Crazy Delirious Delicious Manhattan
22 May 2007
Fine ladies and gents, I’m back from crazy delirious delicious Manhattan. And all I want to do right now is go back.
I’m still having a bit of trouble translating the experience into words, summing it up in something coherent because I don’t think it all is. Its somehow part memory, part imagination, part reality, part dream; all going very fast. I’m still trying to sort it all out.
You first have to understand that going to NY and more specifically Manhattan was somewhat of a big deal for me. This was my first fully conscious trip to NY (an expression I like to use to illustrate how numb and uninterested we were to things when we were children, unconscious of the many dynamics of this complex world). I had crossed the metropolis once a long time ago1 and I hardly remember seeing anything remotely interesting but perhaps the Statue of Liberty, associating it to An American Tail.
You also have to know that I am a very culture oriented person, interested in all types of arts from cooking to music through comic books, abstract paintings and film, I have studied film, design & architecture academically and am continuously reading (probably too many) books (and blogs) about it. And most of you know that as far as culture in the 20th century in America goes, New York tops it all: it’s the nest from where everything starts to fly; it’s chaotic and dense; it has welcomed millions of people to America, it’s the womb of the skyscraper, the city of all cities; the cultural core of America; the metropolitan reference par excellence, a contemporary urban masterpiece of congestion of people and ideas.
And even though I may had never really stepped foot in New York till last Thursday, I knew what it was, I had an idea of what to expect. It is obviously exhaustivly referenced in popular culture. Throughout the years, like most of you, I have heard songs about to it, read books about it, saw movies about it, dreamed about it, talked about it, studied it, even tasting it from time to time. However, between knowing of something and and actually stepping foot and knowing it, the gap is literally (and only) miles away.
After walking this head full of information and ideas and memories down the streets of Manhattan and thus seeing for the first time so much of my acquired past, I simply wanted to hear, watch, read, see, eat and google NY all over again. All the details and specifics eluded me till I was there. I kept remembering that these people, these stories, these shops, these studios all exist (or existed) in these actual streets. “Oh yeah, that’s in New York too!” I kept shouting. So much of it, so condensed, it’s all somewhat so chaotic in the city as much as it is in my head. It’s delirious, it’s fun and I want to go back.
1. A whole story on its own. It involves a happily married couple witht their 5 kids, 3 dogs in camping car for Christmas holidays. You could only imagine.
Share your thoughts [8]
OMG... ton anglaise avoir beaucoup plusse amélioré durant ta séjour à la New York City.
:) just kidding
JIM: That’s true. NY first skyscrapper will only arrive 15 years os so later (around 1900). However they were already testing the manhattan skyscrapper idea 20 yo earlier in Coney Island. And then Manhattan, an overpopulating island, has no choice to follow its grid and build upwards. I’ve just finished and strongly recommand to everyone Rem Koolhaas’ Delirious New York, a very very interesting read on the architectural evolution of NY during the 20th century (mostly between 1880 and 1940). Maybe “laboratory of the skyscraper” is a better term.
RIKIKIGI: lol. merchi!
lol, i know dear uncle, i know. But as you surely know, Chicago (much more modern with the all those german architects from post-WW) is still much more of a skyscraper city than NY (their towers are all not that tall, all different in height, type and form and not all concentrated in one area). Plus chicago is getting that big calatrava tower soon, no?
Yes! If they can make the financing work. We’re all waiting to see what happens next.
“it’s the nest from where everything starts to fly; it’s chaotic and dense; it has welcomed millions of people to America, it’s the womb of the skyscraper, the city of all cities; the cultural core of America; the metropolitan reference par excellence, a contemporary urban masterpiece of congestion of people and ideas.”
Some would argue that Tokyo fits some of those descriptives better than NY. Still, great city and glad to see you had so much fun.
Damn! you did have fun!
I will, however, take issue with your statement “it’s the womb of the skyscaper”. I believe that title rightfully belongs to the City that Works, Chicago. From Wikipedia: “The first skyscraper was the ten-story Home Insurance Building in Chicago, built in 1884–1885.”