New York City: an object of my fascination for almost 25 years. There is likely no single place that I've anticipated visiting more. Through middle school and high school, I was convinced I would live and work there. Things change and life moves you in different directions but my crush continued, albeit slightly tempered as the years have gone by.
In a few days, I'm stepping on a plane and finally making that trip. Hence, the bloggiest blog post this site has ever seen...
I want to be clear, this trip is completely an indulgence of my 14 year-old self. I'm under no current illusions that the city is magic, but I've found I can still tap into the old fascination. I scoured travel sites for hotels for a couple of weeks.
When I saw the views of the skyline from the Mandarin Oriental (the same skyline that was plastered across my room growing up), my heart literally started to race. Now, if you know me, you know I'm not easily excitable. So at that point, I knew the 14 year-old was alive and well. I don't know what it is about the Empire State Building, but that gorgeous, old building inspires me.
What created my adolescent obsession? Growing up in a very small town, I was always lured by the lights and the thought of big cities that don't shut down at 9pm. Cities in which you could go anywhere and find anything. But there were a few things in particular that built my romanticized image of New York and called out to me above the rest. First and foremost...
Saturday Night Live
I've loved the show since the very first time I snuck a peek at it. There were always sketches and monologues and Paul Simon intertwining it with the city, but
it was the opening title sequence that painted the indelible image in my mind. Life and lots of it, happening in the middle of the night. That's what I saw. Year after year, the casts came and went, but the images of nightlife on the streets stayed the same. Oh, they may have been a little more rough around the edges in the 80s before Giuliani and the transformation of Times Square, but I loved them either way and they made a huge impact on my subconscious.
Letterman
Only slightly behind my fascination of SNL was Letterman in his prime. Letterman at NBC. Dave was a star of epic proportions in my eyes and there were few things better than Letterman out in the city doing ridiculous things with ridiculous people. Spraying people on the streets with water, dropping things from rooftops, finding out if a guy in a bear suit can walk into a strip club... I wonder if Mujibur and Sirajul are still around.
Marvel
Stan Lee used to do a column every month called Bullpen Bulletins and, later, Stan's Soapbox. I loved comics and completely bought in to the almost entirely fictional depiction of the hijinx-laden Marvel bullpen Stan described in his columns.
For approximately four years, I planned on being a comic artist. Now, no artist actually goes into the office to work, but I didn't know that. Even Jack Kirby would just mail his pages in or drop by to pick up a check now and then. But I was a comic geek extraordinaire and Marvel was my drug of choice. The company and its characters were firmly rooted in New York, rather than a fictional city like Gotham or Metropolis. So reading about Spider-Man catching crooks in Chelsea or Daredevil cleaning up Hell's Kitchen only added to the tapestry my mind was weaving.
New York Giants
I'm not sure if I've ever been a bigger fan of anything than I was of the Giants in the years surrounding 1990. Yes I loved LT and that defense, but Phil Simms was my guy. Phil is Kentucky born and raised; a should-be hall-of-famer and I lived for the occasional Sunday afternoon that I got to watch him play on national television.
All the Whatfor
Why wait so long? I couldn't tell you exactly. It's a combination of factors. Cost in conjunction with the fact that this was a big deal to me. When do I go and who do I go with? I had always looked at age 30 as good time to go, but life threw me a curveball that year. So, now do I go solo?
Fast forward a few years and I have a 10 year-old girl who wants to see New York, wants to go to Comic Con, and isn't ashamed to hang out with her Dad yet. Bingo. I'm not the most spontaneous guy, but it was time to pull the trigger.
What does all of this have to do with the WSF site? Almost nothing. But I wanted to write it down and also set up any posts I might write next week or after we get back. If you didn't catch it,
Allen's write-up of FandomFest in Louisville was my favorite thing we've been able to share here. So, I may attempt to do a scaled back version of anything interesting we see at New York Comic Con. I'm sure I'll thoroughly document our misadventures on Instagram (wsf_scott) throughout the week as well.
Check back in tomorrow for Indie Wednesday. AND we could hear whether or not Paranormous got accepted into the Rivers Edge Film Fest at any point starting today, so keep an eye out for that news!
