'NYC Is a Capitalist Nightmare and I'm Miserable Here!'

No one is ever happy, no matter where they live or how rich or successful they are, until they can trade in the shiny fiction of their fantasies for the mundane but exquisite frictions of reality.

The Reservoir, Horta de Ebro (1909), Pablo Picasso

Dear Polly,

I moved to New York City seven months ago because I thought it was still a haven for weird artists and freaks with no money but instead it’s a capitalist nightmare and I feel more trapped than ever. I have never lived in a place where I have felt happy and free, and while I was living in Chica…