Economies of Scale

In a love affair with New York City you never get any sleep.

Money, raucous laughter, scheduling, planning, dreaming - always wanting more, always more to be done. Listening, observing, reading, investigating, enjoying, thinking, discussing fills the days. Thinking fills the nights, and sleeping gets left behind. In a world where high-stress, high-demand jobs are as much as a status symbol as certain last names - money and stress are the order of the day. And yet, there is more to do with your spare time, more to amuse yourself with, and more to spend your money on than anywhere else in the United States.

The culture here will always be unique. I've taken in a bit of culture of late, visited the Guggenheim and saw an Aztec exhibit, that was interesting, but an odd fit as the form-focused exhibit lacked the context in history and details that makes the society most interesting. Then visited Central Park to take pictures of the snow, but found I was too cold, and remembered I'm not really a photographer. Saw a Broadway musical, attended an impromptu house party, and went to the movies. Of all the activities, going to the movies made me feel the most like I actually lived here because I was among the obviously local masses. The culture in all of it wasn't the activities, but the opportunity for people watching.

I've decided most people here are observers of people. In being observers, oddly, we often forget we also have the potential to be observed at times, and at others, think of nothing but that possibility. Here, we're surrounded by other people at almost every moment with fantastic opportunities to observe people when they forget they're being watched, or when they know it.

Initially, when first moving in, I certainly used such observations to learn how to act on the subway - to get up just before the train stops at your station, to stare blankly. I observed what to wear and when, what to say, how to be prepared always with a book and umbrella, but mostly what people are doing, while making up my own subtitles. All that observation has to cause something, more than just to copy a style or to remember not to make a particular facial expression. Do we watch to see if we're normal or to remind us we're different. What do we hope to see? Will our, will my, curiosity ever be satiated? What is the effect of such frequent opportunity for observation among such a large and diverse sample of human beings?
In a city with so many people, is there a mass consciousness? Are we afforded anonymity, individuality or a tacit conformity? Where are we from monopoly to perfect competition ...


Today's Song: Optimist, That Fleeting World