Wow. Didn't realize I haven't posted anything since last year. (Ba-da-bump!) Here's next week's column for Arkansas Weekly in which I wrap up my NYC trip. Enjoy...
Blurry, taken on the run Radio City iPhone pic | December 29, 2008
I have some advice for folks possibly thinking of heading to New York City for the 2009 holiday season: bring an electric cattle prod.
And, if you’re planning on spending next New Year's Eve in Times Square, I also suggest you bring some Depends adult diapers.
I’ll explain.
After spending a few days in Manhattan over the Christmas holidays, I can safely say that a cattle prod would be a highly effective – though likely illegal – method of trudging through the sardine-stuffed city sidewalks. I’ve been to NYC at all times of the year, but this was my first trip during the holiday season, and I’ve never seen the walkways so thick with people. One night I walked about 29 blocks, dangerously zig-zagging through the sidewalks at a rapid pace, praying I wouldn’t run smack-dab into another pedestrian. But when I hit Times Square, it was nothing but a solid wall of people. Finding myself without a cattle prod, I decided to slip through the side streets and take the long way around to my hotel. It was a madhouse, and it wasn’t even New Year's Eve.
Packed like lemmings into Times Square was not fun, and those folks brave (or foolish) enough to squeeze themselves into that area for the dropping of the ball each New Year's Eve are even more constricted. We left New York on December 30, and after talking to the bartender at our hotel late one night, it was a smart decision. Each New Year's Eve around 4 pm, he said, Times Square revelers begin crowding into a roughly twenty block radius around the ball. Once in that highly secured area, the NYPD won’t let them back in if they leave for a moment – so you’re stuck until, literally, the next year. And guess what? Most people – at least, most people I know – usually have to use the bathroom within a six to eight hour span. And with many Times Square businesses extremely reluctant to allow a mess of drunken party people into their stores or restaurants, that leaves many folks with limited options.
2009 Times Square ball up at the very top of this iPhone photo (squint and you might see it) | Times Square, December 29, 2008
That’s where the Depends adult diapers come into the equation.
Yuck.
Our bartender swore this is true, and to top it off, many of the men forgo the diapers and simply…well…utilize the pavement when nature calls.
He said he can understand the appeal of people from all over the world wanting to celebrate New Years Eve in Times Square at least once in their life. But anyone who does it twice, he said, is insane.
Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler
I also caught Mickey Rourke’s comeback film, The Wrestler, and his performance will break your heart. Rourke plays Randy “The Ram” Robinson, an aging ex-pro wrestler struggling to make ends meet by still sparring in wrestling battles in legion halls and rundown community centers across a decrepit New Jersey coast while working as a stocker in a grocery store. (Think Hulk Hogan with his celebrity long forgotten.) When a health scare after a particularly brutal match threatens what’s left of his wrestling career, Ram has to face the ugly truth that his only home is in the ring. In order to live at peace in a world without wrestling, he attempts to reconcile with his estranged daughter and begin a relationship with a stripper for whom he has fallen (played, wonderfully, by Marisa Tomei). It’s easily the best film I saw in 2008, but there are still many from last year I’ve missed. I wanted to catch Clint Eastwood’s new one, Gran Torino, and the Leonardo DiCaprio/Kate Winslet domestic drama, Revolutionary Road, but time was never found.
I didn’t miss a chance, however, to see Che. The movie which follows the life of Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara (as portrayed by Benicio Del Toro) will only be seen in its original five hour version (the length includes a thirty minute intermission) in New York until tomorrow. It will be released as two separate films later this month in markets across America. For a film geek, seeing this film on the big screen in its complete version (with a souvenir program, to boot) was a treat.
Benicio Del Toro as Che Guevara in Steven Soderbergh's Che
I’m certainly no fan of Guevara’s politics, but by chronicling his leadership with the Castro brothers in the overthrow of the Cuban government and his failed attempt at bringing down the Bolivian government almost a decade later, Che director Steven Soderbergh (who brought us the Oceans 11 through 13 comedies, Erin Brockovich and Traffic) has created an anti-epic epic. His observing camera simply follows the preparations of Che and his guerillas as they hide in the jungles, carefully training and tackling each obstacle, and sucking in the viewer as each obstacle becomes more daunting as the particular missions (in Cuba and in Bolivia) progress. It really is involving filmmaking that presents the audience as witnesses to the first revolution and, ultimately, his almost comical failure in Bolivia – where everything that could go wrong, did go wrong.
Outside the IFC Center before screening of the "Roadshow" edition of Che | December 29, 2008
Blurry, taken on the run Radio City iPhone pic | December 29, 2008I have some advice for folks possibly thinking of heading to New York City for the 2009 holiday season: bring an electric cattle prod.
And, if you’re planning on spending next New Year's Eve in Times Square, I also suggest you bring some Depends adult diapers.
I’ll explain.
After spending a few days in Manhattan over the Christmas holidays, I can safely say that a cattle prod would be a highly effective – though likely illegal – method of trudging through the sardine-stuffed city sidewalks. I’ve been to NYC at all times of the year, but this was my first trip during the holiday season, and I’ve never seen the walkways so thick with people. One night I walked about 29 blocks, dangerously zig-zagging through the sidewalks at a rapid pace, praying I wouldn’t run smack-dab into another pedestrian. But when I hit Times Square, it was nothing but a solid wall of people. Finding myself without a cattle prod, I decided to slip through the side streets and take the long way around to my hotel. It was a madhouse, and it wasn’t even New Year's Eve.
Packed like lemmings into Times Square was not fun, and those folks brave (or foolish) enough to squeeze themselves into that area for the dropping of the ball each New Year's Eve are even more constricted. We left New York on December 30, and after talking to the bartender at our hotel late one night, it was a smart decision. Each New Year's Eve around 4 pm, he said, Times Square revelers begin crowding into a roughly twenty block radius around the ball. Once in that highly secured area, the NYPD won’t let them back in if they leave for a moment – so you’re stuck until, literally, the next year. And guess what? Most people – at least, most people I know – usually have to use the bathroom within a six to eight hour span. And with many Times Square businesses extremely reluctant to allow a mess of drunken party people into their stores or restaurants, that leaves many folks with limited options.
2009 Times Square ball up at the very top of this iPhone photo (squint and you might see it) | Times Square, December 29, 2008That’s where the Depends adult diapers come into the equation.
Yuck.
Our bartender swore this is true, and to top it off, many of the men forgo the diapers and simply…well…utilize the pavement when nature calls.
He said he can understand the appeal of people from all over the world wanting to celebrate New Years Eve in Times Square at least once in their life. But anyone who does it twice, he said, is insane.
***
Last week, I noted that I’m an unapologetic irritating elitist cultural snob, and as such, I did take advantage of some cool (to me) films and exhibits in New York while there. I walked about 40 blocks to The Whitney Museum of American Art and caught an exhibit featuring the wonderful Memphis photographer, William Eggleston. Still rolling and going at 70 years old, Eggleston’s pictures fascinate me. Whether it be a photo of a plate of ham and green beans, a pompadoured teenage bag boy pushing some shopping carts back into his grocery store, or two dazed young women seemingly consoling each other on a couch, Eggleston’s eye catches seemingly mundane images and transforms them into rich, color-saturated memories that could have come from our own past. He personalizes his visual captures in a manner that is almost haunting.
Mickey Rourke in The WrestlerI also caught Mickey Rourke’s comeback film, The Wrestler, and his performance will break your heart. Rourke plays Randy “The Ram” Robinson, an aging ex-pro wrestler struggling to make ends meet by still sparring in wrestling battles in legion halls and rundown community centers across a decrepit New Jersey coast while working as a stocker in a grocery store. (Think Hulk Hogan with his celebrity long forgotten.) When a health scare after a particularly brutal match threatens what’s left of his wrestling career, Ram has to face the ugly truth that his only home is in the ring. In order to live at peace in a world without wrestling, he attempts to reconcile with his estranged daughter and begin a relationship with a stripper for whom he has fallen (played, wonderfully, by Marisa Tomei). It’s easily the best film I saw in 2008, but there are still many from last year I’ve missed. I wanted to catch Clint Eastwood’s new one, Gran Torino, and the Leonardo DiCaprio/Kate Winslet domestic drama, Revolutionary Road, but time was never found.
I didn’t miss a chance, however, to see Che. The movie which follows the life of Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara (as portrayed by Benicio Del Toro) will only be seen in its original five hour version (the length includes a thirty minute intermission) in New York until tomorrow. It will be released as two separate films later this month in markets across America. For a film geek, seeing this film on the big screen in its complete version (with a souvenir program, to boot) was a treat.
Benicio Del Toro as Che Guevara in Steven Soderbergh's CheI’m certainly no fan of Guevara’s politics, but by chronicling his leadership with the Castro brothers in the overthrow of the Cuban government and his failed attempt at bringing down the Bolivian government almost a decade later, Che director Steven Soderbergh (who brought us the Oceans 11 through 13 comedies, Erin Brockovich and Traffic) has created an anti-epic epic. His observing camera simply follows the preparations of Che and his guerillas as they hide in the jungles, carefully training and tackling each obstacle, and sucking in the viewer as each obstacle becomes more daunting as the particular missions (in Cuba and in Bolivia) progress. It really is involving filmmaking that presents the audience as witnesses to the first revolution and, ultimately, his almost comical failure in Bolivia – where everything that could go wrong, did go wrong.
Outside the IFC Center before screening of the "Roadshow" edition of Che | December 29, 2008
Christmas display, Avenue of the Americas | December 29, 2008
Christmas-themed Empire State Building | December 29, 2008
1 comment:
Another informative blog… Thank you for sharing it… Best of luck for further endeavor too.
Post a Comment