As I stand on the High Line, I look around. Wind blows throughout the area, the cold breeze like a knife scraping across the unprotected parts of my skin, namely my hands and face, since I don’t own a ski mask and I neglected to wear gloves. On my right side, I see a rather funny advertisement for turtle conservation. It is a large greyscale billboard with a white background. The foreground features a sexualized woman, mostly nude but with her private parts not directly exposed to the eye, next to an enlarged tortoise. Or at least, I assume it’s a tortoise, because the text above the photos reads “Love a Tortoise Today!” in italicized and bolded font. Below the photos, I see text that reads “@TURTLETWEETS” in the same font, along with “TurtleConservancy.org” directly below it.
If I look above the humorous turtle conservation advertisement, I can see the breathtaking architecture of Manhattan condominiums. A black and white 20-story condo, with blue glass windows almos the size of a wall panel, and a framework that looks almost like some giant celestial spoon took a chunk out of it. Right next to it is a dark blue building of equal size, likely either a condo or an office building, its walls lined with blue-hued glass panels of various shades.
On the other side of my vision is bedazzled by a triad of fabulous skyscrapers in the distance. These also look like they are mostly glass and concrete. One of them has a mosaic design, with many different glass panels arranged in a hodgepodge of different-sized squares. Another has a form that begins with a simple square frame, but ends with by splitting into multiple connected pillar-like shapes that curve and taper to a much narrower flat roof. This building also has its mostly grey exterior banded by stripes of black periodically along the structure. The third is much simpler, clearly a residential building judging by the balconies, and is a simple flat rectangle with a glass wall on one side flat concrete on the other.
On both sides of the High Line’s concrete central pathway are various bushes and plants. Most of them are brown due to the winter, or simple brambles of bare stems. There are, amazingly, some trees that still have leaves. One is a large tree with green leaves, perhaps a relative of evergreens. The other is a cherry tree in autumnal orange. There are also a rare few green shrubs still. They’re small and flattened, like little green pancakes. One would wonder if they’re invasive weeds.
Going back to advertisements, there’s another interesting ad visible from the High Line. It faces in the opposite direction from where I stand, requiring the viewer to be facing downtown. It shows a drag queen in an elegant black dress posing in an empowered, potentially seductive way, showing off his thighs. However, while he is the focus of the advertisement, he doesn’t take up the most space. Next to him are rows and rows of miscellaneous objects, ranging from luxurious fur coats to wigs on mannequins to a mirror in the background, reflecting his profile. There is bold, all-caps white text in the upper-left corner, “I LIKE MY WIFE AND KIDS, BUT I LOVE MY STORAGE ROOM.” On the bottom of the advertisement is the text “FREE RIDES FOR YOU & YOUR STUFF ON OUR STORAGE TAXI,” along with, “manhattan mini storage,” which really is in all lowercase. That isn’t a grammar mistake, honest!
