New York City
Looking up at the Wal-Mart-sized billboards illuminated with wattage fit to ring in the new year, I breathe in the air of times square. The smell had a split personality caught between the delight of state fair mini-doughnuts and damp streets in the morning. As I took in all that New York City had to offer, I had a flash of the movie Wal-e and started to be a little creeped out. Amidst the glamour packed between Broadway and Wallstreet it is crystal clear that we as people are in love with bigger, better, and more.
I think the air that taxis rudely push to the sidewalk is some sort of current. A current that schools of people follow without thinking… maybe because the opposite -swimming upstream- would be simply too hard or it would require any sort of effort. (I am hoping you are envisioning the chubby characters of wal-e in scooters equipped to fulfill all needs like a virtual Swiss army knife.) This current is only fast moving because stillness scares people; people who are obsessed with looking to the left and right making sure they are not in danger of loosing their place in line. That they may miss out on something.. some promise that a billboard told them they deserve.
So while New York is full of beauty and an amazing public transportation system, it magnifies all things American- or human I should say-, which is a scary thing. Promises are luring. Our senses could not be more stimulated, our savings accounts more starving, our sense of need more inaccurate.
I admire Jonathan for his take on the topic, which is one of the most interesting and horrific topics we like to talk about. Here is a snip of a message he wrote me last night while on a break from writing his art history paper: “…I’m writing about an art movement that happened in the 1960s which symbolized everything that was- and still is- wrong with both the art world and our country. I keep telling myself that America is the only place that could be this ridiculous, I hope its true, but I fear that all of the “modern” countries must be similar. On that note, how lucky am I to have found the girl that is the exception to this ridiculous world that consumerism and capitalism has created. (the devil is a smart asshole and probably couldn’t have done a much better job distracting a country)..” He recognizes that disappointment occurs only because an expectation existed in the first place.
I will leave you with Frank Sinatra’s take on all of this: “I wanna wake up in a city, that doesnt sleep, And find Im king of the hill - top of the heap.”
It’s up to you. Really. I guess if I get to the top of the heap I will have a better view of the next heap I need to get to the top of. What a crock.
