More than a month ago I had been stumbling around the West Village for no real reason and when I came upon the IFC Center on 6th Avenue, I wanted to take a closer look at the schedule of movies being screened. In addition to the standard contemporary independent films and documentaries, the real value of the IFC Center is that they also screen alot of gems from the past. So when one might be regretful that they weren't alive when a certain great classic film came out, or just a movie they like in general, and they never experienced watching it on the big screen, the IFC Center makes that dream come true. There's a few other movie theaters in the city that do it as well, such as the Film Forum on West Houston and the Sunshine Theater on East Houston.
When I looked at the schedule there was nothing that jumped at me at first, but then I saw a special midnight series every Friday and Saturday night throughout May and June that highlights the films of director Walter Hill. These films included the cult classic "The Warriors", Eddie Murphy's breakout in "48 Hours", but my eyes were drawn to a lesser known film of his called "Hard Times". The movie came out in 1975 and stars screen legends Charles Bronson and James Coburn. In the United Kingdom the title of the movie was switched to "The Streetfighter" to avoid conflict with the classic book by their beloved Charles Dickins that shared the same name. In no way is this movie an Academy Award winner or anything even close to it, but it certainly falls into the category of a movie I enjoy and I never had a chance to see a Charles Bronson movie a theater before. I had the two dates, which was a Friday and Saturday at midnight, in my head and had been looking forward to going for many weeks. A few days before the big release, my stomach decided to throw a curveball at me. I must have eaten something rotten or had a spell put on me because Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday nights my stomach was giving me alot of difficulty (that's about as far as descriptive as I'll get).
Although my stomach was still bad and I was in a weaken condition on Friday, I purchased a ticket online ahead of time during the day for twelve bucks in hopes I would be good enough to travel into the city by night. The movie was also going to play the next night as well, but I had tickets for a concert that night, so it was either going to be Friday or nothing. When it came closer to decision time my stomach was feeling much better, but I wasn't in the best physical condition after not having any food or liquids in my system for a while. The smart choice would've been to stay home as the city at night can present many exciting adventures which require energy and running, but then again how many more times will "Hard Times" ever be shown in a movie theater? When veteran news anchorman Ted Koppel journeyed to Iran in 2008 to film the documentary "Iran: The Most Dangerous Nation", he encountered a small outdoor theater and the film being screened that day was no other than "Hard Times". I guess I could've always gone to Iran as well to try to track down this theater, but for some reason going to the IFC Center seemed much more convenient. So with an empty stomach and weak legs, I put on my sweater and headed for the subway.
When I walked up the steps to the train station I noticed the hypodermic needle that was there earlier in the day had vanished. The ride down wasn't all that bad, I actually brought a book with me to keep my mind focused on something else besides my stomach. The only strenuous part was a transfer at 51st Street and Lexington which requires an escalator ride downstairs, a short walk in a hallway, an escalator going up, a longer walk, then a very long escalator downstairs. The next train came very quickly and I was at the West 4th station in no time. When popping out of the station, the IFC Center is literally in front of your eyes. I had arrived well ahead of time and strolled a little around the area to kill some time. It was a very foggy and cloudy night. From afar I could see the top floors of both the Empire State Building and newly constructed Freedom Tower both being engulfed by dark mushy clouds. Little drops of rain started to come down and a gusts of wind started to blow stuff all over the place. In fact, a promotion sign in front of the theater managed to take a noisy spill. It was still too early to go inside, so I just hung around on the block. The aroma of greasy hotdogs and cheeseburgers from Papaya Dog were tempting my stomach, which hadn't received solid food in a couple of days, but I didn't want something to jeopardize my movie-going experience, or worse, the subway ride back home.
The movie was being played in a reasonably-sized room with many seats, but apparently only myself and about fifteen other individuals had any interest in seeing "Hard Times" on this particular night. Luckily the film is only ninety-three minutes long, so I wasn't going to get out super late. When I did get out the rain had been pouring down steadily and I immediately ducked into the West 4th station next to the theater's entrance. There was another train held up there on the platform when I arrived, and the PA announcement said it was due to a police investigation. After about ten minutes the train finally took off, but then there was more police involvement. I saw four uniformed cops enter from one end of the platform with their gloves on, usually meaning they anticipate physically handling someone, and some Chinese lady started speaking to them. It seems the lady was pointing out someone on the other side of the platform that must have been causing problems or something. I couldn't make out exactly who or what she was referring to. As the cops made their slow march towards the other end of the platform, the lady took off and exited the station entirely. The cops first had words with some homeless-looking guy, but then they kept moving on, so it must have been someone else they were after. My train pulled into the station, and since it was really getting late, I couldn't stick around to see what the big mystery was. I peeked out the window as the train was pulling away, but it was going quite fast at that point and everything outside was a blur.
Then a new mystery fell into my lap when we reached the Port Authority station; a girl got on the train, holding her shoes in her hands, and walking barefoot. She was in her late twenties, didn't look crazy or homeless or anything of that sort, just the odd fact she was walking around with no socks or shoes on. Plus the fact her feet were on perhaps one of the filthiest known surfaces on the entire planet, a NYC subway. I figured at first maybe it had to do something with the rain and her shoes were a certain material, but they appeared to be standard leather. Then I thought maybe one of her heels broke, but upon closer inspection they both looked intact to me. The heels weren't stilettos or anything that seemed uncomfortable, so I don't think it was a case that she needed to rest her ankles. She wasn't drunk, or at least didn't appear to be, so I couldn't pinpoint exactly why she was voluntarily doing this. A few stops later she got off and as she was walking away, I noticed the black tar developing under the soles of her feet, which indicated she might've been walking around like this for several hours.
One should be very careful walking around subways without any shoes on, you never know when you might run into a hypodermic needle.....
When I looked at the schedule there was nothing that jumped at me at first, but then I saw a special midnight series every Friday and Saturday night throughout May and June that highlights the films of director Walter Hill. These films included the cult classic "The Warriors", Eddie Murphy's breakout in "48 Hours", but my eyes were drawn to a lesser known film of his called "Hard Times". The movie came out in 1975 and stars screen legends Charles Bronson and James Coburn. In the United Kingdom the title of the movie was switched to "The Streetfighter" to avoid conflict with the classic book by their beloved Charles Dickins that shared the same name. In no way is this movie an Academy Award winner or anything even close to it, but it certainly falls into the category of a movie I enjoy and I never had a chance to see a Charles Bronson movie a theater before. I had the two dates, which was a Friday and Saturday at midnight, in my head and had been looking forward to going for many weeks. A few days before the big release, my stomach decided to throw a curveball at me. I must have eaten something rotten or had a spell put on me because Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday nights my stomach was giving me alot of difficulty (that's about as far as descriptive as I'll get).
Although my stomach was still bad and I was in a weaken condition on Friday, I purchased a ticket online ahead of time during the day for twelve bucks in hopes I would be good enough to travel into the city by night. The movie was also going to play the next night as well, but I had tickets for a concert that night, so it was either going to be Friday or nothing. When it came closer to decision time my stomach was feeling much better, but I wasn't in the best physical condition after not having any food or liquids in my system for a while. The smart choice would've been to stay home as the city at night can present many exciting adventures which require energy and running, but then again how many more times will "Hard Times" ever be shown in a movie theater? When veteran news anchorman Ted Koppel journeyed to Iran in 2008 to film the documentary "Iran: The Most Dangerous Nation", he encountered a small outdoor theater and the film being screened that day was no other than "Hard Times". I guess I could've always gone to Iran as well to try to track down this theater, but for some reason going to the IFC Center seemed much more convenient. So with an empty stomach and weak legs, I put on my sweater and headed for the subway.
When I walked up the steps to the train station I noticed the hypodermic needle that was there earlier in the day had vanished. The ride down wasn't all that bad, I actually brought a book with me to keep my mind focused on something else besides my stomach. The only strenuous part was a transfer at 51st Street and Lexington which requires an escalator ride downstairs, a short walk in a hallway, an escalator going up, a longer walk, then a very long escalator downstairs. The next train came very quickly and I was at the West 4th station in no time. When popping out of the station, the IFC Center is literally in front of your eyes. I had arrived well ahead of time and strolled a little around the area to kill some time. It was a very foggy and cloudy night. From afar I could see the top floors of both the Empire State Building and newly constructed Freedom Tower both being engulfed by dark mushy clouds. Little drops of rain started to come down and a gusts of wind started to blow stuff all over the place. In fact, a promotion sign in front of the theater managed to take a noisy spill. It was still too early to go inside, so I just hung around on the block. The aroma of greasy hotdogs and cheeseburgers from Papaya Dog were tempting my stomach, which hadn't received solid food in a couple of days, but I didn't want something to jeopardize my movie-going experience, or worse, the subway ride back home.
The movie was being played in a reasonably-sized room with many seats, but apparently only myself and about fifteen other individuals had any interest in seeing "Hard Times" on this particular night. Luckily the film is only ninety-three minutes long, so I wasn't going to get out super late. When I did get out the rain had been pouring down steadily and I immediately ducked into the West 4th station next to the theater's entrance. There was another train held up there on the platform when I arrived, and the PA announcement said it was due to a police investigation. After about ten minutes the train finally took off, but then there was more police involvement. I saw four uniformed cops enter from one end of the platform with their gloves on, usually meaning they anticipate physically handling someone, and some Chinese lady started speaking to them. It seems the lady was pointing out someone on the other side of the platform that must have been causing problems or something. I couldn't make out exactly who or what she was referring to. As the cops made their slow march towards the other end of the platform, the lady took off and exited the station entirely. The cops first had words with some homeless-looking guy, but then they kept moving on, so it must have been someone else they were after. My train pulled into the station, and since it was really getting late, I couldn't stick around to see what the big mystery was. I peeked out the window as the train was pulling away, but it was going quite fast at that point and everything outside was a blur.
Then a new mystery fell into my lap when we reached the Port Authority station; a girl got on the train, holding her shoes in her hands, and walking barefoot. She was in her late twenties, didn't look crazy or homeless or anything of that sort, just the odd fact she was walking around with no socks or shoes on. Plus the fact her feet were on perhaps one of the filthiest known surfaces on the entire planet, a NYC subway. I figured at first maybe it had to do something with the rain and her shoes were a certain material, but they appeared to be standard leather. Then I thought maybe one of her heels broke, but upon closer inspection they both looked intact to me. The heels weren't stilettos or anything that seemed uncomfortable, so I don't think it was a case that she needed to rest her ankles. She wasn't drunk, or at least didn't appear to be, so I couldn't pinpoint exactly why she was voluntarily doing this. A few stops later she got off and as she was walking away, I noticed the black tar developing under the soles of her feet, which indicated she might've been walking around like this for several hours.
One should be very careful walking around subways without any shoes on, you never know when you might run into a hypodermic needle.....
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