Ever since the amazing team from Brizo invited me to New York for 2 days worth of “fashion week”, I’ve been wondering what to write about. Sure, it was a short visit, but there’s a lot to see in the city. It was a once in a lifetime experience, and I’m sure it will lead to quite a few posts.

But, what should I write? I could write about the fantastic products they shared with us. Or about Jason Wu and his amazing spring fashion line. I could write about the Showtime House and the over the top designs based on Showtime shows. I could write about the other fabulous bloggers (The “suite 18”) that Brizo flew up.  If I had been able to drag my ass out of bed, I could have written about winning the Brizo sponsored bath design challenge. I could write about design trends, and trend spotting, and pink fabulous fashion design things.  Or, I could explain how many drinks it takes for me to come up with the nickname “C-balls” (it only takes 3 by the way).

Or not

There wasn’t a lot of down time, but what time I had, I spent walking around and looking up. Tripping on my shoe laces, and stepping on peoples toes. I was a tourist in EVERY sense of the word.

But, while looking up, I saw familiar forms.

All photos are from Mementosis’ Watertower set on Flickr and are used under the creative commons license – Check out more HERE.

I spent part of the early 1990s riding the elevated trains in Chicago. With my sketchbook in hand, I would stare out the windows at the tops of buildings. The roofs in cities are populated with an eclectic entourage of mechanical characters: A network of pipes, and metal boxes, and grilles, and sheds, and ladders, and ducts, and towers. They scatter themselves along the flat roofs and hang onto the edges of the parapets. They’re venting air, pulling-in air, exhausting fumes, venting plumbing gases, stepping down electrical current, piping fluids to the buildings, and holding water. They’re grey isolated forms, typically ignored, and covered in graffiti. They may be my favorite part of the city. And I think they’re staring at me.

As I walked through New York, they peeked out at me over the parapets. And, all those grey, lonely water towers seemed to follow me as I passed.

New York, I love you, but you’re freaking me out.

Lyric cribbed from LCD Soundsystem

[youtube hANCWALVrWU LCD SoundSystem]