Stolen from Obscene Desserts.
I like the video -- it reminds me of switching on the bulky RCA in the living room of my parents' Houston home and watching the 'life in the city' scene-setting montage before some 1970s urban spy thriller or social-justice drama. Male lead: James Caan, Ben Gazzara, or Gene Hackman; female lead: Cicely Tyson, Jill Clayburgh, or Diane Keaton.
Back then, sitting in a large air-conditioned home protected from the asphalt-melting subtropical heat outside, I always wondered at these real cities, where people gathered together outside in spaces designed for large groups and then swapped stories, sat at cafe tables drinking coffee, listened to music, or browsed secondhand shops. Did they really exist? Would I ever actually get to live in one? Would I like it?
The answers to these questions were 'yes', 'yes' and 'yes', although I didn't know it at the time.
Your reactions remind me of mine, though of course based on memories of growing up in a different city.
Posted by: John Carter Wood | October 10, 2012 at 01:41 PM