Man-hattan

My goodness, the East Coast is always a thrill to visit. For a bit I didn’t want to return to Cali, but then I remembered things like deadly earthquakes and overcast beaches and I just had to go back. But I brought back with me my story of events on the trip, and I must say there are plenty. Here’s my impression of Manhattan.

Manhattan. It’s not as majestic there as I thought it would be. It was more like a huge concentration of testosterone formed into one enormous blob of civilization. In fact, now that I’ve written it I realize that this is the perfect way to describe my impression of Manhattan; it’s a fucking manly city. People are aggressive, the traffic is beastly, and the buildings loom impressively, all slightly envious of the ones taller than they are, but resolute that they have a right to gloat over the puny masses below. I saw a policewoman with her gun drawn outside my car window. The sky was perfectly clear, such that you could see all of the city from the 86th floor of the Empire State Building. This city is one ripe for competing in, for shoving at those who can not only take your shove but shove you back with enough force for you to laugh and relish the fight. It smelled dirty, looked dirty, and commanded respect. Those who disrespected it suffered. People who left their cars parked on the side of the road with their purses and computers in the car were patronizing the city, insulting it by taking it for granted, and so I saw the Manhattan’s reminder that this was a place where the sharp survived when I looked at a car that had clearly been robbed, its doors wide open and stereo torn from the front.

The line to get to the 86th floor of the Empire State Bulding was 2 and a half hours long. Cake. The longest line I’ve waited in was like 21 hours (met Metallica and all).  So I just ran on standby until I woke up on the 86th floor.  Badabing badaboom.  Some guy up there must have been having a bad day: when you’re on the 86th floor of the Empire State Building and you still have a pigeon shit on you… that’s rough.

MAN-hattan. Don’t fuck with it.