April 24, 2016 non Tribeca film adventures.

On the last day of the Tribeca Film Festival, I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to see the new Psycho House roof top exhibit. Fun - even without a drink! 

In the afternoon, I stopped in to visit my 101 year old friend Marie Runyon. She is listed on IMDB for her film roles and has starred in a video The Lady is a Fighting Lion directed by Laura Collins. Marie was also featured in a video by Michael Moore during the last Presidential election. (She was escorted to a nursing home in Brooklyn for filming). It is even more relevant for this election. However, if you were offended by it then, please do not click on it now. It hasn't changed. This picture was taken a couple of weeks ago when I stopped in to add this year's Triangle Shirtwaist Fire commemoration button to her wall. I wish City Lore would nominate Marie to the people's hall of fame while she is here.

 Soon it was time to head really Uptown to see Singin' in the Rain at the glorious United Palace of Cultural Arts at 175th and Broadway. I won the Music Box (but the artist calls it a Nicho/Shrine) in the picture. I love it. However, while it is titled Gene Kelly with Umbrella, I wish it played Singin' in the Rain instead of Rain Drops Keep Falling on my Head. Can't win them all.

Wish I could see Movie Movie here some day. It is the perfect place for it.

 

Tribeca Film Festival 2016 starts Today

If you love the Met Museum and you (like me) missed the opening night film The First Monday in May, the film starts an extended run at The Paris Theatre on April 15th.

I will be seeing All This Panic, The Tenth Man, For the Love of Spock, Betting on Zero, Bugs, and Untouchable. I am unable to attend Shorts: Learning Curve and Check It so I will be giving away those tickets.

What are you seeing...?

On the last day of the festival, I intend to be way Uptown seeing Singin' in the Rain at the United Palace.

Come explore NYC on the way to your film with public tours on April 20, and 21st.

I'm also leading early morning custom and one public tour to places of interest for film buffs.

For way more information about the Tribeca Film Festival, visit the site here.

You can search this blog for Tribeca Film Festival. My posts and reviews started in 2010.

Come join A Guide Named Sue (That's Me) at this great NYC event! (Would love to see some TA visitors. Sorry I can't post this at the NYC Forum)

 

Tribeca Film Festival last day April 24, 2016 - United Palace

No tickets for the last day? NO problem. See the classic film Singing' in the Rain for FREE in Manhattan's only classic movie palace - the United Palace of Culture aka Loew's 175th Street.

If you are in the film industry and still moaning about the loss of the (replacement) Ziegfeld Theater, come here, support this cultural center and start scheduling film premieres here!

Take the A train to the Cloisters for a morning jaunt and then head to the United Palace via the M4 bus. Get off at 175th Street. Eat in the neighborhood.  Enjoy!!

 

 

Tribeca Film Festival 2016 - Tours TO the theaters

A Guide Named Sue thinks it is great to Explore NYC before sitting down in a dark theater to see great films so...On days that she already has tickets, she has posted 4 public (inexpensive) tours. Each of these tours will start from the Transit Museum Annex (great exhibit, retail therapy, and MetroCards without the dollar surcharge) in Grand Central Terminal (where many scenes have been filmed).

You can read more about the tours and sign up at the AnyGuide links below. Public tours will happen if there is at least 1 sign up through AnyGuide.

April 14 (1:30 PM) and 18th (10:30 AM) - destination Regal Cinemas Battery Park City. The 14th has a sign up and will definitely take place. We will be using the select bus route downtown. NOTE: The 18th has been canceled as a public tour but, Sue is available for an early morning customized tour on the day.

April 20 (2:00 PM) and April 21st (11:00 AM) destination Bow Tie Cinemas Chelsea. April 20th will be via the Highline.

On April 15 and 16 Sue will be returning to Regal Cinemas.   A  late afternoon customized tour on either day can be arranged. Tour will end by 5 at Regal Cinemas.

 

Beyond the Blue Line March 20, 2016

One of the greatest routes in NYC is the 26.2 mile NYC Marathon. It spends a bit of time in all 5 boroughs. 50,000 people run the course yearly.  I finished the Marathon slowly 3 times and I volunteered on race day and at the Expo for many years. What struck me at the EXPO were questions like...is it safe to go to Brooklyn or Queens NOT on marathon day? This was years ago and it was safe then and safe now. What's more is...there are places to go and things to see on or just beyond the course that runners and spectators never get to see so....

This year A Guide Named Sue is creating tours that cover slices of the Marathon course. The first two will take place on Sunday March 20th.  The first goes from Apple to the Cooper Hewitt.  The second goes from Glaser's Bakery on first Avenue to the Studio Museum of Harlem (just slightly off course).  

Come along. The tours will take place if anyone signs up in advance. (You must sign up by Friday). If there is no advance sign up Sue will not be at the start.

Hope you all got to see The Great Race Exhibit at The Museum of the City of New York.

Destination Museum of American Finance - Friday Feb 26, 2016

  Short notice I know...A Guide Named Sue is headed to a lecture at the Museum of American Finance this Friday. 

For Sue, the journey IS the tour. This time, we'll meet at Grand Central Terminal. After a short look around, we'll subway to SOHO. The walk will add many steps to your fitbit.

We will wander through SOHO, Little Italy, Chinatown, the Brooklyn Bridge area and Wall Street en route to our destination. Highlights will include short stops at the Hall of Records exhibit about LOMEX, CityStore, and the great exhibit about Harlem at Federal Hall.

We will be near but beyond the downtown Double Decker Bus route.

For registration at AnyGuide.Com click here.

 

Jewish Film Festival 2016

Happy New Year all. It is finally getting easier to type. I have written about the Lincoln Center Jewish Film Festival on this blog for many years. There are several films I would like to see this year.  

I have bought tickets for the following:

Art and Heart: The World of Isaiah Scheffer 1/14  1:30 

Carvahlo's Journey 1/25 1:00 PM

The Law 1/18 4:00 PM

Projections of America 1/13  1:30

I have already seen Mahler on the Couch and I highly recommend it especially for Tom Lehrer fans. He really nailed the story of Alma!

Great excuse to visit the Alice and Symphony Space exhibits at the Library of the Performing Arts before or after a film.

2015 Halloween NYC Marathon weekend

Ancient slow Marathoner that I am, I couldn't resist attending the panel connected to the excellent NYC Marathon exhibit that is still on at the Museum of the City of New York on Halloween afternoon. The speakers were George Hirsch, Bill Rogers and Germain Silva. Great afternoon listening to a bunch of pro male runners talking about the early days of the 5 boro NYC Marathon. Rogers won 4 times and Silva 2. I was the first Q & A person and I asked about the pic of Grete Waitz and Bill Rogers that was projected behind the panelists. At that point the group acknowledged Grete as a 9 time winner and spoke about a few women runners for a minute or two. I know the museum will have future panels that acknowledge the rest of the population.

For those of you who visit on Halloween who are not Halloween fans, note that there were more Broadway tickets to be had than usual. I went to see Something Rotten. I recommend it especially for those who know their Shakespeare and love their musicals. Fun show for anyone. There were plenty of costumed characters to see on the way home via foot and subway.

I watched the start of the Marathon on TV and later headed up Fifth on the course to meet some friends visiting from Alaska. My favorite picture in the exhibit is Grete Weitz and Fred Lebow finishing the marathon while Fred was battling brain cancer. I still remember seeing them along the course. Grete has since also died from cancer. My client Dee also came up to join us.

Afterwards, we headed to the opening of a Vintage Jewish Postcard exhibition at my synagogue Or Zarua. A block or so after I left Dee at the subway, I tripped over some strange bumps on the pavement in front of CVS and my evening was far from over. Diagnosis:fractured left humorous bone. I have spent most of this month learning how to be righty so A Guide Named Sue has been writing very little until now.

Oct 30, 2015 NYC Marathon EXPO and..

The tour to the Marathon EXPO started as advertised from midtown. Since my only guest Dee was  a private client who has been touring with me all week, this became a private custom tour. It was Dee's third NYC trip since the end of May. 

We briefly checked out opening day at Bryant Park. It is looking great this year. Then, it was downtown to the Union Square Greenmarket for a look around. L train to my favorite Tom Otterness Subway stop at 14th and 8th. Dee needed sun glasses so we popped into an old bank building that has become a #CVS .  Thank you CVS for sparing the ceiling!

Then, off to Gansevoort Market, the new competition for Chelsea Market. Pizza slices from Luzzo's Pizza - yum!  The highline was delightful as usual - especially the young silver birch trees.

The EXPO was not crazy crowded perhaps because many had headed to the opening ceremonies in Central Park. Sadly, as usual, the only people promoting Tourism in NYC were the national parks department. It was a delight to return to midtown via the new #7 stop at Hudson Yards. A quick switch to the C brought us to the Dakota under scaffolding and the Strawberry fields entrance to Central Park.

  The parade of nations looked great from North of the Finish line but we were thirsty so we headed to Mineral Springs which luckily was open. We had hot drinks and waited for the fireworks. Now, they weren't going to be at the finish line so we thought maybe the Sheeps Meadow. Suddenly we heard them - behind us. We walked to the side of the building and were treated to a magnificent half hour of fireworks up close and personal. The marathoners watched on a big screen. If you come next year...see the real thing.

The evening was not over. We headed downtown for dinner at the Ear Inn and saw a fun show called Imbible about the history of Alcohol at the Soho Playhouse. The price of the show includes 3 drinks. Great end of a long day.

Movie Movie NYC style 10/25/2015

NYC is not the place to see the movies that are advertised on TV at every commercial break. See indy films here. Go to film festivals and retrospectives. I have posted about the Tribeca and Jewish Film festivals often here.

 

Today was my first visit to the grandmother of documentary film festivals - the Margaret Mead film festival at the American Museum of Natural History. They had a salute to Albert Maysles which included Primary, about JFK and Humphrey and the 1960 primaries. It was in glorious black and white and great perspective for the current presidential race. This was preceded by a film of Maysles at MOTH and a 10 minute short where Orson Welles describes a film he is making about people who profit emotionally and/or financially from Bull Fighting. Fascinating! Sorry I couldn't stay for the talkbacks because it was off to movie II at the American Museum of the Moving Image in Queens.

Thanks to my Monthly MetroCard, I beat the MTA Trip Planner estimate by about 10 minutes. I left the C train at 50th Street and caught the R train at 57th Street.

I had some time to watch some shorts (not previews of coming attractions) about cats and the Internet!

Movie II was a superb 3 hour documentary about Central Park in the late 80's shot by Frederick Wiseman. I lived through those years in the Park. Personally I am a fan of the way the Park has evolved thanks to the Central Park Conservancy. Others long for the old days.

If you have never seen Movie Movie, see it in a retrospective somewhere!