Times Square

From: J.
Subject: Times Square

the uptown nyc gallery scene is so much classier and more refined ... more "put together" than its downtown counterparts - and also friendlier, as if by some strange quirk the rich = snob axiom were inverted: absence of desperation (and likely also of a constant need to prove one's "cool", ie, belonging to an "in" group - even if such a group exists only in one's mind, a synthesis of advertising flags in the environment - *survival* cues from the urban jungle) and the corresponding absence of inevitable interpersonal attitudes … this can kindle warmth vs. the hard cool irony of a "scene", in the overtly braggadocio sense.

i have a similar feeling towards times square vs union square - for all its "hip" cache, visiting the latter always leaves me somewhat cold - its teeming masses in constant, purposeful, robotic flow; and here is the crucial difference - somehow self-congratulatory in its low level democracy; whereas the latter, despite its herds of tourists (very clearly low level, yet without irony), is more leisurely zen - is what it is - in its hectic swirl … and hence, due to a non-ironic allowance of the heart - romantic. (i task you to visit times square again at night, with the open eyes and heart of a child…) true eccentricity is in love with times square!