connielane (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
connielane) wrote2008-07-03 05:55 pm
connielane) wrote2008-07-03 05:55 pm
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What the Movies Have Taught Me About NYC, Chapter 7
Okay, I hope I don't freak work folks out too badly with this one. Not to mention my parents. :P Monday was Big, so it's only fitting that today would involve Mr. Big.
Lesson Learned: The New York Public Library is the perfect wedding spot ... if you can get the groom to show up. :)
Bonus lesson: Bag Borrow or Steal is REAL, baby!
Lesson Learned: The New York Public Library is the perfect wedding spot ... if you can get the groom to show up. :)
This movie, and the television series on which is was based, is like a travelogue for New York City. The places and the fashion were staples of the show, and you can visit all kinds of websites and read companion books about the bars, restaurants, and landmarks where scenes were shot. As an outsider who had visited a few times, it always gave me a thrill when the girls visited a place I had been to. Perhaps most notable, though, was Carrie's choice of the New York Public Library as the spot for her wedding. I wanted to jump up and down and shout "I've been there! And it's gorgeous! And Bryant Park, OMG!"
One of my favorite episodes - and it seems to be playing more frequently than others on TBS, for some reason - is "Anchors Away" from Season Five. This is the Fleet Week episode, where Charlotte talks about how everyone has two great loves in their life, and where Carrie spends some quality time with her great love, New York. This is one of the episodes that really treats the city as a character in its own right, and explores Carrie's relationship with this character - both the good and the bad. I don't know that any other episode got as close to the city-as-a-character thing quite like "Anchors Away" did, but the film comes pretty close.
SATC - the movie and the series - was ultimately about the relationships, not the sex. The most important relationships were obviously the girls' relationships with each other, but somewhere between those relationships and their travails with the men in their lives, there was a really compelling relationship going on with the girls (most notably Carrie) and New York City. After my own few short flings with the place, I look forward to the delights and the challenges of settling down for a relationship with New York and seeing if we can make it work.
No really, here's the real lesson: New York is indeed a real place, and this particular version ain't it.
I said above that SATC was a travelogue of New York, and I realize that's just what it is. It's eye candy that has perhaps a nugget of truth, but not much more. Sometimes I feel guilty watching these stories, because I'm very impressionable, even when I'm determined to be a realist. It's even started to mess with my head a bit, because I'm so set on not falling for the Disney illusion of the city that I may be getting jaded about it before I even get there.
I do hope I haven't already lost the sense of wonder about New York. I'm pretty sure I haven't, but it's easy to let my fear do the talking right now.
One of my favorite episodes - and it seems to be playing more frequently than others on TBS, for some reason - is "Anchors Away" from Season Five. This is the Fleet Week episode, where Charlotte talks about how everyone has two great loves in their life, and where Carrie spends some quality time with her great love, New York. This is one of the episodes that really treats the city as a character in its own right, and explores Carrie's relationship with this character - both the good and the bad. I don't know that any other episode got as close to the city-as-a-character thing quite like "Anchors Away" did, but the film comes pretty close.
SATC - the movie and the series - was ultimately about the relationships, not the sex. The most important relationships were obviously the girls' relationships with each other, but somewhere between those relationships and their travails with the men in their lives, there was a really compelling relationship going on with the girls (most notably Carrie) and New York City. After my own few short flings with the place, I look forward to the delights and the challenges of settling down for a relationship with New York and seeing if we can make it work.
No really, here's the real lesson: New York is indeed a real place, and this particular version ain't it.
I said above that SATC was a travelogue of New York, and I realize that's just what it is. It's eye candy that has perhaps a nugget of truth, but not much more. Sometimes I feel guilty watching these stories, because I'm very impressionable, even when I'm determined to be a realist. It's even started to mess with my head a bit, because I'm so set on not falling for the Disney illusion of the city that I may be getting jaded about it before I even get there.
I do hope I haven't already lost the sense of wonder about New York. I'm pretty sure I haven't, but it's easy to let my fear do the talking right now.
Bonus lesson: Bag Borrow or Steal is REAL, baby!
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Samantha didn't fit in California as much as she didn't fit in that kind of romantic relationship. (OT but it's easy to ask if she and Smith might've lasted longer on her home turf but I expect the different scenery lengthened rather than shortened it.)
Charlotte's lolarious misadventure in Mexico brought home that she's not truly at home anywhere else.
And then there's Miranda. I still find her arc the most compelling ultimately. Unlike the other three, her resolution doesn't rest on "get our girl home". Maybe she's the one character whose definition of home truly changes and, therefore, she takes the biggest risks and grows the most.
I think you are doing that. You don't just want to make a change for change sake or simplistically chase down a dream. Thoughtfully, feelingly, you realize that you might just be changing your definition of home. Go you!