Pondering

Not much to report. I went to 2 block parties in Harlem around St. Nick. One of them was a street renaming in the honor of The Dance Theater of Harlem. Then had two red velvet cupcakes made by the Harlem baker and a cup of espresso. I also watched him toil in the garden on his street corner. I left Brooklyn and made it home to New Jersey where my parents had bought me Chinese food.

They are very, very nice and giving.

So, I guess I will just sit here and think for a while. I have to wait for my job interview results. The week has been all encompassing, with much to take in from the city and problems to solve. But for the first time in 6 years I heard a live jazz band on the streets of Harlem and received blessings from a missionary family in Spanish screaming Jesus Loves You over a bull horn after glances to the right produced great mental snapshots of Yankee stadium and the frontier across the East River known as the Bronx.

After a week of looking through the Village Voice and reading about gentrification in the New York Press, I wonder what is going to happen to all of us who hover around the island of Manhattan. Is this madness sustainable? I think that is the appeal and great failure of New York, it just keeps collapsing on itself over and over like a man shuffling a deck of cards.

But today of all days, I should have took my camera. There was a lot to see and report.