Ghost Streets and Mushroom Trips
to make up for a disappointing burger.
Remember when I took Beef to Minetta Tavern because they have one of the best burgers in the city? Well Beef said that there’s a place in Manorville that has burgers that are just as good. Literally his words. This place is JCs. Now I was skeptical AF because there is simply no way there is a hidden gem in bumblefuck Long Island that has burgers rivaling Minetta’s.
And you know what? I was right. The burger was fine. It came nowhere close to Minetta’s burger and I would have actually saved money staying in the city and eating at Minetta because the JCs burger also required me to buy a LIRR ticket. This is why I take Beef out to dinners and not the other way around. I thought I had taught him enough, but he still has much to learn.
This week we’re diving into some *ghostly* NYC history and I hope to write about some spookier stuff throughout the month. I also saw My Old Ass last week and surprisingly enjoyed it, so you get to hear my take on that movie too!
September has been busy AF and I haven’t been to the movie theater all month, so I was really happy when Lorenzo asked if we could see My Old Ass together. I’ll be honest, the trailers didn’t make the movie look particularly interesting, but the titular old ass would belong to Aubrey Plaza, who I’m told is my celebrity doppleganger (in spirit, not looks). While this film has some timey wimey sci-fi elements, it’s not really a sci-fi film at all. In fact, it was a really fucking heartwarming coming of age story that just so happened to mirror the exact discussion I had with my therapist that morning, so hooray for me getting a bonus therapy session on the house. Who knew this would be a delightful Canadian coming of age story?
In the film, we follow Elliott’s (Maisey Stella) final summer at home before leaving for college and when she and her friends drink some mushroom tea, Elliott ends up tripping and meeting her future self (Aubrey Plaza). Old Elliott (btw she’s 39, which as I get older I realize is really not that old) basically tells Young Elliott all of the shit that any old person tells any young person and they inevitably don’t listen: spend more time with your parents, be nicer to your siblings, stay away from a guy named Chad. They’re magically able to text a bit throughout the movie which was cool and made no sense, but also made for a bummer since Aubrey Plaza was mostly offscreen.
This film did something that I find is overwhelmingly lacking in most movies that I watch - it developed the fucking characters quickly and completely. I immediately got a sense of who Elliott was, maybe because she wasn’t so dissimilar from who I was at that age. I was a little fuckin hood rat riding my bike through the woods, staying out all night and basically just visiting my home, but most of all I was hopeful once where now I’m 100% the cynical Old Elliott. Aside from Chad, the other supporting characters didn’t get too much screen time, but every time we did see them I got the feeling that they were actually living their lives while they were offscreen. Like sometimes the side characters only exist within the context of the main character and always seem to be waiting around for our hero to notice them, but the characters in My Old Ass all seemed to have their own busy lives and they didn’t solely exist for Elliott to visit them every so often.
Anyways, the message that this movie was ultimately trying to get across was that it’s important to savor the present. Young Elliott is so busy looking forward to her future and dreaming of escaping her hometown, that she’s taking things for granted: her family, the girl she’s hooking up with, her home and the family cranberry bog business. Sorry to be the Old here, but time truly is the one thing you can’t get back and I realize that more and more every day. Have you noticed that time seems to move quicker the older you get? Summers that seemed to last forever fly by and it feels like there’s just never enough time on the weekends. There are many reasons for why we perceive time as we do (and probably many more that we still don’t know), but I’ve found that it really is possible to make time “slow down” a bit when you’re fully immersed in something. And that’s exactly what this movie is positing; be present, don’t let time pass you by and become a memory too quickly. Truly the only thing I love more than pondering how time works is thinking about how people used to eat mummies.
At one point, Chad mentions how sad it is that you can’t remember the last time you did something, because at the time you didn’t know that it would be the last time. Do you remember the last time you played marco polo in a pool with friends? The last time you rode your bike to meet up at the chill spot in the woods? The last time you went trick or treating? Goddamit Chad is fucking wise and I hate that they got Percy Hynes White to play him. Throughout the movie we see Elliott doing a lot of things that will probably be her lasts and something about the cinematography made me feel like I was able to really take in all of her moments. Watching her zip around in the lake on her boat brought back my own memories of riding my bike through town and feeling truly free. Anyways, this notion of not knowing when your last moment is really your last moment is just fundamentally sad and had me in my feels for a bit.
*Spoilers* here for the end of the movie, but at the very end we find out that Old Elliott wanted Young Elliott to avoid Chad because Chad fucking dies. Old Elliott fell in love with Chad, he died (in a way that was “unavoidable”), and that experience was so traumatic that she wanted to protect her younger self from it. But as wise as Old Elliott was, Young Elliott rightfully refused because all of life is worth living, even the sad stuff. Young Elliott wanted to have the chance at a life with Chad, even if it would only be for a short time, because it was worth at least trying. My therapist and I often discuss the fear of trying or taking a step into the unknown because “what if something bad happens,” but I see your negative outlook and counter you with this: what if something good happens? Isn’t the chance at something good a chance worth taking? And knowing that it might only be for a short time encourages you to really savor every moment, which will make that time go by slower, therefore sort of giving you more time.
Timey Wimey stuff aside, I really enjoyed Elliott’s queer storyline because it wasn’t the main part of her character. I love love love when films do not pick a singular quality of a character and make it their whole personality and I’m so glad that we’re finally (almost?) there with queerness. Like yes, characters can be queer and it obviously affects how they exist within the film’s world, but they can be multifaceted and have other interests and priorities aside from simply focusing on their sexuality.
When we first meet Elliott, she identifies as a lesbian and has been hooking up with the cute coffee shop girl all summer. She obviously develops feelings for Chad and begins questioning if she is even a lesbian at all, but what I love is that she didn’t think “well I like a guy so I must be straight,” which would have been the basic straight savior route to go. She “came out” to her friend as possibly bi or pan and as someone who is like lowercase q queer (somewhere in the middle, idk), I love that she expressed this fluidity rather than simply jumping to conclusions and claiming an identity. Her friend reminded her that she once said she only wanted to use labels when she found them helpful, so it’s ok to exist in this in between state and figure things out (or not figure things out because whatever). I did read one criticism of this storyline and I can see how it can be construed as queer-erasure since Young Elliott chooses to be with Chad, but lest we forget that Old Elliott repeatedly mentions having a girlfriend in the future! So here’s a reminder that you don’t have to choose sides (unless you want to).
Also, here’s a reminder that it’s really hard to find SFW gifs when you google “my old ass” so sorry to everyone I work with for what they saw on my laptop screen.
Spooky season is officially upon us, so I’m going to try to write about some of NYC’s haunted history this month. If there’s a NY ghost story, haunted house, or the like that you’d like me to cover, let me know! I previously wrote about The House of Death and The Murder Well (which may not be as murderous as I previously thought, but is still a very interesting story). This week we’ll be starting off with a story about ghosts - ghost streets, that is! NYC has lots of interesting street signs, including some that simply do not lead anywhere. Enter, Temple St 👻
Temple Street, like many ghosts, did once exist in physical form. It ran right through present day Zuccotti Park from Thames Street to Liberty Street. It was only ever a little 2 block stretch, but the Financial District has tons of these weird little streets since it was basically put together on the fly as NYC’s population increased. Temple Street was around since pretty early on - it appears on maps from the 1690s and the name may have been a nod to the first Trinity Church that would be built nearby by the end of the 17th Century.
In the early 1900s, Temple Street suffered its first blow when the Trinity and US Realty buildings went up on Broadway on either side of Thames. I used to work in the Trinity Building and it is fucking gorgeous.
These twin Gothic buildings were built with Thames St running right between them (Thames St was actually moved slightly north and expanded), so they basically destroyed the southern part of Temple St. RIP.
The next blow would come in 1967. Since 1908, the Singer Building (of Singer Sewing Machine fame) occupied the the NW corner of Liberty and Broadway. In the 1905 map above, it would have been located on the brown square in the top right. It was actually the tallest building in the world for a year between 1908-1909 until the Met Life Building in Flatiron dethroned it! But alas, in 1967 it was decided that the Singer Building be demolished. The Landmarks Preservation Law was established 2 years prior, but it couldn’t save the beautiful Beaux-Arts building since demolition was scheduled prior to the law. The US Steel Building would go up in its place (now One Liberty Plaza) and destroy nearly all of what was left of little Temple St.
However, a tiny sliver remained for a couple more years! That little bit was finally demolished in 1972 to make was for Liberty Plaza Park, though a Chock Full o’ Nuts with a Temple St address held onto their lease (and their address) until 1980. Liberty Plaza Park (now Zuccotti Park) now sits between Liberty and Cedar St. Longtime BCLF readers (from 3 weeks ago) may remember Zuccotti Park as the original home of the Double Check statue. The statue currently sits on the corner of Broadway and Liberty, right outside of One Liberty Plaza.
Despite being paved over numerous times, the Temple St street sign persists, like a poltergeist that just won’t stop crawling out of your tv! The original green and white Temple St sign was actually remounted after the 1972 construction of the park, so even though the city knew there was nothing left of the street, someone still wanted to make sure folks knew it used to be there. Later, the sign was destroyed during 9/11, but it was remounted once again after cleanup. And not only was it remounted, but the city hung a fancy new black and white sign so that it would match all of the other updated signs in the area! The sign is mounted on a post in the middle of the north end of Zuccotti Park if you’d like to go on your own ghost adventure and see it for yourself.
It’s Brooklyn Museum’s birthday and they’re celebrating by throwing everyone a party on October 5! There will be music and karaoke, dance and poetry, gallery tours and art-making, piñatas, and more. Their website says registration for these activities is free and includes admission to the museum….so I think museum admission is just free for anyone who RSVPs on this day? Test it out and let me know.
A new Brooklyn Pop exhibit just opened in Industry City. The immersive experience was created by artist Mr. Kaves and includes art, film, sports, and music scenes that represents the best that Brooklyn has to offer. “This installation is a tribute to the spirit that makes Brooklyn a cultural epicenter and a testament to the unique energy that defines our borough.” Tickets are $36 and the exhibit will be open Wed-Sun thru Dec 28.
I’m an absolute slut for apple cider so I’m very excited for next weekend’s Union Square Cider Village. On Oct 11, cider makers and apple connoisseurs will gather to enjoy all things apple + cider. Cideries from across NY state will be onsite with samples, demos, and crafts. @hudsonvalleyappleproject will also be there with a display of over 55 rare, unique, and historical apples! Totally free to attend, just pop into the Greenmarket next Friday.
We support unions here at BCLF and right now the ILA (International Longshoreman’s Association) is on strike. Sure it’s not as glamorous as the SAG strike from the summer because there are less movie stars and more men in overalls and boots (this might be better?). This can have a big effect on supply chains and access to goods, so let’s just pay the men ok?
There are a couple big events happening on the third weekend of October that you might want to start planning for now:
Art in Odd Places runs from Oct 18-20. 77 artists from New York and across the globe will be popping up with art that will appear in unexpected places and in unexpected ways. Idk what that means, but one promo I saw had people dressed up as traffic cones, so I support. They have a schedule on their website, so I guess not all of the art is completely unexpected.
I’ll be volunteering with Open House NY this year and I am so fucking excited. Also from Oct 18-20, during OHNY weekend tons of buildings around the city that usually aren’t open to the public…open to the public. There are various tours, lectures, and parties, some are ticketed and some are just open. Ticketing open on Oct 8 at 11am, so take a look at the schedule and set yourself a reminder to grab the spots you want!
"even though the city knew there was nothing left of the street, someone still wanted to make sure folks knew it used to be there."
I'm telling myself a story about a person in a government building somewhere who cares and is sentimental enough to take on this duty, for the relative few who will notice. Maybe the real explanation is something more technical or automated, but I prefer the comfort of knowing that we have people like this among us.
Eden, you and I BOTH know the best burger on Eastern Long Island can be found at the Triangle Pub, and I will host my own Beef Unfancy Dinner if Eric needs to be educated!!!
I want to see My Old Ass and your review made me want to see it even more! The whole "we don't know when we're doing something for the last time" piece made me think of Here I Am by Jonathan Safran Foer, which has a passage waxing poetic on the same thing. A book I didn't love, but that part has stayed with me!