Wednesday, May 12, 2021

Long Island is not a borough

 


Manhattan

Brooklyn

Queens

Staten Island

The Bronx

...are the five boroughs of New York City.


(Had to Wikipedia that.)


Long Island:  not a borough.

Harlem:  not a borough; it's a neighborhood.

_________________________________________


"Rhapsody in Blue" playing.

Iconic New York City scenes passing before our eyes.

Voice Over:


Chapter one.

He adored New York City.

He idolized it all out of proportion.


Uh, no.  Make that

he romanticized it all out of proportion.


To him, no matter what the season was,

this was still a town

that existed in black and white

and pulsated to the great tunes

of George Gershwin.


Uh--no.  Let me start this over.


Chapter one.


He was too romantic about Manhattan,

as he was about everything else.


He thrived on the hustle, bustle

of the crowds and the traffic.


To him, New York

meant beautiful women

and street-smart guys

who seemed to know all the angles.


Ah, corny.  Too corny

for a -- man of my taste.

Let me... try and make it more profound.


Chapter one.  He adored New York City.

To him, it was a metaphor

for the decay of contemporary culture.


The same lack of integrity to cause so 

many people to take the easy way out...

. . . was rapidly turning the town

of his dreams . . .


No, it's gonna be too preachy.  I mean,

face it, I wanna sell some books here.


Chapter one.  He adored New York City,

although to him it was a metaphor

for the decay of contemporary culture.


How hard it was to exist in a society

desensitized by drugs, loud music,

television, crime, garbage...


Too angry.  I don't wanna be angry.


Chapter one.


He was as tough and romantic

as the city he loved.

Behind his black-rimmed glasses was

the coiled sexual power of a jungle cat.


I love this.


New York was his town

and it always would be.


[Music swells.]

_________________________________

{opening / movie script for Woody Allen's Manhattan, 1979}


-30-

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