september 4

i have to say, nothing makes me feel like more of a naturalized new yorker than biking around the city. i'll weave through traffic and pass cars, i feel just fine biking down big roads like broadway and bleecker and third avenue, and i may have sometimes biked the wrong way down one way streets (but only small ones, mom. promise.). i was beginning to think i was a pro at this. and then i hit that damn pothole. i was down the street from my house after having gone into manhattan to replace my phone that had stopped working (well, not entirely--i could hear other people, they just couldn't hear me). ironically, i was turning onto henry st so that i wouldn't have to go the wrong way down monitor for one block, and just as i was at full lean into the turn--after having, for the first time in a while, used hand signals--looking so nonchalant, when i hit just enough of a pothole to knock me off balance. i caught myself a little, but only enough to head straight into the parked car in front of me. i caromed off it and tried to stay upright, but only succeeded in hitting the next parked car, toppling sideways and ending up on my back in the middle of the street. there wasn't much damage to the cars, only some black gunk that could easily be scrubbed off with a fingernail, and i only suffered a few scrapes and bruises, but there was that one pedestrian who got to watch the whole thing. so, i did the only thing i could think of: high five her, pick up my bike, and ride away.


last night though, before my ability to bike was lost, i went on a night ride since i didn't feel like sitting at home and i wasn't in the mood to test the bar scene on my lonesome. i really enjoy exploring the city at night. it's true that in many places to border between safe and unsafe is almost nonexistent, but i feel strangely victorious when i find myself on an empty street. like there's an ongoing, unspoken game of hide and seek between me and the rest of the city. 


this ride was rather tame though. i rode through greenpoint and williamsburg to kent ave which runs down the coast of the river. after i passed through williamsburg proper, i noticed that everyone i saw was wearing a black suit or dress. like most people, i assumed i was in the middle of some sort of mob family gathering to plan the next year of organized crime. only then did i realize that they were all jews leaving temple. but then again, that's the same thing isn't it?


i also noticed how strangely organized brooklyn is. it seems like, as a very abstract rule, the affluent areas are separated from the desperately poor by neighborhoods of tight-knit ethnic communities--jews, poles, russians, etc. it's an almost explicit trade of being a buffer for the rich in order to get to america. the kink in this organization though is a pretty large one--good old fashioned gentrification. all over the place renovation projects are popping up, fixing up run down houses into luxury condos with balconies and roof-top decks. many of them are advertised towards students, seemingly as a way to start changing the make-up of the population before they attempt to attract the truly rich. it all creates this strange contradiction between the neighborhood pride that so many people here have and the reality of the situation. and it's a contradiction many people seem not to notice. tis a strange place indeed.


today, though, i'm going to venture into queens to check out ps1 (i mentioned it a few days ago). and then tonight my roommates have a show in williamsburg--complete with free sangria! and tomorrow i'm going to head to connecticut to have a birthday dinner with my uncle bill and aunt laurie.