At the moment New York City is a sauna. People are sweating on the streets and giving into the temptation to stay anywhere and everywhere there is air-conditioning. It is so hot that everyone — even the people with the most mundane jobs – who works in an establishment with central air is elated to go to work in the morning, or the afternoon, or late at night.
After my regular work day was over I came back to my much milder – but still not cool – apartment and decided to write music instead of going out into the sweltering evening to meet up with friends so they could watch beads of sweat drip of my forehead.
In this state the city is a constant buzz, a hum, a whir of fans and cooling units that constantly whir and click and thump along. They add an entirely new track to the song of the city that hums along all year round. The pace of the city slows when it heats up, the colors brighten, clothes get smaller, and people’s faces start to exhibit that summer flush. It becomes ok for women to walk down the street in bikini tops and not alarming to see a shirtless man – let me take that back, it’s always alarming, now it just makes more sense than in January.
The homeless people have a ball when the city heats up. The fountains and the playgrounds in the park are awash with children. Doggie pools are dragged into the dog runs and the barking is multiplied many times over by the furry friends who meet there with their owners.
The city’s energy speeds up and slows down at the same time. People come out in mass, but their gate slows and runs in time with the slow humming of their air conditioning units. The rhythm of summer is upon us and I spent the evening holed up alone in my apartment writing a song about it.
And the wall that says summer like no other…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/weissfoto/2476191577/
