TIMEezine at l'atelier bonita
established since december 2002
ONCE
UPON a
TIME
ezine at l'atelier bonita
established since december 2002
| NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10001
by Bonita 24 July 2001 - 17:00 I live on a side street in lower Manhattan, New York City, where light manufacturers, students, dot-comers, construction workers, tourists from Europe and Asia, super models, AIDS patients, writers and homeless people coverge ... i buy my daily papers from a newstand run by an Argie fan (of course!) from Lima on Seventh Avenue South. further down my block there is a single-level building that used to house NYC's oldest boxing ring. last year, after not being able to pay the rent for nine months, it went out of business. a few weeks later an anime factory moved in. what used to be *the ring* was dismantled and stuffed into large trash cans. in *ther ring's* place, bullpen style partitions were constructed and sparkling computers and fifty (yes, fifty) twenty somethings were *installed* in a perpetually dark loft illuminated only by the glow of yet another 7/24 business venture striving to make it in N'Yawk, N'Yawk ... and i have often wondered, what IS the distance between black eyes and dot-com's? ... 25 July 2001 - 18:43 in the evening, lines form in front of the no-name bar down the block. no-name, because it is a celebrity bar where poseurs congregate after a long day at the office? how heady we are in the Big Apple. after my day of work, i pass the crowd, and the symphony of "He said", "She said" and slip into my building. a few months ago, i returned from an overseas research trip to find the Avenue blocked off. a derelict came up to report that a man had wanted to jump out of his 16th floor apartment in a luxury condominium further down the road. "He lives upstairs and I live on the pavement in front of his building," the derelict said. "Now he wants to die and I want my life to go on forever. What is the world coming to?" He didn't jump. it took the Fire Department two hours to unpack the air cushions. Last week a young and very trendy European woman gave birth to a full term baby while waiting in line at the no-name bar. On Sunday i drove through a magnificent sunset in Philadelphia and returned home, with heavy tomes and bleary eyes ... only to be greeted by none other but a beautiful crescent moon. I love my Street, and my City. 5 August 2001 - 01:30 People often ask if I am ever afraid of living in New York. Well, I have seen fires, gunfights, bodies; but I have also encountered friendship, beauty, affinity in this naked city. It really does not matter what longitude or latitude you choose to rest your head, fear is only a state of mind. Today I ran into an artist who I haven't seen for five years. He was standing right across the Flatiron building and I was rushing to catch the subway uptown. At 29, he has two children now, is working in an office near Penn Station and can only paint in the wee hours of the morning. I told him I finally got my doc and am curating shows. Small world, New York City. On the subway, I read the review my friend gave me of his recent exhibition. On a painting entitled "You'll Know Why," he wrote: "I am interested in how images amalgamate into affinities. I want to find commonalities between images and position them to form dialogues that get at the true incidental quality of moments. That they are combined so is like the unfolding of a day or like how I put a page of clippings together. Relationships are found (by the artist and viewer) ..." Incidental quality of moments. Ah, here's lookin' at ya, N'Yawk N'Yawk, the city that cradles and spits on its dreamers simultaneosly. 9 August 2001 - 03:22 When i was researching in France, i was often asked this question. "What do you really think about the New York City subway system?" What do i what? i once read in a psychology journal that in order to maintain a sense of well-being, humans must retain at least 15 inches of physical space between each other. when i ride the N train i could only think about how to retain that 15 inches of space all around me; and, quite often, my wish was granted. perhaps that was the reason why i haven't noticed any inconvenience or impending danger on the City's subway system. In truth, and when it works, we have the world's best transportation system that runs on decaying rails and corrupted funds. when you see old photographs of Times Square under ten feet of sewage water and blood splattered on the red posts and red stairs of Union Square after a derailment, you would have to concur with my praise for the stoic hearts and souls of our City's residents who continue to travel on the N, R, Q, W and 2, 4, 5, 6 lines no matter what. I once completed a major part of my doctorate dissertation while stuck on the Manhattan Bridge tracks. the other day, we waited in the tunnel for forty-five minutes for the repair crew to move the stalled train ahead a few feet. it was 99 degrees that afternoon and the cars were not air-conditioned. when we finally began to move, someone cried aloud, "so this is why we call it the N train, N for Normal." Whatever. the subway systems of NYC had brought me to my first job interview at the musuem; to pick up a package from someone i love and to the last soccer game i played and for that i am forever grateful. 7 November 2001 - 21:36 Since September 11th, I have been down to ground zero (that's what they call the World Trade Center site nowadays) many times. An architect friend volunteered there two nights. The number 9 subway station was pierced through by an I-beam that fell from WTC tower two. A friend, another historian, lost her boyfriend. A friend called to say everything he has always wanted to say. "..........................................." From my fifth floor window several miles up the road I watched the evening news that no longer report our infiltration of Afganistan. Maple leaves fell. ©2003 L'Atelier Bonita _____________ A year after receiving her PhD in history, Bonita left New York City to work as a museum curator in Marseille, France. Her publications include J.F.M.: a catalogue raisonné of the graphic art of Jean-François Millet, En Route 1999, and the soon-to-be-published Empire of Our Prodigal Sons. Bonita, who is often seen in her Lazio football jersey, is the editor of Once Upon A Time magazine. |
ONCE
UPON
a TIME
ezine at l'atelier bonita
established
since december 2002