Come see the Vampires of New York...

There is no better place to loose my mind than in New York. For one blissful moment, all of the trivial problems eating away at the back of my mind are silenced by the towering sky scrapers surrounding my every move. For that one moment I feel like a human being, in a city, in a state, on a planet; and finally everything starts to take shape and make tremendous sense. Every time I step out of the cab and onto the streets of New York, I feel like I'm in place; I feel like I'm home.

I have been twice to New York--each trips vastly different from each other--and still the city never fails to strike every sensation that all of my senses can bear. From the humming melody that the streets and subways play at all hours, the jolt of eletric air that fills every fiber of the body, the perfume of the cold wind and forever blooming flowers of Central Park, the glitter of Times Square lit up at night, to the lingering taste of the museums, libraries, and dirty water hot dogs, New York is absolutely a spiritual experience.

I have never been so in awe and in love with a city in my life. No sight leaves me feeling more small yet whole than the first view I take up into the sky of the city.

Enveloped by streamline buildings at every angle percievable is New York's way of embracing one into the heart and soul of this frighteningly astonishing city.

Part of New York's charm, in my opinion, is that New York is not a city for everyone. People either love and are loved by New York, or they find that it is too gritty, fast paced, and unforgiving for them. However, if like me, you are one of those that love the gritty, hard, face paced, and unforgiving nature of New York, then you too see how they are part of the unique charm of New York. The rats scurrying along the tracks of the subway and the colorful personalities of the homeless on the streets mix with the striking beauty and perfection of the apartments and people of Fifth Avenue and Central Park, to create the most diverse and beautiful city in the world.

There is no other city in the world that houses every inch of every culture on the planet. From the most remote corners of the far East, to western cultures just a step away, New York embodies the world. No other city plays surrogate to Ancient Egyptian, Chinese, and Indian religion, philosophy, and art; as well as that of every decade of Europe and the Americas; and in my mind, the life source and embodiment of New York is the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

No other building in the world, not the Vatican Museums, not the Louvre, not the highly esteemed Getty here in Los Angeles, hold more wonders than the Met does in New York. No other museum can transport its visitor back in time as well as the Met can. Not only does it house the worlds most fantastic treasures, it is also a treasure in itself. The architecture of the Met perfectly adheres to the pieces it houses. The Met also plays host to the most beautiful sounding classical concerts one may ever hear. Nothing accompanies the art of the Met better than the full bodied sounds of the harp and violin billowing off the perfectly carved columns and stone carved walls. The Met is the soul of New York...

And in what other city can one venture to see La Traviata at the Metropolitan Opera, have a dirty water hot dog on the street, go for a one thousand dollar ice cream sundae at Serendipity, sit front row in Fashion Week at Bryant Park, take a boat out on the lake of Central Park, watch street performers, see the Imagine Mosaic, visit the Shakespeare gardens, as well as Ancient Egypt, Babylon, India, China, and Eighteenth Century France, then take the subway back to an eight hundred square foot apartment, or a three story pent house, all in one day? Only in New York...New York, New York.

London is calling...

Actually, all of England has been calling me since birth. Being the first to taint the bloodline and be born in the States, out of the endless generations of my English family, there's no wonder London has been calling me ceaslessly. Finally, after seventeen years, I answered. London told me she had an endless supply of sights and history to show me; and she was right. She was the first, and best, seductress I have ever experienced.

More than willingly, I left behind the glare, heat, and cloudless sky of Los Angeles, only to be thrust--nine and a half gruling hours later--into the welcome bone chilling gray skies of London's January winter. Upon my first step out of the Tube station and onto the grounds of London, all of the air left my lungs. My eyes were met with the most perfect apartment buildings I could imagine. Rows of them lined the small dark street, like perfectly placed toy buildings. All around me were the most perfectly molded buildings--down to the drugstore, Boots, which looked like a Victorian estate compared to the Walgreens of Los Angeles. Being a native of Los Angeles my entire life, I had never taken in such a vast city filled with lavish little jewels for buildings.

 

After wondering a bit and stealing a few hundred pictures of everything and anything, I ventured to my most loved spot in the world--still to this day: The National Gallery of London.

Having almost cried several times, and almost passing out from seeing the love of my life/favorite piece of artwork ever--Bronzino's Allegory of Venus, Cupid, Folly, and Time--in person, I knew this city would take up most of my heart. Not only does the National Gallery house a number of my favorite Renaissance, Mannerist, and Baroque pieces, but it sits like a little treasure box itself in the heart and centre of Trafalgar Square.

The charm and charisma of London belongs to London alone. There is no other city that I have ever explored that has the same energy as she does. London remains the treasure box of the world. She holds gems from all corners of the world, polishes them, and places them on display for all the world to see. However, of all the gems London houses, the most beautiful are her own. From a small and hauntingly beautiful cemetery at the end of High Street Kensington (my street), to the overpowering beauty of the Parliment at night, the outskirts of Windsor and Leeds castle, to the streets of the Whitechapel district which still hold the energy of Jack the Ripper, her treasures remain the brightest of them all.

 

She is a city that has produced some of the most genius artwork, minds, and humor that the world has, and will ever see. She invites anyone and everyone whole heartedly to not only visit her, but to experience her as only each individual can. As Lord Byron wrote in his most famous poem (which I firmly believe is about London),

 "SHE walks in beauty, like the night

Of cloudless climes and starry skies;

And all that 's best of dark and bright

Meet in her aspect and her eyes:

Thus mellow'd to that tender light

Which heaven to gaudy day denies."

But then again, that's just my opinion...