Wednesday 18 April 2007

wheyz da tee'shird section huh?


easter display in front of the rockefeller centre

Frigg. If I ever come back as anything or anyone in a future life I want to be a gay man in New York. These dudes exude sharpness of the cut fabric like no other. They are walking hot machines oozing class and elegance, way beyond the trendoidness of their Oxford Street counterparts. I have never seen so many attractive men flawlessly dressed at the one time. Ever. Needless to say this city rocks. Fortunately enough I have not drowned in the flash flood that occurred here on Monday nor did I happen to fly unexpectedly to Virginia Tech yesterday, hence I am alive. I have already blown more than half my budget on hiking boots, Chuck Taylors (so I can be like them) and a frightening amount of comic books. It is amazing how quickly the shopping culture eats you alive here. For the last two days I have been feeling like a crazy person convincing myself that I need to buy shit, and then telling myself out loud that I am being a knob. I have however, stayed way away from the God awful grot that is Starbucks. Except for emergency urination requirements. My biggest surprise occurred today when I accidentally walked into what turned out to be a wadyaniggamudda-sup-y'all shop, where a shopper mistook me for a person that worked there, hence a street wise ass crackin' no bullshit Yank. Crap. I was trying to go for a 'European' look. Aside from retail experiences I have done proper stuff too. Like eating a chili dog from a hot dog stand. The Brooklyn Bridge at 10pm tonight was brilliant. And the crazy black guy on the Subway yelling that we're all equal coming out of the one womb like him out of his mother's pussy, made me grin with excitement at the authenticity of the moment.

Maybe it is the number of wogs here or maybe the unconscious longing to be living in a metropolis again, but New York has made me sentimental about Sydney and what I have left behind. Of course it is a behemoth beast and I have only but whiffed its underpit, but somehow New York has a feel of the familiar about it. As I tucked into a steamed pork bun today breathing in the familiar smell of Chinatown, I fondly recalled the words of my Public Law lecturer Drew Fraser "multiculturalism is the death of a city's own identity". Face value at this stage thanks.


I am sending this post from the NYC Public Library, the most impressive library on my world library tour list.

5 comments:

Tabitha said...

So jealous. Oh, so jealous.

mischa said...

new york felt strangely familiar to me too. i think it was all the woody allen movies i've seen. it felt like a part of my cultural heritage in a way that no european city ever has. funny that despite that i rarely have anything nice to say about americans.

Anonymous said...

Wish I was there... just to see, not to live, God forbid!

Anonymous said...

Do not forget to buy T-shirt with Manhattan and NY-hat to Michal ;-)

Anonymous said...

Hey J, Mem here.

Now that I've handed in my thesis in one piece (although I'll still have to amend it after my supervisors give their final comments) I've made time to check out your blog, which I think's tops!

After reading the entry about all the hotties in NY, I got rather excited and felt the need to express it, wowoweewoo!

Keep up da bloggin'!
Mem