I’m in New York City at the moment, attending NY Comic Con, meeting up with friends, and doing a little bit of Big City Stuff. I haven’t been back in the city since maybe 2000, so it’s interesting to see how much has changed around here.
It’s kind of trendy to talk smack about NYC, especially among my conservative and libertarian friends, but I’ll risk being uncool by admitting that I do love this city. It’s the first place I visited when I first came to the United States as a tourist, back in 1990, the days before the Internet or cell phones. I had six weeks of leave saved up and $6,000 worth of AmEx travelers checks in my pocket. For a lot of Europeans, NYC is kind of the epitome of the picture of America they have in their heads. And as far as national business cards go, NYC is a pretty cool one. It’s full of energy and history, cool Art Deco buildings, lots of stuff to do and see, and everything else that comes with being in a place that is one of the world’s cultural and financial hubs. On a global scale, only London, Paris, and Tokyo can lay claim to the same sort of impact and influence.
Now I’m off to the Javits for some more writerly business, and a slice or two of NY pizza along the way. Because I didn’t come here to sit in a hotel room and dick around on the Internet, even if it is a nice hotel room and a fast Internet connection. In the meantime, have a few snapshots from NYC.
