A Week of Being Kin Lane - August 11th, 2025
City Streets in NYC bookended our week. The first Saturday we went all the way down to the Brooklyn Bridge, and this week went part way downtown, but then turned around and went all the way up north past Hudson Heights. Audrey ran the first part with us, and then we continued on while she went home at 57th—eventually finding our way home through the park.
It is magical to be able to just roll down Park Avenue and up Broadway like you own the street. You still have to stop at some major intersections to let cars pass, but for a day the roads are all about biking, walking, and running. The experience pulls back the curtain on the world for me, kind of like covid did in the early days — showing me that we can do better. Be better.
We went to see the Mountain Goats on Monday. They played a number of our favorite songs, and the concert venue was beautiful. The stage was on top of the rooftop of one of the piers, with the Brooklyn Bridge right behind the stage. We got tickets to the old people section, and we were delighted that the concern was over and we were home by 9:00 PM.
While I do need to maintain my social media for business purposes, there really isn’t much incentive or joy for me in publishing or even reading much on the socials these days. Maybe it’s me, but the desire to be always plugged in on any social network has lost it’s appeal in the age of AI, which seems to have turned up the volume on everything around us.
I have to go through the recycling room to use the freight elevator everyday. So, when I take out my own recycling I make sure to always break down my boxes and put my trash in the proper chute or bin to keep the way clear. Our neighbors aren’t always so good at this, and I find myself also doing their work, which feels like a metaphor for how the world works now. Or maybe I am getting old.
After some of our daily park rides we roll through Time Square and loop around through midtown on 38th or 39th—depending if we loop back up through Hell’s Kitchen or roll by Bryant Park. I am finding the ride calming. I know it sounds crazy, but there is something about scale and madness of it I find calming of my overactive brain, resetting things for when I get home.
Thursday night we went to the Birdland for some more Jazz. Ron Carter was playing, and we always try to catch anyone he is playing with. This round was the Gerry Gibbs Dream Band featuring Ron Carter, Randy Brecker, Kenny Barron, and Chris Potter. It was definitely one of my favorite shows. The horns and drumming (and bass and piano) left me eyes closed, soaking up the healing energy all evening.
When we were riding down 57th to Park Avenue on Saturday for Summer Streets I noticed the Louis Vuitton Building. I think I saw references to it on social media, but I hadn’t made my way this far down 57th for a while. It is a facade while they are building the new building, but it is kind of surreal and strange to behold in this old school commercial section of the street we live on.
I am doing work to re-negotiate my relationship with technology right now as I begin building a new startup. I have to find an approach to engaging with and telling stories in a technological landscape that is being consumed by stories of artificial intelligence. If you are selling technology you have to speak to artificial intelligence, and I’m determined to do it on my own terms.
Everything is a negotiation. Everything is a little bit of give and take. - Lamman Rucker