Suzanne Vega in NYC
The limen is that space between two other spaces, and for liminal spaces, one of the most obvious is the airport, or bus station. There is a sense of dislocation when traveling, and it’s not a metaphorical state of being. You actually are neither here nor there, and always on the way or returning, but never actually there. Some people like the sensation. I actually love it, it’s one of my favorite places to be, and it doesn’t really matter where it is, since it’s no-place specific anyway. In the space between, there is room for poetry to sneak in, room for accidental discoveries, and also room for a long nap.
This might be one of the things I like best about New York. Airport hotel accommodations also suit me very well, and especially here, because they are every bit as wonderful as the other luxury hotels, and you’re close to everything. But particularly, I like the way they treat me, because they know that, even though all hotel guests are temporary, we’re even more temporary, often here for a night, or just a few hours, to freshen up while we continue to be liminal beings on our way to somewhere else. The good news in all of this for me is that I happen to have a night in Manhattan, where I can catch the Suzanne Vega show at the Allen Room.
I’ve had a secret crush on her since Solitude Standing. When I first heard it, I couldn’t get over the empty spaces between her voice and the notes. Outside of experimental music, I hadn’t heard silence used like that, and it was a revelation. These are the spaces between sounds, those liminal moments, and she had the restraint to refuse to fill them, or to even follow them with something harsh and jarring, but was comfortable letting them rest like that in their liminality. So although I hope that she decides to leave her husband for me when she sees how I understand her at the show, it would probably be more fitting if she left him, and just stayed there in that moment, liminal as everything that’s on its way to being born. And I finish up my coffee and it’s time to catch the train.
Related posts:
Leave a Comment