Minor Speculum

N.Y.T.

By Larry

I have never been to New York and in fact I’m a little scared to ever go. But in my mind’s eye it is a sort of place where dreams are made and where art flourishes. Where you can go to a bar and meet like minded people and girls with half a brain instead of those found locally whose only goal is to get into the nursing program at LMC, get married and have kids. Speaking of colleges, all of my favorite people went to school at NYU: Parks and Rec’s Aziz Ansari and Aubrey Plaza (future wife Plan A), Lady Gaga (future wife Plan B) and director Jim Jarmusch, to name a few. It’s like a breeding ground for talented people. Well, at least a spring board for talent. Some of my favorite TV shows are set or filmed in New York: NBC’s 30 Rock, HBO’s Bored to Death, Seinfeld, Late Night with David Letterman, SNL… you get the idea, this is what cool people in New York watch and look for themselves in the background. Conan was better when still in New York too.

The Catcher in the Rye, one of my favorite books, was set in New York during Christmas. Salinger's Death was one of the first inspirations for this post.

And so I have this vision of NY, a vision shaped by the music, films and literature I have heard/seen/read. I have been told this is not how New York really is – this vision probably reflects very little of the reality of New York City; and until I go and fantasy NY is killed by real NY, this is all I have to go on.

The single biggest contributor to my imaginary New York is probably the music. The Strokes record “Is This It” put me in mind of what it was like to be cool and 21 in New York. I related: except I was 16/17 and New York was Thomas Deneau’s basement. Not quite on the mark but I got what they were about. After this album came other great bands such as Interpol, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and TV On The Radio were picked up and thus that part of the illusion was formed. I could read about any of these bands every month in SPIN magazine and get an idea of what their life was like. It was my dream to be this way, they wore cool clothes (suits for Interpol, denim and leather jackets for The Strokes), drank Jameson whisky, fucked hot women and played great music all the while being skinny and smelly and it was every kid’s dream.

The Squid and the Whale. I recently re-watched this film and it brought me to tears. This is like an updated version of the NY that was presented in Catcher. Jeff Daniels character could be Holden all grown up: still cynical, belittling “philistines” and despising those not as smart as him (at least that he thinks aren’t), still not understanding women. Except he does go see Blue Velvet and Holden hates movies.

And lastly, This Song pretty much sums it all up:

Tags: New York

Feb 12, 2010 • Humor, Nostalgia