This afternoon found me ankle deep in New York City. I stopped by a friend’s office in Harlem to have some lunch, and since then I’ve been hanging out (reading, writing, and programming) at Colombia University in the quad across from the library.
First off, whenever I step out of an airport and start walking around a city I marvel at how quickly life moves. When I ate an apple for breakfast this morning I was nearly 900 miles away from where I sat down to eat lunch. The world is certainly very small.
Something that always strikes me about New York in particular, though, is how it is a wonder just to wander. Some other big cities (Paris comes to mind) have a similar quality. It dawned on me, though why its so fascinating just to look at things. New York is an organic thing. Just as you can look in awe at the bark on a tree (or at least I can), I can see nature’s beauty in the big apple. This is not a city that was planned in the way that a suburban neighborhood is. This city grew up on its own, adapted to its little island, to the throngs of people living here. It says something powerful about the human animal that we can build and thrive in hives like this!
Last weekend I spent Saturday and Sunday in New York. Saturday was spent ice skating in Central Park and dancing at an 80′s dance club (The Pyramid Club). On Sunday Naomi and I went to take some pictures near the Brooklyn Bridge. She is a “real” photographer. She has a “real” camera and “real” talent. I on the other hand have a whole lot of “fakin’ it” and a nice little point and shoot.
(Golden Swift)
(Brickadelic)
Regardless, I took some shots that I like. Later that day we met my friend Maggie and took the Staten Island Ferry in order to get some free entertainment and nice views of the Statue of Liberty and Manhattan Island. We got both… Behold.
(Water Laser)
(The Left Eye of Liberty)
All of these shots have been ‘worked on’ in Photoshop, but, hey… Half the work of a “real” photographer is in the darkroom anyway, right? These photographs make me feel somewhat like a serious photographer. I like them… hopefully you do too.
Today I went to Brazil. Well, not really. I went to New York where 46th Street (Little Brazil) and a good chunk of 6th Ave. were closed down in celebration of Brazil’s national day. I went with some fellow Brazil-o-philes and met some Brazilian friends from work. Together, we ate some feijoada (fay-ZHWAH-dah), danced some samba, and had a fun little (actually huge) party in the streets of Manhattan. Along the way, I made some tentative plans to visit Brazil… man I hope I can follow through.
What a fantastic time. Dancing for independence, dancing for fun, dancing with friends, dancing with strangers. Dancing “for no good reason.” But wait, dancing is its own good reason! I find the emphasis placed on celebration, revelry, and careless abandon refreshing in this world where people are so seldom shocked to be unhappy. Maybe we should all take a lesson from Brazil and dance just to dance… and encourage strangers to do so as well.
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