The Backstreet Boy

Photographed by: Joshua Allen Harris

Despite the fact my iPod is a never-ending loop of rap music and I have an unhealthy obsession with street art, I still have about as much street cred as Mary Queen of Scots.

One of my favourite street artists would have to be New York's Joshua Allen Harris, whose trash bag animals take unassuming plastic rubbish bags strewn along the streets and turns it into something beautiful, most notably a polar bear.

As a symbol of impending climate change, these trash bag polar bears inflate and deflate with the passing subway trains beneath the city, coming to life and then lifelessly collapsing. The street art makes a statement on global warming as the figure of the majestic polar bear inflates into life and dies as its source of air dissipates. Many New Yorkers have commented on how sad it is to watch the life-cycle of the polar bear; dying over and over, paralleling the issue of climate change directly affecting their habitat.

You know when you’ve walked the same way home a hundred times and everything is so familiar that you stop noticing anything at all? What I love about Joshua’s sculptures is that they make the everyday extraordinary. Disguised as mundane rubbish lining the streets, before inflating into something as whimsical as the Loch Ness monster or a centaur . 

Joshua Allen Harris’ work has in a sense become an unofficial tourist destination. As onlookers post footage of the artwork on social media, an ensuing flood of people emerge from all corners of the internet. I don’t care if you’re a 6-foot-10 Compton Crip who thinks prison is relaxing, the momentary life-cycle of the plastic bag creatures will undoubtedly captivate your heart and imagination on New York’s city streets (with the reassurance that this will get tons of likes on Insta).

Xx

Breakfast at Tiffany's, Lunch at Bergdorf's, Dinner at Sak's

I hurl out of the yellow cab into the pounding rain outside. The tyres of cars swoosh through the puddled street, sending pedestrians skittering and splashing with black briefcases held over their heads. I run through them, the sound of my heels tip, tapping on the wet pavement.

“Caaaaaat…..” I cry. 

“Cat! Cat! Caaaaaaaaatt!”

BBZZZKK ..... BBZZZKK ..... BBZZZKK ..... BBZZZKK ....  

"Just a dream. It was only a dream".

That morning I sat down at breakfast to direct the movie I was starring in at the moment, the movie that was my life. In it I was Holly Golightly. Pulling up in a yellow cab at Tiffany and Co, wearing an elegant Givenchy evening gown, a pair of elbow length gloves and nibbling on a Danish pastry. Henry Mancini’s ‘Moon River’ playing dreamily in the background of my mind. 

The opening sequence of ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’ is a lasting symbol of New York City. The outfit worn by Holly as she peers through the store window has become a Halloween cliché (a side effect of making it as a symbol), and has been reproduced time and time again in pop culture. It’s no wonder that it should play out in my dreams as I imagine my exchange to New York. 

Pop culture series by Designcrowd

Pop culture series by Designcrowd

Breakfast is Tiffany - Hollywood is Dead

A scene from the CWs Gossip Girl

I can’t help but find it ironic however, that a symbol so integral to New York's self image, was also entirely manufactured by Hollywood. This 1960’s snapshot has been responsible for thousands of tourists, who have nibbled on their own croissant outside Tiffany’s. Little do they know that Audrey hated pastries so much, the opening scene had to be re-shot over and over as she tried not to gag. 

I’d like to think of myself as a modern-day Holly Golightly. For starters we're both extroverts. We're both nineteen and we both have a cat. But, most importantly, we're both young woman leaving their small towns for the allure of the big city. Although, New York is expensive for Holly (like it is for me), leading her to pursue work as a ‘call girl’ (unlike me). So calm down mum if you're reading this.

Wouldn’t we all like to be a little like Holly? Considering the trail of fashionable female New Yorkers following in her footsteps, from Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and the City to Andy in The Devil Wears Prada, the answer is undoubtedly yes. Holly Golightly is not just a symbol, she’s an icon.

Xx

New York, New Dork

OhAi world!

According to some study my lecturer keeps quoting, I have around 2 sentences in which to convince you to keep reading this post. And like a complete IDIOT, I've almost wasted them just telling you this. I guess I should probably begin by saying that I am writing this blog series on New York partly because I have to for homework (say hi to my tutor), but mostly because I REAAAALLLLYYY want to go there on exchange in the fall. 

I want is to live in New York for a semester at Barnard College. My roommate will be the 'I-hate-everything-except-heavy-metal-and-heavy-eyeliner' kind of Goth, who will ignore me until we bond over a mutual obsession with Breakfast at Tiffany's. 
Outside of lectures I'll be the coffee-making magazine intern who gets invited to Fashion Week (after the proper girl comes down with the flu). On my way to the Givenchy show I'll hail a cab to find none other than Brandon Stanton waiting inside, who will take my picture for 'Humans of New York' accompanied by an insightful quote I thought of on the spot. 
On weeknights I'll play soccer for Barnard. Afterwards the team will hang in our booth at the downtown pizza parlour on Seventy-Second and Lex, where the joints owner; Tony will make us all 'the usual'. 
Not to mention I will have three best friends (just like Carrie Bradshaw), who are the kind of cool-laid-back adults everyone loves. On the weekends we’ll storm the three B’s (Bendel's, Barney's and Bergdorf's) on 5^th Avenue,  and feed the ducks in Central Park. Is that really too much to ask?
No comment

Pico Iyer wrote that 'abroad is a place where we stay up late, follow impulses and find ourselves as wide open as when we are in love'. I have to agree. (And not just because Pico Iyer sounds super smart and like he knows what he's talking about). There is something incredibly romantic (yet utterly terrifying) about the thought of going to college in a foreign city. Experience everything for the first time, almost like a second childhood. This will be my love letter to New York City. 

And as Gossip Girl socialite Serena always says:

One of my favourite novels ‘The Catcher in the Rye’  was written in Manhattan. No doubt some of the greatest literature OF ALL TIME was written in the Big Apple because it’s a city that inspires. I guess that living outside of my boring suburban neighborhood and in New York will allow me experience the world on my own, before I start to write about it. 

So Before departing on my trip (assuming that I get in of course. Which if you can't already tell, I DESPERATELY HOPE SO!) I'm going to document the exchange student's guide to surviving the city that never sleeps. Studying abroad and living like a real New Yorker. Starting with the Gossip Girl tour... duh!

Xx

P.S - This is the real-life facial expression I make when I drink Starbucks. I hate coffee. So I guess I can't really be THAAT much of a true New Yorker.

P.P.S - To read more head over to the new 'travel' section of out blog!