You walk to the train, you get on it. You choose your commuter face. You ride. You get off it. You choose your work face. You work. Afterwards, you board the same letter, say the F, and ride your routine home. You do this a lot and you start to notice things - misspellings on fliers posted at the laundromat (flexable), how some closing soon sales seem to well exceed soon, you love that one bulldog and how his slow slobbering gait reminds you to slow your act down, how sophisticated baby strollers are becoming, and SKYTRACK. In Brooklyn, there is a building with iron bars on the street side windows and they have words welded to them - SKY SKY SKY. An incentive for buyers - a track on the roof. I’ve become a little obsessed with trying to live there, or at least get pictures of the track, at track level. I began to see the “super” around town and would tell whoever I was with about him and the building he maintains that has a track in the sky. This morning I introduced myself to the super, a large man who often lingers out front, on the GROUND GROUND GROUND, SMOKING SMOKING SMOKING. I asked him inane questions to get the ball rolling. “So, I heard there’s a track on the top of this building. True?”
“Yup.”
“Um, yeah, I found this article on the internet that said it was there..it was a really old article though and it even said a unit here sold for something like 200 thousand dollars.
He got a little more animated. “HA. Man, yeah, that’s an old article”, rolling his eyes in a gesture done by the majority of brooklynites when you begin discussing housing. “There’s not just a track, there’s a hot tub too.” I knew this, but was glad he volunteered it. It makes him more a participant in this conversation and maybe my angle for getting to the roof is just showing doubt about this. I’m going to save this act for a later conversation. We could potentially be having 10 conversations a week. The ice is broken. He walks me down the sidewalk and points up at an elevated section of track and says the hot tub is under that area.
“oh.” ANd just like that I’m done talking. Some conversations just end that way. It wasn’t awkward. It just ended. I said goodbye to this man who I’m certain will show me the roof.
Then I began thinking. What could other buildings bid, for the attention of potential renters/buyers. SKYTRAMPOLINEandSNACKSFORAFTERBOUNCING. SKYBOTANICALGARDENSandPLANETARIUM. SKYCROCODILEfeedingGROUND. SKYBUCK’s. THough not my first pick, the last option would probably work the best. Venti Sky to go, please. I get queasy when people write things or say things that bash Starbuck’s because it’s the phatic communal talk you get with the world, like talking about the weather. But what’s done is done.
My last thought about all this skytalk was a scenario where one resident at SKYTRACK misinterpreted the rules, or blatantly pushed them further, and began doing SKYTRACK & FIELD. I couldn’t totally picture it, so I made a simulation that I could stare at for awhile.
Audience participation? Maybe some people could comment with what SKY + SOMETHING scenario you get excited about seeing. Maybe I could illustrate one of them. In the FUTURE FUTURE FUTURE.
