4/17/2003 » Musings

A week ago I left for London, it had just stopped snowing. But we hit 85 degrees (29 C) yesterday, a glorious, one day special appearance. Sundresses were full aflower, and every fly girl, poseur, breaker and freak was out in Union Square yesterday. Women broke out the shortest, tightest, most revealing skirts, capris and cutoffs in their closets, bless them. There were more handstands than you could shake a stick at, lean, brown capoeira men clapping, singing and wheeling, break teams and hustlers doing the concrete pommel horse for cash. Struggling writers and laptops shifted from the bookstore to the park; electric, flirtatious glances through crowds.

As if borrowing the warm breeze from Colaba, Diesel put up a storefront display with mannequins as tourists in South India. The backdrop: earnest, dark-skinned engineers in polyester clothes astride scooters, whizzing through markets marked Dildar Appliances and Shri Ram Hospital. Hip. A real Indian engineer walks past the window, flapping gauntly; he's the mannequin, in life he'd never set foot in Diesel. A Ganesha statue, a dancing Shiva in the window, bastards; insert your own shibboleth, a crucifix or a menorah, and see how it feels.

Today, 40 degrees and rain.