Big City of Garlands; Big City of Garbage
I’m visiting New York City at the moment, staying at Paul (DJ Spooky) Miller’s apartment.
Paul’s apartment is in Tribeca and was once occupied by the minimalist composer Steve Reich, who paid $65 a month to live here back in the 60s. Paul now pays above three grand a month for this space, which is comfortable but not that big at all.
Although I love NYC, I could never live here because it’s a dirty city. Seattle (a city I rarely leave—the last time I visited NYC was in 1993, on my way to Gabarone, Botswana) is as clean as a microchip when compared with the streets of even a nice neighborhood like Tribeca. Not far from where I’m writing this post is the building that houses Richard Parson, the CEO of Time-Warner. The worst streets in Seattle have nothing like the garbage, the crumbling, the decay you will find on the streets below Parson’s three-story apartment.
As a fan of minimalism in both architecture and music (which is why it’s such a pleasure to be staying in Reich’s former place), you can see how NYC might be a little unsettling/upsetting to me at times, with its dirty streets enclosed by rows upon rows of 19th century classical revival buildings, whose facades are heavily ornamented (a jungle of garlands, a sea of coquillages, thousands of opulent oculuses, millions of modillions). It gets to be a touch too much. (Speaking of minimalism: I’m all set to meet Jeff Mills on Monday, May 1st—Mills is the master of Detroit techno’s militantly minimal wing.)
um...does this "DJ Spooky" know you're squating in his house?