NYC

Ah, my poor neglected blog! The last few weeks have been a rush of seeing friends and finishing my job and packing up my apartment and handling all those last details involved in moving to a different state. As a friend said recently, I've been a little too busy living my life to write anything about it. I've got some photos up on Flickr of the last few weeks.

Today is my last day in New York; tomorrow morning I pack up the truck and head north. I've tried several times over the last few weeks to come up with a post on leaving New York...but it's been difficult. I started making lists, as I like to do; but got stumped. How do you sum up six years here? It's been fun, it's been challenging, it's been difficult, it's been frustrating, it's been full of amazing little moments and art exhibits and adventures, and all that says nothing at all about what it's really like to live here every day. Six years feels like forever and feels like it went by pretty fast. I'm excited to move somewhere quieter and greener and much more spacious. With a porch and a yard and air that doesn't make you choke while running on summer mornings. I'm very excited to have a washer and a dryer in my apartment, in a way that only someone who has spent the last several years lugging their laundry a quarter mile to the laundromat every couple weeks can understand. I'm thrilled to no longer be paying 40% of my income in rent. I will have windows on all four sides of my living space--something I haven't had since I last lived in Boston.

I'm hoping all that will make up for the loss of having all my favorite restaurants within walking distance (or even right downstairs); Prospect Park; coming across random parades; 24-hour subways; the daily contrasts of life here (from the incredible kindnesses I've seen to the incredible cruelties or the multimillionaires walking by the homeless veterans); a 24-hour gourmet bodega across the street; my gym across the street; and all the other little things that we get used to here in NYC. New York has made me jaded and callous, but it's also made me expect diversity and stimulation and openness in a way you don't get somewhere less crowded. One of the things I will miss the most is the amazing diversity of this city--hearing many languages a day, seeing people from everywhere in the world, the huge range of art and music and fashion, and the food! Oh, I will miss the food. Most of all, of course, I will miss my friends; and while I know I will be back to visit, it just won't be quite as easy as making plans for dinner next week or a run tomorrow morning. I guess I should up my cell phone minutes!

I've been ready for a change for awhile now. It's just now that it's here, it's a little harder than it seemed before it was happening tomorrow!

"In C" performance at Darmstadt, 11/29/07, originally uploaded by dubitable.

I have been MIA the past few weeks due to an annoying series of computer problems which has basically rendered me laptop-less. A terrifying state, let me tell you. Anyways, they are not quite resolved but at least I have backed up my recent data.

Thursday night I was lucky enough to see an amazing performance of Terry Riley's In C at Galapagos in Brooklyn, performed as part of the DARMSTADT "Classics of the Avant Garde" series. I have loved In C ever since I first heard it on WNYC's New Sounds show, late one night. I own a couple of recordings of it but this is the first time I've seen it live. The instruments included drums, guitar, base, a toy piano, a trombone, a sax, voices, and several laptops. Dave was one of the musicians, performing using SuperCollider on his laptop. That's him in the second row, staring intently at his screen.

It was definitely one of those events that makes me really happy I live here.

Also, the New York Times liked it. The reviewer called it "the most vital, audacious and energizing performance of the score I’ve ever heard."

One of my most favorite things about living in New York is all the wonderful food options we have.

One of my least favorite things about living in New York is all the pretentiousness you deal with on a regular basis.

I discovered this weekend that when you combine the two, food loses. Here is a tale of pretension, waiting in line, and two six pizzas.

the bad
A couple of my friends have been going down through Time Out New York Best Pizza in New York list. Which yes, is pretty subjective, but fun. Several of us had gone to a brewery tour and beer tasting at the Brooklyn Brewery and decided to tag along on their visit to Una Pizza Napoletana, a tiny little brick oven joint in the East Village. (They don't have a website, or I'd link to it so you can read the over-the-top philosophy.)

Yes, I am still alive, and no, I have not forgotten this site. I've been super busy the past couple of weeks. Several of the things I've done really merit their own posts, but here's a short list:

+ My parents came down for a visit. We celebrated my dad's birthday, went to a great event put on by the War Resisters League, and went to the Art Under the Bridge Festival in DUMBO.
+/- At the Arts Festival, we saw some really really bad art and some good art. Performance art is frequently very stupid, in my experience.
- I had to go down to Washington, DC, for a last-minute business trip.
+ But I got to eat another wonderful meal cooked by Frank, see Kristen and Frank's new house, and stay with Hilary, so it wasn't so bad.
- I went to a going-away party for Eric.
+ I went to a welcome-to-NYC-for-the-weekend party for Bahar and Satish.
+ Jenn and I hosted a very fun barbeque, and we ended up with twice as much beer as we started with.
+ My old friend Dave came to NYC and took me out for dinner at Daniel, an extremely fancypants restaurant, and we had a fantastic meal.
+ That meal was so good it deserves a second plus.
+ I took a yoga class and a pilates class at my gym.
- I had to take those classes because I seem to have injured my IT band again so I need to cut back on running.
+ I saw a fantastic show: M. Ward at Wall Street Rising (a free show downtown, outside!)
+ I saw another fantastic show: S PRCSS, Parts & Labor, and Les Savy Fav, at Bowery Ballroom. And that show was free too, because my brother won a pair of tickets and gave one to me.
+ Both those shows had female drummers (M. Ward and S PRCSS).
+ I ran the Liz Padilla 5k, therefore crossing one item off my to-do list.
+ I've read (The Namesake) and re-read (A Wrinkle in Time; A Wind in the Door; A Swiftly Tilting Planet; Many Waters) some really great books.

So, overall, it's been a pretty good few weeks. Pictures of M. Ward, the Bowery Ballroom show, and my parents' visit are all on Flickr.

Wonder Wheel, originally uploaded by zannect.

Dave, Mandi, Eric, and I spent Sunday at Coney Island. We (mostly they; I do not do anything involving heights, drops, or spinning) rode some rides, ate some really great pizza at Totonno's, walked around on the boardwalk, and just generally enjoyed the lovely weather and the long weekend.

Coney Island is such a great mix of trashy and sublime. It's sad it's all going away next summer, but I'm glad I got to go one last time.

Eric was crazy enough to go on the Vomitron 5000 (excuse me, the "Top Spin") and while the rest of us waited for him to get sick, I took my favorite photo of the day:





I love the juxtaposition of the woman in a burqa, right next to the guy with his shirt off, at the Coney Island amusement park. She was taking a picture of her friend who was riding the Top Spin and who was dressed in extensive hijab (although not the full covering of the burqa). When the friend got off the Top Spin, she had a giant grin on her face. She was followed by a group of tiny little goth girls, who were also all grinning madly, and came running over to their giant goth boyfriends, who hadn't quite had the guts to get on the ride. It was quite a scene.

More photos are on Flickr.

Improv Everywhere posted their mission write up, video, and lots of photos on their blog.

This should've been on my list of top 5 NYC experiences, for sure.

Yesterday was my five-year anniversary of moving to New York City. Compared to some of my friends who grew up here, I don't think I really count as a New Yorker, but half a decade is still a significant amount of time. Enough time that I know the subway system, rarely get lost anymore, have a set of favorite places all over the city, have lots of friends.

In five years, I've lived in four apartments in three neighborhoods in two boroughs with ten roommates. I've accumulated a master's degree, tens of thousands of dollars of debt, and barely any furniture. I've worked at ten organizations (if you count internships), forgotten how to drive, and ridden the subway at least 3,000 times, at a rough estimate.

So, in honor of five years, here's five lists of fives, with dates when I remember them and links when I can find them, under the cut.