My Concrete Jungle (thanks Jay-Z)

It’s said that everyone is exposed to advertisements at nearly every point of the day. This is especially true at Time Square in Manhattan.

I’ve been to Time Square before but I guess overlooked the amount of advertisements that go into such a small place. The two block area is completely saturated with billboards, window designs and ads that stretch as far as the eye can see.

Now pictures don’t do this place justice because no picture can capture the overwhelming amount of advertisements in this place.

I have a hard time not appreciating this small area of New York. I think it is incredible how the mind works and the way people can capture emotions through colors and words. Advertising is an underappreciated art.

Police officers are treated like celebrities, constantly being asked to have their pictures taken. Numbers of human billboards follow the crowds down the street encouraging “Haircuts by Charles” or bike rides around New York.

A three-story Toys R’ Us sits in the middle of Time Square inviting children (and me) to come explore every facet of the store. Just outside the toy story, costumed people are walking around dressed like the Cookie Monster, Elmo and SpongeBob Square Pants.

The news is continuously being updated on each building’s stat tracker.

A stage sits in the middle of the area on a blocked off road for daily shows and a place to relax before exploring more.

I considered setting up and performing some street theater in front of the stage. I could dramatically recite (in a Scottish accent) Isaiah 58 or perform some skits I know all too well. My better judgment won out and I did not become just another crazy street performer. Although, I probably would have been discovered right there and offered a contract to be some big movie star.

The thing most interesting to me was that people work in the buildings around Time Square. Everyday businessmen and women work their way around crowds of people just to work their regular jobs.

Tourists travel across the world to see Time Square and some people walk by every day. It’s these people who interest me. The ones who have made their homes blocks from Time Square.

I don’t know what it is but to live so close to that area intrigues me. Ordinary people living in extraordinary places, places I wouldn’t want to live.

I walked through SoHo and Greenwich Village, places I understand wanting to live, but Time Square?

There is something about New York City that draws people. I like the place to visit but I don’t think I could move there, especially somewhere like Time Square.

New York is a world unlike anywhere else. I was able to see more than most one day visits, mostly because I walked 100 plus blocks and over five miles, but the experience away from the big city is what I’ll remember.

From riding on the subway to eating take-out fish tacos, New York cannot be fully appreciated trapped with tourists where the only real though is whether this advertisement induced headache will ever go away.

New York is a huge city and tourists never get to experience all this place has to offer.