July 4th. Independence Day

New York is hot and balmy. We have a friend who lives here, but she normally heads out of town for this time of year "It's too hot and sticky and full of tourists". As our taxi driver had told us, many New Yorkers had left town.. "The city's empty". For us though, it still seemed busy.. I suppose Geelong is a pretty sleepy town by comparison.

We were pretty exhausted by the travelling and planned a quiet day. Central Park wandering was all that we wanted to do. That's exactly what we did.

We decided against the trip to Coney Island to see the annual "international" hotdog eating contest. Our taxi driver had recommended it but it was a fair distance, and we don't really follow the sport! Later when we saw it on TV I was glad we didn't go.. it was disgusting!

Now would be a good time to tell you my first impressions of New York.

Firstly it's big. The buildings are really huge, as you would expect from the movies. The streets are actually quite wide, so there's more light than I would expect, but I would imagine winter would be gloomy on the streets.

Secondly it's loud. There's lots of people honking, lots of sirens going, the occasional car alarm, people shouting at errant pedestrians, and the thing that amazes me is how loud people can be as they walk and talk on their cell phones. A classic cell phone conversation which you can hear from a block away went something like "I want everyone to know that if you fuck with me, I will fuck with you.. OK....OK?"

Thirdly it's bold. Advertising everywhere, hustlers all competing for the tourist dollar and giving out brochures. I learnt slowly that you don't make eye contact if you don't want this stuff.. if you do you will almost certainly be engaged and some of them will put out their hand to shake yours (with a friendly and almost convincing familiarity in their greeting).

Fourthly.. it's yellow.. that's the taxis. There are more taxis than other vehicles. I think that's a good thing. With taxis and the subway it seems that driving a car through town is a rarity.

Fifthly it's strangely familiar. The movies are a real introduction to New York. The street names sound familiar. The shops are familiar. Broadway feels like home. Of course there are Macdonalds (less obtrusive than at home) and Subway and Starbucks, but there are others that we don't have at home but with familiar names.. Walmart and Sears being two examples.

Entitlement is obvious here. New Yorkers have their space and they claim it. They occupy it with their voices, their presence, their conversations and their trajectories. You do not step into the path of a New Yorker on their way somewhere.. they will walk into you. If you stop to look at a map you might be collided with and generally you will not get a "sorry". Paradoxically, if the reverse occurs, they are really apologetic. And they are friendly and helpful. My impression is that what we perceive as possible "arrogance" is just entitlement which comes naturally... they haven't experienced the lack of it to recognise the contrast. These are all of course generalisations and stereotypes. This is a very diverse city and these impressions are based on one day and on Downtown Manhattan... more to come no doubt!

American culture has its amazingly crass side too. The TV is horrific in its "dumbed down" nature. It's almost impossible to find something informative on regular TV. You get wall to wall Kardashians or Wife Swap (Spouse Substitute is a rip off rival.) From Bridal to Homicidal was pretty rivetting (NOT!). W and V love trash, it amuses them, so they had fun.

Central Park is amazing. It sweltered today and the shade brought only relative relief.. it was still warm there. This is a much used park and it swelled with tourists.. some pictures-

Friendship in Central Park

The evening climaxed with the 4th of July fireworks display sponsored by Macy's. This was spectacular and surreal. The explosions, the security checks, the overhead choppers and the emergency vehicles all gave more of an impression of America at war than America in celebration, but the crowd was obliviously hyped and happy. Great fireworks shared with hundreds of thousands of onlookers.

On return to the hotel we watched how the Americans celebrate the great day. This included some folk jumping into an apple pie that was thousands of gallons big. What a waste. Also a celebration in Washington where millions of little pieces of paper were fired into the air and rained down on the crowd. I understand how poorer nations look at this sort of stuff in horror... how can this wastefulness be comprehended from their viewpoint. Crass is the word.

The day included a real disappointment. A close friend had got her Uni marks and had failed.It was a pretty complicated story and I won't go into it here. Suffice it to say this was devastating news and really affected my ability to sleep.