Brian Eno on Perspective

'i remember the first day i arrived in new york
not actually not the very first time i arrived but
the first time i feel i felt i saw new york
on that day i saw it as a great sort of city of hope
and a kind of optimistic chaos
and it was that way of looking at it
that became "mistaken memories"

i had a place on the thirteenth floor
and looking out of my window
i'd just see the tops of all the buildings
all those beautiful castle tops
and i thought "i'm sure people building this
were also feeling that they were making
a big impression in this brand-new culture"

i more and more feel america has been
a thrilling vibrant medieval culture
medieval for me means somewhere where
things are being worked out
where cultures have crossed
and are crashing together
and hybrids are constantly being thrown up
europeans are so ready to shoot it down
because it's so easy to see
all the bad sides of america
the world awash with coca-cola

i felt people's concept of what's real is
almost always that which is most convenient
for them to believe at the time
and the convenient picture of new york
at that time was of a street city
a city where you kept your vision down
what i did on that spring day
and what i did in "mistaken memories"
was i looked up and i saw this beautiful
city against a huge sky
it's a different picture altogether
as soon as you let the sky into the picture
the city is not so overwhelming anymore
there's space in there as well'

Brian Eno
from "Imaginary Landscapes"
released on VHS 1998