Ny-Etc.

A 'real' New Yorker, an Earth-prince (Amlan Satan), 'frames' the streets as a Renaissance-man and encounters his 'Lady-in-Red' for an 'American' ellipse.

A 'cool' Saturday-eve vignette about life's wrought city-'intelligence' (New York) and loosely-inspired by the conversational/modern city life-expo/pseudo-existential film Barcelona (Whit Stillman) and reflecting a modern Selfie culture 'aesthetic' catering to more 'youthful' expressions of everyday emojis. Hope you like it, 

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Amlan Satan was a real Earth-prince who managed a special social-media cyber-chess club in New York (United States) while also coaching a junior ice-hockey team before he decided to take a trip to Spain (Barcelona) via United Airlines after his hockey-pal (Ajay) gave him a special travel package deal through an incentive(s)-program with the NY-cyber chess-club (Dartmouth).

AMLAN SATAN: Coaching for the New York junior ice-hockey league's a real chess-complement to my cyber-teaching work!

This guy's a real Earth-prince, since he's educated in the traffic-travel of the world highways and had been around the world --- Paris, London, Bangkok, Tijuana, Los Angeles, Toronto, Quebec, Calcutta, Bucharest. He'd read the great works in college including reading/collecting a rare-edition of Robinson Crusoe using some of his inherited money! Now, Prince Satan was off to Spain (Barcelona) to entreat more of his 'world' consciousness and literary imagination on Earth (ha).

JOURNAL: Visiting/seeing that giant fountain in Barcelona with the crowd(s) gathered round reminds one of 'chess' play!

When he returned to the United States (NY), Satan (Amlan) decided to complement some of his cyber-chess teachings online with a series of capitalism-symbolic cartoon 'avatar-doodles' like his 'iconic' "Evil-Elf" character, a mischievous imp/elf re-presenting a modern American (NY) capitalism-ethos regarding the general 'humor(s)' of shopping...and post-9/11 era fears of street terrorism fear(s). This was modern life in the Western-world; one of expressions of 'human' distance(s).

AMLAN SATAN: En-route to Spain, I met a beautiful/sharp United stewardess/flight-attendant (Tandy) who loved chess-IQ!

So, after graduating from the Ivy-league and becoming an ice-hockey coach (junior-league) and cyber-chess club teacher, Prince Satan (Amlan) took up a post-doc position at NYU studying the neuropsychology of media-stimuli, working with brilliant young modern American minds studying the human brain science(s) and learning about the intricate matters of neuron development complemented by the memory complexity of environment/media stimulated emotional response(s) --- e.g., flight-responses of terrorism news imagery on TV.

AMLAN SATAN: So with this 'board' full of activity in New York now, I decided to take time for myself to drink at a night-club!

There he was, our protagonist Earth-prince, inside a well-lit area lounge of a 'cool' NY night-club (Tech-Folk) reading a 'cool' copy of Bazaar when he met what he was 'certain' was a 'vision' of American loveliness --- a woman in red (dress). The first thing that came out of his brain/mouth, to this lucky-lady, was "I thought you were in this magazine-ad I just flipped over while reading here/drinking, Mrs. miss."

Work at the NYU department of neuroscience(s) is no little feat of brain-labor(s), and Amlan Satan had built the steady-rep of being a cool-headed young sharp scientist who befriended his peers/elders inside the department while conducting some pretty appealing work for his 'group' regarding media-perceptions by the human brain in the post-9/11 era. This would complement a 'key journal' publication regarding parallels to the now-famous and symbolic Japanese media-cartoon stimuli-presentation which yielded a nationwide phenomena of rapid-motion imagery conductive audience population 'brain epileptic seizure' trend (wow).

AMLAN: Here I notice you again at Tech-Folk (New York), and you're still quite lovely-looking Mrs. miss!

WOMAN IN RED: Why, thanks, prince looking dude of the city.
AMLAN: You're as 'wry' about chat(s) as I am, Mrs. miss.
WOMAN IN RED: Stop calling me that...I'm no "Mrs." (I'm a single lady).
AMLAN: My name's Amlan Satan; I work in neuropsychology, ice-hockey coach, and cyber-chess club teacher now in New York.
WOMAN IN RED: Wow...that's all 'quite' cool sounding, Amlan Satan; I hinted you 'looked' like an Earth-prince.
AMLAN: Oh yeah, yeah; I've been contacted by Martians who wanted to challenge me to a game of stalemate cyber-chess.
WOMAN IN RED: Haha; are you a 'fan' of science-fiction or folk-media/entertainment?
AMLAN: Sure; Dr. Seuss, Asimov; classics too like Edith Wharton and Robinson Crusoe; I studied at Dartmouth (Ivy-League).
WOMAN IN RED: I love Dr. Seuss; why, you're as 'sharp' as I feel in Tech-Folk; we should spend New Year's together, Satan.

AMLAN: Sounds like a vision of a plan (I don't know your name yet); maybe we can go to the Library and read Seuss together.

WOMAN IN RED: Yeah!

So he takes his 'woman in red' to a cool Halloween costume-party in NYC dressed like a 'thief-harlequin' and had her dress as one of these hero-rockers from Jem and the Holograms, insisting that they needed to share their Selfies for the cyber-chess club the Monday afterwards (Dartmouth).

WOMAN IN RED: You've got the best Selfies in New York, or anywhere (around), Satan; I like not telling you my 'real' name.

AMLAN: You're that Lady-in-Red (of course), darling love of my life; if this is temp, I'll regret not marrying you.

WOMAN IN RED: You may feel 'luckier' not discovering my name, Prince.

AMLAN: Right; sure, I liked teaching you about 'stalemate-chess' and Cold-War chess (ha).

WOMAN IN RED: Yeah, I dunno many New Yorkers who wanted to spend Sunday morning-glory watching Fischer on YouTube.

AMLAN: My life's not as 'complex' as you wager; I may want more than just that fabled/literary Woman-in-Red, honey-bee.

WOMAN IN RED: Maybe this New York high-rise story is really about an encounter, an 'alien' encounter.

AMLAN: Sometimes, the woman dictates the 'exercise(s)' (in New York).

Amlan and his 'Lady-in-Red' were having a cool time in the Big-Apple, and she taught him about the 'real' magic of the US-city --- it was the inventiveness of the sour drinks you'd find in the best bars/restaurants. He became an addict, really. She never told him her name. He'd always fix in his brain the 'image' that she'd become his 'activity-collage' faerie-glue girl (hmm).

WOMAN IN RED: Do you know what makes life in the Big-Apple so different, Satan?
AMLAN: The right to make Selfies without reason(s)?
WOMAN IN RED: No, the individuality of discovered personality (through the 'Selfie'), ha!

AMLAN: Right; maybe you'll remember my Selfies and readings/chess; but I still won't 'discover' your 'real' name.

WOMAN IN RED: It's a social-media traffic world, isn't it?

AMLAN: Who suggested that to me?

JOURNAL: Life in the night-club of New York City is about flirting with disaster and shaking goosebumps with invented chess.

WOMAN IN RED: This is the best night-club in the Big-Apple, Prince.

AMLAN: I can 'sense' that honey-bee; everyone looks like they don't care they just 'look' rich!

WOMAN IN RED: Ha, that's right; this is the ideal time-away from New York University for you.

AMLAN: I can't forget all this...that's the 'journal' of the city-chess, isn't it?

WOMAN IN RED: Alright...I've fallen in love with you, only because you're a 'fantastic' dancer.

AMLAN: Oh yeah, didn't I tell you, I learned ballroom and Indian classical-dance in college (Dartmouth)?

WOMAN IN RED: There's so much 'low-quality' gibberish in modern New York, you start wondering about 'quality' pawns.

AMLAN: You're starting to sound like Aphrodite, honey-bee.

WOMAN IN RED: What comes to the brain as you walk through this story-cemetery with me, Satan?
AMLAN: The terminal...terminal velocity...terminal end(s) to a life in a traffic-enclave (something like that!).

WOMAN IN RED: I knew it; you should be a writer, a journal-writer or Reader's Digest or something.

AMLAN: I like walking in the cemetery with you; this is 'quite' the adult expression.

After the 'Lady-in-Red' vanished from Prince Satan's life, having left New York altogether, claiming she'd rather not say what her 'final-destination' was, and Amlan guessed it was Portugal (good guess!), he remembered what he learned about American (NY) sophistication with a series of inventive pipe-cleaner sticks Xmas-reindeer multicolored (multicultural!) reindeer sculptures, which he'd consider were his 'trophies' for having that 'alien' encounter with a 'mythical Aphrodite' he'd seen cast in that Gene Wilder film (excellence).

AMLAN: Do you come here often, miss?
WOMAN IN SUPERMARKET: Why aren't you wearing a Coronavirus-mask, dude?
AMLAN: I've been vaccinated, got my boosters too, so I don't worry as much (unlike you?).

WOMAN IN SUPERMARKET: I still get that 'sense' you're that wandering writer-philosopher who's dated the Lady-in-Red.
AMLAN: That may be true, but New York hadn't drained that 'married' exercise-journal from my brain just yet.

WOMAN IN SUPERMARKET: Wow, you sound lonely!

AMLAN: Well...maybe this is an encounter which will be the end of it.

WOMAN IN SUPERMARKET: Maybe...maybe you're getting lucky...because we're both New Yorkers.

AMLAN: Ha, yeah, maybe, miss!

WOMAN IN SUPERMARKET: I can expect you to post my photos on your social-media page(s)?
AMLAN: Why not?

Life in New York enhances/shapes/develops your sense(s) of conversationalism, and social-media/Selfie culture hoists a new 'fashion' of inventive life-philosophy, especially in American New York, regardless of your experience(s)/background. That's the 'claim' of Prince Satan (Amlan), who may just, in the end, marry this new girl in his life, the woman in the supermarket (Tandy) he met. Nevertheless, why forget about the 'Lady-in-Red' when NY is all about...the 'chess' stalemate(s) of 'acquired' eccentricity?

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"Money is everything" (Ecclesiastes)