Sparkwood & 21

One Time I Got To Be a Part of Something Super Awesome

For the first Longshot Magazine I just submitted a story, and was thrilled when it was published. For the second one I helped choose the submissions and sit in while these whip-smart people buzzed and worked and talked around me. The second time was certainly more fulfilling.

Now there's a short documentary about that weekend. (I can be seen at minute 4:05 being allowed to "make a map" of the magazine.), and how it was made last summer. Last summer when I sat atop a roof where a hammock was strung and drank beer and memorized a skyline. This video not only takes me back to that weekend making something awesome, but back to New York, back to to last summer.

I'm so glad this video was made. Long live Longshot Magazine.

See the video at Longshot Magazine's Tumblr.

A Conversation, Just Now, Typical

Corner store clerk: How old are you?

Me: 34.

Corner store clerk: You? 34?

Me: Wanna see my I.D.? (hand I.D. over)

Corner store clerk: New York State? I do not trust New York State.

Me: Ha.

Corner store clerk: You hear about what happen? The big planes fly into the big buildings.

Me: Yeah. I did hear about that.

Corner store clerk: It's too bad. (pause) How long you been here?

Me: Well, I was here for a while, then I went to New York, and now I'm back.

Corner store clerk: I have been to New York, but only its airports. Never for a visit.

Me: Well, it is definitely worth a visit.

Corner store clerk: They say, "New York is great to visit, not great to live." I don't know why. But you have a good night.

That Seems Light Years Away

The most surprising things remind me of New York. A photo of bamboo, tall and thin, green and lush. A photo of such a foreign thing, so Un-American unlike Manhattan, evokes nostaglia for a short time ago that seems light years away. 

The bamboo reminds me of The High Line, the Chelsea park built up from railway ruins. It was new to the city like me. 

That time seems like a dream. Seems like a miracle and a burden all at once. 

I forget it happened until I have a bad bagel or watch a girl struggle up California in stilettos and rememeber the women, the impeccable women in their heels and blow outs and flawless skirts. 

The weather was bad and I gained weight in New York, sitting silent and solitary in my high rise studio overlooking the fabulous and iconic skyline of storylines that define entire existences. I had only a taste, just a small, trial-sized cone of New York.

Anyway, I'm often reminded.

All the Way Correct

“To pass through Grand Central Terminal, one of New York’s exalted public spaces, is an ennobling experience, a gift. To commute via the bowels of Penn Station, just a few blocks away, is a humiliation.”

“A Proposal for Penn Station and Madison Square Garden,” from The New York Times.

Your Fancy is So Fine

I wish I could slip into you without you knowing I was there:

[Photo by ercwttmn]

New York of the Now

The city’s new privileged inhabitants would wear their city’s outlaw image as a badge of honor and even venerate it with fervor, fiercely proud of a history they had never experienced, let alone contributed to - like suburbanites living on a Civil War battlefield and boasting about Pickett’s charge.

In a sense, though, they earned bragging rights: the city’s premium rents and boutique prices came with this fantasy narrative. Ethnic cleansing would be accomplished via eviction: the mass deportation that had worked so well on the Native Americans.

The indigenous city people, who had survived urban blight, gangs, systemic unemployment, police brutality, the state-sponsored crack epidemic, and PCP, finally met their match when faced with Seinfeld Syndrome.”

-Ian Svenonius

[via Young Manhattanite]

The Fifth Borough

I made it to all four boroughs but Staten Island.

Color me unsurprised at the arrangement of these throw pillows. Ranked in order.

Once upon a time I said aloud to a couple of New Yorkers, "I've never been to Staten Island."

Someone quickly responded, "It's a dump. Literally. It's where the garbage goes. And the people aren't much different."

I'm sure Staten Island is lovely. I'm sorry I didn't give it a fair shake while I was in New York City. Well, 4/5ths of it.

Urban Combat Training

I am back in the city that fits.

But this time I come to it with fourteen months of urban combat training under my belt.

Before San Francisco used to feel majestic and overwhelming. Now it feels majestic and ready to bend to my will.

So Glad to Escape the Jostle

You've Never Had a Better Reason to Watch Jeopardy! Tomorrow

Tomorrow night, set a reminder. My friend Tony Hightower is going to be on Jeopardy!.

You should watch for several reasons:

• Tony is funny.
• Tony is the creator and host of Trivia NYC, which is popular and well regarded, and so it should be interesting to see if this knowledgeable master of ceremonies can hold his own.
• Jeopardy! is always a good time, but it's better if you know someone who is playing. Now, tangentially, you do. Sort of. Just work with me on this one.
• If you were on Jeopardy!, Tony would totally watch your show.

Okay! So, set your TiVo, gather your friends and if you are in New Yawk, head to Dempsey's for a viewing party that I really, really, really wish I could be there for. And give Tony (and Sam and Jo and errbody else) a hug for me.