Who's Buried in Grant's Tomb?
I saw Grant's Tomb yesterday. At least we think it was Grant's Tomb.
It was right by the majestic Riverside Church on the west side of Manhattan. I've seen these sights from a passing car and may have gone to them as a kid when a sense of space was not yet developed in me, but I don't recall seeing them as I saw them yesterday.
See, east of these landmarks is a vast, densely packed array of cookie-cutter style apartment houses (projects, maybe?) and from their east, one would have no sense that such a beautiful, profligate use of space lies beyond. So, driving past the uniformity and finding lovely architecture amidst "wasted space" was actually kind of thrilling.
I was treated to this variance from my usual geographic pattern because I was returning from The Bronx with the director and cameraman of the latest episode of "Electra Elf". We've been shooting this series for about 4 years -- it's a superhero parody/homage co-written and directed by Nick Zedd, who's more famous for his "transgressive" cinema and is trying, fitfully, to "buy in" to the real world of filmmaking.
So, "Electra Elf" is a wholesome comedy but it's also kinda dirty. We must be on episode 12 or 13 already. And the art direction effects are really great, even though the budgets were less than nothing. I even heard we had a group of fans who gathered together once a week to watch it in a bar on the Upper East Side.
Yesterday, I got to play 2 characters -- my regular character, the Perry White/J. Jonah Jameson-ish magazine editor, Frank Berry and a crumpled, old man we only see from behind as he's badgered by his daughter in a crummy diner.
And I gotta say, playing multiple characters is exciting, even in a DIY production like this one. But more exciting was getting to go to The Bronx, which I normally visit only when I fall asleep on the train.
My father was raised their but nobody I knew really spent much time there during its most dangerous years and now that it's coming back up, I have to remind myself to explore it. It's very New Yorky, in many ways an extension of Manhattan, and I feel more a part of the city the more I get to know it.
To get there, I pretty much traveled the entire north/south length of the New York subway system, starting at the southernmost stop on the R line in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn and ending up one stop shy of the northernmost stop on the 1 line in The Bronx. The last leg of the 1 line is elevated and you can get, I think, some of the feel of what Manhattan was like in the days of its elevated trains (which, "Spiderman 2" notwithstanding, are essentially extinct). So, everything about yesterday's excursion -- even the lengthy train ride -- made me feel closer to the city I love and made me love it more.
And then came the ride to Grant's Tomb. (For those of you in the UK, it's the burial place of Ulysses S. Grant -- civil war general, president, drunkard.) Nick was going there to scout locations -- he's looking for something that can cheat for the Vatican and I'll take any opportunity to scout locations for the sheer enjoyment of it.
Neither the massive tomb nor the church was what he was looking for, so we cruised further downtown, listening to Weird Al Yankovich (having just digested a healthy dose of Mothers of Invention). I don't usually see the city from a car window, so everything looked fresh and new.
We finally stopped at the Museum of Modern Art, which now has a multi-film installation projected on its exterior walls at night. It's gotten a lot of publicity -- Donald Sutherland is in it, for one thing -- and Nick complained (amiably) that he had done the same thing in the East Village 10 years ago and no one seemed to care.
I opined that this kind of thing, in the center of the city, with people standing and staring along the sides of the museum and in its courtyard, was good for the city, even if he got no credit as a progenitor.
He was willing to agree or at least not argue the point.
Then he and his cameraman drove off to Brooklyn and I walked toward the subway in Rockefeller Center and my short-term destiny.
__________________________________
12 February, 2007 @ 17:31 GMT
http://blogs.chortle.co.uk/andrewjlederer
It was right by the majestic Riverside Church on the west side of Manhattan. I've seen these sights from a passing car and may have gone to them as a kid when a sense of space was not yet developed in me, but I don't recall seeing them as I saw them yesterday.
See, east of these landmarks is a vast, densely packed array of cookie-cutter style apartment houses (projects, maybe?) and from their east, one would have no sense that such a beautiful, profligate use of space lies beyond. So, driving past the uniformity and finding lovely architecture amidst "wasted space" was actually kind of thrilling.
I was treated to this variance from my usual geographic pattern because I was returning from The Bronx with the director and cameraman of the latest episode of "Electra Elf". We've been shooting this series for about 4 years -- it's a superhero parody/homage co-written and directed by Nick Zedd, who's more famous for his "transgressive" cinema and is trying, fitfully, to "buy in" to the real world of filmmaking.
So, "Electra Elf" is a wholesome comedy but it's also kinda dirty. We must be on episode 12 or 13 already. And the art direction effects are really great, even though the budgets were less than nothing. I even heard we had a group of fans who gathered together once a week to watch it in a bar on the Upper East Side.
Yesterday, I got to play 2 characters -- my regular character, the Perry White/J. Jonah Jameson-ish magazine editor, Frank Berry and a crumpled, old man we only see from behind as he's badgered by his daughter in a crummy diner.
And I gotta say, playing multiple characters is exciting, even in a DIY production like this one. But more exciting was getting to go to The Bronx, which I normally visit only when I fall asleep on the train.
My father was raised their but nobody I knew really spent much time there during its most dangerous years and now that it's coming back up, I have to remind myself to explore it. It's very New Yorky, in many ways an extension of Manhattan, and I feel more a part of the city the more I get to know it.
To get there, I pretty much traveled the entire north/south length of the New York subway system, starting at the southernmost stop on the R line in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn and ending up one stop shy of the northernmost stop on the 1 line in The Bronx. The last leg of the 1 line is elevated and you can get, I think, some of the feel of what Manhattan was like in the days of its elevated trains (which, "Spiderman 2" notwithstanding, are essentially extinct). So, everything about yesterday's excursion -- even the lengthy train ride -- made me feel closer to the city I love and made me love it more.
And then came the ride to Grant's Tomb. (For those of you in the UK, it's the burial place of Ulysses S. Grant -- civil war general, president, drunkard.) Nick was going there to scout locations -- he's looking for something that can cheat for the Vatican and I'll take any opportunity to scout locations for the sheer enjoyment of it.
Neither the massive tomb nor the church was what he was looking for, so we cruised further downtown, listening to Weird Al Yankovich (having just digested a healthy dose of Mothers of Invention). I don't usually see the city from a car window, so everything looked fresh and new.
We finally stopped at the Museum of Modern Art, which now has a multi-film installation projected on its exterior walls at night. It's gotten a lot of publicity -- Donald Sutherland is in it, for one thing -- and Nick complained (amiably) that he had done the same thing in the East Village 10 years ago and no one seemed to care.
I opined that this kind of thing, in the center of the city, with people standing and staring along the sides of the museum and in its courtyard, was good for the city, even if he got no credit as a progenitor.
He was willing to agree or at least not argue the point.
Then he and his cameraman drove off to Brooklyn and I walked toward the subway in Rockefeller Center and my short-term destiny.
__________________________________
12 February, 2007 @ 17:31 GMT
http://blogs.chortle.co.uk/andrewjlederer
posted by Andrew J. Lederer at 12:46 PM
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