As I prepare to hit the road and head into less than familiar territory or places I haven’t been in a long time, I chat with people online to find out what’s worth the bother of checking out. Seeing that I’m coming from the NYC area, I get hit with lines like, “it’s not what you’re used to” or “it doesn’t even come close to anything NY has to offer..”
The people who are saying this I tend to wonder if they’ve ever been to New York and if so, when was the last time they came out here? I hear much of the glory days of the night clubs, bars, etc. and yet when I’ve gone to the few that are still open, or have seen the space that the old ones used to be in that are so legendary, I find myself wondering what the hell people saw in the space/place that made it so amazing? I know it was another time, things rarely live up to the hype and many people survive off nostalgia that colors their version of the reality. Looking through that time driven lens and peering back at the claim that “everybody who was anybody was there…” translates more into “everybody who was anybody is now nobody or dead.”
I really should start asking what motivates people to say what they do. Are they imagining that every bar or club in New York City is palatial in size with thousands of amazing people in attendance at all times? Are they unfamiliar with the grim realities of how small most places really are and how insufferable the majority of people who go them can be? Are they misjudging me based on where I live geographically rather than on how I exist as a person?
The real question though is, what the fuck have all you other insufferable northeastern people done when encountering these people that has destroyed their understanding of this area???
Perhaps I should learn how to phrase the questions I ask people online more appropriately?