The city that made a man out of me.
0:00 Every American should live in NYC for one year
0:42 Expectations vs reality of living in New York City
5:04 The best times to be in New York
6:14 Working myself to the bone
6:58 Visiting vs living in NYC
7:59 A strange power
9:51 Support for The Spirited Man
10:13 How NYC changes
11:58 How NYC changes you
13:44 Is New York the greatest city in the world?
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If someone were to tell me you can never go back to new york city ever again for the rest of your life. I would throw my hat in the air and kiss them on the lips, but i think every american should live in new york city for one year like the draft. This is my production schedule for the next couple months and about a month ago, we scheduled this episode, this new york episode and yesterday my brother casey published a youtube video with he and candace visiting new york, and it's essentially about their nostalgia for new york and Enthusiasm and joy for this city will allow me to retort. I lived in new york city for 20 years.

I moved there when i was 22 and i essentially committed to la full time when i was 42. and i would say in your 20s and if you're rich new york is everything that you read about. New york lives up to the new york advertising campaign. There's all the people there's all the excitement, there's the restaurants, but it's really a place to move to.

If you have a mission, if you have a mission and part of fulfilling the mission requires you to live in new york city now, i'm talking about manhattan, the outer boroughs are fine, but i'm talking about manhattan and many many people, it's a trope new york, is The greatest city in the world, and while i was living in new york in my late 30s early 40s, having visited many of the great cities in the world, i often wondered to myself by what metric, by what metric is new york city, the greatest city in The world there's nothing to do in new york, except hang out in rooms and central park, is just a giant crowded room. Everything has lines the all of the systems unless you're, rich, all of the systems are essentially worthless and broken. The the the public transit system is broken, the subway system is broken, the streets are constantly being torn up. I'm not talking about commuting, i'm not talking about going there on vacation.

I'm talking about to live in new york, rich new yorkers. Don't spend that much time in new york, they travel all over the place they're in new york for the great times to be in new york, which is the spring and the fall. It rains all the time it rains almost every day and you're out in new york. You have to bring all your gear with you in a bag on your back in your hands somewhere and new york is mostly just traveling around without a car.

I was a bicyclist, i almost never rode the subway, because it is, it is the worst subway i've ever ridden anywhere on planet earth, including mexico city, including lisbon, portugal places that have much less money than new york city. I would say, for the end of the time that i was in new york, the last five or six years, you couldn't take a subway ride that required a transfer without something being screwed without something not working without some service not being provided. You ready yes good evening because you paid dollars or maybe even a quarter, possibly even five dollar spouse or free and tips are because you know the best part. Thank you part two.
How about a tip? Okay, please, with sugar on top, preferably in cash, and thank you for shopping that bloomingdale's, our new york division wow. That was amazing, okay, all right! So that's five dollar minimum! I was taking notes for this episode and i drew a venn diagram of free time. New york and money and within that little slice of when you're living in new york and you have money and free time sure new york is a wonderful place. You can meet your friends at at the fancy.

Restaurant tina fey right there and that's my brother like five feet away. That's steve martin! Maybe you can go to a show if you booked tickets 35 years in advance and know eight people and did 17 hours of legwork or maybe uh. You know your favorite band is in town. Who cares? Who cares or it's spring or it's? You know it's the marathon week, it's uh the halloween week where they do all the costumes.

That's the best time to be in new york, sure that's fantastic or it's spring and the you know the the cherry blossoms are in bloom in central park. Sure that's fantastic! That's when you're in new york! You have free time and you have money. My experience in new york was, i was always busy. I was working myself to the bone and if i wasn't working myself to the bone i was broke, i could like eat and ride my bicycle to visit friends.

The weather is horrible, people are aggravated, you go and visit there and you're there on the weekend or you're there during a vacation or something here come the yankees and when i go and visit i went for a friend's wedding. Oh, this is such a lovely city, but when you live there and you're there on the subways in the mornings and in the evenings, everyone's super angry that thing about. Oh new yorkers are actually very, very friendly, no they're, not they're, not they're, not you know how you know cause when you talk to new yorkers. You talk to people from new york, no matter where they go in the world, with the exception of new england, but no matter where they go.

They talk about how friendly the people are. You know why, because in new york, people are miserable and impatient and mean okay. In all fairness, one thing that new york has it's a very strange power that new york has, but new york is a sort of an emotional reflector. I i don't know why? Probably because there are so many people, but if you're in a really good mood, hey man, it's so cool.

Thank you. I ride a bicycle too. It's a schwinn, it's not as cool as that. One though wow, look at that yeah! No you, i was gon na say you can go out and then you will see all the nice things and so forth, but it's not that it's the negative emotions, if you're in a slightly frustrated mood and you go out you'll just see frustration everywhere, because i've Tested this i've done all these tested, i would leave my apartment on 94th and west end avenue.
Then i would walk south on broadway. You know i'd be going to a grocery store or something, and then i would account for the loveliness and how? How long will it be before the loveliness is gone? It was usually two blocks before somebody was like, and this is every day of your life and the sirens and the horns they never end and the construction never ends wherever you're working or wherever you're living construction is coming and either in either one of those places. Construction, jackhammer bag, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, jackhammers, sirens, horns, it's inescapable, the subway broke today and it was flooded and the whole city is like this now bumper-to-bumper every block, every avenue every street and when i first moved to la i had this type of people Be like, oh so why'd, you leave new york and i would go on this tirade and the spirited man is brought to you by the spirited man. Patreon team join our patreon team at five dollars a month for exclusive access to archival videos with directors commentary and peer discussions and live streams.

Answering your questions and comments. This new york episode was an idea from one of our patrons link in the description, and i think that's why i'm doing this. Someone heard my tired and said you should do a video about this. I think at the core of what really annoyed me about new york was the fantasy of new york was the reputation it had.

It was probably a reputation that started in 1949 with here is new york by e.b white and then was bolstered in the big waves of new york like um during the 70s and 80s, with punk rock and new wave in basquiat. I heard fran leibovitz, whom i love and is one of the reasons why i wanted to live in new york. She said that aids killed bohemian new york and when i was a little kid and my dad would take the family into new york it. What still was bohemian new york? It was pre-aids or it was right at the beginning of aids, and i think it also has something to do with your the age of your of you of your body like you're, more resilient when you're in your 20s, when i dropped out of college and moved To new york, there were so many kids from school that lived in new york or brooklyn, and it was really wonderful and from them you could branch out and find your people and and from them you could branch out and find your jobs and slowly over the Years people moved away, people fell off, people, people left and it came down to like.

I basically had two friends by the time i was you know: 40. There were two of us three of us left from the initial moving there. It sort of eats you alive and for me, new york city made a man out of me. I want a truck.

I want five thousand dollars. I want a new blackberry with all my programmed into it perfectly working. I want it all before i start working. I bought the new.

The bob dylan book is chronicles and uh. I told the girl i bought it from. I want to see how he did it and she said uh. I think the trick is.
He believed that he was amazing and then i asked her if that was your trip. If that was her trick - and she said yes - and i said that's my trick too, and these things i became intolerant of as i got older, they forged me into a much stronger person, a much more organized person, there's no margin for error in new york and New york, really laser focuses you to be super super responsible and learning. The new york system. I feel like was very good for my brain, i'm a lefty.

I have i'm right brained, i'm you know i i'm very scattered and woo-woo in you know intrinsically that's what i'm really like in new york forged me into being more of a left-brained systems person, and i very very much needed that. So i would do this thing by what metric, by what metric and my friends, the long friends that are still my friends, that i really connected with, were the kids who were from new york. Eventually, those are the people that i connected with the most. This movie is called alex and van forgot, their keys they're all still there.

One of the things i really needle them about is like new york is the biggest townie city. Maybe in the world, like those kids, don't leave they're like they're townies, but i love these kids that that are my friends. I call them kids they're all 40 now, but i've lost touch with them and that's a real bummer, and you know why. The reason i lost touch is because we all got so successful.

We all you know, and we live these very big lives and i happened to be able to go on a vacation with my friend, neve shulman who's from new york. We had our kids with us. I had my son, he had his daughter and we went on this dune buggy adventure in utah it's about a year ago and we stayed at the new york new york hotel in las vegas for one night and i was doing my rant and he's from new York and he's still, he lives in brooklyn now and he had lived out here and then he moved back with his family and he wasn't being defensive or anything. And i don't even know if it was apropos of me ranting about new york.

But he was talking about the service in las vegas and it was really horrible and then he said, oh, i was with my daughter and we were at this packed pizzeria in midtown. We were leaving the pizzeria and i needed a bag and a box, and he said the guy was on the phone behind the counter on the phone, making a pizza taking an order, and he looked at me. I didn't say a word to him and he went behind his back grabbed a box threw it to me and then grabbed a bag and handed it to me. The point of the story is how unbelievably intelligent - and, i would say, present new yorkers are hey brother foreign, i'm gon na miss this central park.

Drive is closed for construction. So, on a bicycle, you have it all to yourself which never happens in new york and the contradiction is equally valid. I made you know my best friends in new york. I met isabelle in new york.
I found my career and my purpose in new york. I met tom sachs in new york, it's the best place to be when you're in your 20s and the truth is moving to new york. City was the smartest thing i ever did and it made a man out of me. I'd be nothing without new york city, and thank god it's over and los angeles is my reward.

This week on the patreon, a live stream. Answering your questions. The link is right. There.


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