New York, Yup It's Still Home

Battery Park

I walked around Manhattan during September. It's true. It happened. I was there. Never made above midtown. I did go the the Hudson Yards a lot though. 

Because the Armory Show was being held there. 

Armory Show booth installation

That's an immigrant coal miner's name on the wall

It also happened to be NY Fashion Week. That meant I all at once found myself as close as 50 feet away from Very Famous People (trade mark)

I chuckled at the palpable glow of their fame and wealth. I barked a laugh as I could actually recognize one of them glittering blondely in the light rain. The distance between me there unkempt and outfitted in clothing bought at the US | Mexico border and these million dollar Very Famous People (trade mark) was purely comical. What else could I do but laugh? I am a witness to ridiculous times. 

Proenza Schouler fashion show rehearsal on Little Island

No context shot from Proenza Schouler fashion show rehearsal on Little Island

Walking the streets of Manhattan during fashion week made me feel physically small, and shabby. Being in Mexico I forget what it's like to feel short!

I did have an excuse to visit my old home base of Williamsburg. For those who don't know, I used to live on those street before it got big money cool. I visited the Pierogi Gallery space and CAVE again. I did my best not to cry seeing Domino Park. Mini Golf?! And how can there be so many people of wealth and probably status pushing strollers on Kent Ave? I remember when you could get run over by big rigs going both ways up and down that street. Now it's one way and half parking lot!

The legalization of marijuana has made the city a more curious experience. The lingering pot smoke in the air sometimes hits you like a hammer even through a double layer of masking. I'm sure I got a contact high a few times. 

Chinatown

For all of the changes and the pandemic weirdness, it still felt like home. I would move back in a tick if I could.

At the end of my trip I went down to see  the 9/11 um... memorial site for the fist time. 

I cannot recommend that place. I would not. Especially if you are psy-sensitive in any way.

The place is horrific on so many levels, but what I could not handle the most was the... screaming. If you can call it screaming. I had felt an uneasiness when passing through that part of town before, but getting  up close actually made a huge difference. The disquiet was so much 'louder.'

Thousands of soft, terrified, confused souls died very, very badly in that place. 

And it was like I could feel all that sudden transition rattling my guts.

I didn't stand there thinking about what happened. I didn't imagine or remember anything.. I was just trying to see the giant water feature squares in the ground and trying to understand the hideous 'artistic' mural section of the memorial grounds. It looked like corporate street art from the 90s that did not make any sense to me. Even with that confusing eye sore assaulting my sense of taste, I was overwhelmed with- I could feel  these rushes of something hitting me in irregular waves. I could have burst into tears and and thrown up all at once if I stayed there too long. I had the chills in the heat of late summer. It was like someone had told a ghost story, but no one spoke a word to me. 

And the blasé mood of the people around me didn't make me think I was channeling their feelings... Though I could have been... I won't rule that out. But I have felt things in places where there are no people hanging around remembering so... 

My advice is to never go to the 9/11 memorial as it is now. More construction needs to be done. There is a church and a performing art center than need to be finished. Without those things especially, it is an ugly, unhealed place. 

With a shopping center. 

Because nothing says New York Strong / Never Forget more than a new Lacoste polo shirt.