ONE IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE AFTER ANOTHER, 659 words

Consider, if you will, the attraction industry’s ‘immersive experience.’

Go here, do this; Go there, do that.

Repeat as needed, as desired, as often as you feel like escaping the life around you?

If that’s the goal, sign me up.

So far I’ve immersed in what no attraction industry would offer.

Maybe I’m not in the ‘customer demographic, or maybe I don’t understand the definition.’

During my travels I had an immersive experience of Philadelphia. How immersive?

Immersive enough to pay rent in three different apartments.

 

What’s more immersive than living the life of the city, of riding the trolley full of guys just off the shift of what could have been a coal mine, guys so worn down and equally filthy they could have been working a week straight in the same clothes and boots.

A coal mine in east Philly? I got on at the downtown terminal under the clothespin heading west.

 

 

Maybe they came from jobs in New Jersey, I just don’t know, but they looked immersed in hard lives that showed on their faces and hands, which was immersive to me who thought everyone in a city was a slicker.

Not those guys. And they all got off at the same time.

 

The Brooklyn Immersive Experience

Welcome to the subway, the train, the ride, from Brooklyn, into Manhattan, to Queens.

From tunnel tracks to the elevated like Gene Hackman drove under in French Connection, you’ll find the riches of the city in its citizens, like me in the ’70’s.

 

 

Large groups got on, all friendly and chatty and similarly dressed for a Saturday night, and most left together.

A party group of young Italians got on and off, the same with groups of Puerto Ricans and Chinese. On and off a few stops later.

A large group of young black party people dressed for the night headed uptown.

For immersion experience veterans, expect the feelings of Disney’s Small World with The Taking Of Pelham 123.

 

 

For even deeper immersion, wear a wig and fu-manchu mustache to blend in.

 

Immersive Portland

Whether you want to or not, the Portland immersive experience is one parade after another and you’re going.

You’ll meet the mayor, sniff a rose, and wave.

For the experience of waiting for someone to leave a restroom so you can punch the code in the door, find a Starbucks. Every corner has at least one.

After the person comes out and the door shuts behind them, push the buttons the barista gave you an open the door to find?

Someone is still in there sitting on the toilet.

Too immersive?

 

 

I’ve found that everyplace looks enormous flying in, too easy to get lost and never found if you take the wrong turn at the wrong time.

Driving shrinks it down; walking even smaller.

Keep that in mind when you decide on which immersive experience is right for you.

A cold, wet, city sidewalk in any downtown is not the immersion I want, but that’s Portland.

Subways and elevators are on the list for New York immersion. Get the most of it while you can, but don’t let the locals know you think of them as fun carnival rides.

In Philadelphia remember to pay homage to Joe Frazier, the real Rocky fighting the best heavyweights of his era.

 

 

Go out to the 30th Street Station and buy a ticket north and you’ll pass by Joe Frazier’s Gym on the right side.

You don’t need to stop and go a few rounds but you should remember who the real fighters are.

 

PS:

In each immersive experience, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, and Portland, you’ll find a water walk.

In Philadelphia it’s behind the Museum of Art along the Schuylkill River past the boathouses, in Brooklyn it’s the promenade, in Portland the Eastbank Esplanade.

 

PSS:

Remember to ask yourself, ‘Who would benefit from these immersive experiences more than you?’

Then tell them.