Last night This-TV, channel 111 on Cablevision in NYC, ran John Carpenter's Escape From New York (1981), one of the silliest but fun movies ever made. Set in 1997, the entire island of Manhattan is a prison where every inmate in the United States is sent. A huge wall has been built around it. It is heavily guarded. The bridges are mined. As Air Force One encounters mechanical failure, the President's escape pod lands on the grounds of the prison. A new inmate, ex-special forces op Snake Plissken, is sent on the rescue mission. The cast is outstanding: Kurt Russell, Donald Pleasance, Lee Van Cleef, Ernest Borgnine, Tom Atkins, Harry Dean Stanton, Adrienne Barbeau (Mrs. Carpenter), Isaac Hayes and Season Hubley. Carpenter pulled triple duty, as he does in so much of his work, co-writing the script with Nick Castle, and composing the soundtrack, which also includes Bandstand Boogie, which was the closing theme on Dick Clark's American Bandstand. I don't remember if it was the opening one as well. The composition is credited to Charles Albertine, who played tenor sax for the Sammy Kaye band in the 40's and later did the music for TV shows like Fantasy Island. Carpenter even put in three cameos in the film. Castle and Debra Hill, the producer, also appeared. The budget was a paltry six million, and the film grossed 24 million. It is rated 7.2 of ten at IMDb. It is a cult classic.
This was one of the luckiest days ever for the floating book shop. There were no sales the first hour, then a gentleman purchased Tyler Anbinder's Five Points, an area of lower Manhattan later depicted in Martin Scorsese's The Gangs of New York (2002), which was based on a work of the same name by Herbert Asbury. Then it began sprinkling. I moved my books to the car and covered the rest in plastic. Soon a young man asked to see the wares and selected Anne McCaffrey's Lyon's Pride. I decided to stay as long as the rain remained very light. It was a wise move. As I was conversing with Herbie, one of my most faithful regulars, Ol' Simon showed up with a large donation of books, two of which Herbie bought. Later, a Russian gentleman, who has bought many books in his native tongue, gave me a bag of books in English, and several of them are excellent. That alone would have been enough, then one of my favorite customers, Laura, who I see only once or twice a year, happened by. I'd been holding Olen Steinhauer's The Bridge of Sighs, which takes place in her native Romania, hoping she'd show. She asked if I'd written anything new, and I showed her Exchanges, which she bought. She now owns four of my five books, missing only the football-themed Adjustments. I gave her another of McCaffrey's books, the title of which escapes me, for her son. I got a hug and kiss as she left. Damn, I wish I was 25 years younger. I decided not to press my luck regarding the weather, so I began packing up. As I was doing so, a woman looked through the remaining crates and found the large, illustrated family New Testament that I've sold several copies of, courtesy of Ol' Simon. She bought it and a combination Roget's Thesaurus/Dictionary. And as I was bringing the last bag to the trunk, I spotted a middle-aged woman coming up East 13th. I was holding a large Woody Allen pictorial for her, and she wanted it immediately. Human nature being what it is, I'm sure I'll be lamenting the lack of business tomorrow.
Vic's 4th Novel: http://tinyurl.com/bszwlxh
Vic's 3rd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/7e9jty3
Vic's Website: http://members.tripod.com/vic_fortezza/Literature/
Vic's Short Story Collection (Print or Kindle): http://www.tiny.cc/Oycgb
Vic's 2nd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/6b86st6
Vic's 1st Novel: http://tiny.cc/94t5h
Vic's Screenplay on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/cyckn3
Vic’s Short Story on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/k95k3nx
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