When I say "city" I mean anything near a parking lot.
When I say "city"
Neil Freeman, 2013
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A collection of extemporaneous views on cities. Write your own.
When I say "city" I mean one side of a line of infinitesimal dots.
When I say "city" I mean anywhere with pigeons
When I say "city" I mean iniquity and the possibility of occult ritual in basements
When I say "city" I mean any place with expensive coffee drinks, readily available
When I say "city" I mean skyscrapers and subways.
When I say "city", it's a euphemism for black people.
When I say "City" I mean Manhattan.
When I say "city" I mean a statistically-defined employment market.
When I say "city" I mean a relatively continuous built-up area.
When I say "city" I mean a skyline seen across water.
When I say "city" I mean polychlorinated biphenyls, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and coal tar suspended in mud
When I say "city" I mean a machine forever destroying an idyllic garden
When I say "city" I mean nightclubs, high fashion and dancing until the sun comes up
When I say "city" I mean a tightly-knit neighborhood with its own accent, where an outsider is someone whose grandparents lived elsewhere
When I say "city" I mean underground railroads and steam pouring from manholes.
When I say "city" I mean steel and glass
When I say "city" I mean a relatively autonomous administrative division of a state
When I say "city" I mean a lone high rise seen from a motorway.
When I say "city" I mean empty warehouses and invasive weeds poking up from tarmac.
When I say "city" I mean a walled settlement with the right to hold a regular market and mint coins
When I say "city" I mean a wolf suckling a pair of twins in a cave on the River Tiber
When I say city I mean an eternal cloud of smog hanging in a valley.
When I say "city" I'm talking about a problem to be solved.
When I say "city" I mean a settlement built with thousand-year-old bricks.
When I say "city" I mean rivers channeled in concrete.
When I say "city" I mean poverty and crime in the shadow of wealth and fame.
When I say "city" I mean a soundscape of car horns, warning beeps, roaring air conditioners, and a background rumble of jackhammers
When I say "city" I'm talking about that Jacques Tati movie with the anonymous buildings and the crazy nightclub
When I say "city" I'm talking about heroin dealers, flop houses and crack dens.
When I say "city" I'm talking about an Italo Calvino book.
When I say "city" I'm talking I'm talking Gotham or Metropolis, places inseparable from their heroes
When I say "city" I'm talking about a mouse learning a lesson from his cousin in the country, and vis versa.
When I say "city" I'm talking about squatter-built shanties.
When I say "city" I mean a forgotten skein of ditches and mounds in the forest.
When I say "city" I mean a massive crowd gathered in a square, shouting in unison
When I say "city", I mean a stage-set built in a desert missile range for testing weapon s
When I say "city" I'm telling eight million stories.
When I say "city", I mean boom boxes blasting Public Enemy.
When I say "city" I mean big, bright lights.
When I say "city" I mean a kind of EPCOT Center, but with no admission charge
When I say "city" I mean that Compton's in the motherfuckin house!
When I say "city" I mean an Italian family paying a man with a Celtic name $25 a month for three small rooms in a ramshackle rear tenement
When I say "city", I mean that I am sitting in a room different from the one you are in now, recording the sound of my speaking voice
When I say "city", I mean a combined sewer system.
When I say "city" I mean underground bars frequented by newspapermen.
When I say "city" I mean enjoying a cold one on the stoop.
When I say "city", I mean a tree-lined boulevard leading to a triumphal arch.
When I say "city" I'm talking about staying up all night playing Civ II.
When I say "city" I mean the entire area within reach of a radio station's signal
When I say "city" I'm not talking about the old lady in Dubuque.
When I say "city", I mean "suburb"
When I say "city;" behold me--incarnate me as I have incarnated you!
When I say "city", there is no set of statistics to explain when I mean.
When I say "city" I mean a United Nations plot to take away our guns and cars.
When I say "city" I mean an irregular series of outdoor rooms.
When I say "city" I mean twitter.
When I say "city" I mean the grip of man upon nature, a mighty image which stirs our minds.
When I say "city" it's just a third-generation rip-off of Jane Jacobs
When I say "city" I mean the intricate ballet of sidewalk use.
When I say "city" I mean the Seagram Building.
When I say "city", I mean the original cast recording of "Rent."
When I say "city" I mean the crater where Sunnydale used to be.
When I say "city" I'm talking about Satanic mills.
When I say "city", I mean a classified settlement known only by a number.
When I say "city," I mean Shchyolkovo-14, or Star City.
When I say "city," I'm also talking about industrial farms and summer cottages.
When I say "city" I mean cow kicking a lantern into a mess of hay in a barn off DeKoven Street.
When I say "city" I mean packs of snarling dogs.
When I say "city" I mean Gary, Indiana; Gary, Indiana; Gary, Indiana. Let me say it one more time: Gary, Indiana.
When I say "city" I mean birds perched on a wire.
When I say "city" I mean games played with chalk on concrete
When I say "city," I mean Harappa. I mean Memphis.I mean Sumer. I mean Aššur. I mean Jericho. I mean Athens. I mean Rome. I mean Carthage.
I mean Dura-Europa. I mean Byzantium. I mean Moscow. I mean Hong Kong. I mean Lagos. I mean Mecca. I mean New York.
I mean Rangoon and Yangon. I mean Orlando and Copenhagen and Paris and Bogatá and Colon. Istanbul and Salé, Perth, Jakarta, Ulan Bator.
I mean São Paulo. I mean Chicago. I mean Tokyo. I mean San Francisco. I mean Beijing. I mean London. I mean Oslo. I mean Leningrad.