My New York Story 2005
Prologue
Summer in Manhattan (first plans)
Part I
Tuesday day, realized Manhattan is much more overwhelming than London ever felt.
Tuesday night was an all-nighter. It was a combination of being on Brandon's vibe and probably the full moon. We went to the roof for the sunrise. It was totally alien and weird. My cracked-out unslept mind was having a lot of trouble processing it. There was so much to look at and it was completely unlike anything I had ever seen before. In many ways, this is really my first urban experience. Sparse and strange plant life, decaying buildings, graffitied walls, a gripload of microwave antennas on a building touching ours, xerox copied red brick buildings running 6 blocks, different heights and shapes to the roof top surface i was looking over, clouds going from pink to orange to yellow, streamers of sunshine breaking it all apart, blue sky bringing it all back, thick humid air filling our lungs.
Wednesday Brandon left. It was sad to see him go and finally it began to set in that I was left in a crazy, overwhelming place without close friends. After work I took his fixed gear bike for my first ride. Holy bejeezus, every intuition i have about how to bike was completely twisted up and turned back on itself, like i was thinking "inside" a Klein Bottle. (Having not slept much earlier probably wasn't helping either.) Basically, I rode around the blocks between 1st and B ave and 13th and 7th st. Number of near death experiences: 0. Came back and in the early evening Andrea called me from under the streetlight across from my window. She was checking in, it was very very sweet. Stayed up too late messaging two girls on Friendster and reading through Fixed magazine (Issue 001), one of the bitchin things in the packet.
Thursday, second fixed gear bike ride. Overall, this ride went much better, my former intuitions got in the way less than last time. The major problem on this ride were the toe-clips. First off, i can't for the life of me get my left foot in the clip once I'm moving. If I start with my left, I can sometimes get my right foot in. This might be a symptom of having the wide-toe Keen sandals and shoes. Second, since I don't use toe-clips or clipless pedals on my SF bike, I have no habit of pulling up with my leg. This is very bad because there isn't nearly enough power to slow down the bike just by pushing down with one leg. I really need the combined effort of pushing with one leg and pulling with the other. Hopefully some more tweaking of the toe-clips and practice will alleviate this problem. Under consideration is accepting regular use of the front brake as an okay thing. It might be some wannabe-hardcore bullshit keeping me from wanting to use it, but I do see the elegance of not even having a brake. Another (minor) issue was hitting my foot with the front tire on sharp turns, this isn't even a possibility on my mountain bike! Ran across a bike store on 6th street, maybe between A and B ave. Filled up the tires and someone commented the bike is very nice and he'd buy it if it was for sale. He referred to it as something beginning with 'P'. He gave me kudos for wearing my helmet when i told him it was my second time on a fixed gear.
Friday: Worked. Ate at Raj Mahal with Diego, a co-worker in Buenos Aires. Took picture on fire escape after watering herbs. Saw the Broadway play The Producers. Dinner with Diego in Greenwhich village; discussed humanity. Walked 10th street to 1st ave, shooting photos and enjoying my summer home.
Saturday day, on the way out of the house to go to the Whitney, the lock in the door came out with my key. This was not good. Called the super and waited for him to show up and fix it. In the meantime, i posted yesterday's pictures to the blog.
Part II
Part III
Went to Amagansett for Labor Day.