I woke up quite late. Last night was the first one I could have a good sleep, without waking up at 6:00 am. During these days I've been having a terrible Jetlag. In the afternoon I went to what it used to be Little Italy, now an extension of China Town. The Italian community moved to the suburbs when they could afford it, to make their American dream come true. Now the Chinese community has spread their shops of mass production gadgets, and fake lable clothing all around the area. I think it is fascinating how cities can change so radically. And the most beautiful thing is that every one of these little local changes, is generally explaining a process within a global scale.
That kind of changes are perfect examples of how the way cities have been conceived is in a terrible crisis. Thought, planned and built under a Modern discourse, cities have been conceived as something solid that could remain estable forever. Howeverer, cities -and especially big metrpolis- are shaped by the ephemeral. That's the big disencounter bewteen the urban and its container. The city life is effervescent and in constant movement, and crashes with a hard, and made-of-concrete envelop, which is more concentrated in controling it, than in satysfying its necessities. What city planners don't seem to realise, is that trying to control the urban life in the city, is like trying to control a soluble aspirin when this is into water.
Anyway, as I was saying the only thing that remains from Little Italy is the architecture, which one can identify quickly if he/she has seen The Godfather. All the rest is just an amusement park for tourists. The attraction of the day was a pasta eaters contest... I think that's enough for getting an idea of what's the environment like. At night, I went to Greewich Village, and ended up at the Blue Note, listening to the best Jazz concert, ever. I love this city.
