so I have just read that...

the Cornelia Street cafe, one of the spots where I once spent a lot of time at is closing--because of (of course) "landlord problems". I knew that Robin (the owner) was having these problems because on a short visit there a few months ago, he told me so, but wow, this is very sad. I wish all those people who could afford that place (and there are many) would write e-mails to Corey Johnson, and urge him to pass some sort of law preventing landlords from being "gods", which they are now.  That certainly applies to commercial landlords. Very sad. I directed a lot of readings of new plays there from 1990 to 1994 or thereabouts. Something must be done.
  On a more positive note, I was very happy that the Times is paying more attention to destructive residential landlords then ever before. A good article on today's front page showing how this "progressive" city allows residential landlords to be very cruel to tenants if they are paying low rent. This also has got to stop.
 Christmas eve: another Tourneur movie, this one Canyon Passage with Dana Andrews as the lone hero, standing tall against everyone else, or most everyone else. A beautiful movie to watch, its plot moved nicely from moment to moment--but what is really remarkable about Tourneur's movies is there incredible flow---the way one scene leads to another. Whoever those writers were, they were extremely polished in the way they created scripts.
 Christmas Day, always a "lonely" day for the cityboy. So what was he to do? How about two movies and some long walks around Brooklyn. Sounds good? Well, that is how it began.
First movie: The Last Resort---a strong documentary about the working class Jews who settled in their retirement in Miami Beach, and lived comfortably there, and also about the two young men who photographed this community and what happened to them. The doc shows how, as the seventies moved into the eighties, crime came to Miami Beach and the older Jews, once so happy, were terribly isolated. It is also about one of the two photographers, his name was Andy. He was the more eclectic of the two--but his originality pushed him into some strange and dark places. He was murdered at a very young age--the second half of the movie is about the reconstruction of his negatives into the excellent prints that they are today. A very good documentary. But it was only 1:15, and cityboys next movie, another Tourneur one, was not until 6:30. What to do? Well, off to Brooklyn---nothing doing around BAM as all the usual haunts were closed--so cityboy took the 25 to Franklin and then embarked on his journey on the Brooklyn 49, which traveled south from Franklin to Bedford, then west on Foster and finally continuing its southern route on Ocean Avenue. Cityboy took it all in---still amazed by the contrasts between the small and large houses. And what stories did the apartment houses have about the past? If only he knew. The bus travels the mostly integrated sections of Ocean, but when cityboy got off the Bus on Avenue M, the only people on the crowded streets were either Russian or Orthodox Jews. Then the Q to Church. Then walking west on Church, even in the cold weather, to Macdonald. Then a visit by the F to the new Nitehawk movie theater (very crowded) and then back on the F. And believe it or not, it still was only 4:00. Cityboy had time to go home, then return to the Bunin for his daily Tourneur "fix". And quite a fix it was, entitled Berlin Station, a thriller about the attempt of the four countries victorious in World War II, to make a plan for defeated Germany. Some great pictures of the destroyed Frankfort and Berlin streets. The plot, somewhat "hoakie" but like all of his movies, the flow was incredible. Lots of good performances, particularly was effected by featured player Robert Coote, playing the British delegate to the convention. Could not escape the irony that two doors down from the Bunin was the revival of My Fair Lady, and that Mr. Coote was the original Colonel Pickering in that show.
 So that was the day---returned to the apartment tired, fell asleep quickly, later the usual restlessness.
Lots of choices for today, but really feel that I have spent enough time in a movie theater passively receiving the messages from the screen and should spend whatever free time I have today "with people" Does this mean a visit to La Flaca in the early evening, or somewhere else. Choices abound, will report soon.