That's what i thought as the plane floated past that famous, iconic skyline - not that i've never been to New York before but however many times one visits, it always feels like the first - buildings of varying height and size squeezed together looking like musical scales set in concrete; what song or piece of music would they play? Gershwin's, Rhapsody In Blue no doubt, the city's unofficial anthem.
New York City, with it's promise of glamour, ostentation, brashness, entertainment, hot-dogs, cheese cakes, mean streets and bright lights.
I flew with a fellow company member, Adam Pleeth to Newark Liberty Airport. Our initial euphoria faded somewhat whilst waiting in immigration, an experience i imagine a bit like standing in a prison line waiting to be processed. The suspicion with which one is held is shocking, considering the hoops one has to jump through at the American Embassy in London when applying for the work visa, surely i should just be able to saunter through, cockily waving my visa in the fat controller's face. I don't think so.. As we reached the front of our queue, a large UN delegation arrived, who were fast-tracked to the front of ours and all the other queues one after the other, while we civilians had to shut up and wait. Don't they know who i think i am?
The cab ride into New York was tough and long due to everybody heading home after their thanksgiving holidays, but there was enough going on outside to keep Adam and myself interested, our faces pressed against the glass, drinking in the sights. Our bag of Opal Fruits remained unopened for the entire journey.
The apartment we're in is a classic Brooklyn brownstone on Dekalb Avenue: two bedrooms, big windows, solid wood floor, open plan living room/diner, big fridge, big cooker and giant plasma screen tv; the fridge and cooker i can certainly use, the tv alas.. Well, as some of you may know, fifteen minutes of channel hopping in the USA will leave you in no doubt whatsever that every penny of the BBC licence fee is money well spent, not that i've ever had any qualms about paying it, let's be honest, it's only stupid people who resent it. Thank God for iPlayer, can't get TV, but it's entire radio content from Radios 1 through to 7 are available, both on catch up and listen live. Towards the end of our San Francisco leg i was missing home a little and did sometimes listen live to BBC London and Radio Lancashire at half two in the morning.
I have to be honest, this posting has been difficult to write, one's faced with the responsibility of not only telling people what you're up to without it turning into a checklist of 'things i did today', but also making it interesting with insights and observations and hopefully raise a smile in the reader too. So, dear reader, bear with me while i get the hang of this creative writing lark, there'll no doubt be a few spelling mistakes and the odd sentence of dubious grammer. I'll try my best not to be too pretentious or glib or - god forbid - boring. For now i'll leave the last word on this posting to the great American poet, critic and all-round intellectual, Ezra Pound; when i read it, it reminded me why he was a writer and i'm... not.
" Is New York the most beautiful city in the world? It is not far from it. No urban nights are like the nights there. I have looked down across the city from high windows. It is then that the great buildings lose reality and take on magical powers. Squares and squares of flame, set and cut into the ether. Here is our poetry, for we have pulled down the stars to our will."
