NYC Oddysey

Last week I was in NYC, my first "real" vacation as an adult. Not staying with any relatives. It was just me and the boy, staying with the friend of a friend and his room mate. Steve and I were all over the place seeing both the cultured and the freewheeling. It was an inspiring experience.

I visited museums, the Bronx Zoo, Prospect Park Zoo, and the New York Aquarium. I also wandered Chinatown, St. Mark's and Coney Island. I found inspiration in The Cyclone, the subway stations, walking the streets, seeing classic works of art, eating street food, seeing fossils, etc. I met with an online friend and tried Korean food for the first time. There's still so much I want to do. Fortunately it looks like we now have the connections to stay in the future.

Maybe it's because I'm so smalltown, but I took in everything. There were instruments from all over the world playing in the stations. I heard everything from a saw player, to a violin duo who stood on opposite sides of the tracks, to an accordion player doing Lady Gaga and Blondie covers. I went to the Cloisters and saw the unicorn tapestries after years of dreaming. Coney Island is such a center of Americana. There's just so much I took in from my week there, it will take some time to digest.

I wasn't able to make it out to watch any shows with the exception of the Dir en grey concert on the 24th, but I feel I've gained so much on a spiritual level. In a way it is almost zen seeing how much changed since my last (and brief) visit two years ago. Last time I visited St. Mark's on suggestion of a friend, it was fairly quiet, today the streets are crowded. Bamn, the automat, is gone which disappointed me. I lugged along what change I couldn't roll for a visit there. Even the Port Authority bus terminal underwent changes. When I arrived they had the big board listing which gate your bus is at, when we left it wasn't there. It was a good reminder of how impermanent the world can be, how everything is in a constant state of flux. Some things will always remain because our culture wants to hang on to them and honor heritage, while other things change. What is preserved evolves to fit today's needs and wants. What doesn't change gets placed in a museum.

I could go on forever on how much I saw and felt during my vacation. I think it's left better for my writing. I have so much new material for poems and stories that it will take a while to get it all out.