ANNIE HALL & MANHATTAN, THE WOODY ALLEN'S WORKS

Today, The Newtons & The Grandma have visited Woody Allen, the American film director, writer, actor, and comedian, whose filmography is full of masterpieces like Annie Hall or Manhattan. They have spent a nice morning with the actor asking him lots of questions about his plans of future.

Before visiting Allen, The Newtons have studied English grammar. They have chosen Future Continuous.

More info: Future Continuous

 

Heywood Woody Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg, November 30, 1935) is an American film director, writer, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades and multiple Academy Award-winning films.

He began his career writing material for television in the 1950s, mainly Your Show of Shows (1950-1954) working alongside Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Larry Gelbart, and Neil Simon. He also published several books featuring short stories and wrote humor pieces for The New Yorker.

In the early 1960s, he performed as a stand-up comedian in Greenwich Village alongside Lenny Bruce, Elaine May, Mike Nichols, and Joan Rivers. There he developed a monologue style (rather than traditional jokes) and the persona of an insecure, intellectual, fretful nebbish.

He released three comedy albums during the mid to late 1960s, earning a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album nomination for his 1964 comedy album entitled simply, Woody Allen.

In 2004, Comedy Central ranked Allen fourth on a list of the 100 greatest stand-up comedians, while a UK survey ranked Allen the third-greatest comedian.

More information: Woody Allen

By the mid-1960s, Allen was writing and directing films, first specializing in slapstick comedies such as Take the Money and Run (1969), Bananas (1971), Sleeper (1973), and Love and Death (1975), before moving into dramatic material influenced by European art cinema during the late 1970s with Interiors (1978), Manhattan (1979), and Stardust Memories (1980), and alternating between comedies and dramas to the present.

Allen is often identified as part of the New Hollywood wave of filmmakers of the mid-1960s to late 1970s such as Martin Scorsese, Robert Altman, and Sidney Lumet.

He often stars in his films, typically in the persona he developed as a standup. His film Annie Hall (1977), a romantic comedy featuring Allen and his frequent collaborator Diane Keaton, won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Actress for Keaton.

Critics have called his work from the 1980s his most developed period. Those films include Zelig (1983), Broadway Danny Rose (1984), The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), Radio Days (1987), Another Woman (1988), and Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989).

In the 21st century, many of Allen's films have been set and shot in Europe, including Match Point (2005), Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008), Midnight in Paris (2011), and To Rome with Love (2012). Allen returned to America gaining acclaim for Blue Jasmine (2013) and Cafe Society (2016).

More information: The Woody Allen Pages

In 1979, Allen began a professional and personal relationship with actress Mia Farrow, and over a decade-long period they collaborated on 13 films. They separated after Allen began a relationship with Mia's and Andre Previn's adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn.During the separation, Allen was publicly accused of sexually abusing his daughter, the seven-year-old Dylan. The allegation gained substantial media attention, but Allen was never charged or prosecuted, and he vehemently denied the allegation. Allen married Previn in 1997, and they adopted two children.

Allen has received many accolades and honors, including the most nominations for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, with 16. He has won four Academy Awards, one for Best Director, and three for Best Original Screenplay. He also garnered nine British Academy Film Awards.

In 1997, Allen was awarded the BAFTA Fellowship by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. In 2014, he received the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award for Lifetime Achievement and a Tony Award nomination for Best Book of a Musical for Bullets over Broadway.

In 2011, PBS televised the film biography Woody Allen: A Documentary on its series American Masters.

In 2015, the Writers Guild of America named his screenplay for Annie Hall first on its list of the 101 Funniest Screenplays.

More information: Variety

Woody Allen was the reason
I wanted to move to New York City
and one of the reasons I wanted to make films.
I felt that I understood his films, and I love them so much.
When you're starting out, certainly,
you have this sense of wanting to talk back to people
who have influenced you,
and I always wanted to talk back to Woody Allen.

Greta Gerwig

Annie Hall is a 1977 American satirical romantic comedy-drama film directed by Woody Allen from a screenplay he co-wrote with Marshall Brickman, and produced by Allen's manager, Charles H. Joffe. 

The film stars Allen as Alvy Singer, who tries to figure out the reasons for the failure of his relationship with the eponymous female lead, played by Diane Keaton in a role written specifically for her.

Principal photography for the film began on May 19, 1976, on the South Fork of Long Island, and continued periodically for the next ten months. Allen has described the result, which marked his first collaboration with cinematographer Gordon Willis, as a major turning point, in that unlike the farces and comedies that were his work to that point, it introduced a new level of seriousness. Academics have noted the contrast in the settings of New York City and Los Angeles, the stereotype of gender differences in sexuality, the presentation of Jewish identity, and the elements of psychoanalysis and modernism.

Annie Hall was screened at the Los Angeles Film Festival on March 27, 1977, before its official release in the United States on April 20, 1977. The film was highly praised, was nominated for the Big Five Academy Awards, winning four: the Academy Award for Best Picture, two for Allen (Best Director and, with Brickman, Best Original Screenplay), and Best Actress for Keaton.

The film additionally won four BAFTA awards and a Golden Globe, the latter being awarded to Keaton. The film's North American box office receipts of $38,251,425 are fourth-best of Allen's works when not adjusted for inflation.

Ranking among the best films ever made, it ranks 31st on AFI's List of the greatest films in American cinema, 4th on their list of greatest comedy films and 28th on Bravo's 100 Funniest Movies. Film critic Roger Ebert called it just about everyone's favorite Woody Allen movie. The film's screenplay was also named the funniest ever written by the Writers Guild of America in its list of the 101 Funniest Screenplays.

In 1992, the United States Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry as being culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.

More information: Roger Ebert

 Woody Allen's movies are so much a part of me.
I grew up watching them over and over
and would read all his comic pieces for the New Yorker.
In some ways, his influence is so much there
that I can't even locate it any more.

Noah Baumbach

Manhattan is a 1979 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Woody Allen and produced by Charles H. Joffe. 

The screenplay was written by Allen and Marshall Brickman. Allen co-stars as a twice-divorced 42-year-old comedy writer who dates a 17-year-old girl (Mariel Hemingway) but falls in love with his best friend (Michael Murphy)'s mistress (Diane Keaton). Meryl Streep and Anne Byrne also star.

Manhattan was Allen's first movie filmed in black-and-white, and was shot in 2.35:1 widescreen. It features music by George Gershwin, including Rhapsody in Blue, which inspired the film. Allen described the film as a combination of Annie Hall and Interiors.

The film received critical acclaim and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for Hemingway and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen for Allen and Brickman. Its North American box-office receipts of $39.9 million made it Allen's second biggest box-office hit, adjusted for inflation. Often considered one of his best films, it ranks 46th on AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs list and number 63 on Bravo's 100 Funniest Movies.

In 2001, the United States Library of Congress deemed the film culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.

More information: Roger Ebert

 I don't want to achieve immortality through my work.
I want to achieve it through not dying.

Woody Allen

RENÉ MAGRITTE & THE ART OF ILLUSIONISM AT THE MET

Today, The Grandma has received the wonderful visit of her closest friends Claire Fontaine, Tonyi Tamaki and Laura Collins.

They have flown from Barcelona to New York to visit an interesting exposition about René Magritte at MET.

They haven't been alone. Two Grandma's old friends, Thomas Crown and Catherine Banning are with them.

Together, they have spent a wonderful day and have enjoyed with this genius of Illusionism and Surrealism.

René François Ghislain Magritte (21 November 1898-15 August 1967) was a Belgian surrealist artist, who became well known for creating a number of witty and thought-provoking images.

Often depicting ordinary objects in an unusual context, his work is known for challenging observers' preconditioned perceptions of reality. His imagery has influenced pop art, minimalist art, and conceptual art.

René Magritte was born in Lessines, in the province of Hainaut, Belgium, in 1898. He was the oldest son of Léopold Magritte, a tailor and textile merchant, and Régina, who was a milliner before she got married. Little is known about Magritte's early life. He began lessons in drawing in 1910.

On 12 March 1912, his mother committed suicide by drowning herself in the River Sambre. This was not her first attempt at taking her own life; she had made many over a number of years, driving her husband Léopold to lock her in her bedroom. One day she escaped, and was missing for days. Her body was later discovered a mile or so down the nearby river.

According to a legend, 13-year-old Magritte was present when her body was retrieved from the water, but recent research has discredited this story, which may have originated with the family nurse. Supposedly, when his mother was found, her dress was covering her face, an image that has been suggested as the source of several of Magritte's paintings in 1927-1928 of people with cloth obscuring their faces, including Les Amants.

Magritte's earliest paintings, which date from about 1915, were Impressionistic in style. During 1916-1918, he studied at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, under Constant Montald, but found the instruction uninspiring. He also took classes at the Académie Royale from the painter and poster designer Gisbert Combaz. The paintings he produced during 1918-1924 were influenced by Futurism and by the figurative Cubism of Metzinger.

Depressed by the failure, he moved to Paris where he became friends with André Breton and became involved in the Surrealist group. An illusionistic, dream-like quality is characteristic of Magritte's version of Surrealism. He became a leading member of the movement, and remained in Paris for three years.

In 1929 he exhibited at Goemans Gallery in Paris with Salvador Dalí, Jean Arp, de Chirico, Max Ernst, Joan Miró, Picabia, Picasso and Yves Tanguy.

On 15 December 1929 he participated in the last publication of La Revolution Surrealiste No. 12, where he published his essay Les mots et les images, where words play with images in sync with his work The Treachery of Images.

In 1946, renouncing the violence and pessimism of his earlier work, he joined several other Belgian artists in signing the manifesto Surrealism in Full Sunlight.

During 1947-48, Magritte's Vache period, he painted in a provocative and crude Fauve style. During this time, Magritte supported himself through the production of fake Picassos, Braques, and de Chiricos -a fraudulent repertoire he was later to expand into the printing of forged banknotes during the lean postwar period.

Magritte's work frequently displays a collection of ordinary objects in an unusual context, giving new meanings to familiar things.

Magritte's use of simple graphic and everyday imagery has been compared to that of the pop artists. His influence in the development of pop art has been widely recognized, although Magritte himself discounted the connection.

More information: Rene Magritte

The Thomas Crown Affair is a 1999 American romantic heist film directed by John McTiernan, written by Leslie Dixon and Kurt Wimmer and is a remake of the 1968 film of the same name.

Its story follows Thomas Crown, a billionaire who steals a painting from an art gallery and is pursued by an insurance investigator with the two falling in love. It stars Pierce Brosnan, Rene Russo, and Denis Leary.

Filming took place in several parts of New York City, including Central Park. The corporate headquarters of Lucent Technologies stood in for Crown's suite of offices.

Due to the impossibility of filming scenes at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (the producers' request was respectfully declined), the production crew made their own museum on a soundstage. Artisans were hired to create a realistic look to the set. Another scene was filmed in a different city landmark: the main research library of the New York Public Library.

More information: MoMA

 The mind loves the unknown.
It loves images whose meaning is unknown,
since the meaning of the mind itself is unknown.

René Magritte

AMADOU DIALLO, AMERICAN SKIN (41 SHOTS) IN NYC

Today, The Grandma has been listening to her favourite singer, Bruce Springsteen, who is preparing his new tour, that will start in Barcelona next year. 

Springsteen published Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band: Live In New York City some years ago, an amazing work with old and new songs, one of them American Skin (41 Shots), a song inspired by the police shooting death of Amadou Diallo in New York.

Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band: Live In New York City is the name of a concert film done by HBO, featuring the first ever major televised Bruce Springsteen concert.

It was later released on DVD with eleven extra songs not televised, and as a CD of the same name.

All of these forms document Springsteen and the E Street Band's highly successful 1999–2000 Reunion Tour, their first concert tour together in eleven years.

Running 90 minutes, the film was recorded at concerts on June 29 and July 1, 2000. These were the final two shows in the Band's ten-show tour-ending run at Madison Square Garden in New York City. HBO received six Emmy Award nominations and won two Awards for the film.

Springsteen debuted many new songs over the final leg of the tour, and two were included on this special:

-Land of Hope and Dreams, a lengthy American ode for which a studio version would not be released until 2012's Wrecking Ball.

-American Skin (41 Shots), a controversial ballad about the shooting of Amadou Diallo. A studio version was released as a rare promo single in 2001. Springsteen re-recorded the song in 2013 and released this version on his 2014 High Hopes album.

More information: Bruce Springsteen

American Skin (41 Shots) is a song written by Bruce Springsteen, inspired by the police shooting death of Amadou Diallo.

It premiered during the band's 1999-2000 Reunion Tour in concert in Atlanta on June 4, 2000, the final concert before the tour's final ten-show run at New York City's Madison Square Garden, where it was featured again. The performance led to some controversy in New York City, where the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association called for a boycott of Springsteen's shows.

The song was first released as a live version on the Live in New York City album. 

The same version appeared a few years later on The Essential Bruce Springsteen. In April 2001, a studio version of the song was released as a very rare U.S.-only one-track radio promotional single on CD-R.

A music video featuring the performance from the New York City show was released in 2001 and directed by Jonathan Demme. A studio version appears on Springsteen's 2014 album High Hopes.

American Skin (41 Shots) was played at several concerts in April 2012 on the Wrecking Ball Tour in response to the killing of Trayvon Martin.

Springsteen performed the song on July 16, 2013, a few days following George Zimmerman's controversial not guilty verdict. It was again dedicated to Martin at the Limerick, Ireland, concert with Springsteen saying before the song I want to send this one out as a letter back home. For justice for Trayvon Martin.

Springsteen was recognized by the NAACP with the Humanitarian Award on December 3, 2000.

Springsteen played American Skin (41 Shots) at selected shows during The River Tour in 2016.

More information: Spectrum News NY 1

Amadou Diallo was one of four children born to Saikou and Kadijatou Diallo, and part of a historic Fulbe trading family in Guinea. 

In September 1996, he followed other family members to New York City and started a business with a cousin.

In the early morning of February 4, 1999, Diallo was standing near his building after returning from a meal. At about 12:40 a.m., officers Edward McMellon, Sean Carroll, Kenneth Boss and Richard Murphy were looking for an alleged serial rapist in the Soundview section of the Bronx. 

While driving down Wheeler Avenue, the police officers stopped their unidentified car and interrogated Diallo, who was in front of his apartment. When they ordered Diallo to show his hands, he supposedly ran into the apartment and reached into his pocket to show his wallet.

Soon afterwards, assuming Diallo was drawing a firearm, the four officers fired 41 shots with semi-automatic pistols, hitting Diallo 19 times, fatally wounding him. Eyewitness Sherrie Elliott stated that the police continued to shoot even though Diallo was already down.

The investigation found no weapons on or near Diallo; what he had pulled out of his jacket was a wallet. The internal NYPD investigation ruled that the officers had acted within policy, based on what a reasonable police officer would have done in the same circumstances. Nonetheless, the Diallo shooting led to a review of police training policy and of the use of full metal jacket (FMJ) bullets.

A firestorm of controversy erupted after the event, as the circumstances of the shooting prompted outrage both inside and outside of New York City. Issues such as police brutality, racial profiling, and contagious shooting were central to the ensuing controversy.

On March 25, 1999, a Bronx grand jury indicted the four officers on charges of second-degree murder and reckless endangerment.

On December 16, a court ordered a change of venue to Albany, New York because of pretrial publicity. 

On February 25, 2000, after three days of deliberation, a jury composed of four black and eight white jurors acquitted the officers of all charges.

More information: The New York Times

No secret my friend.
You can get killed just for living in.
You can get killed just for living in your American skin.
41 shots.
41 shots (you can get killed just for living in).

Bruce Springsteen

THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY, PUBLIC PHILANTHROPY

Today, The Grandma has visited one of her favourite places in New York, The New York Public Library, the public library system of the city.

The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City.

With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States, behind the Library of Congress, and the fourth largest in the world. It is a private, non-governmental, independently managed, nonprofit corporation operating with both private and public financing.

The library has branches in the boroughs of the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island and affiliations with academic and professional libraries in the New York metropolitan area.

The city's other two boroughs, Brooklyn and Queens, are not served by the New York Public Library system, but rather by their respective borough library systems: the Brooklyn Public Library and the Queens Public Library. The branch libraries are open to the general public and consist of circulating libraries. 

The New York Public Library also has four research libraries, which are also open to the general public.

The library, officially chartered as The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations, was developed in the 19th century, founded from an amalgamation of grass-roots libraries and social libraries of bibliophiles and the wealthy, aided by the philanthropy of the wealthiest Americans of their age.

More information: New York Public Library

The New York Public Library name may also refer to its Main Branch, which is easily recognizable by its lion statues named Patience and Fortitude that sit either side of the entrance. The branch was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1965, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1966, and designated a New York City Landmark in 1967.

At the behest of Joseph Cogswell, John Jacob Astor placed a codicil in his will to bequeath $400,000 (equivalent of $12.5 million in 2021) for the creation of a public library.

After Astor's death in 1848, the resulting board of trustees executed the will's conditions and constructed the Astor Library in 1854 in the East Village. The library created was a free reference library; its books were not permitted to circulate.

By 1872, the Astor Library was described in a The New York Times editorial as a major reference and research resource, but, Popular it certainly is not, and, so greatly is it lacking in the essentials of a public library, that its stores might almost as well be under lock and key, for any access the masses of the people can get thereto.

An act of the New York State Legislature incorporated the Lenox Library in 1870. The library was built on Fifth Avenue, between 70th and 71st Streets, in 1877.

Bibliophile and philanthropist James Lenox donated a vast collection of his Americana, art works, manuscripts, and rare books, including the first Gutenberg Bible in the New World. At its inception, the library charged admission and did not permit physical access to any literary items.

The historian David McCullough has described the New York Public Library as one of the five most important libraries in the United States; the others are the Library of Congress, the Boston Public Library, and the university libraries of Harvard and Yale.

The New York Public Library has been referenced numerous times in popular culture. The library has appeared as a setting and topic multiple times in film, poetry, television, and music.

More information: 6sqft

A library is the delivery room for the birth of ideas,
a place where history comes to life.

Norman Cousins

SOHO. SHOPPING, ARTISTS & CAST-IRON ARCHITECTURE

Today, The Grandma has visited SoHo in Lower Manhattan to visit some of the most influential artists of the city.

SoHo is a neighbourhood in Lower Manhattan in New York City. 

Since the 20th century it has been the location of many artists' lofts and art galleries, and has also been known for its variety of shops ranging from trendy upscale boutiques to national and international chain store outlets. The area's history is an archetypal example of inner-city regeneration and gentrification, encompassing socioeconomic, cultural, political, and architectural developments.

The name SoHo derives from the area being South of Houston Street, and was coined in 1962 by Chester Rapkin, an urban planner and author of The South Houston Industrial Area study, also known as the Rapkin Report. The name also recalls Soho, an area in London's West End.

Almost all of SoHo is included in the SoHo–Cast Iron Historic District, which was designated by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1973, extended in 2010, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and declared a National Historic Landmark in 1978.

It consists of 26 blocks and approximately 500 buildings, many of them incorporating cast-iron architectural elements. Many side streets in the district are paved with Belgian blocks.

SoHo is part of Manhattan Community District 2 and its primary ZIP Codes are 10012 and 10013. It is patrolled by the 1st and 5th Precincts of the New York City Police Department.

Because of the nature of neighbourhoods in New York City, different sources will often give different boundaries for each one. In the case of SoHo, all sources appear to agree that the northern boundary is Houston Street, and the southern boundary is Canal Street, but the location of the eastern and western boundaries is disputed.

More information: SoHo Memory

In 1974, shortly after SoHo first came into existence, The New York Times described the boundaries as stretching from Houston to Canal Streets between West Broadway and Lafayette Street.

The map at the Community Board 2 profile page on New York City's official website has SOHO written near Broadway in the space roughly equidistant between Houston Street and Canal Street.

The SoHo-Cast Iron Historic District is contained within the zoned SoHo neighborhood. 

Originally ending in the west at the eastern side of West Broadway and to the east at the western side of Crosby Street, the SoHo-Cast Iron Historic District was expanded in 2010 to cover most of West Broadway and to extend east to Lafayette and Centre Streets. The boundary lines are not straight, and some block-fronts on West Broadway and Lafayette are excluded from the District.

SoHo boasts the greatest collection of cast-iron architecture in the world. 

Approximately 250 cast-iron buildings stand in New York City, and the majority are in SoHo. Cast iron was initially used as a decorative front over a pre-existing building. With the addition of modern, decorative facades, older industrial buildings were able to attract new commercial clients. Most of these facades were constructed during the period from 1840 to 1880. In addition to revitalizing older structures, buildings in SoHo were later designed to feature the cast iron.

More information: The Bowery Boys

After the abandonment of the highway scheme, the city was left with a large number of historic buildings that were unattractive for the kinds of manufacturing and commerce that survived in the city in the 1970s. The upper floors of many of these buildings had been built as commercial Manhattan lofts, which provided large, unobstructed spaces for manufacturing and other industrial uses.

These spaces attracted artists who valued them for their large areas, large windows admitting natural light and low rents. Most of these spaces were also used illegally as living space, despite being neither zoned nor equipped for residential use. This widespread zoning violation was ignored for a long period of time, as the artist-occupants were using space for which there was little demand due to the city's poor economy at the time, and would have lain dormant or been abandoned otherwise.

In 2005, the construction of residential buildings on empty lots in the historic district was permitted. Nevertheless, with no enforcement of the new zoning laws by the city, beginning in the 1980s, in a way that would later apply elsewhere, the neighbourhood began to draw more affluent residents. Due to rent protection and stability afforded by the 1982 Loft Law, in addition to the fact that many of the artists owned their co-ops, many of the original pioneering artists remained despite the popular misconception that gentrification forced them to flee.

More information: Coldwell Banker Warburg

 Out of all the neighborhoods in Manhattan,
Soho in particular had the charged atmosphere of a movie set,
populated with passersby who looked
like extras from Central Casting,
so perfectly did they fit into this environment.
There was the feeling of everything being not quite real,
or too perfectly cliched to actually be true,
and it began to rain in a fine,
misty drizzle from a black patent leather sky.

Candace Bushnell

THE NEW YORK CITY SUBWAY, RUNNING SINCE 1904

Today, The Grandma has taken the New York City Subway, one of the world's oldest public transit systems and one of the most-used.

The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, an affiliate agency of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA).

Opened on October 27, 1904, the New York City Subway is one of the world's oldest public transit systems, one of the most-used, and the one with the most stations, with 472 stations in operation (424 if stations connected by transfers are counted as single stations).  

Stations are located throughout the boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx.

The system has operated 24/7 service every day of the year throughout most of its history, barring emergencies and disasters. By annual ridership, the New York City Subway is the busiest rapid transit system in both the Western Hemisphere and the Western world, as well as the seventh-busiest rapid transit rail system in the world.

In 2017, the subway delivered over 1.72 billion rides, averaging approximately 5.6 million daily rides on weekdays and a combined 5.7 million rides each weekend (3.2 million on Saturdays, 2.5 million on Sundays).

On October 29, 2015, more than 6.2 million people rode the subway system, establishing the highest single-day ridership since ridership was regularly monitored in 1985.

The system is also one of the world's longest. Overall, the system contains 399 km of routes, translating into 1,070 km of revenue track and a total of 1,370 km including non-revenue trackage.

Of the system's 28 routes or services, which usually share track or lines with other services, 25 pass through Manhattan, the exceptions being the G train, the Franklin Avenue Shuttle, and the Rockaway Park Shuttle.

Large portions of the subway outside Manhattan are elevated, on embankments, or in open cuts, and a few stretches of track run at ground level. In total, 40% of track is above ground.

More information: MTA

Many lines and stations have both express and local services. These lines have three or four tracks. Normally, the outer two are used by local trains, while the inner one or two are used by express trains. Stations served by express trains are typically major transfer points or destinations.

As of 2018, the New York City Subway's budgetary burden for expenditures was $8.7 billion, supported by collection of fares, bridge tolls, and earmarked regional taxes and fees, as well as direct funding from state and local governments. As of 2020, its on-time performance rate was 89% during weekdays.

Alfred Ely Beach built the first demonstration for an underground transit system in New York City in 1869 and opened it in February 1870. 

His Beach Pneumatic Transit only extended 95 m under Broadway in Lower Manhattan operating from Warren Street to Murray Street and exhibited his idea for an atmospheric railway as a subway. The tunnel was never extended for political and financial reasons.

Today, no part of this line remains as the tunnel was completely within the limits of the present-day City Hall station under Broadway.

The Great Blizzard of 1888 helped demonstrate the benefits of an underground transportation system. 

A plan for the construction of the subway was approved in 1894, and construction began in 1900. Even though the underground portions of the subway had yet to be built, several above-ground segments of the modern-day New York City Subway system were already in service by then.

The oldest structure still in use opened in 1885 as part of the BMT Lexington Avenue Line in Brooklyn and is now part of the BMT Jamaica Line. The oldest right-of-way, which is part of the BMT West End Line near Coney Island Creek, was in use in 1864 as a steam railroad called the Brooklyn, Bath and Coney Island Rail Road.

The first underground line of the subway opened on October 27, 1904, built by the Interborough Rapid Transit Company (IRT) almost 36 years after the opening of the first elevated line in New York City (which became the IRT Ninth Avenue Line).

The 14.6 km subway line, then called the Manhattan Main Line" ran from City Hall station northward under Lafayette Street (then named Elm Street) and Park Avenue (then named Fourth Avenue) before turning westward at 42nd Street.

It then curved northward again at Times Square, continuing under Broadway before terminating at 145th Street station in Harlem. Its operation was leased to the Interborough Rapid Transit Company and over 150,000 passengers paid the 5¢ fare to ride it on the first day of operation.

More information: NYC Subway

On a New York subway
you get fined for spitting,
but you can throw up for nothing.

Lewis Grizzard

CHRISTOPHER LAMBERT & HIGHLANDER, A KIND OF MAGIC

Today, The Newtons and The Grandma have visited Connor MacLeod, an immortal Grandma's friend who lives in New York and was born in the Scottish Highlands in the 16th century. 

It has been an enormous pleasure seeing Connor again, and he and The Grandma have been talking about their pasts and their eternal futures.

Before meeting Connor, The Newtons have studied some English Grammar. They have chosen the Future Simple  for predictions.

More information: Future Simple

More information: Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab

Highlander is a 1986 British fantasy action-adventure film directed by Russell Mulcahy and based on a story by Gregory Widen.

It stars Christopher Lambert, Roxanne Hart, Clancy Brown, and Sean Connery. 

The film chronicles the climax of an age-old war between immortal warriors, depicted through interwoven past and present-day storylines.

Connor MacLeod (Lambert) is born in the Scottish Highlands in the 16th century. After reviving from a fatal wound and being banished from his village, MacLeod is found by swordsman Ramírez (Connery), who explains they and others were born immortal, invincible unless beheaded.

Immortals wage a secret war, fighting each other until the last few remaining will meet at the Gathering to fight for the Prize. In 1985, the Gathering is finally happening in New York City and MacLeod must make sure the Prize is not won by his oldest enemy, the murderous Kurgan (Brown).

Highlander enjoyed little success on its initial theatrical release, grossing over $12 million worldwide against a production budget of $19 million, and received mixed reviews. Nevertheless, it became a cult film and inspired film sequels and television spin-offs. 

It is also known for songs recorded by the rock band Queen, with Princes of the Universe also used for the title sequence in the television series. The tagline, There can be only one, has carried on into pop culture.

More information: Connor MacLeod, From The Scottish Highlanders

Director Russell Mulcahy filmed Highlander using music video techniques including fast cutting and pacy music.

In preparation, actor Christopher Lambert spent months working four hours each morning with a dialect coach and four hours in the afternoons sword training with Bob Anderson, who had been a Darth Vader stunt double in the Star Wars franchise.

The scene where the MacLeod clan sets off to battle is supposed to take place in the village of Glenfinnan, on the shore of Loch Shiel in the Lochaber area, but was actually filmed at Eilean Donan Castle, which is in the same general area but is really on the shore of Loch Duich, a sea loch near Kyle of Lochalsh and the Isle of Skye.

The Highlander original orchestral score was composed by Michael Kamen. The British rock band Marillion turned down the chance to record the soundtrack because they were on a world tour, a missed opportunity which guitarist Steve Rothery later said he regretted. The band's Scottish lead singer, Fish, had also accepted a part in the film but pulled out because of the scheduling conflict.

David Bowie, Sting, and Duran Duran were considered to do the soundtrack for the film. The eventual soundtrack includes several songs by Queen, such as A Kind of Magic and Princes of the Universe (the latter also being used for the Highlander television series title sequence).

Brian May was inspired to write Who Wants to Live Forever after watching the love scenes between Connor and his wife Heather, and the song ultimately accompanied the film.

More information: In The End, There Can Be Only One

Christophe Guy Denis Lambert (born 29 March 1957), known professionally as Christopher Lambert, is a French-American actor, novelist, and producer.

Lambert was born March 29, 1957, in Great Neck, New York, the son of Yolande Agnès Henriette and Georges Lambert-Lamond, a French diplomat then at the United Nations. His father was a French Jew. Lambert was raised and educated in Geneva from infancy and moved to Paris in his teens.

He started his career playing supporting parts in several French films, and became internationally famous with the role of Tarzan in Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes in 1984.

For his performance in the 1985 film Subway, Lambert received the César Award for Best Actor. His best-known role is Connor MacLeod in the 1986 cult adventure-fantasy film Highlander and the subsequent film franchise series of the same name.

Other films he is known for are I Love You (1986), The Sicilian (1987), Knight Moves (1992), Fortress (1992) and its sequel Fortress 2: Re-Entry (2000), Mortal Kombat (1995), Druids (2001), Absolon (2003), White Material (2009), Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2011), Kickboxer: Retaliation (2018), and for producing N'oublie pas que tu vas mourir (1995), the French comedy film Neuf Mois (1994) and its English-language remake Nine Months (1995).

More information: Empire

There can be only one
This rage that lasts a thousand years
Will soon be done.

Queen