New York

I’m in New York City right now, and the predominant thought I have on the city in the summer is; hot. And not hot “cool-hot”, but just fucking, bleeding hot. Like, 30 Celcius at nine in the morning-hot. The rubber on the soles of your shoes sticking to the pavement-hot.

And…the weird thing is, that the flight over was freezing. After getting grilled at the airport by the airline’s (Continental) security people – something that normally only happens at immigration on the other side of the pond – I was let on a flight that was; delayed, long, turbulent as fuck and freezing.

Double-wodka. No dinner.

Reuniting with Moulsari was fabulous. It took us no time at all to be comfortable with one another, talking about this and that, as we waited for the shuttle service from Liberty to Grand Central. We had lunch/dinner as soon as we got off the bus in a nice little quasi-Italian place that served a mean burger and a lovely salad. They even accomodated us with a wine-cooler for a bottle of cold water. The price was steep and I was reminded once again that I was in Manhattan. I finally got to see her new apartment, that she’ll be leaving soon again. It’s been over a year since I’ve been here, and a lot has happened for Moulsari in that time. It took me a while to catch up and realise that all the thing she’s been telling me about have happened in actuality. Her apartment is nice, a multi-leveled and rather spacious apartment, on 34th, between 1st and 2nd, near the entrance to the Midtown tunnel, that she shares with her 40 year old roommate Mike, a bit of a macho-man short guy of Italian descent with a heart of gold. She would later also show me her new apartment that she’ll be moving into soon with two of her friends. That’s on the 29th floor of a high rise apartment block on 2nd ave, overlooking all of downtown Manhattan. It’s really got a beautiful view.

*Jealousy*

So far we’ve had a lot of fun, saw Sin City – which is a film I really need to have some more time to think on before I can say anything useful about it – and we saw a stage-show starring Ethan Hawke; Hurlyburly. Really quite good. Elizabeth Berkley was in it. I thought that after Showgirls she was persona non-grata in the entertainment industry. It was cool.

I’ve been walking around the city a lot, sitting at Washington Square Park, talking to one of the dealers there, named Jay Jay. He was quite nice once he found out I wasn’t looking to buy blow and that I was from Amsterdam. It’s funny how certain things, customs and gestures, are pretty much universal wherever you go. For instance, Jay Jay was walking around a vending cart for a while, talking to the fat Puerto Rican that was its proprietor and he’d been eyeballing me. After about twenty minutes, in which I was burning up in the lovely sun (I swear, the Dutch are like the Irish; we don’t tan, we just burn), he nodded almost imperceptibly in my direction, indicating if he could help me with something. I shook my head almost as imperceptibly as he had nodded at me. I know the way it is done, I know that a law enforcer might be looking on, and I don’t want to give him away, so I don’t. It works the same with in Amsterdam. The same kind of people, the same gestures, the same type of handovers.

You have to wonder if there’s some deeper interconnectedness among people – a hivemind, if you will – that determines our progress. How often hasn’t it happened in history that the culmination of different sciences lead to spontaneous and entirely disconnected revelations and inventions of concepts and things that were similar in nature, or had a similar function, but were thought up by men and women that didn’t know eachother and didn’t have the same background? I swear, if my memory wasn’t so shit, and if I could come up with an example, of which I know there are many, my case would be a lot strong.

Skeptics, who needs ’em.

In the Grammecy area, particularly around Grammecy Park, there’s a lot of construction going on. Construction in New York City means unions. Unions mean Mafia. So the Grammecy Park Hotel is being renovated after it was closed. I spent some time looking at the construction site. It’s interesting to see how construction workers work in an area that is as dense and traffic heavy as Manhattan. They come up with really nifty, space-conscious ways of working, that’s reminiscent of back home. Again with the inter-connectedness. Anyway, the union officials that need to be on the site to make sure that health-code regulations and all that good stuff are followed, are in this case, two middle-aged men with a significant girth. They also look “tough” and “not to be messed with” in their Mochino and Armani shirts. Their leather shoes and gold bracelets contrast nicely with the hard-hats they have to wear.

Anyway, it’s hotter than fuck out here, and I’m not leaving Mouls’ airconditioned apartment until the sun is spent. I’m going to indulge myself with World of Warcraft, cool glasses of Coca Cola, to which I’m sure I’m getting heavily addicted, and Comedy Central.

La’ers.

5 comments on “New York

  1. Liniah

    Have you been in NY in August? Much worse heat-wise. This is nuthin. June is just the warm-up. :)

    You should’ve seen Claus when he was in Chicago in July/Aug. He refused to leave Josh & Kara’s house as well. You guys are wusses. :p

  2. Liniah

    It’s still cold in Denmark. :/ I’ve gotten so pale since living here. It’s actually supposed to go up to 27 this Sunday. Very warm for here! Hope I’m not too hung over to enjoy it. I’ve got a big fest on Sat.

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