Notes from the Pianobabbler's New York residency
July 04 2009
Midtown West - Hudson River
No one but no one does big as well as New York does big.
It's the 4th of July. Independence Day. 233rd anniversary of the Declaration of Independence that John Hancock and a few other men signed.
Fireworks. It's a day for fireworks. Macy's department store has sprung for a big show. Three massive barges are lined up on the Hudson, about 15 blocks apart. Each one has enough powder and fire on it to conduct a short-term war in a post-colonial less-developed nation.
Aristotle distinguished between art and spectacle. He saw a tendency to move from the former to the latter in a society.
The Pianobabbler is no fan of pure spectacle, any more than he is a fan of pure art (the 22-hour-dialogue-free-documentary-about-a-fly-in-an-uninhabited-room variety.)
Nothing bespeaks pure spectacle more than fireworks. So, the Pianobabbler is less interested in the nighttime rockets' red glare here on the Hudson, than in the communal event.
There are thousands of people up and down the Hudson. On the water, boat after boat has gathered on the outside of he safety perimeter. I think there are more people here than in all of western Manitoba.
The sky darkens at around 9:20. Boom. The three barges start a perfectly coordinated show of sky-filling (and atmosphere-degrading) glitter, colour, spangle and wow. For 30 minutes, they bend and twist the firmament, as masses gawk and gab. "Did you see that red?" "Ooooo that was beautiful."
Unfailingly, the bigger the bang, the bigger the audience awe.
30 minutes on, it ends in a paroxysm of crackling light. Everyone leaves.
What a technical feat. Perfectly coordinated and paced. Not a flaw in 30 relentless minutes.
Spectacle may not be the Pianobabbler's cuppa. But he is not immune to it, and appreciates it. (Is it be too condescending to recall a favourite Northrop Frye apothegm Every mind is a primitive mind?)
Somewhere between spectacle and art lies the golden mean of aesthetics.
But there is an art to spectacle. And no one has mastered the art of spectacle like New York. The city itself is a spectacle, never mind Broadway shows and bravado buildings. New York gives meaning to the phrase making it big.
Have a spectacular 4th.
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