Today's Brad Warner blog is interesting

http://hardcorezen.blogspot.com/2011/06/someone-elses-impressions-of-my-talk-at.html

because it includes an email from an attendee at Warner's recent talk at the "Ordinary Mind Zen Center" in NYC and things got a little awkward -- which is always interesting.

As one commenter said, that's the kind of thing that burns you out on living in NYC. It's just how people behave. Not chatting before events, being territorial, having all kinds of ponderous serious pretenses during Q&As. Feeling very special. It's the same at talks by filmmakers and philosophers, at yoga and dance classes, etc. You can find it entertaining, take it seriously, or wander off to greener pastures. Yawn.

Weird, though I've never lived in NYC, I've visited a lot and was always struck by how friendly the atmosphere often was -- in spite of the City's reputation.

Though that wasn't what I thought was interesting about this blog (the rudeness could've happened anywhere I think), it was the dynamic between Warner and Magrid and the inclusion of pyschoanalytic theory into the mix.

I hear you. And it can be an exaggeration. I went to a teaching a month or so ago in NY by a guy named Loch Kelly and the group was pleasant, there were lots of laughs, and no "New York moments" at all! He's a psychotherapist, even (though not an analyst).

But I remember many other times running into that other type of hostile situation! I don't live there now, but I spend some time there every few months.

I was there with my then wife in August of 1991 and we went to a hip coffee shop in the East Village. The counter guy asked us where we were from and when we said San Francisco, he made sure that we qualified by confirming that we actually lived in the city itself and not in a dreaded uncool "suburb" like San Mateo or San Bruno. That was pretty much a New York moment, right?

lol! exactly.

Sounds pretty painful. I'd just like to stick up, as the (only??) NYC resident here, and say this is not a New York City moment... This is an Upper West Side moment. Most dharma practitioners don't spend much of our time in frou-frou UWS apartments, funerals or no. You all come down to Dharma Punx in the Bowery; people are much friendlier there and I don't think I've met any psychoanalysts there. Follow the junkies.

"this is not a New York City moment... This is an Upper West Side moment."

ROFL! I think there's truth in that!

Sounds pretty painful. I'd just like to stick up, as the (only??) NYC resident here, and say this is not a New York City moment... This is an Upper West Side moment. Most dharma practitioners don't spend much of our time in frou-frou UWS apartments, funerals or no. You all come down to Dharma Punx in the Bowery; people are much friendlier there and I don't think I've met any psychoanalysts there. Follow the junkies.


-cruxdestruct

hahahahaha
nice

What's up with all this bullshit I've been fed all my life about the atmosphere in NYC being rude, indifferent and uncaring anyway? My recent experiences visiting my bro and his fiance were just the opposite... tattooed hoody wearing "thugs" giving up their subway seats to elderly folks... people of all ages and ethnicities smiling and saying hello... just a lot of friendly, community feeling everywhere we went. Seemed like an awesome place! Can't wait to go back, maybe even live there for some time