(no subject)

[taratemima]

Lessons learned in New York, written while in an Internet cafe in Allston:



Hipsters (well, one group of young folks living in Williamsburg, but you understand) drink Polish beer, but don't seem to have an obvious person to get whether they only bought enough for a group or you can have a bottle if you chip in.

I am told there is this thing called Red Hook beer, but the beer I see in bars are the godawful popular beers, of which only Rolling Rock looks good. Just as well: blind drunk in a city you are unfamiliar with is not too good an idea.

Chinatown is a good place to get a shabu pot lunch (you know, broth, some cilantro, some kind of meat/vegetable, some kind of noodle, condiments and sauces) and charger for your cell phone. I'll bet I was hell to clean up after.

You can learn quickly certain parts of the MTA. Just remember what direction you are traveling and which station to transfer to.

Late night, a trip from Lower East Side to Greenpoint takes two hours. Thus, I arrived at my room at 4 am.

I can get up on two hours of sleep, if I tell myself that finagling another bus ride is not a good idea on a Sunday afternoon.

Peanut sauce goes as well in soup as it does as dipping sauce.

The 'show starts fifteen minutes after posted time' doesn't apply to midnight showings. Plus, the ticket machines magically do not take your credit card you used to pay for it on-line. Fortunately, sympathetic security guards will let you in.

Midnight is also when most New Yorkers forget that green light means go.

Cheesy 80s pop is the new hip bar music, or at least one bar in Lower East Side.

Panic is a better response than resignation, if your reaction is to find a solution as fast as possible.

Meserole Ave and Meserole St are both in Brooklyn, but in very different locations. Confuse the two at your own peril. Mind you, peril for me means that some Puerto Rican folks looked at me funny for trying out apartment doors, but you would too.

Mashuko's brother debated whether to bike or take the train back home. "If I biked, I'd go past the Hasidic neighborhood. It's weird, they would just walk slow on sidewalks and stand in the middle of streets, ignoring cars and bikes."

Roofs on converted warehouses make me agoraphobic.

I should check my LJ to see people wanting me to visit. Er, sorry, jmhm.

Long dinners with people willing to cuddle with you make it hard to just walk out and go to another party.

One unexpected bonus to arriving late: the last available set was on the balcony. I am seated behind a man with very red hair (so red I could tell during the movie). "Rick Elfman? Can't be." When the lights turn, I see the redhaired man go down to the front to talk. Yeah, Rick Elfman.

I wimped out on asking about Scientology, theoretical Mystic Knight orgies, best memories of tormenting his brother Danny, whether Bridget has gotten death threats from fangirls and whether the 'the French are descendants of God' is a reference to the Mervognians and Holy Blood, Holy Grail or just poking fun at ethnic chauvinism. I did ask if other Mystic Knights will be interviewed on the DVD (coming out in late August, he says). He said so far, only Danny and Matthew Bright are being interviewed, but he'll take suggestions.

If you love post-punk/new wave bands on vinyl and are ever on Meserole Ave between Leonard and Eckhard, go to Eat, a record store with the sign 'Joe's.' They are having a big sale on them. I found a Permafrost CD for a dollar.

You know, the soundtrack makes a hell of lot more 'sense' when you see the movie. Plus, seeing it all the way makes it better. It sounds stupid to say, but I didn't expect that much dancing. I knew about the bare breasts (if you made a drinking game of how many bare breasts there were in the movie, your liver would cave in). "Come back Frenchie, the teacher will mark you truant!"

I knew no one in the audience and they went off to their own things. *sigh* I was also too wimpy polite to ask for an autograph or take a picture with the camera phone. Er, sorry, lone_gunfreak.

One of the Kipper Kids is married to Bette Midler, according to Rick.

Looking at all these crowds of people waiting for the bus to casinos on a Sunday morning, unable to have dim sum, I wonder if outdoor carts selling dim sum staples would work.

Lower East Side Tenement tours sell out quick; the visitor's center is in that bookstore at 91 Orchard.

The Parisienne at Gimme Coffee is good: espresso, milk and chocolate-hazelnut syrup blended with ice.

You can sleep on the Fung Wah bus; they do not drive 70 miles in a 30 lane (that I remember). Plus, no chickens.

There are TV shows that are fun to watch while drunk; then there are TV shows you drink to forget.

All breaks in the ceasefire are started by a little old Russian lady screaming "You pigs!" (as told by a young Russian Jewish man born in Siberia. Okay, maybe he is joking).

I finally understand what jessruth calls 'pedestrian rage.'

Memorable stuff said by Rick (heavily paraphrased):

1. "Well, I made this movie, it had a few midnight showings. After that, I lost my house and moved back to Paris. I am still pinching myself seeing you all here twenty-two years later."
   
   
2. "I never got the lab bill, but I think it was pretty high."
   
   
3. "I think that creativity and imagination do not need drugs to work (said in response to a question about what kind of drugs he was on when he made this). I just have a whiskey and cigar habit."
   
   
4. "Being a white kid in a mostly black school in a mostly black neighborhood, I heard the 'n' word thrown around a million times. Not only that, I was the state track champion, which was unheard of. I was known affectionately as a 'red nigger.' (He can get away with saying that. I am too pasty and too wimpy to)"
   
   
5. "The black-face got a lot of people angry. People also said I was promoting Jewish stereotypes. That was my grandfather in the movie. He wasn't playing a stereotype, this was how he acts. Everything is all exagerated in this movie; this is a human comedy."
   
   
6. "There was this family next door to us growing up, who were this trailer park family. Dad would yell at Mom, Mom would yell at daughter, daughter would yell at son and the son would kick the dog. There was no looking out for each other. This movie was my comedic take on that, the cruelty you see in school and everywhere else."
   
   

Edit: Forgot the best story at the FZ showing. Someone asked why the theme to "Dilbert" sounds like the theme to "Forbidden Zone." "Hold on, let me call and ask him," he responses. Unfortunately, while the phone ringns, the reception sucks. So, no chance to ask Danny that or wish him a happy birthday.