The Circus is in Town

It was madness. The scene was something even a bad acid trip couldn’t produce. I must have somehow missed the news…the circus is in town again. The infamous tent that all the children used to picture in their minds as they anticipated their first experience; the clowns, the hoops, the elephants, simply is no more. Now, it is in the streets and boy, they are swarmed with figures that are all shapes and sizes, colors and outfits. Some are young, some are old, some yellow, some black, some white, sweet Moses…some are really white. Most of them are the wide type of freak others, the few, are as thin as light posts. One of them even had a trumpet and wailed for every dollar that one of those beasts could spare.
No elephants or monkeys here. No man, this isn’t that type of circus. The lion bit with the flaming hoop is missing too. Shit, if I bought a ticket for this wild bunch of maniacs, I would try desperately to pass it on to some sucker or even try and return the ticket back.
It became instantly clear at that moment that this was no ordinary circus, the animals had been replaced, but by what? These things move like I do, on two legs, some only on one…poor bastards. A few of these wild untamed primates walked tall with expensive professional camera equipment others even had a crew of 6 maybe 8, flashing lights, radios, sound records…it was something out of planet of the apes.
We have all heard the expression “we live in a concrete jungle” I would like to revise that little line about this city. No, I think “jungle” is too kind of a word. And after this fine experience this simply justifies my next statement. We are in a circus, and the circus freaks and tamed animals have been replaced with these beasts from Alabama, Missouri, North Carolina, Washington, Japan, China, Spain, Switzerland and let me say this about that, they unlike the animals in a circus, they run wild in our NYC streets

-W 42nd and Time Square, desperately avoiding these tourists as they have clearly hijacked the streets 8/13/2010

The American Family...

A man greets his kids, you can tell he is divorced or at least going through some concoction of a break up. He shakes the hand of his 8 year old son in a way that shows perfectly the kind of disconnect he has with him, even though we somehow know it has little to do with the innocent boys actions, it still is a disconnect. The sort of shameless handshake that is almost honorable, a hand shake that somehow transcends a message to his boy that he will someday be able to understand. In his later years I bet, once he is old enough to understand what his father has gone through and even more clearly once he goes through his first serious break-up.

A gentle kiss on his daughters forehead and then he puts his arm around her and begins to walk. A tear almost sheds from his eyes as he looks on to his children and knows that they have now been dragged deep down into this mess of a situation. They start their walk towards downtown, perhaps towards some place to eat. The Walk closely resembles a walk of shame. His daughter brought his son – her little brother- out to see their father. Why Though? Watching him, you know he is asking himself: how the hell did I get myself knee deep into this bullshit? What did I do wrong? Where did it all start to fall apart?

You can almost feel sorry for him as you would for any poor bastard that has just stepped out of his office to be greeted by his two children. One is as tall as his father’s waist line and the other is a few years away from breaking the heart of some high school kid. Shaking an 8 year olds hand instead of grabbing and picking him up to hold on to dearly is a sad, sad thing to witness let alone be a part of.

Perhaps he is the innocent one and now, now he is trying to understand why his wife has just abandoned him and their children. Fuck, it could be worse; far worse. Maybe they are both innocent and something terrible has occurred. Maybe an accident of some sort has taken place to the mom/wife. And now the kids are there to meet their father who has now just begun to be a single parent. No. That is a bunch of gibberish. The children are far too calm…they clearly know how to handle this situation, at least for now.

They have now walked into some overpriced café sort of place on Madison Ave. Poor bastard now has to dish out 25 bucks for some chicken fingers and fries. This is one of the most upsetting things I have stood and witnessed in quite a long time. Long live the American Marriage.

- Madison and 45^th Ave waiting for some broad so I can overpay for lunch too. July 29^th, 2010