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Brooklyn, New York
A seven nation army couldn't hold me back
We’re back in New York but now in Brooklyn or, to be more specific, Coney Island.
The reason that we’re here is to see a White Stripes/The Shins/Brendan Benson concert at a chilly Keyspan Park in Brooklyn. From what I can remember (I was pretty damn tired at the time) the concert itself was amazing. On a big open stage, Jack and Meg (accompanied by absolutely no one else) were only a few feet apart, something which looked fairly dangerous considering how Meg was just attacking (yes, attacking) the drums. It was like watching fireworks or a car crash, I just couldn't turn away despite physically not really wanting to be awake anymore.
And as a last picture of summer (yes I know summer's over already), a final sunset at the Parachute Jump taken with my (so far) reliable Contax i4R camera.
For reasons that could best be described as making sense at the time, I stayed last night at the Millennium Hotel across the street from the World Trade Center site, a layover between an early morning flight from Las Vegas (more about that later) and a concert that night at Coney Island (the one you just read about).
The hotel was renovated after all that tragedy across the street a few years back which unexpectedly resulted in an especially unique and open downtown view, at least through 2010 or so when some of those long, long planned new buildings might start getting in the way. An expected result of such a view includes these few quick pictures of the big bad city, in a state of dramatic change once again.
One thing that is a little troubling in (I guess) a positive way is how there are now tourists at the World Trade Center on a weekend. In a 9/10 world, I would often find myself parking in Hoboken, hopping on a PATH Train to the WTC stop and finding myself in a bit of a ghost town. Sure tourists loved the observation deck and everybody loves (or loved) the South Street Seaport, but otherwise all of Lower Manhattan was a ghost town. Now it’s not, even if the reason that weekend tourists are there is really morbid once you think about it.
I live in Northern New Jersey and found myself passing through the temporary World Trade Center PATH station frequently, especially as of late. It’s such a weird space that is both unfamiliar and familiar. The escalators feel like they’re in the exact same space, even though I know they’re probably not, and everything has a screened in view.
At track level, the rails and platforms are the same, and the screeching the PATH trains make as they enter the bathtub level is there, although now there is a terrific view of a temporarily open space, something soon to be filled in with museums and memorials and towers, even though to be honest I kind of like the open space.
Here’s what’s about to fill in that hole. The first picture is Daniel Libeskind’s master plan, with the museum and crazy ass Santiago Calatrava PATH Station on the second photo. I have no idea if any of this will actually get built, but if I was a betting Man (I’m not), I wouldn’t count on the Calatrava building ever getting finished. New York can find a million reasons to downgrade a project, it’s the root reason why it seems we can never actually have nice things.
The reason I was in Lower Manhattan so much this year if because I was taking some classes at the NYU facility downtown in the Woolworth Building. If you walked today into the Woolworth Building, you would be immediately thrown out by security and yelled at if you tried to take a picture. But if you’re an NYU student, you’ll soon find that half of the classrooms have windows in the back that let you sneak a picture of the lobby anytime you want. Thanks, NYU.
