Driving back to BC from school was a nearly 10 000 kilometer journey this year. One of the stops we made was this place called New York City. For those that don't know, New York City is a collection of five "boroughs" on the East Coast of the United States. It's actually a pretty big city and in it are all sorts of cool things to do and places to go. Since I'd never heard of it before, and it didn't seem like there was very much written on it, I thought I might write a bit about what I experienced.
I could smell the street as I climbed out of the subway tunnel, the hum of the city getting louder with each step. Before I made it to the top I knew this was something special, it was going to be like looking inside of my own brain. I would finally be able to place just about everything I know about the world. From An American Tale, to Sex and the City, to U2, to Chuck Klosterman.
I surfaced onto the streets of Manhattan Island.
It was like having a bucket of gatorade dumped on me in slow motion.
Here I was at the mecca of North American civilization, a city far more influential on Canadians than Toronto, or Montreal....or even Lloydminster.
It’s such a shock to ascend into the overwhelming madness of a city for the first time by climbing out of a subway tunnel. It’s more immediate than taking a flight to a remote corner of the globe. Vancouver to Shanghai has nothing on the F Train from Queens to Manhattan.
My first day there included watching a basketball game: The New York Knicks and the Los Angeles Clippers.
Last spring a winced at the thought of spending $12 for tickets to a Warriors - Hornets game while in San Francisco. This time I eagerly spent $128 on a ticket that didn’t even come with a bright yellow sweater that said GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS across the front. I wanted to see basketball and that’s the price you pay when a marquee team is in town. First thing I noticed was the amount of stuff going on that had nothing to do with basketball. Child DJs, jumbotron video montages, saluting some veterans, voting for Walt Frazier’s best suit - it’s too much. I just want basketball, I don’t want a pre-recorded jumbotron screening of Amar’e Staudemire telling me to make some noise. You do some sweet plays and noise will be made. Also, the time it takes to play the game is approximately forever. Time outs are several minutes, TV time outs are several more minutes. Tip off was at 8:03 and we were out of our seats at 10:37. Far too long for a game of basketball.
With. That. Said.
It was an incredible experience. I haven’t been that hypnotized by entertainment since watching Donnie Darko in Grade 12. Having followed basketball a fair bit this year I was watching about eight different story lines the whole game. Whoever says women have more complex emotions than men would have benefitted from a trip inside my brain during this basketball game.
I’ve been hearing all year about what a great “pure scorer” Carmelo Anthony is. I didn’t understand what this meant until watching him in real life. He’s not very pretty to watch, he looks like he’s been put in a nerd circle by every member of both teams, yet he’ll find a way to put the ball in the hoop whenever he wants.
On the other end, there was no Chris Paul for the Clippers, but there was that one Blake Griffin dunk that even every fan at MSG had been waiting for. You know the one, where he’s stretched out like an eagle about to grab a salmon and his mouth looks like an old man’s who is missing his dentures. He did one of those and there was a quick, loud, collective, “OH,” from the crowd. To see the best in the business performing one of the most beautiful maneuvers in sports in real life is heart stopping.
And then there was Mike Bibby getting some minutes for the Knicks, who actually played for the Vancouver Grizzlies - a relic from a different age. Like our late Grizzlies, Bibby did not play very well. It made me miss professional basketball in BC, maybe one day it will be back.
I have lots more on this trip to come, but now I must sleep.