New York, New York: A Love Letter

Why do people move to New York? Wanting to be a character from Sex and the City? Friends? Seinfeld? Or is it the promise that there must be SOMETHING in that big vast city that will click with you and make things right...that will fulfill everything that is missing from post-college life that isn't happening the way you had hoped. "Hell, its gotta be better than [insert town here]." After all, 100 friends in college quickly become 20 buddies to go out with to reminisce about college. 20 buddies to go out with becomes 8 guys who didn't move away or get married. Which becomes 5 guys, 4 guys...wait, have I talked to anyone besides my boss or doorman this week?

Before the ipod-ification of all music, i.e. the loss of the cohesive album, certain albums become a soundtrack to a point in your life. You almost don't realize how often you listened to it until you look back and say, damn, that was all I listened to, huh? If it was a record, the grooves would have been worn through.

Listening to 'New York, New York' by Ryan Adams almost singlehandedly influenced me to move here. His album 'Gold' was one of the first albums I would have slept with under my pillow that wasn't Phish. Listening to the song now...I'm brought back to visiting one of those 20 buddies post-college that had moved to "the city"before it was even a thought to do it myself.

I miss getting in a cab to give the driver my destination's cross streets without knowing where the hell I was going and hoping he wouldn't take me to The Bronx. I miss walking around being nervous that if I ventured too far away, I wouldn't find my way back (damn south of Houston street grid). I miss thinking the city was too big to navigate. I miss the city having unlimited promise and everything seemed a little risky, a little out of my league, before the monotony and routine of everyday life got the best of me. But I still have this song to bring me back to when the opportunities appeared limitless. And I had the balls to move to New York fucking City.

I'll always love you New York.