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Dryblogging:
There's a semi-tradition we have of going to see a movie at Downtown Disney on the last day of our vacation. So we said goodbye to Steph, who had an earlier flight home, and me, my parents, and Kirsten all went to see Dark Water. We had no interest in the movie other than the fact that it was filmed in our neighbourhood, and indeed, takes place on Roosevelt Island in the building across the street from us. Armed wiith memories of large rain machines on Main Street-turned-film-set, we settled down to watch this presumedly cheesy horror flick. Actually, it turned out to be more of a psychological-thriller-cum-custody-battle, but it was sufficiently surreal to see the street I grew up on and the school I went to immortalized, as it were, on film.

I think the movie will really piss off Roosevelt Islanders. It starts with Connelly and her young daughter riding the Tram, and the girl whines, "Mommy, this isn't the city. That's the city." And she points across the river. "This is not the city." Since we were four of less than ten people in the theatre, I felt comfortable telling her, aloud, to shut up.

It was pretty funny to watch the sinister aerial shots of the island, darkened views of Eastwood through screens of fake rain and darkened lenses. And Eastwood itself (the real building where the movie takes place) was dressed down to look like a creepy, delapidated slum. I've never been in the laundry room there so I can't speak for accuracy, but some of my best friends growing up lived in apartments identical (in layout) to the one in the movie, so the residents are sure to take offense at the way they dressed it up.

My mom the DHCR rep snorted at the references to "rent control" and we all laughed at the line that was surely meant as a wink to island residents:

"You're here early!"
"The subway is much faster than the tram."

Which is only funny to us because people tend to assume that the tram is the only way on and off the island.

Anyway, the biggest laugh for me came from the film's recurring motif of a rivalry between Roosevelt Island and Jersey City.

"You expect me to take the PATH to the F train, are you crazy?! It'll take an hour!"

The ex-husband has moved there and wants Connelly and the daughter to find a place in JC; "There are plenty of cheap apartments, I got this one-bedroom for $800 a month," he says. You can see how I, a Roosevelt Islander until May and now a JCer, would find all of this amusing. It's especially funny because the idea in the movie is that Roosevelt Island is supposed to be great because of its astounding affordability (true, but the apartment building that Connelly moves into is, in real life, reserved for low-income; the waiting list is years long) but so grim and gloomy that no one would want to live there; in reality, and the only one-bedrooms in JC for $800 a month are in neighbourhoods much more dreary and depressing than Roosevelt Island!

Wetblogging:

Jiggety jog, another successful vacation. Dreams really do come true: I found the Alice wallet at the Marketplace right before we headed back to the hotel for the bus to the airport.

Why are you in Tavie's head? 1:26 AM | shower me with attention