City still don't sleep

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Originally uploaded by Globe Trodden

I love this picture from Salon columnist and pilot Patrick Smith. Photos like this exist everywhere - on the sidewalks, calling out to tourists so the vendors can make a neat profit off a couple wide-eyed buffoons; in museums; in coffee table books around the world, I'm sure. But I'm glad to say that I'm not quite jaded enough to scoff at the grandeur of this skyline, especially as photographed from inside the cockpit of an airplane.

It also makes me really excited for New York, I Love You coming out in October. When Paris, Je T'Aime came out, I went through crazy pregnant lady mood swings about it. First I loved the idea and wanted intensely to see it. Then when I heard it was not a long-form single plot, I thought I would hate it because I hated Love, Actually at first. (I was 16 and had to be critical like the budding editor I believed myself to be becoming.)

But I saw Paris, Je T'Aime this year and thoroughly enjoyed it. It's a cute movie to watch in bed while having tea and pita. I think I'll be even more enthralled with New York, I Love You because I have actually lived here. And, similar to the fact that I feel very patriotic for America at the very heartmost part of my heart, I will always have a soft spot of memories for New York and the Bay Area. One of my deepest, most imagination-frenzied dreams is to live in and befriend as many cities as is reasonable for a lifetime.

I wonder which other cities people could make similar movies about that would be romantic enough to do well. Often, I feel that New York, Paris, San Francisco, Venice and London are all so overly romanticized in the movies that they've become clichéd. What amazing other cities can we appreciate? Surely creative minds have thought of Moscow, Kyoto, Montreal, São Paolo, Nairobi...