« Guadalajara to Host MTV's LAm Video Music Awards | Main | New York, New York »
July 10, 2008
Alla cuelga mi vestido
View From Window, Manhattan
Shawn and I are still on our tour of the United States. Having spent the past month on the east coast, visiting Boston, Providence and New York City, we are now in southern Illinois. Most of the driving is now behind us. Most of the big city experience is over. Now we are spending another week with my parents, then passing through Chicago once more before returning at last to Mexico.
A lot of people have commented to me in email that they miss my blog entries. Thanks for saying so. And to those dedicated readers that have been seeing the bottom of the page creeping higher and higher, perhaps even coming here to find only a blank page, please accept my apologies. I know it is emotionally disturbing to see that. It makes it seem like the author has vanished into nonexistence. Blog entries have been few for a number of reasons.
I've been sending a little more email to individuals on the trip, as many small details have reminded me of particular people and do not seem very interesting to readers as a whole. How many people would laugh about my walking by the Museum of Folk Art in New York City by coincidence or celebrate my home town's "Specialness?" Only a select few even understand what those things mean, so while our trip has been full of many funny moments like those, they have not made it to the page.
I have also been trying out Shawn's preferred mode of travel: to travel first and blog after. He gets upset with me that I spend so much time blogging while we are actually on vacation. He thinks it would be better to just take brief notes (if that) and write about it when we return back home to boring old Guadalajara (or wherever is the relative equivalent of "home" at any given point).
Yet having now tried it, I must say that despite the logic behind taking the opportunity to experience a foreign place in a hands-on manner as much as possible, I need to write about it to process it a little. Also, it helps me to remember the best parts. I really enjoy the funky stuff that happens when traveling around the world, but I have a terrible long-term memory for the details. Already I am starting to feel the little things fading away about Boston and New York - how much did an unlimited Metrocard cost and for how long was it valid? - as is my interest in talking about them. I prefer to write about how a place makes me feel, not simply catalog what I did and what I saw. Any guide book can give better details on things like that than can my hit-or-miss memory.
Last but not least, what I feel like writing about is kind of gloomy. It is sad for me to see the land that raised us slipping slowly into chaos and disrepair, the once-great empire quietly sinking into an apathetic mediocrity, the talking heads telling us all the while that there is nothing to fear, everything will be okay. Yes, it still has a long way to fall, but what we had is gone, and despite a renewed sense of hope that change is possible, to an outsider looking in, it seems that it is all too little, too late.
This time around, the United States seems like a cartoon character that is suspended in mid-air only by the ignorance that she has no ground below to hold her up. Yet I really do not want to write about that. Despite all my caustic commentary and preparations for the oncoming darkness, it turns out that I'm not ready to face the twilight. I still want to write just a little more of the song and dance, before they ask us to pay the bill, and while we still have the chance.
Shawn said he'd help me pick out a few photos of the good stuff from our trip and give me a hand with the copy. Stay tuned for stuff that's a little more fun.
Posted by crispy at July 10, 2008 02:13 AM
Comments
Yay! New blogs!
Posted by: Akira at July 10, 2008 12:14 PM
7 day metrocard = us$25
Posted by: brett at July 10, 2008 09:54 PM
Uh, yeah, Things were so peachy in the U.S. when you were born in 1970.
And the talking heads tell us there's nothing to fear? All they peddle is fear!
Good gravy, son. I will help you know what to think. Heed me!
[crispy says: Yeah, I guess some things come and go, but I really do feel like the glory days, where the United States could actually claim to be a leader in the world arena, are drawing to a close. I guess I should have been more specific in my statement about the media program being that there is nothing to fear. To be more accurate, I should have said they tell us there is nothing sufficiently fearful enough in the state of the economy to make people actually stop spending cash.]
Posted by: Mark Allen at July 11, 2008 05:17 AM
Well, I occasionally think I should hoard some cash, but when it becomes worthless, I might as well have spent it.
In other business, perhaps you yearn for the '50s, when Amerika was grate and everyone in it got along.
Non-colored.
[crispy says: No, I certainly don't yearn for that.]
Posted by: Mark Allen at July 12, 2008 11:44 PM