I met up with Eden after work last Wednesday. We stormed through the midtown crowds and boarded the Uptown 1 train to Morningside Heights in beautiful Harlem. The train ride took no time at all. The last bit of our short trip took us way above ground, alongside tall office buildings, schools, and homes. It's a very special view.
The sidewalks are wider up at 125th Street and people aren't in as much of a hurry. University students mix with old couples and young children and other Harlem folk. A banner stretched out between two street signs announced the 22nd Annual Anti-Gentrification Street Festival. We admired it as we carefully stepped across video cables that had been strewn across the sidewalk: A film crew had been using the basement of Eden's apartment building as a set for an upcoming episode of
Law & Order.
"Do you see my boyfriend around here anywhere?" Eden asked.
She was talking about Jeremy Sisto.
"No, not yet."
"I'll find him later."
Eden lives in one of those grand old New York City apartment buildings. The kind you've probably seen in the movies. A large lobby with tiled floors and marble staircases and the highest ceilings you've ever seen in your life. An old elevator seems to take forever before it finally arrives to carry you away. It'll stop before you make it to your floor and the lights will suddenly flicker on and off. You'll say "Screw this damn thing" and you'll get out and walk the rest of the way up to Eden's place.
You'll wonder how many times these walls have been painted. You'll wonder who lived here before.
Inside Eden's place, the first things you see are five or so 45RPM seven-inch discs. They are tacked to the wall, as art.
"Cool," you'll say.
"Oh, is that some kind of sin?" she'll ask.
"No," you'll lie.
There is a long, dreamlike hall decorated with colorful paintings and vintage furniture and all kinds of memories. At the end of the long, dreamlike hall, you'll find a wall of handsome white shelves. Seemingly made specifically for vinyl LPs, these shelves now hold empty bottles, pretty vases, large books, plush toys, a collection of PEZ dispensers, and
a Sota Sapphire turntable.
For now, it sits there quietly, so full of beauty and potential.
