She can tell you're getting old skin

This is part of an email that I sent a few weeks ago as part of a chain email with some friends:

"Last night, I too was drinking bourbon. In an old fashion. At a bar by my apartment. I find bar drinking that's not intentioned for getting drunk a novel concept that I'm not quite used to yet. Pace is an odd thing to regulate.

Things change as we get older. I get up before 7 every morning and am out the door by 8, despite the fact that my commute is only a half hr and I don't have to be into work until 9. I loathe the feeling of being in a rush, and commuting in New York is among the experiences I've hated most in the last 24 years. Senior year, I rarely woke up with enough time to do more than get dressed and usually made it to class a minute or two after it had officially started.

I'm also still not used to getting haircuts at regular intervals and being a local at a dry cleaners, but these things happen. I have a good rapport with the woman who cuts my hair. She was debating whether or not to take her sick mother in law out to a sushi restaurant for Mother's Day, and told me that I should visit Aruba in the winter like she did over New Years. Intimate strangers, can't explain that.

Getting older has also made me appreciate my dad's misanthropic leanings. I hate the people I read about who are in public office, on TV, and the people who block the sidewalk to take some picture of the Empire State building that will end up in a Facebook album called 'Spring Trip to NYC!!!'"

Why is this worth mentioning? Probably because I would have written the same thing in this post. New York and settling into adulthood are interesting things to be involved in at the same time. On an emotional/visceral level, I think get what James Murphy meant when he said "New York, I love you, but you're bringing me down." I don't want to be cynical about living here, I'm just getting a little tired of being constantly surrounded by noise and people. It doesn't help that being in NY on a first job salary and trying to be financially responsible means I'm more or less stuck in the perpetual "can't get ahead" cycle. Also contributing to cynicism/pessimism: tourist season and working right by the Empire State Building, New Yorkers' penchant for honking at EVERYTHING, lack of garbage disposals in the sink/NY's mind-boggling city planning that forces garbage to be put on the sidewalk, lack of note-worthy Mexican and Vietnamese places (now taking recommendations if you have them).

The flip side is that there are many good people here and there's a lot of noise (in a generalized, things constantly going on, not specifically aural sense) that's a lot of fun to witness. I'll never be someone who can be "on" without a break, and NY is not the best city for that. Fortunately, some of the good people come from places far removed from the city pace and are generous with visitors. Thanks, people! Also helping with the optimism: bars staying open until 4 AM; food establishments staying open later than bars; 24 hour public transportation; great sandwiches; mid- and south Brooklyn and its constant surprises.

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Love this track and any band that records an album live like the Young Widows did. More bands should be required to record live. It's way too easy to trick people into thinking you can play as a cohesive unit and sound good live these days. If I had a record label, every band I signed would have to record an EP live to prove they have their shit together.

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“If you have time to chatter,
Read books.
If you have time to read,
Walk into mountain, desert and ocean.

If you have time to walk,
Sing songs and dance.

If you have time to dance,
Sit quietly, you happy, lucky idiot.”

- Nano Sakaki