Only in NYC!

While standing in line for the Tribeca Film Festival, Jeff noticed this sign (Sorry for the blurriness of the photo. It was very far away and we had to really zoom in and then the camera doesn't perform as well because it detects every little movement.)

Where else can you save up to 74%??

Why not 75%??

They're going out of business...what's that 1% really going to gain them? :-)

Tribeca Film Festival

In late April, I kept seeing posters for the Tribeca Film Festival. I thought we can't live in New York and not go to at least one film of the festival.



Jeff scoured the films for something that looked interesting and that would be appropriate for us to watch. We finally decided on a film called Kettle of Fish showing on May 6th. It's a romantic comedy (no surprise there) starring Matthew Modine and Gina Gershon. Modine plays a musician...a lifelong bachelor...who sublets his apartment to Gershon...a biologist.



As we were riding the train to the movie theater, I noticed that the couple across from us had some flyers (or something) that had Kettle of Fish written on it. I thought, "Hey! They're going to the same film we are." Jeff was trying to remember where exactly the theater was (which wasn't in Tribeca at all, but rather on the Upper West Side). We had forgotten to double check the listing before we'd headed out. I leaned over and said he should ask them because they were going to the same movie.



So he did.



Turns out, not only were they going to the same movie, but she was none other than Claudia Myers...the writer/director of the film!! We chatted for the rest of the train ride. What was it like to work with Modine? Of particular interest to us, as he is also LDS--married to his wife for more than 26 years! How many films had she had in the festival? This was her first and only. It was really exciting for us to sit across from the director and her husband.



The film festival (as previously mentioned) is not confined to Tribeca. The venues for the films are spread throughout most of the City, which we found very interesting. We were also shocked that this was only the 5th annual festival. We thought that it had been around much longer than that. Here is the theater we went to...





Getting tickets was no easy feat. We were unable to purchase tickets online, so we decided to get there early. Our landlord was heading out the Manhattan at the same time we were heading to the train. He offered us a ride. We accepted. It really helped us out because we were running a bit late.



This was the line by the time we got there! And this was just to get the tickets




The film was very enjoyable! We even stayed for the Q&A with the director. Made me miss my film school days a little bit. Maybe I could've had a film in the TFF if I had stayed in the program for more than 1 1/2 quarters!

Conquering Manhattan One Neighborhood at a time -- CHINATOWN

The second neighborhood that Clarinda and I trampled underfoot was Chinatown. Chinatown, in and of itself, is a sensory overload for the shoppers of weak constitution. Unless one goes into Chinatown with a hardened heart, a sharp resolve, and an unwavering faith, you could go in looking for a wallet and come out with two sets of skies, a Rollix watch, a pair of Guccii loafers, a Prado handbag, three chickens and a goat. Heroes have been broken to mere mortals under the daunting stresses of this environment. However, I do believe the Ramsey girls could go in looking for a scarf and come out owning property, for the same price. To say the least, this neighborhood brings a whole new meaning to the term pushy sales people. And; it’s the home of the Knock-off. One must have a level of fortitude about them, the likes of which is not seen in your standard retail areas. My strategy now, is to have a target item in mind, and whenever entering negotiation with the sales people over it, pretending I only know one line of English…”you’ll take five dollars”. This usually results in a two way; monosyllabic conversation lasting about three to four minutes, but so for has yielded very good results.

This is one of my favorite places to shop. It is a hamlet of canopy clad vendors, selling a broad variety of merchandise. (Sorry about the byciclist, but it's NYC, try and get a photo without someone in the way)

New Yorker’s definitely don’t let reduced space allowances slow them down. It’s not just the buildings in this city that go into the sky to make room. They tell me you can get your car out in 15 minutes… I don’t buy it.

At one point Clarinda got some boots in this place called Chill. All I could think about was how bad I wanted to own that top floor loft.

The ground floors of the buildings to the left are all ostentatious galleries of several types, paintings, clothes, photography, etc…

And; if you didn’t believe NYC had a rat problem… think again.