Get out

It's snowing in Spring, and most people are waiting for the seasons to turn.  Still, if this weather is indeed an anomaly and not the result of climate change as feared, then perhaps it is a bit special too.  It may be a previously unrevealed facet of the landscape few have yet to see, with pristine paths yet unexplored and experienced.

Chvrches - Get out.

Lotus flower

I am often invisible in New York City.  There is a line in my favorite book that goes something like (I'm paraphrasing)  I'm never going to be a protagonist in this story, so I may as well be an informed bystander.  I think that has offer me so much freedom to explore and experiment and contribute as a bystander, an eyewitness with the aim of blossoming in some unforeseeable future.  I can explore on my bike, in construction sites and amidst advertising campaigns, and hardly anyone takes notice.  Sometimes I will meet eye to eye with someone, and we exchange furtive, knowing glances; we are both independently on our own adventures, our own path.  And then we depart.

Radiohead - Lotus flower.

Right here waiting

I would like to get better at portaitures this year.  There's a lot more waiting around, patiently observing, getting folks to let their guard down, but I think that will be a valuable trait to develop in general, living in New York.

Richard Marx - Right here waiting.

Mr. blue sky

There are days when I am just happy to exist and be in that exact moment and place.  New York is so full of different lives, and then just as suddenly, you find yourself alone with it.  The city offers these brief moments of intimacy, and I am happy when I get to experience them.

Electric Light Orchestra - Mr. Blue Sky

The bike song

I had not ridden my bike much until a few years ago.  It sat for a while in storage on Staten Island.  In the suburbs, beyond a certain age, a bicycle was a leisure activity.  The change in location to Brooklyn gave it a much more prominent fixture in my life.  I was able to independently take charge of my commute, my path through the city.  Whereas I had been a messenger, the bike was a tool of trade, now it offered freedom to explore.

I had grown up in a typical poorer immigrant existence, but my family outfitted me and my sister with bikes.  My dad, though not much of a driver, fervently explored Staten Island with me by bike.  We must have looked ridiculous, as he would ride my bike, and I rode my sister's - a bright pink and white single speed.  But that exploration of covering and charting each street on two wheels is something I still very much enjoy.

Mark Ronson & the Business Intl - The bike song.

Hem of your garment

This was a nice surprise to see.  I was on my way to get breakfast (Le District sells a sea salt brioche that I can get with some buutter) and came across this.  Even if it is a sponsored ad, I love it when art intervenes eith everyday life.  Commuters that normally rushed through stood next to me, awestruck.  Some took photos, a man in a suit deliberately paced around it in a circle, children ran up gawked, and pointed to it so their parents would not miss the object of their attention.

Cake - Hem of your garment.

Little boxes

One of my simple pleasures is to see the wide expanse of a city spread out before me.  I like to train my eyes on different neighborhoods, different buildings, comforted by the knowledge that people I know are going about their day.  To know that there is a shared existence on the same plane, in a similar geography is so fun to think about...what are they doing...what are they thinking or doing at that precise moment? 

Malvina Reynolds - Little boxes.