Andrew Womack, longtime co-proprietor of Brooklyn-based The Morning News, is packing it up and moving to Austin, Texas. This was one of a series of irregular and goodbye-like emails he sent to his New York friends.

After work last night I decided to take the long way home (cue Supertramp). Most days, like most New Yorkers, I hop right on the train, transfer at Jay Street, and head home. But seeing as the weather was nice, and that I'm moving out of New York in two weeks, I thought a long walk down Manhattan might be nice. Also, I needed some screen cleaner at the Apple Store because it huffs different.

From Eighth Ave., I took 15th St. to Union Square, then meandered my way down to NYU. Instead of avoiding campus altogether, I cut through it (there's a quad—who knew?), jaywalked across Houston, went over to Greene, started walking toward Prince— when I saw it: A line of people waiting to get into the Apple Store. Obviously there was some secret product launch I'd stumbled across, obviously. What could it be? Free iPhones? Was Jobs in the house? I walked past the line, to the front doors, where there were two flexed-up guys in tight Apple shirts—bouncers. I asked one of them what was going on. "You need to use the store?" he asked. I said yes, I needed screen cleaner. He looked at me as if to say, "You know this is the iPod store, right?" He waved me in before I could ask him about the benchmarks on the new MacBook Pros.

When I got in, I looked up to the packed second level of the store. I found a sales clerk and asked what was going on. She said, "Oh, it's some band having a concert. Some band called Kings of Leon."

AHA.

She said she'd grab some screen cleaner for me and that I'd just have to wait for a bit. She disappeared, and so I just totally started gawking at what was going on.

I'd of course heard of the Apple Store having concerts. But since I'm usually only in Manhattan from 9 to 6, Monday through Friday, I never actually happen upon these things. So this was the first time I'd seen a concert at the Apple Store, and it was totally a spectacle. There weren't just bouncers, there were security people there. The people who were there for the concert looked different (younger) than the people who were there to shop. Some hapless dude looking for a laptop bag had made his way upstairs, and the security force was all like making that direct pointing and "outta-there" thumb motion usually reserved for mosh pits. A security guy at the top of the stairs escorted the hapless geek downstairs.

The clerk returned with my screen cleaner and rung me up from a handheld, wireless register (had not done this before, must say it was pretty cool). While she was doing this, I looked to the front door of the store. Owen Wilson and a friend (or dealer, perhaps) were being shown in and were heading right upstairs to the show.

So when the Apple Store has a concert, not only do they have bouncers and security staff, they've even got a VIP protocol. I was reminded of last summer, when I saw Lansing-Dreiden play at the "Starbucks Salon" (also in Soho, just down the street from the Apple Store). I remember when I went to shows at venues that didn't sell grande chais and laptop screen cleaners. Surely those kinds of places still exist, and surely that's where new bands play, and where new music fans go to see them. Those are the kinds of places I went seven years ago, when I first moved here, and surely they still exist.

Maybe they're upstate.

After I left the store, I walked over to Bowery and up to Houston to pick up the F and go home. On the way, I saw a new Whole Foods had opened, which makes it like, what, the fourth in the city now? Not sure, but I have to say that seeing it left me with some misgivings. Again, when I first moved here, our only grocery store—in way, way south Williamsburg—was a C-Town filled with rotten produce and staffed by maniacs. It was awful, it was unwelcoming, and it was New York. A challenge in every way, not just culinary.

Now that's different. Now you can get walk to... you know, whichever Whole Foods is within four blocks of you... and you have your choice of six different flavors of guavas, of wild or farmed or sushi-grade or baked or poached salmon or tuna or catfish, of edible Legos. The city is chock-a-block full of choice and convenience. Concerts are in retail stores, CBGB's has closed down, the stores in Williamsburg are being replaced with real estate offices. Everything is everything it wasn't seven years ago. Hell, New York is actually livable now. What gives?

Sweaty from the walking, feet burning from the Converse, I got into an un-air-conditioned F car and thought yeah, well, the subway still sucks. Next year I'm betting: Lexus subways. But if ever I miss New York, I can just drive up to Dallas.

[Image: ycr's flickr]