When i was 11 i went on a fortnight's family holiday / road trip around parts of North Eastern USA - Niagara, Pennsylvania, Baltimore, D.C, Blue Ridge Mountains - it was amazing and i had an absolutely incredible time. To get home we had to change flights in JFK. Sitting in, and wandering round, the terminal building was as close as i came to NYC at that point, and even after such an spectacular and exhausting trip, i remember feeling jipped and frustrated that i couldn't get out and see it.
I don't know what my frame of reference for the city would have consisted of at that point; definitely the Statue of Liberty and Empire State Building, definitely yellow cabs, definitely Bill Murray (either being cool, lying to girls and relentlessly hitting on them while getting more and more cross about spectral slime and the destruction of existence hampering his having a good time, or offering trouble-shooting suggestions about the attachment of tiny antlers to mouse's heads by means of staples).
I'll have known about the Yankees, the Giants and the Jets (not the gang who kick-ball-change and pada beret enemies to death, but the men who play 'football' by running into each other hard while throwing and catching the ball with their hands). Most exciting to me though, were the Guardian Angels; the vigilante gang wearing red berets and killing muggers on the subway. I'd have loved to see that. They were even cooler than Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Crocodile Dundee and LL Cool J put together.
Anyway, i never saw any of it. So, 20 years pass and i dream of New York. Then my time comes and i get to go 3 times in 3 months. The first time i mentioned in the previous post; a day and night stop over en route to Haiti, where i have to go around the city with my eyes shut so i don't see anything before my trip proper with Kelly. I did take sneak peeks at Wall Street, the Statue of Liberty, bits of Brooklyn (inc. Bridge) and the Ninja Restaurant though.
The third time was at the end of my trip with Kelly; a bus ride into midtown Manhattan, and a rush-hour taxi ride out to JFK through Queens and Brooklyn - a fantastic way to leave!
The Second time was the biggie. We were in the city for a week staying with my brother, Gethin, in his apartment in Brooklyn. I absolutely loved the time i spent there, and the city itself; the life and vibrancy of the place is incredible. But then, i get-off on 'the urban', i always have. Cities have always stirred and excited me. I don't know what it is, i think it's in the mix of life and proximity of the people, the density of culture(s) and the engineering and architecture in the buildings and mass transport systems. I love that there was initially a design for a way of living, or a natural reason to congregate and then that's grown and been enhanced organically. I make no apology for using that word - there is nature in our cities, and our cities are key indicators to our human nature. What ever it is, New York has it and i loved it!
The way cities speak of who we are is fascinating, though, of course, they don't always say good things. Take Times Square for instance, apparently the most photographed place in the world, a place where all the tourists have to go. For these reasons i both went, and took photographs, and it is spectacular! But what is it? It's a crossing place of a couple of roads where every inch has been commissioned to advertise.
All the space has been sold so it might in turn sell. Incredible technology and energy is employed to present ideals devised by brands to persuade us of the greater meaning afforded to our lives and great leaps in status we'll take should we 'participate' in the worlds of their products. I'm not kidding, there's M&M World (it's a shop) and Toys R Us World (it's not a world, it's a shop) and even Pop Tart World is under construction (it's not a world, it's a shop - an unfinished shop). Brand names emblazoned everywhere and images of beautiful people, naked apart from whatever item they've been employed to glamorise.
It's like the Mecca of commercialism; "Put on your Nikes, for this is holy ground. Stand and worship the illuminated brand names. Celebrate what Disney, McDonalds, Diesel, Prada and Yahoo, in their infinite grace, have done for you!"
Yep, cities tell us about ourselves. This bit of New York is an altar to what we celebrate: Joining with successful brands as a signifier of our personal success. "Our name is up in lights, if you believe in us you can bathe in our glow; our story is your story when you're made in our image - so make yourself in our image".
Of course, other bits of the city tell other stories about our nature, but it was here that i was most disturbed. To see so many people cooing over electrified billboards, all the while conscious of the side of me that was salivating for the hope proffered by these brands, and swelling with pride brought on by seeing the glowing logos of companies i affiliate myself with was...uncomfortable.
The picture below was one i didn't really want taking because of how i was feeling, however, i'm thrilled with the way it came out (quite accidentally) because it captures exactly the disorientation i was feeling. If a picture of my spirit could have been taken instead, it would have looked just like this. Note also that i myself am branded - a walking advert.
There were loads and loads of other spiritual experiences i had in the city: playing football in central park with my brother, the museum of natural history, riding the subway, visiting Coney Island, the privilege of enjoying incredible food - and then the grace of having the very best meal paid for as a gift, surveying the land from the top of the Rockerfeller, getting caught in the fatest rain, just sitting in the foyer of the Guggenhiem museum - but Times Square was the most challenging. It asked: Who is your God? Where is your hope? How strong is the tide of culturally-approved-selfish-ambition against loving your neighbour as yourself? How do you make your voice heard over the din of injustices in production of goods that make you feel self satisfied? Where does this celebration of brand power leave the poor and marginalised?
God was there and i can't wait to go back.
The intro to Woody Allen's Manhattan covers most bases of perspectives on New York wonderfully.
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