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People come to NYC (as well as other cities) for entertainment.  I love it for entertainment.  Broadway, off Broadway, Carnegie Hall, Brooklyn Academy of Music, performance of all kinds in venues of all sizes.   You can find anything and some things in abundance.

But I also enjoy is street/platform performance (I HATE when people perform in a subway car.  I think it is an invasion of my personal space because we are all trapped).

Street/platform performance has to be something I like or different, as I had had enough the guys with the flutes from Peru (no disrespect)

There are some performers that have permits from the city to play at a specific date and time and there are others that set up shop away from the eyes of the police.  I like the Japanese rap guys in Union Square, or the banjo players on a few of the Brooklyn subway platforms (banjos have become very hip, along with an over abundance of facial hair and a lack of bathing, but that is another discussion), and my favorite ever when was a group of boys from Chicago would start playing their brass in front of Whole Foods on 14^th Street.  They were called the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble http://www.hypnoticbrassensemble.com/ and even though they played venues, they would pop out a few tunes at what seemed to be an impromptu location. Of course there is always see the lone sax or guitar player and for me they are always welcome.

All of these performers are part of the soundtrack to the city, along with sirens, horns, talking, cursing and footsteps. Come take a listen

Everyone has talked or will talk about communing with nature. Getting out into the woods, a quiet beach or the mountains and allowing them to envelop you so your thoughts are part of the surroundings. It could be laying on a deserted beach or skiing a double black diamond (I stick to the bunny hills myself). In either situation you want to be one with your current background.

I never hear anyone mentioning “commune with urban”. I never said it either, until about two weeks ago. I have recently started biking more around Manhattan and Brooklyn and I really enjoy it. There are peaceful times when I am pedaling on a quiet street in Carroll Gardens or the crazy times in Chinatown when I am riding with a dump truck in front of me, a cab behind me, and five cars blocking the bike lane so it is useless. But in all these situations, I become one with the city. On the Manhattan Bridge early in the morning I am bird gliding over the city and imagining what is going on down below, on each corner and behind every window. When on the streets competing with cars, buses, people, and hot dog carts, I am a rat dashing in and out seeing where I can steal space just for a instant only planning a few seconds ahead because you do not know what will be around the next turn. I am the tranquility and the lunacy. “I” no longer exist, I am part of the larger organism I live in.

I arrive at my destination and I step back into my life with a feeling of attachment to something greater.