Evans Above

I haven’t been enjoying Dennis Miller’s material as much as I used to. This piece hits the nail on the head.

Kangaroo Jack will not win Best Picture. Just a gut feeling.

Our summer starting weekend (Victoria Day) was last week…so I’ll just sit back and think about beaches and BBQ’s. To all of our American friends, have a safe and happy weekend.

Looking out the window at Ground Zero, I see the construction work is continuing at a frenzied pace.

Saw a 9/11 inspired movie at the Festival today called Justice. Quite good. It’s a shame that so many movies that appear at festivals never get seen by a wider audience. This one had good characters and bittersweet humour, but it’ll probably only be seen by folks at festivals. A shame.

Heading down to Battery Park tonight for the Festival’s 100% NYC: A Concert Celebrating the Tribeca Film Festival. Acts include Norah Jones, The Roots and Robbie Williams.

During our walk today we went in search of the Hello Deli, arriving just in time to see Marilyn Manson, Megan Mullaly and Johnny Knoxville leaving the Ed Sullivan Theater.

Walking through the Times Square area this evening we saw both Darryl Strawberry and John Corbett. John Lennon was right about New Yorkers:

“They don’t bug you.”

Nobody hounded Strawberry. They shouted out his name, he acknowledged them and they kept going.

It’s been a few years since I’ve been in New York and I’d forgotten how much New Yorkers completely disregard traffic lights. Sometimes you see fifty people crossing the street and you join them, only to realize that these fifty people have simultaneously decided that they can beat the truck bearing down on them.

Man, I can’t believe how fast construction is these days. As I mentioned in an earlier post, our hotel room is directly across from Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan. The site is under ‘round-the-clock construction as they fix the transportation routes that were destroyed in the attacks and prepare for the construction of new buildings on the site. In just a few days, they’ve done quite a bit of construction. Amazing.

Staying at the Millenium Hilton as we cover the Tribeca Film Festival. The hotel has just reopened after being damaged in the 9/11 attacks. You can’t escape thinking about the attacks in this building — the view fom our window is of the reconstuction work being done on the pit.

Doc Searls mentioned Katz’s Deli the other day. At the opening press conference for the Tribeca Film Festival, Amex mentioned how they’ll be putting up plaques at famous NYC film landmarks. Katz’s Deli will get the first one.

I was at the X-2: X-Men United presser yesterday and security was tight: bag inspections, metal detectors, etc.

The security became very high-tech during the film. Twice during the screening, a security guard wearing night-vision goggles walked up and down the aisle looking for camcorders.