Spent Sunday getting ready for the trip. It takes too long now. I am too distracted, too muddled, have far too many things to do. And besides, I am getting ready alone. I have traveled too much alone already. Sounds poetic and there is a poeticalness too it, but all things require contrast, all things need a break. Much of poetry is hollow, leaves us with an emptiness at the center. Like Hemingway, sometimes one needs traveling companions. I don't want to feel like Becket all the time.
But this is driveling in the dark. I could not sleep and am up too early for a mid-morning flight. I have packed poorly and will spend too much money. I already have. I won two auctions on eBay and will have the Mamiya 6 and a 75mm lens when I return.
I am told it is muggy in Manhattan. What the hell. It is almost one hundred with one hundred percent humidity here. It feels like Burma.
Everyone has his/her own Manhattan. It is big enough for all imaginations. If you have any recommendations, send them to me, but tell me why. What do you feel when you remember that place? Come with me--by proxy, anyway. We will linger in your favorite cafe, take comfort in your favorite bar, buy some tidbit in that fanciful little place. You can show me where Dorothy Parker lived, where young James Salter watched his mother getting dressed, where Cole Porter liked to eat, or where you saw a drunk Ryan Adams borrow a guitar and get on a small stage to play solo for two hours. Whatever. And you can come with me early one morning to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge for the spiritual exercise.
But now, I have to finish packing. My ride will be here soon.
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I have never been to manhatten proper, but I will travel with you and enjoy the sights and smells along the way.
ReplyDeletehave fun, dont worry about the money, it's just money :)
I'm thinking the Holga in NY would be pretty fun :)
travel safe my friend,
Danny
Talk about envious! I've been twice and on my first visit went to the MOMA to stand in front of VanGogh's Starry Night but the whole second floor was closed for a Matisse installation and I missed it. But the rest of the trip was magical...and no bedbugs! :) Second time was great too, I'd love to go again! Have fun, I want to hear everything...well not everything but you know what I mean!
ReplyDeletewell one of my favorite places was the area around 4 Patchin Place.
ReplyDeleteAs a teenager I would stand on that street day dreaming about the man who wrote this:
somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond
somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond
any experience,your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near
your slightest look easily will unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skilfully,mysteriously)her first rose
or if your wish be to close me, i and
my life will shut very beautifully ,suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;
nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility:whose texture
compels me with the color of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing
(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens;only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody,not even the rain,has such small hands
and already you mentioned the Chelsea Hotel -- we used to skip school and take the bus to the city and hang around waiting to see famous people.
more tomorrow. hope you are already having fun.
D,
ReplyDeleteYou must come to Manhattan to appreciate the islands more.
Rhonda,
I was at that Mattise exhibit. It was overwhelming.
Lisa,
I stayed at the Chelsea back then. They knew me and always gave me the same room. You must have seen me and wondered. That was the year of Sid and Nancy (and other years, too).