November 10, 2004

I don't think I've ever mentioned it here, but I have a little pet peeve about movies and plays taking place in New York. I'm sick of it. There are plenty of cool cities all over the world that stories could take place in. Why New York all the time? I don't know about the rest of you, but I've never had a huge interest in the place.

That having been said: I watched "Angels in America" a few nights ago. The opening scene is the San Francisco skyline. The Golden Gate Bridge stands proud in the center of the frame, with majestic clouds surrounding it. At this point, I think to myself "All right! It takes place somewhere other than New York!" After that, it does a flyby across the cityscape and goes up, up, up into the air. We come back down again out of the clouds to see... The St. Louis Arch.

And now I'm thinking, "St. Louis! Hey, it'll be cool to see something that takes place in St. Louis!" Then we pan back up into the clouds and go forward, forward, forward. I get a sinking sensation in my stomach. We come out of the clouds and zoom in on, you guessed it, NEW YORK CITY!

Man.

Attention Playwrights: There are more cities in the world than New York. Also, there are other ways for people to die than AIDS. That is all.

All that whining aside, I thought "Angels in America" was quite good. (woulda been better in some other city though... grumble...)

-ATW

PS: More Fan Art from The Man in Black.