RSSMidnight Musings…
…of a Nomad Junkie
How to Recognize a New Yorker:
• If his accent (be careful now) or demeanor are specifically “New York” and perhaps you think you may have seen this person twenty, thirty years ago in some drama or comedy set in the street – but you can’t reference the title of the film–or if the person is just a little “too” out of the ordinary, then he’s a real New Yorker. If the accent is “generally urban”– it’s fake or a forced mixture–meaning, they were aping what they heard on a rap record or an old ‘80’s flick. Sorry, this does not count. I enjoy listening to Johnny Cash records, too, but I’ll be damned (and I will be) if I go down to Arkansas trying to speak like I’m a local!
• On the opposite arm, if they still mention Woody Allen – they are definitely not New Yorkers.
• If they get angry with the trains, then they are New Yorkers (even if they are from some place else).
• Anyone who still refers to the 1986 Mets Championship is a New Yorker. Even if they were not Mets fans.
• Anyone who calls you “Boss” ain’t a New Yorker.
• Anyone who politely sits through a ridiculous Hollywood movie–without a smart-ass remark is not a New Yorker.
• Anyone above the age of twelve in the city, who rides a bicycle, is not a New Yorker. New Yorkers do everything on foot. (And stop trying to make us out to be Beijing, Berlin, or Paris!)
• Anyone who used to get high in the sheep’s meadow is a New Yorker.
• Anyone who is alert and cognizant that black males have a hard time getting cabs is a New Yorker.
• Anyone who accepted the “No smoking Rule” (Like Los Angeles, you pussies!) in the bars – is NOT a New Yorker.
• Anyone who attends a Broadway play today is not a New Yorker.
“And who gives you the right to say all this, to be so arrogant?” some might ask.
Well, this is it, folks:
A New Yorker doesn’t ask for the right, he takes it. He’s not interested in your allowance or being given permission. He doesn’t wait – he assumes the right; nothing has to be “granted.” We’ve been “granted” to death – that’s the problem with our entire generation. From the artists to the athletes, we’ve been baa-baa-sheeped from 42nd Street to Timbuktu. Grants. Sponsorships. Ads. Theaters don’t offend their audiences, and athletes can’t spit anymore.
What the hell is that?
This isn’t Finishing School; it’s New York City. The most economically inspired fashionable, and compelling metropolis in the entire universe. And people from all over the planet make deals, kill friends, and choke their own mothers in order to come here.
And be miserable.
And they will come from all over the world and lap it up; just swallow it and beg for more…They will sigh and drag their feet and loll their heads and look – but they will not see the city.
They will not see the decay.
They will not see the hostility.
They will not see the conservative clouds, the repressive symbols blocking the stars in people’s eyes.
They will not see the police brutality.
They will not see the Sean Bells or acknowledge the frustrated residents of newly gentrified communities.
They will not see the very disdain for the poor.
They will not recognize their own shame or their guilt when an inter-racial couple cannot be served in the hippest most “urbane” restaurant in the world.
They will not recognize the sweat and confusion of the MTA workers.
They will not recognize the brutality of the banks.
They will not see that while we are all forced to recognize the horror of Berlin and Nuremberg; Dachau and Selma; Money, Mississippi and Little Rock; and anywhere south of the Canadian border…
New York City has no past and certainly no one cares about its future. It represents to me the existential-Nihilistic-philosophy of life that has been forced down so many of black Americans’ throats – and engulfed in Gangster-Rap-Pop-Music which is: “You’re fucked, so just be content with the passing shifting modes of…today.”
Henry Miller once said that he had to leave New York City in order to truly experience something American. That’s a curious statement. And of course you must put it in the proper context of his times, he said that right before WWII, I believe. I understand what he meant, but cannot relate. The same way I can understand why Chester Himes, Richard Wright, and James Baldwin all chose to live in Europe for a period of time. Their reasons were different, of course. They knew a part of what was “truly American” in a way that Miller never would or could. But, I am not about to fly off on a tangent about the two Americas here – I leave that for another day and the good Mother knows that men and women of genius have expounded on that in a way that I will never be able to.
Having lived abroad and spent several years in Europe, I can see the obvious parallels and European influences on this incredible city…but it is not the look or the design of a city that lends its character, no – it is the spirit of the people and the neurosis of their times, and the tragedy or moments of glory experienced by their makers.
We are trembling in high cotton here as the New Age of Irony and Consumption devour anything of real value or sentiment, anything spiritual or meaningful. Those of you who come to New York City – beyond the realm of making money – have you ever questioned what it is you are seeking? Do you even know?
And how pertinent is it to know or understand the ghosts of a city while you are continuously trampling upon its chains? How many others have sat or died or wished on that very same corner you broke up with your boyfriend? What were their circumstances? And how long had they been in New York City before the movies made their corner famous?
Do you ever wonder about this?
Carnival-seekers rushing down to Ground Zero with cameras in tow and faces like masks: What is it you are seeking? What is it you want to buy or capture besides the legacy of death or the illusion of history?
Southern tourists: Are you as enamored of the death-sites in NYC as you are in your own hometowns? Can you still smell the waft of the bodies lynched not too many moons ago?
Europeans: Does it rattle you any to see the mania of your American brother and sister and are you upset at all – that Americans will always do a better job at selling death than you?
Do you ever wonder about the spirits of the African Burial Ground, footfalls away from the Wall Street they were once sold from? The legacy of the Irish or the early Chinese – each trying to set up their own cartel, each trying to create their own culture…
And perhaps that is how long it took me to get to what I wanted to say: culture. That word itself has no meaning. It has become a dirty word because it represents a specific, something that does NOT include the entire world.
14 Comments, Comment or Ping
Lag
Leroy -
I’m not sure what you’re going for here. Yes, New York is changing. Its center is becoming more commercial, more tourist-friendly. But who are you blaming for this? As a New Yorker, who are you expecting to fix it?
After 9/11 the city was set back terribly in the tourism department, and it turned to anywhere and everywhere to get its big booming industry - the industry that helped save it from itself when Giuliani took over - back. And now that the money has moved back in, and the tourists with it, New Yorkers are upset. But for what? The ability to walk down the street without worrying abou being mugged? The “gentrification”, which is just another wave of new people coming to a city that has been always and forever made of new people?
People have always come here from all over the world and the US to prove to themselves that they have what it takes to make it in the big city. The greatest city in the world. Immigrants from Ireland, freed and escaped slaves, and these days midwesterners and southerners who are bored with their homes. What makes New York great is not its unwavering allegience to itself or its residents but its ability to expand and change to meet the needs of those who come to find themselves, and stretch itself to remain itself to its old inhabitants, as well. New York IS change. Why so much hatred for what has always happened and the new face of how it’s happening?
[Reply]
TROUBLMan reply on August 4, 2008 12:23 pm:
Yo make some very good points. To me, it’s not just about New York. To me, it’s about America. Every major city in America is changing. The money is moving back to the city from the burbs. Culture changes and that’s understandable, but when the city purges the working class for the affluent we’re creating more segregation than ever. When the working class can’t afford to live in the city, but they have commute to work here watch happens to the dynamics.
[Reply]
Leroy Kafka reply on August 4, 2008 11:21 pm:
You saw the overall metaphor: how NYC is the United States of America; a mirror of all the activity within America. Yes. That was what I had in my head — thanks for mentioning that…we are creating more segregation than ever, nearly all the people I know who have lived here the past 20 to 60 years can attest to that…and it is chilling - because the city seems to do nothing other than WATCH itself die…all…the…time.
[Reply]
Alwayswrite reply on August 4, 2008 6:23 pm:
Excellent points. Agreed TROUBLMan. Yes, every major city is like that. There is this funny line between change and gentrification, which has this terrible connotation. Shit, I don’t think it means anything else but bad now. Any city that stagnates is a boring city. That’s why NY is never boring. It doesn’t stop–NEVER. This city doesn’t sleep. It’s a reason for the nickname.
On the other side, the working class has to wake up and start hustling. That’s what I’m doing. Sad to say. But, we all know that the working class is at the bottom and they typically are people of color. People of color always have to do twice, thrice, as much work. But, that’s what it is. In order to not get misplaced from neighborhoods via gentrification, people of color have to get money. Period.
[Reply]
Leroy Kafka reply on August 4, 2008 11:24 pm:
Well said. Screw my lofty-poetic-rant; I need to wisen up and just call a spade a spade: it’s a class war we’re involved in…and we are losing, desperately. I appreciate your passion and candor.
[Reply]
Leroy Kafka reply on August 4, 2008 11:17 pm:
Not sure what I am getting at?
That’s just my point. You couldn’t. But that is the fault of the artist, in this case - not the reader. Words have failed me on more than one occasion believe me, I’ve always been a physical expresser as opposed to a literary one, despite my verbal acumen. I’m not bad in a conversation, but I never seem to be able to express what I truly want to…except what I have touched upon in these “New York” meditation pieces. They are the most honest works I have ever written. Naked. And written..as I was thinking/feeling. But I digress: read the masters on the subject.
Read The Suburbanization of New York.
Read the New York works by Luc Sante or Lorca’s book of poems about NYC — those authors (from different backgrounds and POV) both express the horror of NYC in varied ways. Lorca writes about a NYC that was hostile and conflicted and it is very appropriate to these times. Sante writes about the “old” New York and what began to occur in the 1980’s.
Rent “Chinese Coffee” by Al Pacino. He deals with this issue as well. Then try to read everything you can by Charles Wright. These artists do more to clarify, express, and illuminate the twisted soul of NYC and the painful changes that always occurs at the expense of its natives. It is one of the only cities in the world that yanks its own umbilical cord…and then pretends it never existed.
Read what Huey P.Newton wrote about gentrification and his analysis of Bob Dylan’s Ballad of a Thin Man — which he praised as an important song AGAINST the freakdom of gentrification and white-culture-vulturism in Harlem…
Re-read my article again: my point is clear. What was once known and cherished as the “New York” mentality…is slowly being erased. You don’t understand it because…you were not born here, did not grow up here, and I can bet you probably did not have much of a relationship to NYC before 911. I could be wrong, but something tells me I’m probably right. This is not a criticism, but you must understand the pain involved and what it is like to not only be a victim of gentrification…but to feel like an alien in one’s own home town. And this has nothing to do with crime or muggings or the fact that people are “safer” now then they were before.
New York is not “safer.” It is simply less interesting.
[Reply]
Leroy Kafka reply on August 4, 2008 11:25 pm:
Not sure what I am getting at?
That’s just my point. You couldn’t. But that is the fault of the artist, in this case - not the reader. Words have failed me on more than one occasion believe me, I’ve always been a physical expresser as opposed to a literary one, despite my verbal acumen. I’m not bad in a conversation, but I never seem to be able to express what I truly want to…except what I have touched upon in these “New York” meditation pieces. They are the most honest works I have ever written. Naked. And written..as I was thinking/feeling. But I digress: read the masters on the subject.
Read The Suburbanization of New York.
Read the New York works by Luc Sante or Lorca’s book of poems about NYC — those authors (from different backgrounds and POV) both express the horror of NYC in varied ways. Lorca writes about a NYC that was hostile and conflicted and it is very appropriate to these times. Sante writes about the “old” New York and what began to occur in the 1980’s.
Rent “Chinese Coffee” by Al Pacino. He deals with this issue as well. Then try to read everything you can by Charles Wright. These artists do more to clarify, express, and illuminate the twisted soul of NYC and the painful changes that always occurs at the expense of its natives. It is one of the only cities in the world that yanks its own umbilical cord…and then pretends it never existed.
Read what Huey P.Newton wrote about gentrification and his analysis of Bob Dylan’s Ballad of a Thin Man — which he praised as an important song AGAINST the freakdom of gentrification and white-culture-vulturism in Harlem…
Re-read my article again: my point is clear. What was once known and cherished as the “New York” mentality…is slowly being erased. You don’t understand it because…you were not born here, did not grow up here, and I can bet you probably did not have much of a relationship to NYC before 911. I could be wrong, but something tells me I’m probably right. This is not a criticism, but you must understand the pain involved and what it is like to not only be a victim of gentrification…but to feel like an alien in one’s own home town. And this has nothing to do with crime or muggings or the fact that people are “safer” now then they were before.
New York is not “safer.” It is simply less interesting.
[Reply]
Lag reply on August 5, 2008 4:41 pm:
I actually lived here before 9/11, moved away a few years after to try something new, and moved back last year. I love it here, it’s the only city that can keep me moving. It keeps itself moving. Through constant change and re-evaluation and new people and old people coming together. Other cities might celebrate their pasts more, but New York always moves ahead and leaves the nostalgia for its inhabitants to mull over. In New York, holding onto things past leads to stagnation.
I’ve been back to my hometown, far from here, and it has changed also. Don’t think that the cities are the only places getting more expensive, more developed, more different from what they were. The town I grew up in is nothing like what I remember it, and it hurts to go back there and see the things I hold in my heart being torn down. I do understand this feeling. But change is always difficult and I simply don’t think it can be so easily demonized - we always fear new things.
[Reply]
SB
i think troubl calls to me on a different level because everytime Im going thru something I see a writer on troubl writing about it. I just relocated to NY from DC. I must say that NYC has a magnetic force that draws you in and makes you want to stay. I dont what causes that attraction but NYC has unique energy. A transient energy that is both tiring and motivating.
[Reply]
Alwayswrite reply on August 4, 2008 6:18 pm:
I feel you. I tell everyone that. It’s a weird co-existence of motivating and tiring energy. That’s the perfect way to put it. That attracted me to the city. I love it here. And I don’t think you have to be a NYorker original to love it. Sure, I don’t understand the nuances of the city or its people, but that can be said for any city where people transplant in the masses. Take any metropolis.
And when did you move to NY? That’s what’s up…
[Reply]
SB reply on August 6, 2008 3:32 pm:
I moved to NY three weeks ago. I live in the North Bronx a little ways out but im starting to like that im not in the middle of the hustle and bustle…ya know during my tired moments.
[Reply]
"A Mom" reply on August 6, 2008 3:02 pm:
SB,
I feel the same way. I’m a lot older than you but, I can relate to a lot of the troubl subjects. Life, Love, Family, Country. NYC! The last time I visited was the best time I ever had. I had been to NYC many times during my life but it didn’t have the effect it had last year. Maybe it was because I had more time to really see it for what it was, a place where I want to make a new life. Just for me. I’ll be leaving my westcoast home,but I’m ready for my new adventure.
[Reply]
C3
Leroy Kafka your words didn’t fail you… I feel exactly what you are saying [and saying well]… and I’m from Jerz. I don’t have to agree with your every sentiment or experience everything you reported here… I can feel you.
Nice write.
[Reply]
Mtume
Unfortunately decay is the ugly legacy of America, it is the true national pastime. Its the way of the locust, what we know as commerce and industry. It is why your idols loose steam after 10 years and you wish they would have had the same fate Hendrix, Redding or Joplin did, never get to see them burn out, become invertebrate liberals who never seem to be able to match what they did at 21. If violence is the language of America, then decay is the body, the true life blood, how it breathes, it’s rhyme and reason for existing. Preservation is its negative and guilt is a foreign concept, just take an inventory of how many trees there where in Manhattan 500 years, take a gander at the Washington Redskins logo or spend the afternoon in upper west side with all the Jamaican women babysitting the children of Obama supporting white liberals and you will know what I am talking about. It why America is so fascinated with stories of Vampires or of colonizing aliens who vehemently desire flesh and blood of the human body, a subliminal admission of the ways of the west. It is why a song or dance from last year is old school and why we feed ourselves toxin and are addicted to pain. Babe Ruth is not the true symbol of America, the Oil Baron is. To preserve is too risky , preservation implies something is built to last, it carries time with it and we learn from it is structure, dents, bruises and cuts what was, a reminder most needed. It is why they flood us with agents to help us forget, soma for our sleepwalk. Memory is the assassin in the wings, ready to strike at the shogun, the only catch is her form is ethereal, she needs a host to inhabit and these days all the hosts are to busy letting there nightmares dwell in her proper place. Memory could make us all sane.
Nice to hear your brother. Till we catch each other again…
Mtume
[Reply]
Reply to “Midnight Musings…”
SEE ALSO
♦ The Nomad Junkie - Midnight Musings…
July 29, 2008
♦ Lag - Background Noise
June 14, 2008
♦ Alex Merricks - Alpha and Omega
December 4, 2008
♦ Lag - Native Lands
June 3, 2008
♦ SB - Empty Nest
June 25, 2008