Happy Christmas Eve

It's Christmas Eve and people were out buying last minute Christmas trees. Oh boy.

I can't imagine what it's like for these folks around tax time. Are these same people on line at the 34th Street post office, filling out forms at midnight? (I admit to going there to get my envelope stamped. It is a zoo).

Next Christmas Eve, I'll be prepared with a blow gun and tracking devices. We'll see where these people are on April 15th.

Mark and I went in early to see 'I am Legend' at Union Square. The movie was well done, and thankfully less violent than 'No Country for Old Men'. I spent much less time cowering behind my hands.

I won't give anything away, except that part of 'Legend' takes place in the future, around Christmastime. The talented Will Smith plays a resourceful guy in a deserted, post-apocalyptic New York City. The visuals of the city in ruins are incredible. It's worth seeing the movie for the sets alone.

There is something perverse about making a movie about the world nearing its end and then releasing it around the holidays. I don't get it. ('Die Hard', another movie set around Christmas with disasters on a smaller scale, was released in July, 1988. Imagine if it had been released around the holidays, with everyone traveling by plane?). 'Legend' has some hopeful messages, but still. Strange decision.


Today, the city was relatively deserted and wonderfully sunny out. The last several days have been depressingly gray. I've spent a lot of time indoors, which is tough on the brain. On the streets were tourists, neighborhood people doing some shopping and errands, Mark and myself. Union Square was still filled with Christmas stalls, including one full of lovely dried wreaths and flowers.

I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday with friends and family, and I wish you a happy and healthy 2008. I'll be off to California for a few, but I'll be posting on the road!


Here's the trailer for the movie:




Photos by myself in Union Square.