Some impressions of New York City

I first saw New York from a plane arriving from San Francisco. It was a late afternoon of winter and clear skies. The destination was JFK and the plane entered from south and went on to take a big roundup over long island before turning back and coming closer to Manhattan. My first impression is that of seeing an array of beautiful homes with their square and triangular bodies lined up next to a road next to a beach on long island. When plane turned, I saw Manhattan head on for few moments and could recognize one world trade center and the Brooklyn bridge. Manhattan seemed monolithic to me, as if carved out of one substrate. Definitely New York evokes feeling of bigness or of a giant monolith. This is the same impression I got when I saw Manhattan skyline from observation deck in the Empire State building, this time the view was from midtown to downtown but the same feeling. The same feeling was evoked again when seeing the mid-rises lined up on both sides of any of the major avenues looking towards downtown. Manhattan/New York is one giant monolith carved out in one piece. One could also feel a certain crude alpha masculine energy eminating from the city, which most of the time seems at rest and static due to it's bigness, but certainly capable of dynamism.

Times Square is arguably the most important place on the earth and the cultural heart of the universe (until we find other civilizations and if they have something better). The mundane physicality of the place takes form of the theaters, pretzel sellers, hot dog stalls, large electronic billboards, etc, etc. However, the energy of the place is what counts. First of all there's no time at Times square. There's uniform density of people around it no matter what time it is and it just feels like any day or night or month or season, shows just different but identically rich intensity of the human life. It was so natural to walk past midnight on 7th avenue, towards Times Square, in temperature just above freezing, with my family, in anticipation of some great spectacle. On the way something bad happened and my mood turned sour. Though the matter was small and insignificant, it is hard to dislodge me at such occasions out of the unpleasantness. Not until the unhappiness burns itself out slowly, along with some part of myself. But voila! As we were approaching the square I felt upbeat emotions almost overpowering the state of my mind and it was almost euphoric. The feeling that I got was that the Times Square's vibe just bent my iron rod of the bad mood and threw it away...almost whispering to me "you are here, now see this, experience this!"

(To be continued..)