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Weird-ass New York summer

I’ve been in Manhattan for 11 years now, and I’ve never seen a summer like this. New York is usually beyond humid by mid-June, air conditioners running full blast barely staves off the sweat flow. But for weeks now, it’s been cool and rainy. Very odd.

I remember walking into Old Navy wanting one of their fleece overshirts and they only had short-sleeve spring-wear. This was back in March. I bet they’re not doing that well here this quarter.

I’m not that fond of all the rain, but I love saving money on the a/c, and it’s also nice to be able to wear a coat if you’d like, rather than being in shorts and t-shirt and feeling it’s too many clothes.

It’s a strange one!

Weird-ass New York summer

I’ve been in Manhattan for 11 years now, and I’ve never seen a summer like this. New York is usually beyond humid by mid-June, air conditioners running full blast barely staves off the sweat flow. But for weeks now, it’s been cool and rainy. Very odd.

I remember walking into Old Navy wanting one of their fleece overshirts and they only had short-sleeve spring-wear. This was back in March. I bet they’re not doing that well here this quarter.

I’m not that fond of all the rain, but I love saving money on the a/c, and it’s also nice to be able to wear a coat if you’d like, rather than being in shorts and t-shirt and feeling it’s too many clothes.

It’s a strange one!

May 9, 2003

Photo of John and Shade in the UA 15 theatre screening the Top Ten Finalists of the first TriggerStreet.com Short Film Festival at the Tribeca Film Festival. Photo by Elizabeth Anne, the #1 short film reviewer with over 700 short film reviews to her credit! Yow! She’s also a musician of the funky sort. She’s got a Yahoo group here: Alien Lizzie

More photos (John and Shade-less) from the TriggerStreet.com/Tribeca Film Festival weekend can be found at Jeffrey Travis’ site Dos Gringos

May 9, 2003

Photo of John and Shade in the UA 15 theatre screening the Top Ten Finalists of the first TriggerStreet.com Short Film Festival at the Tribeca Film Festival. Photo by Elizabeth Anne, the #1 short film reviewer with over 700 short film reviews to her credit! Yow! She’s also a musician of the funky sort. She’s got a Yahoo group here: Alien Lizzie

More photos (John and Shade-less) from the TriggerStreet.com/Tribeca Film Festival weekend can be found at Jeffrey Travis’ site Dos Gringos

Mommie Dearest for Mother’s Day (May
TriggerStreet.com Tribeca Film Festival Screening (May 9)

Good days at the movies. Found out the night before that the Chelsea 23rd would be screening Mommie Dearest the next night at 7pm, and for only $5!

It was absolutely one of the greatest filmgoing experiences of my life. People were invited to talk along with the movie by Hedda Lettuce, who mostly put on a really great show. There were a couple of jokes that were run over film lines, which is too much. The audience wants to enjoy it for themselves also. The worst one was having Hedda as Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford being chased down and up and around and by a male Christina in drag, brandishing an axe held above her head while running, DURING the ‘Clean up this mess!’ scene right after the coat-hanger beating scene. This was a DISTRACTION! People were actually yelling SSSSSH! while they were running.

The good parts were people who brought their own hangers and Ajax (baby powder), but Hedda had Christina hand out about 50 hangers. Of course, I got rid of all my wire hangers immediately after seeing this film. I’ve been plastic ever since. Wire hangers are removed immediately upon entering the household.

God, this is such a great movie. How did Faye Dunaway find this? Or the writers? Joan Crawford adopted four children, though only Christopher and Christina are mentioned. Christopher drops out of the movie entirely about halfway through and we don’t hear of him again until he’s an adult. But man, Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford is truly one of the greatest coups of global cinema acting. It’s an unbelievable performance, and however ‘bad’ anyone wants to say the film is, Joan by Faye is delivered with all the power in Faye’s vocabularic mastery. So much so that almost every line uttered by Faye is a cinema moment, a flash of line that enters the global consciousness. Here Faye Dunaway smashes out line after line of instantly embedded memory bits. Many of these could become commercial slogans.

At least 25% of the audience knew all the lines. It was a really super-great night. I would do this again in a heartbeat.

Faye Dunaway, a master.

TriggerStreet.com Short Film Festival – Top Ten Finalists

So my mom had told me about this Kevin Spacey website thing, I thought why not, and got very caught up in it from the films and scripts to the ‘community’ itself.

It’s a pretty incredible experiment, and besides a bunch of weird stuff for awhile, the festival has produced a fine 10 short films through community reviews and rankings. Unfortunately neither Nikki West nor Stephen Kilkie took the front stage for their films, but incredibly talented Jeffrey Travis from Austin, TX was there for his very funny “What’s Wrong with this Picture?,” Twilight Zone-esque filmmaker Tony West (and yes he knows Nikki) with ‘The Return,’ Phil Powell and his very funny in-the-vein of ‘Waiting for Guffman’-esque film ‘Non-Abductees Anonymous’ about people who feel left out because they haven’t been abducted by aliens. Levi Holiman I would vost as a most-likely for top prize because of his handling of telling, and the appreciation from the crowd. I did not connect with this short so much, though I’ve heard that his new short film is horror, which he loves, so that’s a good thing.

Sadly Stephen Kilkie was not there, and his short ‘The Strange Case of Patient X’ showed last, leaving the greatest impression. I’ve seen five of Kilkie’s films and I love them all. He’s got a site up at http://homepage.mac.com/skilkie and I highly recommend a visit.

#1 TriggerStreet.com reviewer with over 700 reviewers, Elizabeth Anne, flew up for the screening herself and said hello to everyone she’s reviewed. #2 reviewer is myself and it was great to meet these filmmakers that left such impressions with me that I will remember and recite their work from time to time, or at least tenor praise.

Kevin Spacey was there to announce the filmmakers and shake their hands. He walked and shook a few hands afterwards, so I introduced myself. Maybe he’s actually looked at the site and seen my name. Nice to say hi to him, and to the filmmakers. This was a very successfull short film festival, producing some nice work.

Then we went and saw X-men 2 at the Ziegfeld. It was alright. There was this ugly cunt in front of us though. Now, you may think those words harsh, but we kindly asked if she could remove her hat, and she pursed her lips, smoothed her hat down, and pulled it on tighter. I got up to get the manager and John was telling her that was rude, and even the manager couldn’t get her to take her hat off.

So we sat in front of her. Still, I can’t think of anything else to call her. ‘Human’ is just too kind.

Mommie Dearest for Mother’s Day (May
TriggerStreet.com Tribeca Film Festival Screening (May 9)

Good days at the movies. Found out the night before that the Chelsea 23rd would be screening Mommie Dearest the next night at 7pm, and for only $5!

It was absolutely one of the greatest filmgoing experiences of my life. People were invited to talk along with the movie by Hedda Lettuce, who mostly put on a really great show. There were a couple of jokes that were run over film lines, which is too much. The audience wants to enjoy it for themselves also. The worst one was having Hedda as Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford being chased down and up and around and by a male Christina in drag, brandishing an axe held above her head while running, DURING the ‘Clean up this mess!’ scene right after the coat-hanger beating scene. This was a DISTRACTION! People were actually yelling SSSSSH! while they were running.

The good parts were people who brought their own hangers and Ajax (baby powder), but Hedda had Christina hand out about 50 hangers. Of course, I got rid of all my wire hangers immediately after seeing this film. I’ve been plastic ever since. Wire hangers are removed immediately upon entering the household.

God, this is such a great movie. How did Faye Dunaway find this? Or the writers? Joan Crawford adopted four children, though only Christopher and Christina are mentioned. Christopher drops out of the movie entirely about halfway through and we don’t hear of him again until he’s an adult. But man, Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford is truly one of the greatest coups of global cinema acting. It’s an unbelievable performance, and however ‘bad’ anyone wants to say the film is, Joan by Faye is delivered with all the power in Faye’s vocabularic mastery. So much so that almost every line uttered by Faye is a cinema moment, a flash of line that enters the global consciousness. Here Faye Dunaway smashes out line after line of instantly embedded memory bits. Many of these could become commercial slogans.

At least 25% of the audience knew all the lines. It was a really super-great night. I would do this again in a heartbeat.

Faye Dunaway, a master.

TriggerStreet.com Short Film Festival – Top Ten Finalists

So my mom had told me about this Kevin Spacey website thing, I thought why not, and got very caught up in it from the films and scripts to the ‘community’ itself.

It’s a pretty incredible experiment, and besides a bunch of weird stuff for awhile, the festival has produced a fine 10 short films through community reviews and rankings. Unfortunately neither Nikki West nor Stephen Kilkie took the front stage for their films, but incredibly talented Jeffrey Travis from Austin, TX was there for his very funny “What’s Wrong with this Picture?,” Twilight Zone-esque filmmaker Tony West (and yes he knows Nikki) with ‘The Return,’ Phil Powell and his very funny in-the-vein of ‘Waiting for Guffman’-esque film ‘Non-Abductees Anonymous’ about people who feel left out because they haven’t been abducted by aliens. Levi Holiman I would vost as a most-likely for top prize because of his handling of telling, and the appreciation from the crowd. I did not connect with this short so much, though I’ve heard that his new short film is horror, which he loves, so that’s a good thing.

Sadly Stephen Kilkie was not there, and his short ‘The Strange Case of Patient X’ showed last, leaving the greatest impression. I’ve seen five of Kilkie’s films and I love them all. He’s got a site up at http://homepage.mac.com/skilkie and I highly recommend a visit.

#1 TriggerStreet.com reviewer with over 700 reviewers, Elizabeth Anne, flew up for the screening herself and said hello to everyone she’s reviewed. #2 reviewer is myself and it was great to meet these filmmakers that left such impressions with me that I will remember and recite their work from time to time, or at least tenor praise.

Kevin Spacey was there to announce the filmmakers and shake their hands. He walked and shook a few hands afterwards, so I introduced myself. Maybe he’s actually looked at the site and seen my name. Nice to say hi to him, and to the filmmakers. This was a very successfull short film festival, producing some nice work.

Then we went and saw X-men 2 at the Ziegfeld. It was alright. There was this ugly cunt in front of us though. Now, you may think those words harsh, but we kindly asked if she could remove her hat, and she pursed her lips, smoothed her hat down, and pulled it on tighter. I got up to get the manager and John was telling her that was rude, and even the manager couldn’t get her to take her hat off.

So we sat in front of her. Still, I can’t think of anything else to call her. ‘Human’ is just too kind.

Sometimes bitching works

Impossibly long story but last summer the lady across the airshaft caught her apartment, and the one above it, on fire. They evacuated the building and luckily John was working at the bookstore and I was at Polish lessons in Clifton, NJ, because we would’ve freaked out too much on what to take, and how to get the chinchillas out and all that.

Luckily, for whatever reasons, our apartment was untouched except for some light smoke. The guy upstairs from us had black walls.

Well, we’ve got funny landlords. And yes I mean ha-ha funny. The firemen came in and bashed in everyone’s doors (but not ours). So they decided to replace all the doors, which really sucks because the doors were parts of the reason I moved in. I have to look but I don’t even think I have a picture of the old cool doors. They had these really cool and great eyeholes with a glass front and a recessed art deco style apartment number behind the glass where it meets the person on the inside’s eye. The hingers were really cool and old, and they were just great.

Now we have these boring Motel 6 type doors that boring landlords put in all the new homogenized apartments.

Well, we all got these rent increase notices. $17 per room!!!! For new doors that had to be replaced anyway to be up to code, and because so many people had their door locks bashed in.

So, we fought it. We wrote letters to the rent increase department, and we mentioned the landlord had already received recompense through insurance. This was months ago.

And last week we got notices that the rent increase is only going up $5.99 per room. Still sucks that it’s going up at all for something the neighbor across the hall did, and something that took away our really cool personality-filled doors, but dang! writing letters and bitching appropriately can be a good thing!

Pat on the back, pat on the back.

Sometimes bitching works

Impossibly long story but last summer the lady across the airshaft caught her apartment, and the one above it, on fire. They evacuated the building and luckily John was working at the bookstore and I was at Polish lessons in Clifton, NJ, because we would’ve freaked out too much on what to take, and how to get the chinchillas out and all that.

Luckily, for whatever reasons, our apartment was untouched except for some light smoke. The guy upstairs from us had black walls.

Well, we’ve got funny landlords. And yes I mean ha-ha funny. The firemen came in and bashed in everyone’s doors (but not ours). So they decided to replace all the doors, which really sucks because the doors were parts of the reason I moved in. I have to look but I don’t even think I have a picture of the old cool doors. They had these really cool and great eyeholes with a glass front and a recessed art deco style apartment number behind the glass where it meets the person on the inside’s eye. The hingers were really cool and old, and they were just great.

Now we have these boring Motel 6 type doors that boring landlords put in all the new homogenized apartments.

Well, we all got these rent increase notices. $17 per room!!!! For new doors that had to be replaced anyway to be up to code, and because so many people had their door locks bashed in.

So, we fought it. We wrote letters to the rent increase department, and we mentioned the landlord had already received recompense through insurance. This was months ago.

And last week we got notices that the rent increase is only going up $5.99 per room. Still sucks that it’s going up at all for something the neighbor across the hall did, and something that took away our really cool personality-filled doors, but dang! writing letters and bitching appropriately can be a good thing!

Pat on the back, pat on the back.