Tour: Notes from New York
* The sole moment of music/space/time confluence occurred at Stupid O'Clock on Saturday morning, after immigration, while in the cab from JFK into Manhattan. Leaving Queens, and crossing the bridge, the night sky was actually inky light, so it felt like 5am not 2. And as I stared at the Chrysler building (?) from the other side of the expressway, The Wedding Present's 'Go Out And Get 'Em Boy!' came on to the iPod. And for an instant I thought, yes, that is exactly what shall be done here.
* While walking down Lexington, about 57th or so, a church was passed. Gothic in shape and structure, and chocolate in brick and tone. I felt moved enough to want to write a poem, but I still haven't found the words yet.
* It is clearly a lot harder to achieve any form of stillness in New York than London (discounting gridlock, which is enforced). Example: a woman walking beside me down Lexington, who decided that the red man at the junction with 50th street was too much of a wait, and instead crossed over Lex (where the white man was present) to continue her journey down the street. An additional hundred yards for no obvious benefit, apart from the illusion of advantageous movement.
* NyLon: for a moment, around about Bryant Park, I had the hallucination that I was actually in London rather than New York. I had experienced no real culture shock, no real sense that there was anything significantly or qualitatively different between the two. Nonsense of course, and yet a very real sensation, until of course, the realisation of it made it impossible to sustain. Viewing Sweeney Todd at the Eugene O'Neill theatre later on was a similar sense of having a London close to mine, yet different, refracted back at me. This at least was tangible: myths I recognised, violence I recognised, and a stage design that looked liked the latest modish Smithfield/Clerkenwell eaterie.