Random Thoughts

Brooklyn, NY - Peter - Wednesday, September 29th, 2004 : goo

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I have noticed that, when you have no hair and walk around in the residual hurricane-prompted rain in Brooklyn, that the raindrops pitter-patter onto your head, then, lacking any absorptive impedance, roll right down your scalp, down your neck, and down your back. Yesterday, I went to meet Sine at her shop after work, and right when I saw her come out the door, an icy dollop of autumn rain licked down my back all the way to my waist, and tickled me immensely. This sensation, however, was not entirely due to the raindrop.

The extremes in temperature that pass through NYC in a year are most likely what causes the roads and sidewalks (and apparently, any unprotected cement structure) to exist in such a state of decay and disrepair. I just walked back to my office from the NY Psychiatric Institute, across the street, and while waiting for the light to change, I looked down at the square of sidewalk cement I was standing on. On it was a newly setting patch of cement, neatly roped off with two fluorescent cones and some yellow caution-tape. I quickly traced the perimeter of the 3m^2 square with my eyes and shoes, and noticed no less that 5 separate patch-jobs. One was yellow, one white cement; one gray, one black asphalt. My, how strong weather, sidewalk-salting and heavy foot-traffic can make their mark on a "permanent" surface. The light changed and I absentmindedly crossed, as I have thousands of times before, before I could make any more meaningful observations.

Often, when I walk across large intersections, I take a fleeting moment to pause, observing the vast acreage of cement, macadam, pavement and concrete ribboning around... the sidewalks, the footprints of buildings, the roads and curbs and pavers and subway gratings. I have a secret hobby, which is envisioning what these expanses looked like before they were developed; then what they looked like with dirt roads and paths, gravel roads, fin de siecle paved Victorian right-of-ways, Robert Moses-esque biways, and post 1970's fiscal-crisis roads... since which they have not been greatly improved or changed. It seems that NYC has reached its critical mass of infrastructure in my lifetime alone. This fascinates me to no end. It makes me perceive what the next few decades hold with a curious conglomerate of both lust and fear.

I often find myself wishing that people of long ago had have been as preoccupied by the banal as I am; if so, there would be a substantially more accessible mass of documentation about the state of things; photos of how the roads looked, images of neighborhoods developing and decaying through time. Perhaps thats why I became so fascinated by citynoise, and make, at least occasionally, a hit-or-miss effort at cataloging such ephemera, so that, if not for any other reason, I can go back and look at it when the look of our world and our city has changed so much more substantially than it does day to day. I find happy hindsight to be very delectable.

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Peter: totally- some good content as of late!

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