Tag Archives: New York City

Apollo Film, Scene 3 (Part Two)

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Part two of another potential Apollo film: Dee stays at her sister Crystal’s apartment where Crystal’s boyfriend, Derek, is over for dinner. DEE goes into the bedroom after APOLLO.

CRYSTAL: Don’t let him back out! Don’t.

DEE: We’ll go for a walk in a minute.

CRYSTAL (Staring out the window): What makes fire fighters so full of shit? nyc windowDEREK: The witching hour is upon us.

CRYSTAL: I couldn’t hear you. Too much cackling.

DERK: (Turning on the television): Have another glass. metsCRYSTAL: Like I need your permission.

DEREK: What about not getting totally fucked up?

DEE: (To CRYSTAL): Walk Apollo with me.

CRYSTAL: I can get as fucked up as I want, baby, because I know you and your friends are here to make the save.

DEE: (Standing): Come on. Let’s go.stock-footage-hand-pouring-a-bottle-of-white-wine-in-a-wine-glass-on-a-table-at-homeCRYSTAL: (Refilling her glass, looking into it and then drinking everything): Acting like you’re at the center of the universe when you’re just a fat old woman watching it on TV.

DEREK: Ease up, will you?

CRYSTAL: My mother, that’s who you remind me of, my fucking mother, staring at the fucking TV, not shutting up, blah, blah, fucking blah.

DEE gets Apollo out of the bedroom and goes down the hall after him. calvesCRYSTAL (Walking behind her): Your legs look good.

DEE (Letting APOLLO out): Thanks..

CRYSTAL: You working out?

DEE: Where are your shoes?

CRYSTAL checks her phone for messages. phoneDEE: Hey, is everything okay?

CRYSTAL: (Not looking up):Super duper.

DEE: You’re sure you’re all right with me being in your place?

CRYSTAL: I don’t like it when you get passive on me. It’s not cool.

DEE: I don’t want to get in your space.

CRYSTAL: You were born in my space. I have to live with that. (Looking up, snapping her phone closed) You have to live with that too.

DEE: I know Apollo can be a pain.

CRYSTAL: I don’t give a shit about the dog. Why would I give a shit about the dog, except that it smells and pisses on the floor?

DEE: I’ll move as soon as I can find a place.

CRYSTAL gets her phone out again and struggles to focus on the screen. She laughs to herself and sends a reply.

DEE: What was that about mom?

CRYSTAL (Yelling back to DEREK): You passed out, baby?

DEE: What did you mean?

CRYSTAL (Looking back blankly): What?

DEE: You said something about mom. passed outCRYSTAL: Mother?

DEE: You think about her like that?

CRYSTAL (Pushing DEE out and closing the door).: Try not to get raped, okay?

Apollo Film, Scene 3 (Part One)

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Another potential Apollo film: Dee stays at her sister Crystal’s apartment where Crystal’s boyfriend, Derek, is over for dinner.

DEREK: Want to hear my cop down story? (Puts down his hamburger): I mean, just seeing a cop on his little bicycle is enough, isn’t it? hamburgerAnyway, he’s going along, Dum de dum, right? And he sees something up ahead, and this car door opens up right in front of him. Bam! Cop goes flying, head over heels, and lands right on his ass. (Laughs, food coming out of his mouth) He’s just lying there and the guy in the car is looking down at him like he’s committed assault, right? multi car crashHe’s thinking he’s going to jail, and the cop pulls the radio off his shoulder and yells, ‘Officer down! Officer down!’ The driver jumps back like this, right? He looks like he’s going to take off now. Holy shit, I couldn’t stop laughing. Those guys are fucking babies.

CRYSTAL: You’re such a pig. (She suddenly gets up, goes through the piles of papers and garbage on the table and television, and opens a fresh packet of cigarettes.) A woman smokes a cigarette indoors in an undated file photoDEREK He had his little ticket book out before he was even off the ground. That’s fucking New York.

CRYSTAL: New Yorkers are so full of shit. If you tell them to beat somebody, they’d do it. Everyone will. They’ll say they do it because they’re afraid. That’s bullshit. beatenupThey do it because they have the permission. They want to. They want to do it before it’s done to them.

DEREK: Be good, babe. (He picks at a scar on the back of his bicep and shrugs at DEE when he catches her looking) It’s just an old burn.

DEE: I couldn’t do that.

DEREK: What?

DEE: Be a fireman.

DEREK: Fire fighter. We fight them. We don’t make them.

DEE: Fire fighter then.

DEREK: It’s not for women. femalefire CRYSTAL: Only misogynists.

DEREK (Answers his phone) Yeah? (Pause) Who? (Pause) No. (Pause) Where? Where you at? (Pause) Call Ricky. He’ll get you. (Nodding anxiously) Yeah, call Ricky. He’ll be there.

CRYSTAL: Missing a party?

DEREK: A couple of the boys got off the wagon. (Scrolls through his messages) They’re good.

CRYSTAL: My fire fighter hero.

DEREK: Let me tell you something…there is nothing like making a save. Nothing in this life, there is nothing like that.

CRYSTAL: So you’ve said.

DEREK: You go into a place where people die. You bring them out of that. It’s the best thing a man can do.

DEREK throws the empty ketchup packets at the garbage and misses. APOLLO jumps after them, banging into Crystal’s legs. IMAG2381CRYSTAL: Fucking dog! (Kicks at him) Move! Fucking move!

APOLLO jumps back and darts into the bedroom.

CRYSTAL: That thing belongs in the zoo.

DEE: He was just playing.

DEREK: You know who the boys ran into? Fucking Stevie Wright.

CRYSTAL: Who’s fucking Stevie Wright?

DEREK: From Woodside. Spring Match.

CRYSTAL: The guy you beat up?

DEREK: It’s boxing, babe. I didn’t beat anyone up.

CRYSTAL (To DEE) It’s the annual punch-up between the police and fire departments. Real high-brow stuff. Derek won last year. US-BATTLE OF THE BADGESDEREK: Beat the crap out of him.

CRYSTAL (Pulls her sweater sleeves over her palms, spreading them out): But you love making the saves, right, baby?

DEREK: Don’t get all pissy because of a fucking dog.

my bad side: Manhattan by boat

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The boat circled below the island with the sun setting over the broken horizon, the clouds going after it, pulling each other together in the red and blue. Manhattan skyline (6)There was a pool with bright blue chlorinated water like in Florida, so square and odd in the back of the boat, the river water gushing past. I sat in the corner looking at Crystal with her back to everyone, looking at the city, her elbows poking out, under the 59th Street Bridge and looking up at the dark mass, the dirt and cables, the shadows of the cars and trucks, and sank into how almost safe and eerie it was.Phone 200 Lisa was in the pool and singing to Chumbawamba, delighted in herself, drinking shots, and laughing convulsively, doubling over and then trying to get out of the pool and throwing up and almost going over, and then crying, Ian holding her and then their mother, and it was sad and worse how separated I was from it and didn’t care. OooooI watched the boat turning the corner, going into the Harlem River and seeing the city, the steep hill up into the Harlem, how green and wild it looked, and then the Bronx on the other side, flat dull and grey, highways and warehouses and nothing else and then Yankee Stadium, as dull and grey as everything else.

Another “Bad Side” film

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I have written the first draft of a second Bad Side script. It follows Dee on the train with Apollo north out of the city.

The train inches past the soot and cables, the decrepit buildings, twisted rust jutting out, bottles and shards, an animal skull on an electrical box, and then is on a bridge. DEE wraps her hand, stiff and fat, in a sweatshirt. The conductor approaches, his hat pushed forward; he is older with a thin face and empty eyes.

 CONDUCTOR: Ticket?conductorDEE: I gave it to the other guy, the one before you.

CONDUCTOR (Looking at Dee’s cleavage): Where’s your receipt?cleavageDEE: I must have thrown it away.

CONDUCTOR: Which is it? You threw it away or you gave it to the other guy?

DEE pulls her dress out from her legs. There is a stain on the waist. It looks like blood.

 DEE: I didn’t think I needed it.

CONDUCTOR: Where are you going?

DEE: Providence.

CONDUCTOR: Got on at Penn? (He looks down the aisle and then back at DEE) I have to write you up,

DEE: What does that mean?

CONDUCTOR (Opening his ticket book): What’s your name?TicketDEE (Pulling a hoodie from her bag): Crystal Sinclair.

There is a long pause as CONDUCTOR writes out the slip and then hands it to DEE.

 CONDUCTOR: You mail it back to the address at the bottom.

DEE: Mail it?

CONDUCTOR: The fine.

DEE: Can I get a water from you?

CONDUCTOR (Leaving): The cart will be through.The snack cart & woman on the train.

June Dialogue on the E Train

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Canal Pillar“And he was like, you’re such a dummy.” IMAG2742“Dummy? He said that?” IMAG1873“Yeah, you’re such a dummy. Get it?” IMAG2745“I can’t believe he said that.” IMAG2402“He was like, ‘Dummy’!” IMAG2746“Dummy?” IMAG1186“Exactly. Dummy.” IMAG2745“Dummy? You’re serious?” IMAG2701“Yeah, dummy! Get it?” IMAG2742“I would have kneed him in the balls.” IMAG2631“Dummy!” IMAG2745“It isn’t funny.” IMAG2740“Yes, it is.”IMAG2737

MTA’s Seven Years

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You may have noticed, in riding the subways of New York, that the MTA has posted a clear warning in every car.  IMAG2703 Why so many reminders? Is it because of the incessant delays? The changing of an express to a local, a C to the F Track, without an announcement? Or is it perhaps the conductors’ proclivity toward closing the doors  just as the other train arrives on the other side of the platform?IMAG0053Whatever it is, seven years is a long time to wait.

My Twisted Obsession with Disasters

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My obsession with disasters started at a young age when I blew up model airplanes and cars. It was never as satisfying as I expected and always ended with a mess to clean up. The films were better: The Poseidon Adventure, Towering Inferno and Earthquake, which had Sensurround Sound; I went to that twice. Earthquake-movieI have lost interest in these films for the most part – Twister, Armageddon, 2012 lack the original flare – but remain fascinated by massive destruction. oklahoma-tornado1I gap and ogle. I exchange messages and express my concern; it happens every time, Oklahoma, New Orleans and Japan. Screenshot (194)When Hurricane Sandy came to New York, I walked the dog to see the storm’s surge in Lower Manhattan. IMAG1253I must admit to a habit of walking away from a place – anywhere, a subway train or building – and then looking back, thinking it might explode, be engulfed in smoke and flame. It hasn’t happened yet, but I keep half expecting it. Is this a side effect to my disaster addiction? What is this dreadful fascination? Do I have a sense of doom, an obsession with the impending end? Or is it just boredom in the modern world?

Demolition on Fulton Street

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There was a fire on Fulton Street – on the other side of our block – on March 18. (Click on image for video.)Screenshot (47)Demolition crews arrived two weeks later and have steadily reduced the building, story by story. (Click on image for video.)Screenshot (48)It has been a fascinating procedure to witness – the meticulous and pounding aspects of such a reduction – almost like watching a fireplace. (Click on image for video.)Demo Apr17 pt2It is certainly an excellent distraction from writing.