blah blah blah
Your attention, please.
All of you should first move up.
All of you should first move up.
All of you should first move up.
All of you should first move up.
New York is very embarrassing.
There you go.
There, there, there.
The improvisers are used to answering to everything that's going on.
So the boat just passed by.
I answered him like that.
The subway just now.
And if there's a plane taking off at JFK...
We react to everything that's going on,
to everything that can inspire us around us.
The skyline is the symbol of New York,
but at the same time, it reflects this kind of vitality.
We can feel that all of this has pushed,
as well as the needs and desires of people.
There was a limit to this place to do it,
but they still found the place.
I arrived in the mid-90s.
I came here to visit,
and after a few days, I decided that this would be where I would continue my life.
We dreamed of New York,
because all of our heroes were New Yorker jazzmen.
So here we are, at the heart of the village.
It's the 10th street, the 7th avenue,
and that's S.M.O.N.Z.,
which is a rather mythical jazz club.
When I arrived in 1995,
that's where I started.
We did the jam all night.
I remember the first time I went down there,
a little shy, saying to myself,
I'm going to go to the New York stage.
I had one of them at the bottom of the vent.
Taxi!
Good morning.
How are you doing today?
You know where you're going?
42nd and 5th.
I think I know where it is.
All right.
Thank God for the rain.
It just helped wash away the garbage and the trash off the sidewalks.
I'm working long hours now,
six days a week,
sometimes seven days a week.
It's a long hustle, but it keeps me real busy.
I can take in three, three-fifty a week,
sometimes even more when I do it off the meter.
I remember I picked up my first passenger to you
as a lady with a small dog.
I was shaking,
and I didn't want to go to the city.
I wanted to stay in Queens,
because I was afraid to go to the city.
Then I went to the city.
I'd drop her off when I, you know,
then the next passenger comes along.
I'm sorry, but I don't.
I just started driving today.
You know, I just started driving today.
The biggest problem back in the old days was that it wasn't that safe.
You could be robbed.
It was snowing very heavily about 11 o'clock at night,
and I took this passenger, and he took me to Harlan.
That was my first time in Harlan.
He put the money in the money pocket there,
and then he walks out.
Then I grabbed the money, and I see it's only $4.
I was going to go to the city,
and he said,
he walks out, then I grabbed the money, and I see it's only $4.
So I screamed, and I said,
you know, this is not what it is.
It's $15.
He said, you know, you're giving me $4.
So he said, calm down.
He went around.
He has a trench coat.
He went like this.
He pulled up and caught.
He says, what is your problem?
Oh, no, my friend, there is no problem.
I mean, I think everything is fine.
You know what I mean?
Sorry to bother you.
Okay, thank you very much.
And I drove away.
Good morning, guys. It was a real thrill.
Let me tell you, construction began on this skyscraper back in 2006,
and now it is just a few feet away from reclaiming the status
that the original World Trade Center had
before it fell as the tallest building in New York.
I didn't grow up in New York.
I grew up in a small town, so there weren't no skyscrapers.
You know, there were all small buildings,
you know, maybe eight to ten stories tall.
And so moving to New York,
and the fact that you could see them for miles,
was really astounding to me,
and the fact that, you know, we as humans
actually built something that big and that impactful.
I was always, you know, entrenched and enthralled
by the fact that, you know, we could do that.
The skyline defines a city.
If you look at the skylines of other big cities,
of London, of Paris, of Sydney, Australia,
of other large cities,
you know, you recognize them by the buildings
and their silhouettes.
It's fulfilling because, you know, I've worked here
and I'm part of rebuilding the skyline of New York.
And the fact that we lost a big piece of our skyline,
again, back in the tragedy of 9-11,
those two towers,
and now we're replacing that new silhouette
as being defined for New York.
And I definitely think it definitely defines New York
as a city and as a country.
I think it defines New York as a city.
I think it defines New York as a city.
