Is New York Special?

I've pretty much run out of time in New York. I doubt that anything particularly life-changing is going to happen in the remaining 36 hours, so it's reasonable to think about what's gone on in a retrospective way now. Kind of like when artists that used to be exciting go soft and other artists give them an award to keep them company in the nursing home. I've thought of a few main things that have made an impression on me. I want to figure out if they're unique to here, or if it'd be possible to reproduce them in a place that's easier to live in (apparently, it's a nightmare to get a permanent visa for the US).

A Bazillion People Who Are Just Like Me

From day one, when I struggled in the door of Loftstel with my suitcases to see a DJ in the corner playing La Roux, I was confident and hopeful that I'd be spending my summer with people I like, am like, and want to be like. It turns out that the DJ person was Sarah, who's been helping me to skip the queue into cool places quite often over the last three months.

I've sat up until the Foolishly Late a.m. talking about proper deep who-I-am and what's-it's-all-about stuff. This has made an impression on me, and I think I know myself better because of this. Knowing about yourself is important. Just being you doesn't guarantee that you know you. It's useful to know about yourself so you can decide what to do with yourself and your life.

Walking down the street in Williamsburg, I've thought "Jaysus, 70% of the people here are dressing how I do, and maybe half of them are doing a better job of it than me". I like this. You can tell a lot about a person by what they wear. I guess this means I'd get on well with a  good number of them. I know it freaked me out a few weeks ago when I saw someone dressed the same as me on the subway, but that was just crazy. It was like we were twins going to one of those twin conventions.

So, can this be replicated in other places? Yes. You don't need a bazillion cool people; a few is fine. 

Freedom to Do What You Want With Your Life

I've met people who've succeeded in reinventing themselves since they came to New York. Especially Irish people: one guy used to have a pretty mediocre time in Ireland; he didn't like his work and just got high twice a weekend with sketchy people. Now, he's his own boss as a tour guide, does entertaining tours, makes good money and is proud of what he does. Could he have done that in Ireland? No. Sometimes people need to be uprooted and completely detached from what's holding them back to flourish. The US is an ideal environment to do this, because it's better at judging people for what they do instead of who they are or what their background is. However, this doesn't apply to me because I have a pretty good life in Ireland and don't think I need reinventing, thank you very much.

It's Hot

It's been around 25c all summer. This is good. It's been 16c in Ireland. This is bad. 

It's Sort of the Centre of the Universe

New York is the pointed edge of the the human culture. The newest and coolest of everything is here. This is great if you care about knowing the very freshest and edgiest example of whatever you're into - be it music, dance, theatre, fashion or knitting. For me, it doesn't matter that much. Dubstep from five years ago that everyone that's into dubstep already knows is good enough - I amn't going to get more satisfaction out of something more obscure than that. We have dubstep in Dublin too. I'm not talking particularly about dubstep here; I'm just using it as an example of something vaguely trendy that I happen to like.

In conclusion (to this post, and this blog, probably), New York is brilliant. However, the stuff that makes it brilliant is either available in any decent-sized urban centre or doesn't matter to me. So I guess I'll come home, then. 

Being a Sheep

So there I was, all smug and content with my spiffy little life - quite happy in the knowledge that I was interesting and different, with unique tastes, interests and attitudes. And then, one humid afternoon, it all came crashing down.

I was in the Lower East Side Tenement Museum waiting for my tour to start (which was actually very worthwhile; it was thought-provoking and memorable) and I was poking around the bookshop to pass the time. I picked up a book called Stuff White People Like and read a few pages at random. It chilled me to my core. It may as well have been called Stuff Eoin Likes. It systematically lists everything I enjoy and respect and dismantles it all. Some of it, I could handle, because it was pretty general - for example No.1, Coffee. That's fine, I told myself, plenty of people like coffee. But quickly it started to cut me deep: No.42, Sushi (until now, I thought that was unusual); No.27, Marathons (honestly, how many people do you know who are actually going to do/have done one? That has to be unique); No.28, Not Having a TV (I thought everyone in the world apart from me had a TV) and so on. Basically all the stuff that I thought made me me is just standard Stuff White People Like.

I think there are two approaches that I can take to this: I can either be heartened that there are enough people with similar tastes to mine for it to be likely that I will bump into them quite frequently over the course of my life and have a pleasant time agreeing with them (and this summer, I have been, which is nice). Alternatively, I can accept the futility of trying to develop into an fully-formed human being and - emm - have a good cry.

Stuff White People Like

New York Metropolitan Transport Authority vs Recipient

So, one day we were having a Loftstel picnic. Loftstel spends money on ensuring its guests have a fun time, which I approve of. To get to the High Line Park, we had to take the subway. My Metrocard had run out, so I went to buy another one. The machine wasn't taking cash, and my ATM card didn't work because the bank had frozen it (lovely to see that they take financial regulation seriously in the US). Everyone else from the group apart from two girls had gone through the turnstile at this point, so I asked one of them if we could both slip through on her card. So we did.

We were strolling along across the station when Girl No.2 observes "Isn't it nice that there are policemen here to keep the place safe?" Erk. He calls us over - takes names, addresses, passport details. As this is going on, the other Loftstel people come back. One of the guys disregards my Eyes of Death at him and attempts to strike up a rapport with Mr Policeman Sir. This goes reasonably well for him and he points out to me that, if nothing else, I'll get to tell people at home about the time the police beat me up and handcuffed me in the subway. He then suggests that the policeman handcuff us. This wasn't an idea I found immediately attractive, but when the policeman caved and handed me the cuffs, I couldn't say no. So I stuck one wrist-catcher thing on the girl and one on me and the Loftstel people took photos that are languishing in a dusty corner of someone's hard drive right now but will no doubt resurface if any one of me, the cop or the girl ever does anything with their life. I was quite surprised that he gave us the cuffs; he could have got in Big Heap Trouble for that. But basically a fun time was had by all.

On the other hand, I did end up with a $100 fine for me and another for her, which adds up to, lemme think, $200?

I have come to the conclusion that not paying on the New York subway system is A Bad Idea. I think this because in my estimation, it has an expected cost greater than that of paying the fare. If, for example you took 100 rides, I guess you'd come across a policeman 10 times (it feels that I see them about 10% of the time). If you always avoid paying, that would cost 10*$100=$1000. However, if you just paid every time, it'd cost 100*$2.25= $225. This contrasts to the LUAS, where the fine is e45 (American keyboard, no euro sign, eww), the fare is e1.90 and they check tickets - I'd guess - about 1 ride in 50. So that's 2*e45=e90 for never paying, and 100*e1.90=e190 for always paying. So if you don't put a value on avoiding the embarrassment of getting caught, or "honour" or "morality", it's rational never to pay on the LUAS. To fix this problem, Veolia (the people who run the LUAS) need to either a) Increase detection, b) Increase the fine or c) Reduce the fare. Or, I suppose, d) Instil a greater sense of morality in the Irish public.