Tribeca Film Festival 2017- reviews

UPDATE 4/26

The matinee pass this year was disappointing. There are very few real films before 5. The festival is branching out to TV and virtual reality. I ended up using one of my tickets for something that was free on Friday and I had to buy a senior ticket to see my friend's son's documentary which only shows in the evening.

Here's what I'm seeing - all at Cinepolis on 23rd:

4/24  3:30        Frank Serpico - might need a bit of editing but it is fabulous. Serpico gets to tell his own story the way he wishes. See it!

4/25  2:45        Wasted - sponsored by the Ford Foundation. This is a foodie movie about how to deal with the incredible amount of wasted food in our world. See it!

         5:00         I AM Evidence - Mariska Hargitay was at the talk back. There are over 200,000 unopened rape kits in the US.

4/26   3:45        Newton - this movie should be seen by anyone who has worked the polls on election day.

          6:45        Reagan Show - the tapes don't lie. This documentary should be seen by anyone yearning for                the Reagan years.

4/27   3:00         Permission - great NYC shots. Gay sex. Straight sex. Thoughtful look at love vs convenience.

          6:15         There's Johnny - preview of a streaming series about back stage at the Johnny Carson show. Sort of a color comedic version of Mad Men. Didn't know one of the cast members is the son of friends of mine. Still have no idea how/when to access the rest of the show.

4/28    2:45        The Dinner - intense, well-acted, poorly edited, depressing movie starring favorite of mine Richard Gere. Judging by commercials, it has already been released in theaters. Was sorry that I wasted a matinee pass film to see it on free Friday. It wasn't worth it.

 Same time next year maybe!

4/6/2017 Atlas Obscura - Open House New York

So, tonight I went to an Open House New York lecture about Atlas Obscura. Atlas Obscura is a website by and for people seeking wonder and off the beaten path places and spaces when they travel the world or, in the case of New Yorkers, explore their back yard. It was a great lecture for OHNY volunteers. The founders have also published a book about their journeys  - traveling and creating the website.

Dylan, the lecturer, mentioned The Trash Museum as a place loved by Atlas Obscura and Open House New York. I certainly loved my visit there. When I left the Trash Museum I walked with two OHNY members who looked awfully familiar to me. They fessed up. They were the models for a portrait in the 72nd St Q train station. On my way home from the lecture, I stopped off to take a picture of their portrait.

 

Trash Museum 3 - some collections...

A collection of thoughts and typewriters and dolls and lunch boxes and NYC Marathon stuff and super heroes.

Trash Museum 2

We could not touch anything. Nelson was free so I asked him to show me what looked like a piece of Mexican pottery I owned with a sex change. Speaking of change, Nelson didn't know what the hole in the top was for.

When I returned home, I found my version still sitting heavily and happily on top of my book cabinet near an ancient picture of my Guides Association tour guide friends. I've had the pottery (not the picture) for about 50 years I think.

Maybe I should write to the museum to see about a tour for guides. Hopefully, someday this stuff will be housed in a NYC Museum of Sanitation. More stuff here:

The Trash Museum - OHNY - 3/26/17 - (1)

This morning was special thanks to Open House New York and Robin Nagle the Sanitation Department Anthropologist AND Nelson Molina chief collector and curator of The Trash Museum.

William B Helmreich might have walked 6000 miles in NYC and written the book The New York Nobody Knows but Nelson Molina spent his over 30 year career in the Sanitation Department working routes between his home on East 115 and the Sanitation terminal on East 99th Street. When Nelson saw things he believed should be saved, he brought them back to "the office". He did all of his work faithfully and he "saved" things. Mr Molina has retired but his saved "Treasures of The Trash Museum" are displayed in a sanitation warehouse that no longer parks trucks.

I normally don't take photos in museums. I would rather you visit on your own. However, this place is hard to visit so I took many photos. Here are a few. More in later posts like this one.

 
 

Central Park - The People's Place

What is Central Park? The more I explore, read about, and share the Park with others the more I realize how much there is to know. I also realize that I will never know it all.

At the moment, I am  planning a screening of Central Park - The People's Place for my fellow guides. This new documentary by Martin L. Birnbaum, park lover and sociologist who sees the Park as a place where people come together, is a great (holiday) gift for park lovers an park visitors who want to know more or take more than a bit of the Central Park home with them. The DVD is available from the website (link is above). All pictures are courtesy of the film's producers.

If you want to shop AND support Central Park any time visit the on-line shop of the Central Park Conservancy. Or, when you visit Central Park, do your shopping at the Dairy.

 

   

CANstruction TCS NYC Marathon EXPO Opening Day Nov 3, 2016

  Last year, we had Halloween, the NYC Marathon and the World Series on the same weekend. This year, it is CANstruction and the Marathon EXPO. I have written lots about both the Marathon and CANstruction on this blog. This year, I have posted some Lower Manhattan tours to CANstruction on AnyGuide starting on November 4th.

On November 3rd, A Guide Named Sue is doing a Tourist Guide's Daze off journey from Grand Central to CANstruction via the new Hudson Yards 7 train stop, the Marathon EXPO, the Highline, Chelsea Market, the new location of the Gansevoort market and my favorite Tom Otterness Subway stop.

If I have the time and energy, I will head to Brooklyn to see friends and attend the Guides Association meeting.

 

If you would like to tag along for some or most of this, contact me and I will tell you where to meet me in Grand Central around 10AM.

 

OHNY 2016 - Freshkills tour

What can I say. To stand anywhere (in this case on top of two former garbage dumps) on the ground in NYC and have 360 horizon views with no buildings in the way is a treat. Freshkills is evolving. I thought I was checking off a bucket list item when I snared an #OHNYwknd tour but now I want to return for a Freshkills Park Discovery Day next year. Come join me!

 

OHNY 2016 (2) - My plan

You can find me volunteering at the Open House New York Info Hub at Union Square Greenmarket from 10 AM-1PM. After that, I will check on the line at Jefferson Market Library and might go to Westbeth before heading Uptown. I need to be at the Museum of Art and Origin by 5. There might be time to stop in to see my 101.5 year old friend Marie. Afterward, I'll check the line at Hamilton Grange. I've never seen it at night.

Sunday, I am off to the tour of Freshkills Park  in Staten Island. Before leaving the Island, I want to eat brunch at Lakruwana, a Sri Lankan restaurant on Bay Street. Then I'll check on the progress of the Lighthouse Museum. I haven't been there in over a year. (OR I'll rush off of SI immediately and try to get to The Little Red Lighthouse! Oh the possibilities.)

 

I'll end this year's Open House New York by heading way Uptown to the United Palace to see Mary Poppins introduced by Lin-Manuel Miranda. I can't wait! (You can see the interior of the United Palace as part of OHNY for free on Saturday but it's no fun without a movie). (I have yet to see Hamilton but the book HAMILTON the REVOLUTION is a wonderful read).

NOTE: If you are new to OHNY, be sane. Pick sites that are near each other and have a GREAT time. There are way too many great sites. See what interests you! There's always next year.

Open House New York 2016 (1)

At first, when I saw my OHNY volunteer assignment, I was a bit disappointed. I have volunteered every year since the beginning of OHNY and they gave me a shift at my favorite greenmarket: Union Square. I thought, oh I can shop after my shift and go home before continuing. Then I read my assignment. I will be working the Info Hub and helping people find their OHNY. Can't think of a better way to start the weekend and use my experience volunteering and participating in every OHNY since the start. Come say HI between 10 and 1 on Saturday (I will shop Friday).

Some of my prior year assignments are on the Open for all list. Renee & Chaim Gross Foundation is a must see. It was fun to see people who lived in the neighborhood discover the place for the first time. Welling Court Mural Project was/is my favorite surprising place (photo is one of this year's murals). City Hall was my volunteer slot the first year. It was combined with the Tweed Courthouse (sure wish that would be Open again). We broke up and moved 1200 people through both places in 3 or 4 hours.

My prior year volunteer sites that require(d) reservations are Central Park tour with Bob Gelber (bus woman's holiday), the Masonic Hall, Modulator, Red Hook walking tour (which was actually cancelled that year so I spent my time directing people to other sites and exploring Red Hook).

The other 6 volunteer assignments were: Tear Drop Park, an architect's home and renovated carriage house in the village, the library of the NY Horticultural Society, House of the Redeemer, the lectures in the lobby of the Chrysler building, and the private garden between the I M Pei buildings between 1st and 2nd Ave in the 30's. All interesting places and spaces. You can find my plans for the weekend here.