It’s been cold and rainy here. A couple nights ago I came out of the Times building, into the chilly drizzle. It was 6 p.m. (I’ve learned that if I get on the bus at 6, I’m home relatively quickly. If I get on the bus at 6:20, it takes an hour to get home, sometimes longer. Note to self …) There’s an outdoor restaurant on the ground-floor level, right across from Port Authority. The chairs are brightly colored. Something about the colors really struck me on that rainy twilight. As I’ve said before, once you see Jacques Tati’s Playtime, the whole world looks different. It becomes a part of your reference library. I reference Tati probably once a day, on average.
Sometimes the most prosaic scene can flash into poetry.
Ah, public transportation, we have it here but I still live too close/or too far. Twelve miles to work can take 15 min. or 45 depending on the dumb *sses who don’t know how to drive! Bonnie Blue (my new to me car) and I turn up the music and fly to work….and hope we don’t get grimaced at.. you know when good looking young/old men pull up to a beautiful car with long blonde hair blowing out the window only to see a worn 51 year old.. out comes the grimace. Oh, well we just laugh and go a little faster, Bonnie Blue is a blur.
Lisa in Fort Worth
Lisa –
// Twelve miles to work can take 15 min. or 45 depending //
Yeah, it’s so weird how that happens ! You can almost feel “rush hour” kick in in New York – like it’s a live beast thrashing about at all of the tunnels and bridges. And then 30 minutes later – all clear.
Saw PLAYTIME when it opened. A million years ago. With my father, who’d be 105 next week. So many memories. Also of that corner. Lived at Manhattan Plaza from 1977-1995 and miss it terribly. Not the way it is today, too many people, and wayyyyyy too many huge, expensive buildings, but the way it was then. Thanks for the reminders. You are so good at that, Sheila! Have a good summer.
Jumping in to say that I am so envious of you seeing Playtime when it came out (and with your dad, what a lovely memory)!
Love the vibrant photo Sheila — those chairs definitely look like they could fart if you sat on them right.