there's my breath

back from new york. i can’t believe that it was warmer there than it is here. a couple of nights ago, i’m walking around manhattan at 3am, and it’s 57 degrees outside. the first time i actually see my breath is waiting on the bart platform at SFO. to think i hauled my parka all the way out there, only to leave it in my suitcase the whole time (compressed into a little orange tube, thanks to those great pack-it compressor bags). so despite clear plans to the contrary, we never quite switched over to eastern standard time. we were sort of good one day, but then new year’s eve reset us back, and for all the rest of the days hmc couldn’t get up before 10am and just got worse and worse every day. we ended up rebranding it a “evening” trip to ny, which is fine, but which means you can’t really go see museums or the such. although we did manage to go to the american museum of natural history. which is cool, but on the other hand, what’s the big deal? all these stuffed animals in dioramas: wouldn’t it be better just to go to the aquarium and see things live? although that hall of biodiversity is actually way cool. and that hayden sphere is pretty cool. ok, so it’s worth seeing. there’s also this sonic light show with tracks mixed by moby, but we didn’t see it.

sunday was marked by getting up late, packing and cleaning, and then a quick dash to the shoe stores to hit the sales. hmc picked up these way cool pair of futuristic leather boxing shoes. and then trying to get back to the apartment to get to the airport in time was a little bit of a thrill, but all turned out ok.

on the flight back home, i saw matchstick men, which was incredibly mediocre. possibly offensively so.

it was so bad that the book that i had been reading, dave eggers’ you must know our velocity! felt annoying and mediocre as well, where it hadn’t before. is it possible that something so bad contaminates everything else around you, like a bad taste in your aesthetic? but shouldn’t it work the other way, if it’s that bad, when you go back to something not bad, it should clearly be better?

Posted at January 4, 2004 11:58 PM