Coffee and The Smithereens - revisiting gritty Post-Punk NYC 43 Years Later
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Gab about the wildness of the early 1980s urban scene at Michelangelo's coffee shop at 5:15PM and then head over to the Madison Public Library for a 6:30PM viewing of Smithereens (1982), which features the waning New York City punk scene at its grungiest. This event is an acquired taste - this movie features an unlikeable protagonist making very poor life choices in a gritty sleazy world. Despite all that, Smithereens has made it into the Criterion Collection and is the feature film for the Central-Downtown Madison Public Library's Cinesthesia Film Festival. Directed by Susan Seidelman, the main character Wren was the precursor to Susan in Ms. Seidelman's "Desperately Seeking Susan". NYC will look frankly awful in this film, and that too, is why it is considered a classic film, capturing its grime, crime, and youthful bottom feeders at its very worst.
Viewing this 43 years later may prove to be an interesting "experiment", and if we can't take it, nothing means we have to watch it all! At the very least, we'll have taken a trip down memory lane at Michelangelo's. Be sure to bring a story of youthful stupidity. The library is 2 blocks away from the coffee shop.