Fifth annual Summer Streets program opens up thoroughfares from Park & 72nd to the Brooklyn Bridge (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
Central Park to the Brooklyn Bridge
Saturday, August 20, 7:00 am – 1:00 pm
www.nyc.gov
The final of three Summer Streets days takes place today from 7:00 am to 1:00 pm, as walkers, runners, bike riders, joggers, skateboarders, and other people not using motorized vehicles (we’re not sure about Segways) can travel from Central Park to the Brooklyn Bridge without having to navigate through buses, taxis, cars, trucks, and other gas-guzzling traffic menaces. Beginning at Park Ave. & 72nd St. and making its way down Park Ave. to Lafayette St. before turning toward the bridge, Summer Streets will feature five rest stops with special activities, including tai chi classes, salsa and bachata lessons, and a live performance by Still Saffire at Park & 51st; safety demonstrations, a picnic area, and bike helmet giveaways at Park & 25th; a health and fitness zone at Astor Pl. & Lafayette; an adventure zone with a rock climbing wall, yoga, and flat fixing workshops at Spring St. & Lafayette; and sand sculpting, music and dance performances (Les Racquet, Still Saffire, NJ Nets Dancers, National Double Dutch League), and FringeNYC sneak peeks at Foley Square (Duane & Centre Sts.), among other events at each location. Even if you’re not interested in any of the special activities, just getting outside and looking down a Park Ave. filled with people enjoying the six hours of freedom is energizing and contagious.
Director Rupert Wyatt and writers Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver reimagine Pierre Boulle’s original Planet of the Apes story in the exciting and inventive reboot Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Taking elements from the first five Apes films, especially the fourth flick, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, the new blockbuster is a more science-based thriller that delves into the evolutionary (and devolutionary) nature of humans and animals. James Franco stars as Will Rodman, a scientist working on the anti-Alzheimer’s drug ALZ-112 for Gen-Sys, a big pharmaceutical company run by Steven Jacobs (David Oyelowo). After a demonstration for potential investors goes terribly wrong, Jacobs orders all of the ALZ-112 test subjects to be destroyed, but the baby of the primary subject survives and is brought home by Will, who raises Caesar (a motion-captured Andy Serkis) as if the chimpanzee were his own child, with the help of his scientist girlfriend, Caroline (Slumdog Millionaire’s Freida Pinto) and his father (John Lithgow), who was suffering from Alzheimer’s but is seeing remarkable improvement as Will secretly treats him with the controversial drug. As Caesar grows up, he gains insight into the state of the world, especially how apes are forced to literally live like caged animals, and soon he is ready to do something about it. Rise of the Planet of the Apes is no mere remake or summer popcorner capitalizing on the fame of the series (for that, see Tim Burton’s terrible 2001 disaster); instead, it is a moving, thoughtful study of the development of mammalian intelligence and the very basic need to be free. Wyatt (The Escapist) moves things along at a slow pace in the first half of the film, allowing Caesar’s character to blossom, leading to a believable revolution that culminates in an action-packed showdown on the Golden Gate Bridge. Serkis, who previously played such motion-capture characters as Gollum and King Kong, breathes remarkable life and emotion into Caesar, so much so that there is Oscar buzz around his performance. Rise earns its already respected place in the Apes pantheon, a worthy addition that honors the past while paving the way for a promising future.
In 1999, L.A.-based French shopkeeper and amateur videographer Thierry Guetta discovered that he was related to street artist Invader and began filming his cousin putting up his tile works. Guetta, who did not know much about art, soon found himself immersed in the underground graffiti scene. On adventures with such famed street artists as Shepard Fairey, Swoon, Ron English, and Borf, Guetta took thousands of hours of much-sought-after video. The amateur videographer was determined to meet Banksy, the anarchic satirist who has been confounding authorities around the world with his striking, politically sensitive works perpetrated right under their noses, from England to New Orleans to the West Bank. Guetta finally gets his wish and begins filming the seemingly unfilmable as Banksy, whose identity has been a source of controversy for more than a decade, allows Guetta to follow him on the streets and invites him into his studio. But as he states at the beginning of his brilliant documentary, Exit Through the Gift Shop, Banksy—who hides his face from the camera in new interviews and blurs it in older footage—turns the tables on Guetta, making him the subject of this wildly entertaining film.
