Tag: new york

  • October 10th, 2017. “POP UP, NYC,” SZA said, announcing a free show at The Box in Manhattan. And, as the willing Queen New York is to her fellow Queens, she made sure she popped. The Box, a venue capacity of 250 at maximum, was met with thousands and thousands of New Yorkers, including my OG Shanice, and me, playing the wide-eyed Aussie in his Solange tour tee.

    It didn’t take long for it to get crazy – GOOD crazy. The streets filled, you weren’t able to see the floor.  The neighborhood had to be closed down. The NYPD filed in. The sky filled with two helicopters to assess how far the crowd was reaching. Rihanna arrived in head-to-toe Burberry. And, ultimately, the show had to be shut down.

    What followed is something that I’ll never forget. A small group of friends starts singing ‘Supermodel’, the opening to SZA’s debut album CTRL. And one by one, as if we were a pool of water that someone had dabbed with their finger, the crowd around joins in. The ripple goes out to the entire neighborhood, who all join in. We start with Supermodel, Love Galore, Doves In The Wind, to Drew Barrymore, working our way through the tracklist.

    People start creating makeshift percussion instruments, banging on metal bins, stomping the yard, clapping their hands. Few start to get on cars to scream to the sky, cupping their hands over their mouths to further the reach of their voice. An intimate concert becomes a block party. We begin dancing, all looking at each other, people who we’ve never met, catching eyes, sharing a moment and our love. We, smiling, collectively fill the air with the electricity that makes New York New York.

     

     

  • Riddle me this: how can you feel such a grand sense of connection to a place where you’ve never lived, nor visited? The place that diversity calls home: New York City.

    “I love New York, even though it isn’t mine, the way something has to be, a tree or a street or a house, something, anyway, that belongs to me because I belong to it.” ― Truman Capote

    When I have my moments of day dreaming, I often think about what it’s like waking up to noise of the city streets or to the view of Central Park. I picture myself walking the overhauled streets and people watching – is it true that it is the only place where you won’t find a typical human being?

    “There is something in the the New York air that makes sleep useless.” ― Simone de Beauvior

    What makes this city run the world? What is it about this place that has everybody talking? And why haven’t I yet been? And with all these questions in mind, until I get myself over to NYC, I can at least dress as if I were there.

    Sincerely, with bagels and Americano coffee’s,

    5afe61c8-adb3-42ef-a283-2d54f64f34e1

    PRELUDE:

    Chapter 1.
    He adored New York City. He idolized it all out of proportion…no, make that: he – he romanticized it all out of proportion. Yeah. To him, no matter what the season was, this was still a town that existed in black and white and pulsated to the great tunes of George Gershwin.’

    Uh, no let me start this over.

    Chapter 1.
    He was too romantic about Manhattan, as he was about everything else. He thrived on the hustle bustle of the crowds and the traffic. To him, New York meant beautiful women and street-smart guys who seemed to know all the angles…’.

    Ah, corny, too corny for my taste. Can we … can we try and make it more profound?

    Chapter 1.
    He was as tough and romantic as the city he loved.’

    I love this.

    ‘New York was his town, and it always would be.”


    ― Woody Allen, Manhattan
    NYC1 nyc3 NYC4
    Wearing: COS camel coat, COS black turtle neck, COS tailored pant, Common Project sneaker.
    Shot by Johnny Diaz Nicolaidis from JDN Creatives.