The giant sucking sound of airline travel

I’ve spent the last ten days soaking up some 70-degree weather in Dallas, visiting the girlfriend, seeing my homeys and silently thumbing my nose at the Northeast cold. Now I’m at DFW airport, ready to resume my Boston life and thinking about how little I’ve missed flying.

I’ve been taking the train on the East Coast for a few months now, so I haven’t flown for almost a year. My trip down to Tejas on American Airlines was a rude reminder of what I’ve been missing, and I do mean “rude.” Yeah, the $15 charge for a checked bag is ridiculous, but I had fair warning on that one. More jarring was the low morale among airline attendants, which translates not just to lack of customer service but to a barely disguised disinterest in the comfort of passengers.

I plopped my 6’2 frame in a window seat coming to Dallas, alongside passengers on the middle and on the aisle. Hungrily eying two empty rows of seats behind me, I asked a flight attendant about the chances of landing in one. No dice, she replied, those are reserved for the attendants. Fair enough. But what got me was her contemptuous tone, an inflection that said “stupid passenger. You’ll sit there swallowing your kneecaps and you’ll like it.” Call it service with a sneer. It didn’t help my mood that no one sat in the empty seats during the entire four-hour flight.

Maybe I’m just too tall. But it strikes me that the airlines have taken advantage of the faltering economy and last summer’s gouged fuel prices to lean heavily on the fact that they’re the only game in town for cross-country travel.  Don’t like the service? Squashed like a sardine? Tough luck. Try flapping your arms back to Beantown. And shut your yap.

I’m sure airline employees are getting screwed with long hours and the same economic stress as the rest of us. I believe that it’s tough work. It’s just sad to see the bad mood and apathy trickle down to customers already paying through the nose to travel. Now I’m about to claim my middle seat – sorry, no aisles, windows or exit rows – and, uh, relax for the trip home. Amtrak, you’re looking better every day.

Boroughing into the Apple

All the years I’ve gotten my New York on I’ve been pathetically lazy, content to partake in the joys of Manhattan (of which, of course, there are many). Thankfully I’m still young (kind of) and I’m starting to mend my ways.

Last summer my buddy Walton took me on a killer walking tour of Harlem. Never made it to Rucker Park, but did have a drink at the Lenox Lounge, checked out the Hughes House and had a damn good time. This weekend I decided to do a quick NY getaway before orientation starts Monday, and I spent most of my time away from Manhattan.

Two highlights:

!. Walking around the Park Slope area of Brooklyn (seen The Squid and the Whale?), digging the relatively ungentrified commerce and culture of Seventh Avenue. Yeah, there’s a Sprint store and some Starbucks, but they’re far outnumbered by little neighborhood joints – cafes, crafts, eateries, etc. A few blocks up is Prospect Park, a more intimate and cozy cousin to Central Park, with the same kind of uber-public neighborhoody vibe. I don’t even wanna know what apartments cost in the Slope.

2. A Saturday spent in Queens. First stop: a Warm Up at PS1, the MoMa-run art space that has hit upon the perfect combination of partying and edification. Again, having spent so much time in Dallas, I was amazed by how public the scene felt: Huge and inviting indoor and outdoor spaces, some stirring low-fi visual art, DJ’s, a makeshift dance floor, beer, a few hundred hipsters, beer, and perfect weather. I’ll be back. From there it was on to Water Taxi Beach, not really a beach but a swath of sand on the shore of the River with a shimmering view of the East Side. Finally, the best freakin’ Thai dinner I’ve ever had, and I’m a Thai maniac. Waited about 40 minutes on the sidewalk for a table and it was time well spent.

Yeah, I’m a tourist. So sue me.