New York Weekend

I’m flying to New York bright and early on Saturday morning. It will probably be my last weekend there for a while, which is definitely bittersweet. On one hand, i’m so thrilled JAM is moving down and will be close enough to see on a regular basis. On the other hand, I’m sad that I won’t have an excuse to fly up there whenever.

What are my plans? I have no idea right now. For me, being in New York is enough. Some of my favorite memories from there have stemmed from being in the right place at the right time. One Friday I was up there for job interviews and ended up having time to walk through the Gates exhibit and photograph people with their dogs with a Holga I picked up at the ICP. Another time, jon and I were up there over our spring break in college, and got up early enough on gray sunday morning to ice skate in Central Park with no one else out there. I remember randomly running into people I knew and having impromptu coffees, or meeting at Cosmic after work for what may be the best Sangria I’ve ever had.

Part of living in New York were these random experiences that helped my view of the city and myself constantly evolve. I was so lucky to live in a great neighborhood, and lucky to live four floors above Max, a radio DJ for about a hundred years, who had lived in the Village since the 40s. I enjoyed meeting people like Ned Otter, whose Father, Robert Otter, was a photographer and for fun photographed the Village during the 60s. Once he photographed Salvador Dali’s bathtub after the artist had dumped various paints in it, then perceived that as beautiful. He also captured Vietnam and Civil Rights protest in Washington Square Park, people picking up bread and cheese from the Bleecker Street Shops, and kids playing in fire hydrants. His work is fantastic and I’m so glad his son now reprints the negatives.

Hopefully we’ll spend a lot of time walking the city this weekend, maybe hitting up some Lower East Side places. I spent most of my time in the city on the West side, unless I was up town, and will be glad to see something new. It feels like a farewell. Even though I know it iwll be there the next time I head up there, it feels like a different chapter of my life is opening up.