Playlist & Words to Live By: Cities

Here is a collection of quotes and playlist which remind us that cities around the world are their own character.

Painting above: The Reception of Cardinal César d'Estrée (ca. 1701) by Luca Carlevaris 

Kyoto

Kyoto is a stunning and inimitable city. So stunning and inimitable that when Kyoto appeared on the list as a possible target for the atomic bomb, Henry Stimson, the U.S. secretary of war, who had recently authorized the internment of one hundred thousand Japanese American citizens, who had previously traveled to Kyoto while he was governor of the Philippines, implored President Harry S. Truman to remove Kyoto from the list. Surprising that a man capable of such callous policy could recognize the exceptional cultural significance of Kyoto, not only for the nation of Japan, but for the entire world. Kyoto is a city that ignites humanity.

- from Speak, Okinawa: A Memoir by Elizabeth Miki Brina

Istanbul

There are two kinds of cities in the world: those that reassure their residents that tomorrow and the day after, and the day after that, will be much the same; and those that do the opposite, insidiously reminding their inhabitants of life’s uncertainty. Istanbul is of the second kind. There is no room for introspection, no time to wait for the clocks to catch up with the pace of events. Istanbulites dart from one breaking news story to the next, moving fast, consuming faster, util something else happens that demands their full attention. 

- from Three Daughters of Eve by Elif Shafak 

Florence

"You will have to see Florence one day, Asher Lev [...] It is a gift, that city."

I went to him the following Sunday. He looked well and was exuberant. "I am always exuberant after Italy. It is the marble."

- from My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok

Karachi

Amla remembers her life like that, at least, and so in her memory it feels liek there is this palce that is truly home. A place that kept her safe, its trisyllabic name a mantra in her mouth. Karachi, Karachi, Karachi. And it was hers--her memory, her home.

- from A Thousand Times Before by Asha Thanki 

Lagos

There are some places that you swear you'll never go back to because the place has become inseparable from the time; the there is the same as the then and you don't know how to deal with the space if it's inside a different slot of time.

- from Little Rot by Akwaeke Emezi 

Rome

A few years ago, I travelled back to Rome […] The air in the square had the same smell. Centuries old. Romantic and disgusting. As though something was rotting, beautifully. I wondered if the tourists could smell it too.

- from Run Towards The Danger: Confrontations with a Body of Memory by Sarah Polley

Cities generally

Everyone hurts themselves in the city; then they just pick themselves up so as not to get in anyone else’s way.

- from Mr. Fox by Helen Oyeyemi.

And here is a playlist about cities, called city living!

1. Living in the city by Hurray For The Riff Raff
2. Los Ageless by St. Vincent
3. Bombay Calling by Samsaya
4. London Gangs by SAULT
5. East Harlem by Beirut
6. Chicago by Sufjan Stevens
7. Montreal by The Weeknd
8. City of No Reply by Amber Coffman
9. Leaving the City by Joanna Newsom
10. The City by Adia Victoria
11. East Van Girls by Shimmering Stars
12. Drunk in LA by Beach House
13. Lisbon by Wolf Alice
14. Tacoma Night Terror by Jackie Cohen 
15. This Is Not My City by Dirty Beaches
16. Manhattan by Cat Power
17. Miami by Diamond Thug
18. Beijing by Patrick Watson
19. San Francisco by Globelamp
20. One Great City! by The Weakerthans
21. Tokyo by Warehouse Eyes
22. Ottawa to Osaka by Chairlift
23. Leaving Toronto by Mustafa