Location: 2:00 far west side, Chelsea/Meatpacking District
only close to A, C, E trains, but E doesn’t go to Brooklyn and the A and C don’t go to my area. Now there’s also the 7 at Hudson Yards, but only at 34th and 12th ave.
former industrial rail line
Neighborhood: transitioning industrial to commercial, mixed old and new construction-brownstones with shiny glass high rise condos
Site: reclaimed wood, native plants, geometric benches, metal bars, sparks flying from construction sites, scaffolding at 21st
ads for storage space-perhaps due to the high rent in the area, people can’t store everything at home?
sounds: vehicle and construction noises
smell: slight garbage odor, burning smell from welding at construction sites
The crowd is mostly white and Asian, skews younger but some middle aged and older couples.
One man said he is showing his brother around NYC.
Walking along the High Line, we noticed a man sitting on the floor with little structures made out of small cardboard tiles painted with designs and a sign that read “donations.” My friends and I hover around the man, intrigued but unsure whether to engage in the activity, with the cold acting as a huge deterrent. We decide to join in, and begin to paint with David Bowie’s rendition of Peter and the Wolf playing in the background. A lady was also painting as her friend stood nearby. I noticed her blunt and humorous manner immediately as she exclaimed “David Bowie is dead! Why you play dead people music?” We began chatting as I painted my amateur portrait of a lady bug on a leaf against a blue sky, something not seen much during the harsh New York winter. She revealed that she was from Suriname. She had visited NYC over two decades ago and was pressuring her friend to go to Soho to revisit a site where she had bought records. I cautioned her that she’d be better going to St. Mark’s Place in the East Village as so much has changed in Soho since her past travels that the location of the record store would probably be unrecognizable to her.
This interesting character from Suriname and a billboard with a mysterious message in Arabic about a book purchased in 1893 added to the mystery of the trip. There is always time for spontaneous encounters in the city, despite the fact that everyone seems to be in a rush.
