In 1994 I was an exchange student at the University of Texas at Austin, and I spent the summer break in New York City, staying in NYU dormitory housing and trying to experience as much of the city as I could whilst spending as little as I could. It's a great city for that - pedestrian friendly, lots of free events like book readings and concerts in Central Park, and of course the endless fascination of people watching. It was in New York that I discovered the simple pleasure of walking across a bridge, something I now love to do when I'm in a new place, a way of making a tangible connection with the geography and architecture.
One thing I loved when I was in New York was the free weekly newspaper, the New York Press. I became completely addicted to one column, The Howie Chronicles, a transcript of writer Howard Kaplan's weekly session with his therapist. There's something compelling in the relationship between the two men: Howie's unabashedly obsessive scrutiny of his daily interactions with the world; and Dr G, who gives little away, but subtly steers Howie toward a deeper reflection on his motives and habits.
Unfortunately, there's only a single entry of the column currently available online, Howie's final session with Dr G. But this one session captures all that I loved about The Howie Chronicles, and why I looked forward each week to the latest edition of the New York Press. I'm hoping that one day they put the series online so I can revisit it, and you guys can experience it too.
http://nypress.com/the-howie-chronicles-the-final-curtain/
Brooklyn Bridge image by Pilettes on de.wikipedia.org
More travel stories please! I like hearing about early o/s trips taken by kites. The Howie Chronicles sounded a little like a Sophie Calle project, called The Address Book, which was similarly based on real life interactions and published periodically in a newspaper. Sophie finds an address book that's been misplaced, photocopies the pages and sets out to approach and interview people listed in the book in the hope of learning more about its owner.
ReplyDeleteI like how Dr G only told his wife that he was the therapist!
This post also reminded me a little of this basic looking cartoon from the 90s that Tony watches sometimes called Dr Katz, Professional Therapist. Dr Katz is a fictional character but in the cartoon he sees real-life comedians. It's pretty wacky but funny: http://www.vulture.com/2013/03/comedy-undercard-the-critic.html