Penny Lane: a fashionista.

I have such a ridiculous headache right now, which has been on and off for about three days. Dehydration; maybe. Loud music; possibly. Old contact lenses; more than likely.

The sun has seems to have been overshadowed by a flurry of grey clouds and chilly winds all over again - just as I thought summer was finally settling in. So I spent the afternoon after work at my dad's house, flicking through the movie channels.

That's when I stumbled across Cameron Crowe's semi-autobiographical piece, Almost Famous. Oh look, another hippie film, vaguely reminiscent of the Summer of Love. Not this lively little piece of art!

Although I wouldn't have expected someone like Kate Hudson to be the leading cool-girl - what with all the sappy rom coms she's pursued recently - she sure as hell pulls it off. Her character, the enigmatic Penny Lane, is an easy charmer and her outfits are classic to what you'd see in old documentaries and photographs of the 1960s/70s hippiedom.

One of my main goals in touring around the United States (I'd like to think, reminiscent of the Stillwater Tour 1973) is to find as many thrift stores, charity shops and vintage warehouses as I possibly can, digging for a 1960s gem - the closest thing I can get to the hippie culture and babyboom era of the 1960s and 1970s.

When I was in Los Angeles a few years ago, lying in the backstreets of Hollywood Boulevard was American Vintage: a place that I thoroughly intend to shop til I drop. If you ever find it (located on Hollywood Boulevard and Melrose Avenue, as far as I know), you'll be thrilled to find beauties of Penny Lane-esque style.

Seriously now, is Nick Clegg for real?

I am now officially a citizen of Britain. Despite that I have been from birth; and I'm pretty sure my passport says so too; I feel more like a citizen of Britain than I've ever been going down to my local, grotty polling station to vote for the next man who will ruin our wonderful country.

I usually don't condone Americanisation in Britain, but these television debates have been amazing. I always knew body language was a key part in communication, and with the two-horse race of Labour and Conservative, I didn't think there was much alternative.

Then, in bounds Nick Clegg; the savour of us normal people. There was his talking-to-the-camera thing, his air-fondling boobies thing and, well, just coming across as an ordinary bloke.

Not just that, but his policies look good. Great, actually. A cheaper alternative to nuclear weapons? Right on! The right to sack your MP if they aren't doing their job? Sweet! Legalising cannabis? Well, he's got the students secured right there.

Overall, Clegg and his party look grand, but is there any substance to what he is saying? Sure, he's confident in the television debates, but think about this. If Clegg was running say, the Conservatives instead of David Cameron, would you vote for him?

It seems that a lot have people have used these live debates as the reason for their vote: who is more confident and "seems" nicer. I think we definitely need a confident, competent leader to run our country - but this is overshadowing the real effects of the political parties: the policies.

Guess we'll have to wait to see what Britain decides.

Eastern United States, travel shmavels.

According to my mother and my step-dad, I am highly unorganised. This may or may not be true. I may be flying out to New York for a month in roughly three weeks time with no plans of where we are yet to stay. Once we crawl off of the plane in New York, we're straight on a bus to Nashville, Tennessee. That's where it all begins.

I was always a bit apprehensive going down south, what with all the rednecks and inbreeds and all. Apparently I have been watching too many horror movies that are set in the wilderness or ghost towns of states like Tennessee or West Virginia.

But with our tight schedule of only a month, I was thinking that it may be easier for us to stay East. Right now, our route looks something like a two day bus journey to California from Nashville and back again from Seattle to New York.

However, my love of California and the overhype that it receives as "the place to be" has drawn me back to the hills of Los Angeles and San Francisco. I want to dive deeper into the culture of these cities, with a little help from the hosters and surfers of Couchsurfing. I want to relive the Summer of Love, discover buried record shops and clothes stores.

I wanna do a bit of celebrity spotting too. When I visited Los Angeles a few years ago, within the first hour of arriving, I strolled down Hollywood Boulevard surrounded by crowds of journalists and gorgeous cars of the Gumball 3000 Rally as my brother's idols, Bam Margera and Ryan Dunn, pulled up not three yards away from me. Fuck yeah.

Without the West Coast, they'll be no visits to Adrienne Armstrong's eco-friendly boutique Atomic Garden in Oakland or taking in the unconditional love of Nirvana fans at Kurt Cobain's bench in Viretta Park in Seattle, adjacent to the house where he died.

But there will be the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, the lights of New York City (well, we'll have that anyway) and the streets of Philadelphia, as Springsteen once sang.

So, to set my tired mind at rest and maybe make our journey easier, can anyone recommend any places to go on the Eastern side of the USA? Or shall we stick to the plan and continue over to the beautiful Western side?