architecture

Sleeping under the bright lights of the city…to dream 

By on • ( 20 Comments )

Ever since I was a little girl living in the Bronx, I always wanted to sleep under the big bright lights. What do I mean by that? Well, I love looking out of the windows night and see the lights on in every room and in every rooftop. Sure, I didn’t grow up really looking at the stars in the sky. Gazing at the stars was something people did on television when they were being wistful. It’s not what a girl like like me really grew up doing.  And my dream was to sleep under those big lights seen on television shows that depicted New York City life.  It was a dream I have carried with me.
For my first adult living-on-my-own apartment in the city, I managed to live in an area called Gramercy Park in Manhattan. Right next to our apartment building was the local police station. Occasionally, our living room would be supremely well lit by the police department flood lights out on the street. But those really weren’t the big bright lights I had been dreaming of since childhood.  I didn’t really care to have a front seat to the perp walk.
Then I moved down to Battery Park. That was a whole other world. We were at the tip of the island where it was quite lonely at night. Occasionally, you could see right through to the Statue of Liberty. Our particular building faced the highway and thus the light that shone into our living room was that of headlights.  That too was not the type of bright lights I had dreamt of since childhood.  Because my buildings have not had access to the big bright lights that I had dreamt of since childhood, I always loved walking towards Grand Central down Park Avenue. It’s one of the most pretty sights a city dweller can take in. Alas, I have yet to have the pleasure of living on Park Avenue.

Across 17 cities I have lived. Each city has been unique and each brought it’s own set of packaged dreams.

Now, I live in Los Angeles and, go figure, I live under the big city lights. Many here don’t appreciate that look and sensibility. Most people don’t actually live in LA city proper and most prefer a suburban look. But when some see the views I have, they do stand and marvel at it for a bit.  Even if it is just a fleeting moment in time.

These bright lights of downtown Los Angeles are new. A decade ago, they were barely here. A decade ago, people scurried about the area leaving promptly at 5pm to escape the so-called eeriness of back then. People tell me all the time I’m lucky since no one really lived in downtown before. I wonder how could they not? For me it’s been a dream. I will miss living here. But I will have my  memories of the bright city lights.

Categories: architecture, childhood, new york, photography, Psychology, TV

Tagged as: , , , , , ,

20 replies »

  3. Amazing view. At our last house, we could see the lights of the suburbs on the other side of the river and the reflections on the water. Sometimes a ship would go past. Our next hime will be in the country and much darker, but I’m looking forward to seeing the stars more brightly and hoping that we’ll be able to see the Aurora. The best views I’ve had have been in the outback, on moonless nights. The stars are incredibly bright and the flat landscape means that the sky is a huge expanse. You could lie on the still-warm ground and stare up forever.

    Like

    Reply
  4. Pingback: Delta Rotterdam | What's (in) the picture?

  5. dave grusin’s city lights – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHmWncvk7ZY
    for an older la. but in a way I laugh as I do have again one far older if you’d like to put the visualizations of your own to it..– radio?!– yes, radio! old at that too – you should be careful about the numbers as i mean no 6. the red wind not #2 the red wind – I like gerald moore as philip marlowe not van hefler or whoevver. 😉 andyways you can laugh as i did imagining the before as I had to as your then/here links to the inspiration not an old photo.https://archive.org/details/OTRR_Philip_Marlowe_Singles/Philip_Marlowe_48-09-26_001_Red_Wind.mp3 – you do inspire me somewhat so while i mull over pictures of puke pink upon the rock leading to adventures like later’s hopping the hobo life at the dq only to hop off to a nice knee in the rocks! the movies LIE! dang train was moving 1mph and that was like SAFE! and it hurt a devil splat across the adventures don’t quite work out..7634 w 120th ave broomfield co 80020 yes a real live lovation! oo! get excited to see..a limeaide….sarcasm fail there as such actually sounds good 😉 but sat view sayeth you can see the tracks from up above the enterprise rent a car wasn’t there when i was and junque’s saloon and the old safeway just like the now old target store replacing it are long gone as broomfield brought walmart to town and target said saianara even though the walmart was? literally 80 blocks away! but while hobo halfpint fantasies were once my fanshions ‘tween strolling to the airport swiping hot ciders…instant packet stuff and you’d be surprised the stuff’s hard to find! just as the people were although 100k plains? surely someone and many of them were well aware satan children were about the place 😉 the point of the address is more to remind you that it’s next to a artery of traffick- and train tracks as i remember well seeing the pillar of smoke when two locomotives crashed head on killing everyone aboard and droping the bridge at the spot from the heat yet it wasn’t news. it happened during dinner too close to sunset to bother making it news no picture no story so went the sensational eighties… how often do two locomaotives drop a bhighway and kill everyone aboard…what do you mean not news?? it’s rather also fun to note here that much of what life is is invented some chased some meaning. i still dream whistfully as the trains go by of hopping one to the adventures of life going by… but know well what tragedy awaits if i do it’s arrest and or ouch! boo hoo! 😉 but smile with me a moment as you mentioned the perp walk – and think with me how that mylar, a silvery plastic that sometimes is potato chip bags or balloons for special cpecial moments is somewhat transparent with pretty printed on it- think of the city lights photo again to a an otherwise crappier view and stain that glass so to speak. 2– at walmart tween a roller set and adhesives cleaner prep and the film/print affixed for a time to your window so what light passes it is not unlike a kaleidoscope of the dreams that are the city lights again.or this stuff ;0 https://www.printrunner.com/window-cling.html?attr3=custom&size_unit=in&width=3&height=3&attr1=18039&attr5=17939&attr6=17937&iv=__iv_p_1_a_778759597_g_37594213101_c_186536460446_k__m__w_pla-42887930064_n_s_d_c_v__l__t__r_1o2_x_pla_y_9128962_f_online_o_3606_z_US_i_en_j_42887930064_s__e__h_9011444_ii__vi__&k_clickid=e2b0bb68-eb07-4b08-943f-b3b21dd60d62&gclid=Cj0KEQjw1ufKBRDYrqLzrY3dy88BEiQAPI_r4RlXDRTT5i73bb4jqnqIOVuEDvQKkiXvODWK-eEm_IEaAt5X8P8HAQ

    Like

    Reply

      • uh oh… 😀 gerald moore as??? 😀 lol. I haven’t looked up the bogart movie on said but i’ll get to it i’m sure. the big sleep i believe it is. — it was share philip marlowe of pl.u.h. the post punk nineties russian israeli heavy meal try to get something going….cassette demo tape fever and all that.. lost and lots of stuff on archive.org william taft former president campaigning … a lil james p johnson stride piano. galaxy magazine if you need a laugh on your fifties golden age of magazine sci fi– june fifty two ‘s gravy planet oughta make you bust a gut, how long will it take you to figure out who the connies REALLY refer to?mmm? 😉

        Like

      • 🙂 – youtube.com and archive.org to the rescue! – now entertainment snacking? surely the biggest nono. ever! but 😀 what’s a lil more placebo? shhhh! don’t spoil it now! 😀 *what’s a lil more placebo?( *oi, I alllready know)) keeping with the retro theme here, i happen to like Horehound. not impossible to find, but by the same token not every day either- however oh gee shucks it just isn’t in diet candy yet….that i saw. I’m kinda interested in the ice chips concept of xyletol candy as it gets close to the hard crack stage of real sugar candy thus …might…if lazy gets off the keister… be candied popcorn again :D- but before I’m off into never never land food, you like old stuff 😉 sing a lil c’ist la vie!” with me as we watch some “Algiers?” charles boyer as Pepe Lemoco a fine story of escape! 😉 okay i fib cheap love trash, and I know it.I think the skipper from gilligan’s Island’s dad has a part in it. or if you remember the beans and cornbread theme from forever tv ago dinner and a movie, algiers… there is every chance this could skip cabbling of the sweets and go straight to supper improper. hibiscus soda and i’m just out on a limb here…fish tacos? I didn’t say FANCY dinner! 😀 but it’s just a lot more fun to go fishing…oh the pun… for entertainment. by fish taco depending on source availability i like a like bell pepper strips cooked along with the simple frozen fish you can chinse with fish sticks or get fairly frozen food section fancy but the point is this is an easy in the oven soon enough for the yummin’ kind of thing and surely YOUR town has http://www.seriouseats.com/images/2014/05/20140530-294426-jarritos-jamaica-soda.jpg I mean i now in advancxe it’s just not “moroccan” but neither is algeirs morrocco lol but I’m also sure the food’s good…that If i can manage so’ve your challenge! name ain’t yan so i ain’t shanghai’ing his tag line. 😉

        Liked by 1 person

      • personally, if you sit too close to the airconditioner, the one involving michigan…the marlow again here sure is nice for a laced coffee if you are game for such saids. it doesn’t have to be ‘adult” laced or cyanide lace for that matter just laced 😀

        Like

  7. When I was younger I used to love riding around downtown LA on a small motorcycle. Something peaceful about big buildings and bright lights with no people or traffic to distract me.

    Like

    Reply

I welcome your thoughts

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s