The steam of GOOD and EVIL

Steam on St. Marks

On Saturday, after my photo shoot with the moon, I happened upon a theatre playing Constantine. It was one of those moments where you realize you just happened to have arrived at the right theatre at the right time to catch a movie you wanted to see, without even trying.

I ALSO happened to have some movie gift certificates my parents gave me. It was like a credit card, swipe it, and get two free tickets. Now, I knew it was going to be a hassle, and the theatre employees would tell me they knew nothing of this card. And they did. But I insisted it was legit. Two managers and 10mins later, they accepted it. But there was a fine print catch. The card was "one time use only" meaning it was good for two tickets, not just one.

So now I have a free ticket, but an extra as well. Being the good samaritan I felt like being at that moment, I offered it to a couple (man and woman) behind me. Conversation went something like this: "You going to see Constantine?" "uhhhh, yeah?" "Here, have a free ticket." "What do you mean......free?" "I mean for no money. Here, take it." Now, at this moment I pushed the ticket in his direction, and his reaction was one of horror. He actually recoiled from the ticket in my hand, like it was dripping with blood. That was seriously the look on his face. It took me about another 3mins to tell him the full story, on the gift certificates and how they worked, and why I was trying to give out a free ticket. It was the girlfriend who eventually spoke up. "I trust you." she says "take the ticket honey." The man looked at her, bewildered that she spoke, then took the ticket.

The point of the story? New Yorkers question everything. I mean, I didn't ask for five dollars. I happened to be wearing a suit, from the interview, and he STILL thought it was too good to be true. I find that funny, and sad at the same time. Can people trust people anymore?

The point of the Blog? I saw Constantine AGAIN today, with Greg. I liked it that much to turn around and see it again, within a day. Visually it was very impressive. I'm fond of visual effect laiden, fantasy movies (check out this link for an new Linklater flic, A Scanner Darkly, looks cool, also stars Keanu). But the story is really what drove the piece, and the characters. I'm not ashamed to say it, Keanu Reeves was great. A lot of that had to do with the writing. But his performance was good. He was an asshole, and I liked him for it.

It must have been the subject matter, good versus evil, heaven and hell, and such. But as I walked to the F train, I stopped and took a serie's of photo's of some steam. There was something about the way it was twisting and writhing in the air from the ground below, and something about the motion of the people as they moved through it. It looked surreal to me, like they could have been on another plane, and the steam was trying to suck them back in. It wasn't until I got home and downloaded them that I noticed the pair of wings in the background. Weird.