My walk across town today had two purposes. The first was to simply get out of my apartment. Mingle with humanity. See, you spend too many weekends sleeping in (or, worse, sleeping around the clock) and people start worrying. They start recommending their therapists.
And that gets uncomfortable.
Besides, it was finally a beautiful day. I was beginning to think we’d skipped fall altogether – that we’d traded in the crunchy leaf, brisk afternoon in Central Park autumn for fifty varying shades of grey. But when I got up this morning, the sky was a color of blue it hasn’t been for a long time. I have been trying to decide if Crayola, in that big box of sixty-four, ever made a crayon that color.
I’m going to have to buy a box and see.
Secondly, I’d promised myself a matinee of Shop Girl. It was playing at Lincoln Square and since the weather was crayon perfect, I thought I’d go on foot, via the park. The movie was really well done, which was a huge relief. I haven’t seen a well-done flick in ages. First Elizabethtown (sadly underdeveloped) and then that Viggo Mortensen disaster (a ninety-minute excuse to show Maria Bello’s pubes. Twice. Or was that three times?) had given me ticket-buyer’s remorse.
On the list of things which should always be satisfying: kisses and movies that you pay over ten dollars to see.
The walk itself was also pretty satisfying. A couple of times, I felt like I was in a movie montage – you know, like a whole bunch of clips of New York and all of its excellently eccentric characters. And in forty-something blocks (round-trip) there are an infinite number of characters.
One man caught my attention as he stood in front of me, slightly off center, on a street corner in the upper 70′s. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught movement, so I refocused. With a deliberate sweeping motion, the man drew out a walking stick – the knobby, straight from nature kind – and tapped it on his shoe before crossing the street. Better than the walking stick was the Alpine yodeler’s hat that he wore. It seemed so odd and out of place that I looked around for cameras.
Surely I had walked into the middle of an urban revival of the Sound of Music.
Even the most mundane of the city’s qualities can be fascinating when you’re in montage mode. Like the young boy, a dozen bites into his chocolate ice cream cone, waving at me from the other side of the glass as I walked up First Avenue. I smiled about him for at least three blocks. Or the one sided cell phone conversations you overhear that raise your eyebrows and your suspicions that nobody in this city, but nobody, is actually normal.
There’s a parallel to be drawn here between people and that box of sixty-four crayons, I think. But I’m going to refrain from trying, because, nothing’s ever that tidy.
Not in real life, anyway.
oh i couldn’t agree about the softcore porn known at a history of violence. i don’t often blush out of embarassment for others. but i was shy to even look at the screen when i was in a dark theatre. viggo supposedly used to do porn. maybe they wrote this in so he’d do it (or her?) terrible movie!
glad you had a nice walk. i don’t even know of a park near my house!!
haha i mean i couldn’t agree with you about a history of violence more. lol. whoops
A perfect picture painted outside the lines.
I’ve been reading your blog for a month. I love your prose. I live in a small town of 1000, and I smile to think that we have more than our share of NYC type characters. BTW, get the pearl toned glitter crayons. They’re the best.
This makes me want to visit NYC.
I loved the book; Steve Martin’s such an incredible writer. I wonder if they’ll release the film nationwide?
Great post…
heather- I went to my box of 64 and found the color of the sky. There it was, right next to the Azure blue. We had all 64 crayons in use today in New England as the sun shone bright and the trees lifted their branchs to reveal their fall splendor. All this with an extra hour to sleep in this morning. Glad you got a chance to make the most of it too. -gregg
Elizabethtown is not only wonderful it’s also plausible. And why do people not like Kirsten Dunst? Mostly it’s girls that don’t like her. I think she is lovely personally. John Cusack also only plays one character (usually the girls’ main criticisms of Kirsten Dunst’s) and yet he is always ‘dreamy’ to those that don’t like Kirsten. I smell sexism.
I didn’t say ONE WORD about Kirsten Duh. Err, I mean, Dunst. Did I??
Pfft. I told you my reasons for not liking the film. Finding her to be totally irritating was like, fifth on the list.
I wasn’t saying you didn’t like it because of Kirsten. I heard about the other factors plenty
The Kirsten comment was a seperate question to humanity.
Some days I prefer the blue crayons, somedays I prefer the pinks. Good thing there are lots of colors.
I also enjoyed a great walk through fall’s amazing color palette today. glad you enjoyed the Shopgirl.
H…glad you got out to enjoy the city…as for the many characters you may have passed on the way…if anything like me…my “home town” characters are one of the largest reasons that make me enjoy the weather so much…if I took too much time to examine the characters…hmmm…oh never mind…lol…maybe one day I’ll make it to New York…I’ve been all over the Carribean…but sad to say I’ve not been able to visit many different states…New York is among the top of my list…though here in the South it has been too cool to really get out and enjoy a walk…this week is will be warmer…which means I’ll be taking more walks…but they will be limited to the track…since the neighborhood I live in is filled with loose running dogs…as for walking in the city…let’s just say that Main Street would only take you about 15 minutes tops to walk…but then again that’s “Sleepy Town” for you…
you mentioned about overhearing one-sided cell phone conversations, have you ever checked out http://www.overheardinnewyork.com ?
That walk you described is exactly why i loved NYC…The first time i went i did the touristy things and didn’t think much of it…the second time i walked around all the different localities and fell in love with it.
Actually the crayon analogy is on my ‘signature’ for my emails. So to ‘tidy’ it up for ya’
We could learn a lot from crayons:
some are sharp, some are pretty, some
are dull, some have weird names, and
all are different colors but they all
have to learn to live in the same box
Fish:
Do you ever feel like you’re glad you can still smile?
I like to hold on to my smile and let others see it.
To show them that there’s something to smile about, even if it’s just a little girl reading Nancy Drew on a bench.
It’s always good to share what you have. Smiles are cheap and productive.
Glad you survived the toof massacre.
Crayons are only useful when taken out of the box where they can wander freely. It is the same with people. Get out of the apartment, explore, draw outside the lines, meet new crayons. This is what life is about.
I only scanned, but how do you get this many comments and no one discusses the music in your montage? I’m thinking Goodday Sunshine by Wings or The Boxer by S&G. But in my heart of hearts I want it to be this:
http://www.kilbot.net/mp3/karatekid.php
Oh, man… I wish I could download that!
It’s nice to know that I’m not the only person missing the real, vibrant autumn. Ours has been mostly gray, too, until recently. Then all the trees exploded in color and the sun finally came out. Definitely worth the wait, I think.
I’m so glad you stepped out. Now, I feel like I have to. Thanks for appreciating small beauties, like kids with ice cream. I recently visited New York for the first time, and I want to spend all of Fall in Central Park people watching.
Kirstin Dunst—-forget about her. I love a lot of female actresses, but she is not one. Boring, blah…
Sounds beautiful! I’m making my first trip to NYC this weekend to visit Columbia’s journalism grad school–Any “Must have” places to eat? drink? be merry?
Heck, for that matter, I’d take advice on a place to stay for less than $100 a night too!
i love crayolas. are you going to blog about halloween? i wonder what you’d write….
This is the first post I have read and already I relate. You have no idea how comforting it is to know that there is someone else like me. I’m a third year ivy student born and raised in NYC, but because of where I go to school, I’m now completely domesticated 4 hours away in upstate NY. My social life is at a complete deficit. Before coming here, I’d never dream about going to the movies alone, but now that is all I do.
I swear, yesterday, it was also beautiful weather here, a break from the strand of 35 degree weather lately, that I left my roommates and my apartment alone, took the long walk to the bus stop and caught the matinee of Elizabethtown with buttery popcorn in hand (I actually wish now I’d seen North Country, or even Prime).
I look forward to reading more of your entries, because there are many of us intelligent, beautiful girls out there that are single, but always hopefully looking.
Sweet onion chutney..Did Mike post that Good Day Sunshine was by WIngs?!? I hope to God he’s referring to a version I’m not aware of, and not implying that this was a Wings original.
Ha! I’ll let you and Mike hash that one out.
My Bad, I saw McCartney a few weeks ago. He played for 3 hours and my mind was mush, he played so many songs. It’s a Beatles song. You are the better hippy.
kisses. . . that’s one of those things, I guess. I think I may have expected too much, maybe.
I love your blog!!
Such a pleasure to read!