For its year-end double issue, New York Magazine’s cover story was “Reasons to Love New York Right Now.” This feature was, in a word, retarded. I wrote an entire post in response entitled “Reasons to Leave New York,” but then I decided it didn’t accurately represent my relationship with this city.
New York drives me nuts, sometimes literally. And the reasons given for loving New York in this magazine are so vapid and so far removed from anything resembling my life here that it temporarily made me hate New York even more. When I’ve been standing for 20 minutes in a dingy, filthy, smelly, rat-infested subway station waiting for a packed train on which I will uncomfortably stand for the hour-long ride home with 100 or more other similarly irritated people, I am not particularly comforted by the idea that New York has “Four, Yes Four, Presidential Wannabes” (Clinton, Giuliani, Pataki and Bloomberg). And I’m sorry, I can’t look on the bright side and consider my “Daily Commute A Fashion Show.” The A train is more derelicte than Gaultier.
What to make of a magazine that zealously boasts “We Can Be Defiantly Deluded”? Who says, “I love New Yorkers; they’re so…like, defiantly deluded”? What to make of a feature whose longest section, at three pages, is about looking through your neighbors’ windows? And who the hell is Zani Gugelmann?
Yes, I’ve pretty much resolved to leave The Big Apple sometime this year. Living here wears me out. Still, I love New York.
I love Central Park in the snow. I love the path along the south side of The Pond, with its lazy sunbathing turtles.
I love piping hot fresh bagels on Broadway, latkes on 2nd Avenue, samosas on 6th Street, cannoli on Bleecker, and char siu bao on Canal.
I love the Thursday night classic films at the Clearview on 23rd Street.
I love Freudian Sips, Psychotic Episodes and Daddy Complexes on West 52nd.
I love the young Orthodox Jewish man on the A train who offered his seat to a young Muslim woman last week.
I love the view of Manhattan from the Triboro Bridge. I love the view down 59th Street from the balcony at the TimeWarner Building.
I love Long Island accents.
I love the coffee at Samad’s and the espresso at Café Reggio.
I love the Temple of Dendur and Hudson River School collection, and I love this painting.
I love New York.
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11 comments:
It's funny how sometimes you read something about a place you know well, supposedly written by someone else who knows the place "well," and can have such different ideas about the place.
Though actually, the article sounds like it was written by someone who's READ a lot about New York and/or was writing for people who read a lot about the city, but don't actually live there day in and day out. If someone wrote something similarly superficial about any of my "hometowns" (I have three), I'd be pretty annoyed.
I also can't believe they think LA's water is better than Golden's. Talk about deluded. I'll take western Colorado water over my own tap, any day of the week and twice on Sunday. I only drink filtered tap water when I've run out of bottled. And even then I hold my nose.
Honestly, I think that to really love and appreciate a place, you have to hate it a little first.
(PS -- gah! You've switched to beta! I hate getting tricked into posting under my real name ;))
We'll be very sorry to see you move away, but the most important thing is that you're happy!
I feel the same way when I read an article or watch a show about Hawaii. You'll never see the loud, illiterate local screaming at his girlfriend, both tax burdens on the State.
The high prices, the insane traffic, the earthquakes that paralyze this island state but provide a light sense of awareness in California. Packed stores with Filipinos grabbing the sale items, the Aloha attitude that makes people drive 45 mph in the left lane of the highway.
But I love this place and will always consider it home. I love the hot malasada's from Leonard's, the meat juhn from Soon's, and the shrimp scampi from Duke's.
I love looking at the Ko'olau mountains and the view of Kaneohe bay as I drove through the H-3 tunnel.
I love diving, riding my motorcycle 7/365, hitting the beach anytime of the year.
I know exactly how you feel. Happy New Year, brother. Hope this year is fruitful (no pun intended) and full of material for your blog. Also, could you get a boyfriend and ease up on the cat posts?
Also, could you get a boyfriend
Well, I'll try. Here's to hoping the fishing's better in Portland than in New York. And you know? It just might be.
Hey, is Cafe Reggio a little coffeeshop just outside the Village, across the street from a park, with midieval paintings and lanterns and a huge antique espresso machine? Sara and Rob--you remember "Sara and Rob" ; ) --took me to this place in 1995 and I have been trying to find it on the web off and on since then. Cafe Reggio was my best guess ...
That's the place! It's on MacDougal. To me it is quintessentially New York. Here's the link.
YAY! Now next time I visit the city I'll actually be able to FIND it : ) ! Thanks : )!
I went there the afternoon I talked my (our) way into ushering Blue Man Group's "Tubes" with Rob's Best Man and Rob's dad, because I didn't want to drop the $35 for a ticket, and their scheduled ushers had boged ... ah, the memories ; ). My gosh, the headache I had when that pounding (but excellent!) show was over ... I suppose, come to think of it, I shouldn't be surprised that I couldn't remember the name or location of the coffeeshop ; ).
Move to Union City, NJ -- rest assured your disdain for NYC will disappear overnight, and you will grow to LOVE getting on the Subway for the morning commute, if for no other reason than to see post-1992 fashion.
Hey so what about the jewish man who gave his seat to a muslim woman. A jewish man rear ended my car on the freeway and i didnt call the police, and im muslim. I let him go. Muslims are good people, so forgiving
I just meant that it was nice to see this friendly gesture between two people who come from groups who are often in tension with each other, that's all.
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