Postcard from New York City - Times Square

Times Square is magical, an amazing place where the city begins to cast a spell. The billboards are not just electronic, or tickers, they are moving images the size of tennis courts. Recognising its charms, it has a viewing platform where you can watch the advertising billboards, like a show. Best time to go is sunset, when the light drains out of the sky and the neon wash becomes more pronounced. With all this clutter, advertisers work hard at getting you to look at their billboard, one having the genius idea to have a camera rigged to a huge screen that puts the crowd in the picture and then superimposes a giant woman walking into the square. I have no idea what it was advertising, I was too busy taking the photograph of my pixalated image, waving and expressing shock at the attack of the fifty foot woman.



Possibly the reason that al the bars in the city are so gloomy is because all the energy, or light bulbs, is being used in Times Square. Certainly, looking at the place, you would think that America doesn't give a shit about the energy crisis. So there's me using my energy efficient light bulbs at home, with the result that my front room looks like it's being viewed underwater, while here in this city they have decided to go down the route of conspicuous consumption. And they do love their gloomy bars. Even the lobby of our hotel was apparently lit my a single forty watt bulb. Is this to save on electricity, or cleaning? Some bars I can understand being dimly lit but surely every single one can't be used of illicit assignations? And what if you spend twenty minutes flirting with somebody before you realise that they've been talking to the wrong person?


This is a city of sights no doubt, but also a city of smells, the most common being burning pretzel, closely followed by frying onion and falafel coming from just about every street corner where the hot dog cart vendors have branched out. The pretzels are truly amazing. New Yorkers have taken something that is supposed to be a bar snack and turned it into a main by the simple expedient of supersizing it until it's the size of a steering wheel of a small car. It's also a city of sound, the predominant one being a local shouting into a mobile phone, always sounding more like an opinion than one end of a conversation.

NYC is also city of proximity, close proximity. In NYC even the buildings huddle up close to one another, the streets are never less than crowded and the cars pass one another with barely enough space for an extra coat of paint, sometimes passing so closely there must be friction.


You can see why anyone coming to the city would think that it is special, but New York needs to be careful that it does not turn into the theme park version of itself. Helping to keep a sense of reality is that the city is very much a place to live as well as a place to work or visit. Real people live in the heart of the city. It's possibly the reason why the city also appears to be totally devoid of litter, a feature which only adds to the theme park appearance.

And it's odd to see so many British bands transposed here, Pret is here, as is HSBC meaning the street features familiar corporate colours. In the New York Pret they have adapted the business model to take account of the free refills that American coffee shops offer, the coffee sits in the middle of the shop and you help yourself to refills. Can't see that catching on in London.