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.