We capped a week of extremely busy and occasionally frustrating work by driving around the city for an hour, with a video camera pointing out of the passenger-side window. Does that sound un-safe? Well, we wanted a varied and unvarnished look at the city (which we would later edit into a montage for the climax of the show) so we did spend sometime in areas that made us feel … uneasy.
I remember pulling up to a corner, and just as I was thinking, “This looks just like a scene from The Wire,” Sean said, “I think you should put the camera down.” A few minutes later, we turned a corner onto a somewhat more, um, populated block and I put the camera down myself, muttering to Sean, “Okay, now I’m getting a lil nervous.” Moments later, some guy yelled at us … “the fuck y’all doin?” … time to go.
You can see some of the results of our journey in the video below.
You don’t have to go uptown to find squalor, though. Not even in NYC does is it so common to step-over a person sleeping on the sidewalk in what seems otherwise to be a “very nice” part of town. It’s shocking, disturbing, distressing, depressing. We were walking along, enjoying the thrill of a two-show day, watching the Saturday night revelers stream by us, and were struck silent by the old, black man, sleeping under a ratty blanket in front of us. I can only hope he found peace.
I have pictures to share, and happier moments to talk about, but once again this city has left me without words.
Here’s that video. (It has almost no sound by the way.)