Tuesday, April 17, 2012

SOD: The Lovin' Spoonful "Summer in the City"

It was in the 80's yesterday. It's 73 degrees right now. NYC is heating up. Skirts, shorts, sandals, and sun. The bars and restaurants open their windows and doors, suddenly everything is more scenic. The heat hasn't been consistent enough as to start the summer smells of this great city thank god. But the simple fact that more and more people are coming out of hibernation leads one to assume that soon enough congestion and filth will accompany them. Yes I know it's only April but Oh, how I love Summer in the City.

You know how it goes:

Hot town, summer in the city
Back of my neck getting dirty and gritty
Been down, isn't it a pity
Doesn't seem to be a shadow in the city
All around, people looking half dead
Walking on the sidewalk, hotter than a match head.


The summer days in the city are shit. Plain and simple. I'd give anything to be anywhere else on a hot summer day. The walk to work starts out nice, but 3 minutes in I'm sweating like a rapist. By time I get to the office, I have to change my shirt (as I always keep a spare), and I only wish I could do the same with my underwear. But then, for all intensive purposes, I spend the next nine or so hours in a freezer drawer. I say that, because my office is one compartment in a larger area that's kept around 40 degrees. Industrial air conditioning doesn't work by an on/off switch. It takes time to get that puppy running. They set a temperature in the morning, and the machine takes a substantial amount of time to get there. So naturally, they set the temperature very low, as to get there as quickly as possible. Which means that around 10am its bearable, and by 1pm, its the Arctic. But just in my section of course. The rest of the office hovers around a euphoric 69 degrees. As usual, the world is out to fuck me.

Once I leave, I'm so thankful to have the warm hug of spring on my skin, that I forget within two minutes I'll be suffocated by it, drenched in sweat all over again. But now I'm complaining about that which everyone must endure. The only reason we even put up with it is because the night time, is the right time, baby. As the song continues:

But at night it's a different world,
go out and find a girl
come-on come-on and dance all night
despite the heat it'll be alright
And babe, don't you know it's a pity
that the days can't be like the nights
In the summer, in the city
In the summer, in the city.

Well put gents. There's nothing like the light of the world at 8 o'clock on a summer night. Everything just feels right. Hey, it's what we worked for all winter. And though we're losing it as soon as we've got it, somehow we all do actually live in the moment, and just appreciate it for what it is. Summer. In all it's glory. Yea the days are tough if you're in the city, but in the nighttime, everyones young again. You get this gusto in your gut. This need to get out and walk with a little kick in your step. You're The Man right now. You feel good. Ain't nothin' gonna stop you. You may just even give a little smirk, or even a wink if you're feeling extra peppy, to the next girl you see comin' the other way. Hell, it's summer for her too and she deserves it for losing the layers.

Cool town, evening in the city
Dressing so fine and looking so pretty
Cool cat, looking for a kitty
Gonna look in every corner of the city
'Til I'm wheezing like a bus stop
Running up the stairs, gonna meet you on the rooftop


And it is a cool town, even if not in temperature. I give NYC a lot of shit, but I'll never say it ain't cool. It's cutting edge, it's trendy, it's pretentious, it's artsy, sometimes folky, definitely mature but with a playful side, if not at times completely immature and raucous. No, that doesn't make a lot of sense, but that's because it's not supposed to. Every different person you see from street to street, village to village, is different. And that's cool. There's a friendly place for everyone to get down in. Summer in the city baby, you know it's coming.



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