In between jobs, historically I've usually taken a few weeks or a few months off to travel, unwind and refocus. But occassionally, it's right from one assignment an on to the next. This time, I got a whole three day weekend and I decided to spend two of the three days in the Big Apple.
Over the past decade, I've only seen Manhattan from windows; from one of the two buses from Peace Corps Staging in Philadelphia carrying 70 folks headed to Ukraine via Times Square to JFK airport, or that time from a plane window out of JFK when I was connecting from overseas to a flight bound for Atlanta, then Birmingham and my brother's wedding (Happy 2nd Anniversary Matt and Meg!). Aside from the airport Sbarro's and Starbucks (which were things of dreams for a Peace Corps volunteer), my most recent memories of New York indulgences spanned nearly a decade.
The last time I actually walked the streets of New York City was back in the Summer of 2001. It was my first big interview, in a tall building near Grand Central, and I remembered telling the nice lady from a Japanese English Language Company that I really never thought of myself as a good teacher. Then followed the novel image of my 22 year old self awkward in a suit, staring back depressingly at his reflection on the subway window, thinking that he'd blown his first big opportunity. But the nice lady from AEON wound up calling him back a week later and offering him a stint in Tokushima.
Well, if you can make it in New York....
Most people don't think of New York when they need to get away for the weekend and "chill." But then again most people don't live in Washington DC.
It was hard getting up at 5am after two back-to-back happy hours (one with new colleagues from my new agency and one (on the same block) with alums from grad school. But after a few hours the cramped, but cheap Bolt Bus from Chinatown forced exhileration into my legs as the lovely New Jersey skyline of smokestacks and overpasses inspired me to humm the theme song from the Sopranos.
Tokyo may be more futuristic and massive. Mumbai may be more teeming. But New York is still the Greatest City on the Planet Earth. I know what a bold statement this is really, but I feel like I've been around the spherical block enough to make such a conclusion. And don't bother arguing with me on this point, or I'll tell you to go to Newark.
I decided to spend my night at a hotel looking out on the focal point of all the world's attention since that summer I last walked the streets of New York. I booked a room at the Millenium Hilton next to Ground Zero.
At check-in, the reception offered me a pair of ear plugs and a sound machine. That was a first.
After taking the elevator to my room on the 10th floor, I soon realized why they offered me auxillary sound proofing. My window looked out on what I saw to be the most massive construction site I had ever seen. As far as the eye could see to the walls of skyscrapers beyond, the site and chaos brimmed with activity like an upside down ant hill twelve stories deep. Even the think pane of glass failed to muffle the sound of massive drills scratching away at the tenacious Manhattan limestone. In front, off to the right, I saw David Child's abomination rising in its red skeleton above the dirt and concrete like some sort of corporate Barad-dûr.
Architecture in the public domain is a preoccupation of mine, and I'm sure many in the trained profession roll their eyes when pedestrians like me walk by and give their two cents. But my opinion is, if it's a high profile project, and if I have to look at it every day, I don't need a PhD from Princeton to conclude what looks good.
For those who don't know the background to the "Freedom Tower" (now called "One World Trade Center") here's it in a biased nutshell: After 9/11, a committee led by the Port Authority and Governor of NY held a public competition for designs of a tall building which would be built over the World Trade Center site. Daniel Libeskind, one of the greatest architects of our age was chosen by the democratically-organized committee for his soaring design featuring hanging gardens at 1500 feet with built-in windmills to inspire feelings of world peace and global unity.
Then came along Larry Silverstein, the developer with leaseholder rights and pretty much nixed the idea, inserting his own underling, David "Molotov" Childs from the Firm-Which-Must-Not-Be-Named. They changed Libeskind's design and made it mediocre.
See said mediocrity at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_World_Trade_Center
I think they were trying to make the design look scary. Nice work! It looks kind of like a very tall air traffic control tower. Or a hyperdermic needle. Or an icepick.
OK- I'll try to take a deep breath now, relax and be patient. One shouldn't fume until he sees the finished product.
The other four buildings rising from the ashes on the site are a mishmash of architecture that don't seem to go quite together. But I can live with this, as NYC seems to thrive on the unmatching chaos of skyscraper architecture. At this point on paper, Lord Norman Foster's Two World Trade Center is the most promising skyscraper design on the site. Also the waterfalls cascading into footprints at Arad and Walker's National September 11th Memorial and Museum and Santiago Calatrava's World Trade Center Transportation Hub look quite intriguing.
Taking the Metro made me miss subway stations that actually had character. Washington DC's decrepit metro has so many flaws that I just sighed uncontrollaby as I found myself on Saturday night back in the dull, cave glow of the featureless Lefant Plaza, outrageously unworthy of the earth-shattering city planner it was named after. In New York, the Metro's exposed I-beams whisper the century that saw it through, the stations are all unique and recognizable. I wonder what would happen if one night some merry pranksters from UMD went to all the DC metro stations and removed the signs. Would DC commuters even know where to get off? They may be populated with rats and reek of urine, but at least New York's Metro has character.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art was packed, and MoMa was even worse, but I still got them both in on this trip and hope to return again soon.
Pic right - 30 Rock. "Hey Liz Lemon!"
While sadly there wasn't the time for Billy Joel's advice and take a Greyhound on the Hudson River Line, I absolutley was in a New York state of mind, or at least, stomach. In fact, in preparation for my trp, I ate like a Whole Foods rabbit all week so that I could gorge myself on New York fare: Papaya Dog for lunch, pizza from Ray's, soup and dumplings in Chinatown, bagels for breakfast and lunch in a deli.
I took the bus up to NYC and the Amtrak back. Given how convenient it is to get there from DC, I'll be back up as soon as I can.
I finished the short trip relaxing in Central Park, wishing I had a whole week in the city instead of just 36 hours. Some guy was walking around selling margaritas in the Park. He even had a blender in his backpack. The thought of buying one passed briefly to consideration, but then the imagination cloud burst abruptly as I pictured myself foam mouthed in a seizure, my wallet and mind both gone from a delicious iced slurry of rat poison.
