NEW YORK CITY, BABY !

Originally appeared on AOL, February 28, 1998

Edited, Thursday, February 3, 2000

What's the most romantic spot on planet earth? New York, New York. No, I'm not from there. Few people who love it as I do, are. It's the place where it all happened for me; the big town, the big life, the big salary, the big taxes and finding, so far, the great love of my life. Of course, six years ago she went where we all must go someday, promoted out of my life, space and time. We'll be together again eventually. After all, we knew each other before we met, in New York, New York.

New York is intense. Something about the place is both so grand and so homey that it quite takes your breath away. I like the view of Manhattan from Brooklyn Heights or any view of the 59th Street Bridge, my favorite bridge in the city, the most romantic looking bridge, featured in many classic movies. Or of course you might look at the city from the Top of the Sixes or the top of The Empire State Building. The top of the World Trade Center isn't as romantic. A romantic thing to do is go take a ride on the boat that circles Manhattan with your lover or ride the Fifth Avenue bus, and even Central Park has its romantic places.

New York is a great place to eat and walk it off. You can find everything there. The pace isn't so much hectic as it is "paced". Go at the pace the city sets, the fundamental rhythm of the place, never faster nor slower, and you'll never get hurt or left behind. The city knows how to take care of you, just follow the pace. You can meet one in every sixty Americans in New York, a cross section of the world at every glance and all within walking distance. It's a great place to meet. It's the Great Stage, with over thirty theatres, the Capital of the World. Go over and take a look at that great fish bowl the world leaders meet in called the United Nations, what a few New Yorkers think is the ugly "buck tooth" messing up the east side skyline. Oh, there are uglier buildings in New York. How is it possible that an entire universe can be crammed into 22 square miles of real estate?

The city is lavish with its treasures. There are great libraries and museums open to all, excellent temples of commerce where anything and everything is available. Treasures are even displayed openly in public buildings so that even a nobody can feel important in New York. I love New York, it is a great place to love and be loved in.

Though not a native San Franciscan, my mother has that honor, I was born, raised and educated in the Bay Area. San Francisco is a place I used to know "like the back of my hand". I tried to move there several times. Finding a job to justify moving there, was for whatever reasons, difficult for me at the time. I put in my vote for San Francisco as a romantic spot. But romance never happened for me there. In fact my very first composition, I am a pianist and composer as well as many other things, was called Foghorns Through the Night. It depicted those famous foghorns. And nothing seems quite as romantic as the fog in San Francisco. It can be more bone chilling cold than any fog anywhere else, but what it does to the lights and shapes of buildings, etc. is quite wonderful.

But as fate would have it, New York called me instead and so my tribute to the most romantic spot has to go to New York. I do think a romantic spot has much to do with the experiences we share with lovers in each place. There are as many romantic spots as there are people capable of romance.

The Polar Bear