Blog-worthy

I flew into La Guardia today. I realized that it was my first time to fly into New York. The only other time I've been, we drove in and it's a lot less magical sitting in traffic for three hours as you crawl into the city. I took a city bus from the airport to Astoria, what Gogol Bordello has called a "gypsy part" of this town. And true to it's name, there was an old woman in the subway station wearing black and gold with an armfull of flowers. I gave her a crooked smile and she returned a toothy grin with a few of the teeth missing. I wouldve bought one of those flowers if she had offered. The Astonia subway station is a raised platform that rocks and sways when the subway cars pass through. Over the rooftops you can see the top of the Empire State building. It's a gritty perspective of the skyline that I shouldve taken a picture of.. But I'm always hesitant to take pictures of gritty places. As if the grit is some aesthetic amusement that I am making mine without a real appreciation that only comes from living there. Also I don't want my camera to get nicked cuz I'm acting like a tourist.

I took the subway across the river into Manhattan. Everyone is very hip looking on the subway. There's an elegance to the way people dress here. It's not grotesquely casual like California, or desperately indie like Austin, even Hong Kong is a little flashy and cheap looking by comparison. There is a grimness about the dress here.

I got off the N line at 57th st. And walked to 58th. There are shops and restaraunts and pubs and clubs all piled up on top of eachother. The hotel I'm staying in is ridiculously hip. You walk in and there's just an escalator going upwards with green glowing walls. Pulsing bass is the only sound in the escalator and in the lobby, coming from some invisible club or bar within the hotel. The hotel lady who checked me in was really nice, which came as a surprise in a town with a reputation for nasty attitudes. Now that I think about it two girls and I chased after the bus leaving from the airport to the subway. When I didn't have enough quarters for the fare, one of the girls paid for me and wouldn't take my dollar bill in return. I've had really good luck so far with people here.

No one wears uggs here. I think I might like it here after all.