passing by the magazine kiosk on the corner last night i was surprised to see the new york magazine poster taped to the side featured mike defeo (a.k.a. the flower guy) painting one of his trademark flowers. turns out it was the 123 reasons to love new york right now issue. i’m excited for mike. must feel good and it couldn’t happen to a more deserving or downright nice guy. as for the story itself, well, it’s about what you’d expect, aside from their stellar choice of cover subject it’s mostly uninspired, but, as with all things nyc related, it’s also hard to resist a glance for we proud urbanites. i’ve highlighted a few of their reasons below-

here is the cover

mike’s existence is technically not part of the 123 reasons though it grabbed the cover. he and his artwork are listed as reason #124.

quote: Michael De Feo, a.k.a. Flower Guy. Street-art veteran Michael De Feo has spent more than a decade pasting whimsically uplifting silk-screened prints around the city; except for his trademark flower, he never repeats an image. His first giant flower, painted eleven years ago, still stands on East 23rd Street, between Second and Third Avenues.

(he’s also the creator of the delightful book alphabet city, mentioned here previously,  which if you missed you ought to check out.)

it warmed my small black heart to hear his first giant flower was still up near s.v.a. brought back memories…

anyhow, continuing-

reasons #1 & #2. Because Bush Is Not Our Fault… But we have nothing against Republicans

quote: After every malapropism, every inadvertent display of incuriosity, every heartbreaking show of incompetence, we can remind ourselves we had nothing to do with Bushís reelection. It’s some consolation, small though it is.

Our rejection turned out to be prescient, but the sense of validation that our predictions have come true is cold comfort. Soldiers are still coming home in coffins; the Treasury is bare; a hurricane destroyed New Orleans and Bush could barely be made to notice. Of course our president is suspicious of government. He has no idea how to run one. At least New York, the ultimate meritocratic city, had the good sense to figure this out. We prefer self-made men and women in this town.

New Yorkers, having lived through the passion play of 9/11, seem to have lost their taste for certain kinds of political drama. Who, having lived through that day in the city, doesnít now wonder at all thatís been done in its name? The paralysis at the site itself is a constant reminder of the dangers of too much emotion in politics.

(mayor) Bloomberg is a perfect politician for this moment. Who loves him? The list can’t extend that far beyond his mom. The most charismatic thing about him is his checkbook. His most important virtue is his adulthood. It’s a quality one would like to see our national leaders grow into.

yes, yes. all well and good. we hate bush but we’re alright with bloomberg. hate bush because he’s an incompetent ideologue whose every assholeish facial twitch makes our blood boil / tolerate bloomberg because he’s so no-nonsense, so like an honest c.e.o. in his dealings (if there is such an animal) but this same logic can very well backfire on us if that other republican pictured above ever gets into a position of true power. we won’t be so blameless then will we? 

reason #35. Because a Guy from Ecuador Can Sell Soda Off the Back of a Donkey, Then Come Here and Build a $120 Million Business. All It Takes Is a Few Mattresses and an 800 Number

this story is a capsule about entrepreneur Napoleon Barragan, the ecuadorian born protagonist of the classic rags to riches story. he created 1-800-mattress (“leave the last ‘s’ off for savings”) and became a multi-millionaire.

it ought to really be titled “because a guy from ecuador Can Sell Soda Off the Back of a Donkey, Then Come Here and realize the real american dream.” the real american dream, of course, meaning not just rising above poverty but becoming wealthy enough that your penance for the obligatory tax evasion conviction will consist of nothing more than a handful of hours in the clink followed by a fine. in short becoming wealthy enough to avoid the ass-rape which your earlier, poorer, self would have suffered through.

that’s

true success.

reasons #64-100. Because Christians and Kabbalists, Wiccans and Zoroastrians, Have a Home Here

this is to my mind indeed a good reason to love new york. to be clear though it’s not really because of the warm fuzzy ideals about tolerance and melting pots (which are nice) but rather because of the brute mathematical reality. i am an atheist but i say the more believers, cult members, and religious sects the better. the greater the dispersion across multiple sects the lesser chance there is for an overwhelming majority, which means the lesser the chance that i’ll have to contend with that majority’s particular brand of madness, and can be left happily to my own.

i happen to think that if this country were more truly the land of religious freedom and diversity which it has always claimed to be, which is to say in practice like new york, we’d be

far

batter off. specific interests would hopefully provide checks and balances for one another, staving off more effectively the sickening christian theocratic tendencies we have to swallow from the highest levels of our government today… barring a complete collapse of all organized monotheistic religions that is.

reason #123. Because, Well, Look Around.

this title is slightly misleading. the capsule is really about photographer susan wides’ new shots of the city.

quote: Susan Wides took her camera and tripod to familiar sites, looking to shoot them in unfamiliar ways. Her large-format view camera and depth-of-field manipulations give these photographs a retro quality, evoking the mid-century masters who first documented skyscraper culture in black-and-white. Her photographs are fluid rather than static: Her lens swings, tilts, and pans, giving the images a dynamism that they share with the city they capture, itself an ongoing act of imagination.

susan wides has done interesting workfor a while now and these city shots are no exception though i think the magazine’s characterization of them as “evoking the mid-century masters” falls flat. more than anything i think the odd depth of field in wides’ photos serve to make the city feel uncommonly small, adding an interesting sense of otherness to the familiar sights. to me they look like miniatures shot with a macro lense. nice any which way you describe them.

lastly nestled within the rah-rah of reasons 7-33 is the unlikely but i think deserving nod to

Grace Bonney, 24, blogger. design* sponge keeps 10,000 design insiders informed on where to score the coolest, hippest new objets. Next up: a TV show for design-savvy travelers.

congrats to grace.

in an odd way the story does highlight a very important reason to love the city. they went through the trouble of listing 123 things about new york which they felt were of interest but which i found mostly uninteresting. does that mean that i disagree with their sentiment? not at all. the fact is i could be totally bored stiff by, or even disagree with, their 123 reasons, i could think to myself, “what a coincidence, these are exactly the 123 things i dislike about new york!” but still be utterly smitten with this city. that is because i’ve got at least 123 reasons of my own, and so does every one of the city’s 8 million residents.