgruntled dreams maybe but okay.»
«And hurry it up because I want to get back to sleep soon, fuckface.»
I went back to sleep and I woke up at noon
I needed to find a new computer bad and a disposable camera too
I went down to the lobby and asked a doorman for directions
When Ben suddenly appeared beside me
And at that point I stopped asking the doorman questions
Ben said that he had some of his own shopping to do
He needed a thumb-drive and a swimming suit
Because he’s going to spend some time in Christchurch or Churchchrist,
or whatever its called
With his girlfriend, when the tour is over
So we got to walking and we did our shopping together
We started out at some mall and then ended up at a place called Bear House
And I gotta say I went nuts in there
I bought some socks and some jockey type shirt that’s not even my style
And some new underwear
And some new sweatpants
For the gym which I’m too tired to even go to
And yeah, I got a new computer bag too
Its just so exciting to see things priced for 4 dollars
How can you not go nuts?
I wonder if everybody goes nuts in those places
Everything’s priced at 4 dollars
During our shopping I took maybe 5 to 7 photos of Auckland payphones for the
payphone book I’ve been working on
I might have a whole section dedicated to New Zealand payphones
And we went and got some sushi and it tasted great
The miso soup, the unsweetened green tea
We were discussing what we knew about New Zealand and didn’t come up with much
Other than Neil Finn, Anna Paquin, Flight of the Conchords, Once Were Warriors
And some other thing on TV, a series maybe?
A show that was filmed here?
One of those epic fantasy series maybe
I can’t think of the name of it
And then we went on our separate ways so I could get more payphone shots
I was sweating like crazy so I sat down on a bench and realized that I was lost
When a little sparrow flew over to say hi to me
I took his photo, a lot of them, actually
That sparrow was on an ego trip
He was striking all kind of poses, completely in love with himself
It was the Bradley Cooper of sparrows
When I found my way back to the hotel
I was so tired I only shadowboxed one three minute round
With two bottles of 750 millilitre New Zealand spring water, called «Pump»
And I organized my receipts from the Australian part of the tour
And two shows left tonight in Auckland
And tomorrow in Wellington
It was nice getting out today and walking
Everyone in Auckland seemed so alive out there walking
And the sun was shining
Its been so nice walking today in Auckland
I look forward to singing tonight and talking
In Auckland
I emailed Neil Finn to see if he wanted to join us on stage like he did last
time
He said I’m so sorry Mark, I’d love to join you but I’m on tour with Fleetwood
Mac