The Transplant Community (Reclaiming the East)
I write to you now from an oasis. Day 2 of our Branford vacation, a much needed respite from the road, bed-wrangling, walking, driving and thinking. We all have beds. We are comfortable. We are staying with Meri, Barbara, David & Irma. We are tempted to continue doing so for many more days. This may well happen, what with Boston and Upstate now being in play (read: showless, at least for the moment). But Toronto - our fabled Northern Mecca - looms on the horizon, as does our Westward picth that will bring us, haltingly, back home. But we're in the swing of things now. Used to this lifestyle, enjoying the encounters with absurdity it affords us, not so aware of how much sleep we are or are not getting on any given night. Road Warriors, if you will. Or at least Road People Who Get Mugged.
New York was fantastic.
I've always had a difficult relationship with that city, largely because my defensive and loyalist nature kicked in when I moved to Connecticut for school and, suddenly, I discovered that everyone hated (or at least resented) the hometown I loved, and that "the city" did not have the plurality of meanings I had understood, but referred to only a several-mile chunk of overpopulated land in the middle of polluted waters. I wasn't used to the weather. People were gruff and harried, and it bothered me. I warmed to New Haven after 4 years, but was pretty happy not to have been affected by the massive gravitational force of Manhattan at the end of school, choosing music and the West over acting (or what-have-you) and the East.
But I feel a new fondness for New York. And it has nothing to do with post-9/11 sentimentality. It's simply that nearly everyone I knew for 4 years of my life now lives there. They're doing a vast array of different things, sometimes in tandem, sometimes in private. And it was absolutely wonderful to see them (you) all. I have always found that being around different people - by virtue of your different relationships to them - brings out different aspects of your personality. Being in New York put me back in touch with the not-Jon-Ethan-or-Meri aspects of my collegiate self, and it was nice. Plus there's some good people from that era who I hadn't seen in 2-to-4 years. And more. College folks, high school folks, LL folks, camp folks. A different social group each night.
Will, Greg & I split up for our New York days. We wandered the city, happy to use our legs and not our wheels for a bit in the midst of tour. My favorite new part of Manhattan was the section of The Bowery where all of the restaurant supply shops are located. How could I not be excited by pizza ovens?
We played 3 shows at three different venues. Our best, with the best sound was the least well attended, but what can you do? People were nice enough to come out on all occassions, and we consequently had a ball.
At the end of the stint, we were exhausted by the close confines and ceaselessness of that town, and we moved North. A little bit colder, a little bit quiter. And we slept. And we're recharged, ready to jump back West in a few days.
But not without some Booktrader, Sally's and homecooked Mexican food.
More on New Haven later.
New York was fantastic.
I've always had a difficult relationship with that city, largely because my defensive and loyalist nature kicked in when I moved to Connecticut for school and, suddenly, I discovered that everyone hated (or at least resented) the hometown I loved, and that "the city" did not have the plurality of meanings I had understood, but referred to only a several-mile chunk of overpopulated land in the middle of polluted waters. I wasn't used to the weather. People were gruff and harried, and it bothered me. I warmed to New Haven after 4 years, but was pretty happy not to have been affected by the massive gravitational force of Manhattan at the end of school, choosing music and the West over acting (or what-have-you) and the East.
But I feel a new fondness for New York. And it has nothing to do with post-9/11 sentimentality. It's simply that nearly everyone I knew for 4 years of my life now lives there. They're doing a vast array of different things, sometimes in tandem, sometimes in private. And it was absolutely wonderful to see them (you) all. I have always found that being around different people - by virtue of your different relationships to them - brings out different aspects of your personality. Being in New York put me back in touch with the not-Jon-Ethan-or-Meri aspects of my collegiate self, and it was nice. Plus there's some good people from that era who I hadn't seen in 2-to-4 years. And more. College folks, high school folks, LL folks, camp folks. A different social group each night.
Will, Greg & I split up for our New York days. We wandered the city, happy to use our legs and not our wheels for a bit in the midst of tour. My favorite new part of Manhattan was the section of The Bowery where all of the restaurant supply shops are located. How could I not be excited by pizza ovens?
We played 3 shows at three different venues. Our best, with the best sound was the least well attended, but what can you do? People were nice enough to come out on all occassions, and we consequently had a ball.
At the end of the stint, we were exhausted by the close confines and ceaselessness of that town, and we moved North. A little bit colder, a little bit quiter. And we slept. And we're recharged, ready to jump back West in a few days.
But not without some Booktrader, Sally's and homecooked Mexican food.
More on New Haven later.
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