NEW YORK RAMBLES (page 51)
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February 2026
A walk in Flushing
I hate to admit it, but the cold weather has been keeping me indoors. This is not to say daily errands have been neglected, only that my camera has been gathering dust. The fast moving storm that arrived with the night and left a fresh coat of snow by daybreak proved irresistible. It was not the spectacle that drew me out, only the possibility of something new.
December 2025
A walk from Central Park to Union Square
Although many store windows are alight with holiday decorations, they seem a little lackluster this season. I might have blamed this poor evaluation on my mercurial mood if I had not been looking forward for this day for so long. Did I expected more than I should have? I nearly always do. I have a tendency to make it difficult for reality to keep up with my imagination. This does not mean there were no marvels to be found, only that opulence did not carry the day.
December 2025
A walk in Kissena Hollow
If winter snow brings out the fractal nature of trees, its weight can easily obscure it. Out before it stops falling, I am thrown into a world of pattern and chaos. The two do not fight as much as they harmonize, as if they understood the totality of their sum before they ever came together.
November 2025
A walk in Kissena Hollow
I have seen so many giants fall that sometimes I forget those still standing. These are not ancient trees that confront me, but they manage to take me by surprise. They have grandeur to them that cannot be overlooked, should not be overlooked.
October 2025
A walk between Midtown and Chelsea
It is not the multitude of new buildings rising high above me that have turned Midtown Manhattan into a place I barely recognize. The real change is to be found at street level where the creation of new plazas, walkways, arcades, and courtyards have opened up space for both the body and the imagination. Features that were once little more than unique aberrations have become a trend of defiance, a rebellion against convention. If these features are far more showy than revolutionary, far more a performance than real, they still manage to redefine.
October 2025
A Midtown march
NO KINGS
October 2025
A ramble through Midtown
The day was indecisive, unwilling to commit to rain or sunshine. This back and forth went on all day resulting in weather that could only be accurately described in short increments. The moisture trapped in the air went off script, refusing to perform as fog, mist, or drizzle. In its place a strange luminosity arrived, one that looked as if beads of white light were clinging to everything not buried in shadow.
September 2025
A ramble between Midtown and Chelsea
Once, an ornate terra cotta tile laid into a facade was enough to draw our attention. Today such distractions have to be bigger, brighter, more colorful, and even animated to capture our eye. I am not complaining for I am drawn to texture in all its forms. While the city has been enlivened by its expanding presence, I sometimes worry if it is too much. My camera, always happy for more is now beginning to have trouble fitting it all in.
September 2025
A walk from Downtown to the Lower East Side
Murals are painted for all sorts of reasons but they are all about selling. This can be for a product, an ideology, or even the notion that beauty is important to our lives. Rarely do they tell us anything we do not already know. Their size however provides commonality, becoming an unavoidable reminder not to forget those things outside our world of habit.
September 2025
A Walk from Madison Square to the Village
The notion of what a skyscraper is has evolved over the last century, and so has the character of The Push. If both have been despised in some quarters, this has not hindered their numbers on city streets. If unrecognizable from their earlier incantations, they largely manage to function the same. Does this make them unlikely cousins? I suppose technology and innovation change more readily than the habits of people.
September 2025
A Coney Island ramble
New York is full of all sorts of hidden alleyways and courtyards. We tend to walk by the doors and grates separating us without giving them a second glance. Once open, we are drawn to these unexpected portals, not because of anything exciting or beautiful lying beyond them, but just for the opportunity to stand on the cusp of a liminal experience.
Copyright 2025 Alan Petrulis All Rights Reserved