I’m Amanda. I’ve got wide eyes, a smart mouth, and a MetroCard. And I’m not afraid to use them.
NYC in the 1970s was spooky. The 1980s weren’t that much better. And today it’s the safest big city in the world.
Most people would call that progress, and I can’t argue. But some people - usually white kids who’d crap their pants if they ever got mugged - romanticize the danger of old school NYC.
Jennifer wanted advice for her first days in NYC. Guess who else had something to share? J. David Goodman of The New York Times City Room blog!
And he asked more New Yorkers what a newbie to the city needs to know.
Here’s an excerpt:
The end (of summer) is near!
Soon the brutal heat will dissipate and the streets will flood with college students and other first-time residents of the city. On the Noisiest Passenger blog, Amanda Green, a Texas transplant, responds to a reader question about this annual immigration — “I Moved to NYC, Now What?” — with a few bits of wisdom for making a home among the bedbugs and media moguls, including: “1) Walk around your neighborhood until you get tired.” … “2) Treat yourself to a good local dinner that’s not delivery.” … “3) Take pictures.”
These are all good bits of advice for transforming the unfamiliar streets into something more personal.
But what about adding a few more items, more geared toward understanding the city’s culture and knowing how to navigate its contours like a local. To wit:
1) Being a hipster is “over,” so you’ll have to think up some other use for those skinny jeans and distended V-necks.
2) Photographic evidence of past subway riding by celebrities aside, you are unlikely to stumble upon A-list celebrities on the train.
Read the rest of “What New New Yorkers Need to Know” here.
Big thanks to the The New York Times for the mention!
I need to review my records, but I believe next week is my moving to NYC anniversary. Five years, baby!
That’s five years. At least four different hair colors. Three apartments. Four full-time jobs. Three bad break-ups.
Countless heart swelling, “This is where I’m supposed to be” moments. A significantly smaller number of “I’m over this” moments. (Most of those involved apartment woes, I think).
Here’s a question from Jennifer:
I am moving to NYC tomorrow from Texas. I have wanted to move there since the first time I visited and have lived here for my whole life. I am so incredibly emotional and nervous, thank God my sister is going with me for a few days. I will be going to grad school starting the 30th. Any advice for the first few days of wtf am I doing?
My response:
A pigeon’s got to be pretty sick to let a person with a camera get this close.
When my blog finally got a new look over the weekend, it was like one of those scenes in What Not To Wear, in which a 36-year-old woman finally cuts the godawful hair she’s been growing out since she was 15.
She’s all weepy and you know the two bitchy co-hosts are biting their tongues, trying not to say, “Do you realize this is the first time since George H.W. Bush was in office that you haven’t looked like shit?”
The path to a new blog design was not without its potholes. I had this vision that one person nodded at, but never produced. And then the same vision that another person nodded at, never mentioned again, and it was all about to be forgotten. Until I realized, “I could be married to this guy before I get him to design this blog layout.”
And I’m not the marriage-minded type.
Back in February 2009, I got the first glimpse of I LEGO N.Y. by designer/illustrator Christoph Niemann in a New York Times article.
The book has been out for a few months now. I checked it out at a bookstore, but I want to share a few pages with you. Some of the brilliance of the LEGO version of NYC is lost on people who don’t live here. If you’ve only visited, you don’t have the “Aha!” moment of seeing this “sidewalk,” and recalling the dirty, urban exemplar.
Miranda July is a creative force, dabbling in various media. She directed, wrote, and starred in Me and You and Everyone We Know, winning the Caméra d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 2005. It was her first film.
Then July’s unforgettably unique short story collection No One Belongs Here More Than You won the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award in 2007. It was her first short story collection.
It’s always exciting to see what Miranda July will come up with next. Without a doubt, it’ll be moving. But it’ll also be something most art isn’t: accessible. July’s work celebrates human connections anyone can relate to. It’s not about proving anything. It’s not about being pretentious. It’s not about making people worry whether or not they get it.
In 2009, July created “Eleven Heavy Things” for the 53rd International Art Exhibition at the Venice Biennale. The heavy things - yep, 11 of them - are interactive fiberglass sculptures.
How do you interact with one of these sculptures? They’re not museum pieces, so go ahead and touch them. Put your extremities into the cut-out holes and pose. Climb on top of them. Interpret the words on the sculpture and be the art. (Bonus points if you scream, “I AM the art!” while doing so).
“Eleven Heavy Things” will be on display in New York City’s Union Square Park until October 3. I checked out the exhibit in June.
Per the inscriptions, I hugged a stranger,
B. and I dated in March, and our relationship went in like a lamb, out like a lion. Overall, it was gentle. There were lots of movies, plates of seafood, strolls downtown arm-in-arm.
But something was off. And when I found out what it was - after waiting for B. to be ready to tell me what I’d started to figure out - I ended things. He’s the sweetest guy. Smart. Adorable. But he was emotionally distant and unable to trust me, and I can’t be with a person who can’t trust me.
When I told B. I couldn’t see him anymore, I was shocked at how upset he was. Tears. Bargaining. Then resignation.
Alright, this is the last tribute to “Play Me, I’m Yours.” I still had extra footage from when I met Paul Sahner last week. If nothing else, he now has more proof of his talent. Paul’s mom, you’re very welcome.
Also, would you just look at those New Yorkers all being so nice? We’re really not so bad.
In Tune with Paul Sahner from Amanda Green on Vimeo.
Today’s the last day of the “Play Me, I’m Yours” installation in NYC. For the last two weeks, 60 public pianos have been open from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. throughout the five boroughs. The musical instruments are stationed in parks, on streets, and even on the Coney Island boardwalk.
It’s magical.
Last week, I met up with Paul Sahner in Central Park. He and I had been following each other online for awhile. A piano near Cleopatra’s Needle finally brought us together. Well, us and a handful of other New York strangers who may not have met otherwise.
People were really polite about taking turns at the community piano. The most Paul’s ever played at once was an indulgent half-hour. That day, he kept looking around to make sure no one was getting impatient.
