getting holy in NYC

New York is inspiring my soul right now. She's a big, bossy city that has an attitude that can sweep one in to disillusion and confusion or inspire one to play in her cool blistery Autumnal winds. Christmas is on its way and I feel like re-enacting Home Alone visiting toy stores and hitting an ice rink while enduring my first winter in two years.

I spent my first week in New York with family and it was wonderfully joyous. We hired a place through airbnb in Brooklyn and spent 5 special memorable days exploring the city together.

The highlights include:

• Phantom of the Opera at Broadway (tip: buy on the day tickets for half the price)
• Central Park live jazz
• The New York Public Library
• Midnight city views from the Empire State Building
• A visit to The Museum of Modern Art
• A ferry trip including a visit to the Statue of Liberty
• Brews and sweet potato chips at The Grey Dog, Chelsea
• Outdoor Ice-Skating
• Getting to the "Top of the Rock" and mounting the Rockefeller Building
• Unanimously vowing to not go to Starbucks cafes despite them being on every side of every street in the city.

More snaps on the photoblog.

A low light:

There's one thing that does really bother me about this city and that's seeing the homeless people in the streets freezing in bundles. It doesn't feel fair at all especially in a city that has so much power.

Last night I was on a very late night subway (they run 24hours here!) and ran the risk of falling asleep and missing my stop. I turned to a guy next to me, he was black, with a beanie hat and had the lines of a man who's lived through some painful tales. I don't know if he lives on the streets but he certainly wasn't so fresh and clean and I realised there were quite a few homeless people crashing out on trains or on benches at the stations as is common here.

"Excuse me. Would you mind making sure I don't miss my stop?" I asked him half laughing to myself at hearing how British I sounded in the mostly empty 3am carriage. He smiled at me, remarked on my accent and we started chatting. We talked about the world, about freedom and about holiness and faith... there wasn't any conclusion besides a hug of gratitude as I reached my stop and that little sense of 'holy sh*t I just had an angel undercover moment' as the guy kept me alert enough to not pass out and spend the small hours sleeping on a train.

Of course one must be aware when traveling in the small hours, especially if sleepy, and I don't know if I'll ever hear the end of those 'words of warnings' to the female solo traveler (some tips), but its amazing how true kindness can be inspired by a little gesture or a word or two between strangers, worlds apart and yet equally human. 

I don't think my superhero powers will have me taking the homeless off the streets of New York, but I might make some huge hints to people who can... 

OH... HI... THERE... ;)

Shocking stats here.

Volunteer opportunities here, here and here.

time for the population?

I worked for an agency amusingly titled 'The Population' many years ago (2008). This was the first and most awesome social media agency to bravely launch in Sydney before the plonkas at the top decided to merge it with another agency hugely culturally removed, without any integration, that every member of staff jumped ship.

(If you don't believe me when I say how cool we were, check out this naff little farewell video I threw together.)

While working there I did indulge myself with a little article on "The Stoop" which was the entrance way to our offices tucked away in Surry Hill's namely famous for Tony Thomas' encounter with a homeless lady taking a dump on the doorstep in broad day light early one morning. 

I thought I'd give that little article a home on Jectaspecta because its so lovely to remember a fun time in my career and a place that I felt quite inspired at. Especially because having been living a 'homeless/everywhere's my home' life since October 2011; I can relate a bit more to the hobo's of Surry Hills. I did manage my madness in nature though as she doesn't seem to mind if I poop in her jungle in broad daylight.

The Stoop really is a place for the diverse.
Commonly we have the socially neglected surry hills hobo’s hang out on our doorstep. So far I have noted a few categories of the characters who like to chill in our neighbourhood.

1. The guitar hero Nikki on her way to work one morning was met with a rather interesting display. A homeless dude enthusiastically playing on his air guitar in the middle of Foster Street, with his full head of knotted hair rocking to his imaginary sound. As a big rock fan, for her that was amusing if not a very bizarre out of context dejavu.

2. The Dozer This is the guy often found curled up in the fetal position nicely tucked on our front door step. One day my heart raced as I opened our rather large and heavy front door to leave work for the day when I found myself nearly stomping on the Dozer’s head with my booted foot! Little did he know as he continued to dream. What do you think hobo’s dream about? I suppose their points of reference would be very alien to many.

3. The Loud Mentalist I know, its not PC to go round calling people hobo’s or mentalists but you have to believe me when I tell you this one is relatively just! Unfortunately the Loud Mentalist frequents these parts very often, if not daily. He is the man shouting obscenities in his weathered voice relentlessly. This is usually well timed with a client meeting. I don’t know why. Perhaps we have just become accustomed to his constant bellowing that we don’t take note until we become aware of the circumstances through awkward sound effects to our social media strategies.

There are a few more characters who brighten our day and add an element of surprise at The Population. Of course it is sad seeing people looking desperate, struggling and not sound of mind but its also reassuring to see that the Salvation Army work really hard to make their lives easier and there is even a little commune who hang out with their brown paper bags on the Hub Store doorstep (this one’s much bigger than ours) who crack jokes and support each other.

Thought it would be quite topical to post the winner from Tropfest NY 2008, "Mankind Is No Island" by Jason van Genderen.

Peace and love to Tony, Ms Scaman, Nikki Johns-Stammers-Johns, Hayley Richardson, Benhamin, Julian Cole and Cate Mathers for bringing their dash of inspired madness to The Population mix and I am happy to say that I am still in touch with most of them who became really good friends despite my worldly and sometimes illusive hobo antics...