This city feels like home to me. It's different from home home -- which is still home in a peaceful shelter sort of way -- but here I feel most in my element. The buzz, the thrum, the vibe, the very Public nature of everything; I love New York. I wish the world were peacuful again and I could come here free of obligations, to rage around and be drunk and make love and art for years and years. I wish the world were like New York; diverse, energetic, optimistic, full of wealth and promise and baubles from the future.

There's no racial tension here. Well, compared to elsewhere, not much. I don't know if it's something that changes in my demeanor when I come here or if the air really is that different, but from the second I stepped off the plane, I've been surrounded by people who are different from me and I haven't felt singled out or self-conscious once. It's the density; it doesn't allow for segregation. That's what's so tragic about the mass-gentrification of Manhattan; while you'll still see all sorts all over -- witness the explosion of young homosexuals of color in the West village -- it takes a certain kind to live on that island now. That changes things once you step off the street.

Still, there's a massive difference in the degrees of separation between the various hoods of Manhattan and Brooklyn compared to the segmentation (racial, social and class-based) you get elsewhere. There's so much human energy directed at New York, it's just not possible for things to be very separated for very long before they're pushed together and mixed up again.

And good god the people are beautiful. Part of it is cosmetic, yeah; but a big part of it is confidence, purpose, drive. The whole deal, you know. This place is changing (or continuing to change, rather), but it still seems to be the place, you know? The place attracts the people, and the people make the place.

I still want to travel. I want to see more of the world, more of America even, but I'm ready to consider the notion that this is the spot to make my play.