Rediscovering the Disney

So yesterday:
I met my studiomate Charles behind IKEA (my new backyard, satellite office, and general lifestyle supplier) to get our water taxi on and cruise to lower Manhattan to see the David Byrne/Creative Time Piece: Playing the Building...? I still don't know the proper title and don't care, but know that I should. The water taxi trip out of the basin and across the river to the Southstreet Seaport was thrilling enough! The water! The sun! The watery bounce of the taxi! We steamed past the brooklyn shipyards, their long-necked cranes, and a containership in port, stacked with containers like cans in a pantry.




We got to the seaport and I realized that in all my years here, I've only been to the seaport once before, and all I remember is being lost and having to pee. Not this time! My liquids were under control and I was seized by the Bermuda-triangleness of it all! The FDR a'crackle just above us, the humming throngs of tourists magnetized towards the seaport, the helicopters taking off and landing at the heliport, like loud bumblebees touching down on the same azalea. Getting our bearings, we noticed that Wall Street really is wall-y -- the buildings rise up immediately into a dizzying maze, and that no one really seems to know where they're going. Besides perhaps the homeless dudes asleep the the nice little outdoor park for whom I would guess that is home and they know where they are. There were so many people on bikes -- which I normally only associate with the West Side -- the times I've run on the east side, it was just me and some lunchtime smokers. How times have changed. The streets do something weird that not even New York plated cars seemed to comprehend, and so the bikes -- many of which were piloted by tourists, and therefore doubly confused -- and us pedestrians and drivers were all just trying to scurry in a general direction. And all of those directions were different. Forget traffic laws and normal behavior patterns. I loved it.

And I liked the David Byrne piece -- the building is pitch perfect: elegant and crumbling, well-lit but still dingy. But the piece itself just made the space sound like the world's loudest radiator at the beginning of winter. Ah well. If only Mr. Byrne had given Janet Cardiff a call and they'd had a drink or two. The piece might have been really dazzling.

gorgeous, right?

David Byrne doppleganger and public art enthusaist

On our way back to the water taxi, Charles wondered aloud when we might be able to start enjoying Govenor's Island just as paused in front of the building labeled GOVENORS ISLAND FERRY. We looked out to find a boat in the slip and so, unexpectedly, we took a spin to Govenor's Island. Not as prepared as everyone else around us with bikes, picnic trolleys, sunbrellas, and complete napping set-ups, we disembarked on the island, took a walk and set down for a spell. It's going to be great there, but don't tell anyone. Let's just keep it our secret magical place, ok??

As we were waiting for the ferry back to the water taxi, we were talking about how the past two hours were unlike any two hours we could remember having past our first couple years in the city. What I mean is that moving to New York is like moving to the best amusement park for creative people one could ever imagine -- performances by all our heros, shows by all our favorites, unexpectedly crazily inspiring happenings like large furry mascots wrestling on the street, all stacked up and spread out over the city every day of the week and every night...well, it just gets to be too much. And so do our rents, so we start working all the time to pay for our rents and fund our dreams...and so we forget about all the wondrous stuff outside our offices and apartments. We have to, otherwise we'd go crazy having to miss out on so much all the time.

And well, a lot of us -- me in particular -- find the grind after awhile boring. And we try to get out. Or maybe we do get out -- for awhile. And maybe then we find ourselves back for one reason or another, and we decide that It's Time To Start Loving The City Again. And yesterday was perfect for that. The water rides, the waterfalls, disappointingly thin and 'So Six Flags' according to Charles, but falling as they are for a short amount of time, it was wonderfully Disneyesque. If you can imagine all that candy-colored fibreglass pulled back, this is what it might look like, and but it would still be fun. Way more fun. Because it's New York, too.


I'm sure I'll end up editing this down in a few days, but I just want to get it down and out. So for those of you who may be reading this disclaimer, this entry may make more sense in a few days. Read again if you can.