Whenever TP asks me to bring my camera to work, I know that adventure is going to ensue whether it's climbing to the roof of my favorite building in New York, climbing to the highest point in New York or perhaps just climbing over road cases to photograph Bono taking a snooze amongst the gear in the expo (missed that one, but... lesson learned).

December 1st, 2010 was no different.

The last time I had been to the top of this building was with the Beach Boys, haha and let me tell you, it was a little bit of a different experience this time around. But let's be serious. You can only climb to the top of the Empire State Building with the Beach Boys soooo many times.

Anywho, the above photo is precisely what thousands of people take multiple elevators to the top to see, to feel, to experience. Really, it's something that everyone, who remotely cares about what man has created during his time on Earth, should see. The asphalt jungle*. Years of growth, hand by hand, brick by brick. This elevated perspective grants, in its most ironic sense, the rare and quite literal view of the forest for the trees.

The funny thing about this town is that for most people, it's actually harder to truly see the trees than it is to know that there is a forest. That old building you walked by in Alphabet City last night serves the forest just as well as a moss as the more grandiose structures do as the Redwoods. Manhattan as an identifiable, functioning ecosystem with species and subspecies of artificial, yet intricately designed life.

It was freezing and it was windy, but again I find myself saying, there's nowhere else on the planet I would have rather been at that moment.

*I'll take 1950s film noir for $500 please, Alex.

Considering a revisit to this train of thought in the morning, so expect alterations and additions to come.