This City's So Damn Nice, They Shoulda Named It Three Times

Wow. I didn't expect that, to fall so massively and instantly in love with a city that I never thought I would like. "It's too crazy," I always told myself, "too hectic." And it is, but in an unexpected way. Like a 50 cc's of whiskey straight to the left ventricle and the only hangover is the world seems more vibrant the next morning. I've always loved riding subways and New York makes all the others seem quaint and miniature. Long tunnels intertwine under the concrete like roots of the skyscrapers. And the people were amazingly nice. None (well, almost none) of the cliche New York snottyness in any of the people I interacted with. All very genuine and excited and funny people. There's a feeling that you're tapping into something big, some lumbering beast that rides beneath the surface of everything. Maybe that's why I loved the subways so much, because it sounds like you can almost hear it, like you can feel it in your chest, and the rhythm is going to explode at any moment.
We spent our time in contrasting places. The first day Lou and I wandered around midtown Manhattan, dined in posh restaurants with sophisticated friends and ate at overpriced cafes. The next day we went to Brooklyn and met up with an old friend. Walked around the neighborhoods bearing the steady brunt of gentrification, saw "An Inconvenient Truth" back in Manhattan and then took the subway home to Brooklyn for more debauchery. Lou left early for Boston but I stuck around and visited the American Museum of Natural History, where most of these pictures are from. I'm back in Boston now and tomorrow I'll leave for Cairo. Pretty exciting when New York is just the appetizer.Oh, and here's a video I took at the Port Authority Station around 12:30 am. Playin' the old standard: