ニューヨークの日々

Yesterday was amazing. All of New York seemed to be fine with talking to me. I felt rather like I was passing it on, showing someone that people aren't terrified of connecting, opening them up to the possibility of the next person. I wonder what it would be like to make a game of telephone to span the city, propelling people to find someone to pass along to.

5:23 PM 40th and 5th, a man accosted me with his stare and asked me in wonderful English where the Converse store on the Fifth Avenue was. I said I had no idea.

5:28 PM crossing 36th and 6th, I got yelled at, "Hey beautiful....Hey!" when I didn't register it.

5:37 PM back up 37th and 6th to get a coffee, a short guy got in step with me. "Hey, I like your boots....Are you from Europe?" ("No, from here") "Oh....You're not Jewish, are you?"

5:43 PM 40th and 6th Giggled at the coffee man when I didn't notice the straws that were right in front of me. It got him to smile.

5:55 PM 40th and 6th, waiting for Soojean in Bryant Park. A wonderful chain of connections. There was a girl on her cellphone talking very loudly about nothing and an iPod in an elevator. As she crossed the street, shouting something about "yeah, I just had to get it", a guy passed her and he picked up with "Yeah, had to get it!!" He saw me laughing at this from the street and said "You hear her too?" "Yeah, from like three blocks away, I'm sure!" "I dunno who she's talkin to, must be deaf or something. Sheesh". You always think it, but this is the first time someone said it.

7:48 PM PS 1 courtyard, at the Warm Up NYC music festival, dancing away with Soojean, we encountered the staggering guy. At first I thought he was trying to be sketchy, but he had no balance for anything. He basically fell into her, and on his way through the crowd did the same to a few more girls. One pretended to swing at him with her purse as he lurched away, and I told her she should really go for it.

8:40 PM PS 1 courtyard, still dancing, and it had just begun to rain. Sooj went in, but for the rest of us dancing and being happy just got so much more important. But, as always, there were obstacles. I had some tall, slightly foreign-sounding man come up to me and praise my dancing, saying it was "very 80's". I replied that I never knew the 80's, and he laughed but it didn't deter him; I got enthusiastically invited to take the water taxi with him later, of course because of the beautiful view. I live here, I know what New York looks like from places not Manhattan.

8:50 I got his hand on my back and another invitation, but luckily he left.

9:14 23rd/Ely station, three girls and their three guys passed, and I was just wondering what their relationship was when I got the typical half-whispered "Hey, beautiful" that puts you on edge. Third time today?

9:38 PM, E train from 23rd/Ely to 34th street had two huge skinhead guys rapping on shared iPod earbuds, and a big group of kids interacting with them, singing and working off of them. The eerie robotic effect was really amazing, but the man to our left moved away and the guy across from us with his girlfriend was shaking his head. "Saturday night in New York, huh", he said perhaps to her perhaps to us, "who needs to go to a club when you can just get on the subway", and I told him he should see it at New Years. He went on and told us a lot about what the subway and Times Square used to be like in the 70s and 80s, and recommended some films and YouTube clips as he left at 42nd.

Late o'clock, 2nd floor bar in KTown with Soojean and her boy, the table across from us was getting rowdy. Soojean had just been educating us on how to say "what are you doing tonight?" in Korean when I was motioned to come over by a couple guys at the other table. They wanted to ask me something. I sat down, and a very drunk Korean guy proceeded to ask me if I knew what he meant by "Voulez....vous....couche....avec......moi?" Except it was actually a random assortment of other vowels and consonants that only vaguely resembled the French. I cracked up, although not as violently as Sooj, and launched into conversation with his apparently French friend about the ineffectiveness of that kind of tack - we suggested to him "Comment t'appellez-tu?" as a better starting point for a conversation. Then they started falling apart trying to discuss this without looking like they were hitting on each other.