New York, 2005

In 2005, we were on a world trip.

We took advantage of what used to be ‘ten stops on three continents’ airline tickets. These days it’s only five stops for three continents.

Our seventh stop was New York. When we arrived, our global roaming didn’t kick in as the US was still using an analogue network. Our friends and family back home (in Australia) panicked. We had just left London where, the following day, bombs were detinated on a bus and at various train stations in the area we were staying. When our number had no signal, our loved ones feared the worst.

In New York, we had Aiden.

Aiden was a friend of a friend who was supposed to take us out on the town one night. Instead, he became our social seceratary for the two weeks we were there. On two occasions we were on our way to the United Nations. Then he’d ring and before we knew it, we were at a dance party at an art museum or at a French restaurant for Bastille Day, instead. The male owner of the establishment dressed as Marie Antoinette for the occasion.

The politics of America was definitely different and that’s part of the reason for this blog. To celebrate a city the way it was when we first discovered it. So, these video snippets are my time capsule, finally edited during coronavirus isolation, fifteen years after I shot these images.

Visually, New York is memorable.

Even if you’ve never visited, you know this city. Both King Kong and Godzilla have wandered its streets. Four girlfriends regularly caught up at a cafe or a restuarant to discuss their sex lives. And Woody Allen brought us many adventures from this metropolis.

I fell in love with the art deco buildings during my first visit, and being a theatre fan, lined up for cheap tickets for a Broadway show. In contrast, someone we knew was staying in Times Square while we were there. Instead of discovering the city, he discovered the Manga Channel on cable. Seriously, that’s all he did. We forced him out of his hole twice but for the rest of his stay, he played hermit.

During this visit I picked the wrong night to go up the Empire State Building as fog was settling. A fact my partner (now husband), Warren, kept pointing out over and over.

We discovered the Supa Lowery Brothers, a hip hop jazz band that were busking. Below is all the footage I took of them as I wanted to preserve it online. This performance is cut back in the full version of this NY holiday featured at the bottom of this page.

So if you haven’t already, click the play buttons.

I’ve popped many short snippets for you to enjoy. And, if you live in Manhattan, let me know how this old New York compares to the one today. Is it filled with confidence? Is there hope for the future? Is there a sense of community? We last visited in 2014 before Trump madness.

Below is the full presentation which represents about a fifth of all the footage I originally took in NY. Half an hour, edited from over two and a half hours of our two week stay.