A Country Mouse Goes to the City: Psycho and The Wicked Witch in Bryant Park

Waiting for the Wizard of Oz to begin

One of my favorite destinations in the City has become Bryant Park. On most Monday evenings during the summer, Bryant Park (of Fashion Week and Project Runway fame) screens classic movies. At 5 p.m., the park lawn opens and within minutes every inch of grass is covered with blankets. It's like a big party in the park with people eating and visiting. The 5 o'clock rush to find the perfect spot is reminiscent of the The Grove opening on a football weekend. Some people bring elaborate spreads with tablecloths, etc., and some just pick up something on their way here. Of course, there are a few tourists in the crowd, but the majority seem to be the midtown working folks that come here after work to enjoy the evening. At dusk, which at this time of the year is around 9 p.m., the movie begins.

On our first Monday evening in NYC, Kelsey and I came here to watch Alfred Hitchcock's thriller Psycho. A matter of trivia, Psycho premiered in NYC on June 16, 1960. 52 years and 2 days later, here we are, a couple of country mice, watching it in Bryant Park. Psycho was nominated for 4 Academy Awards and is number 18 in the 100 best movies of the last century. We were quite lucky when a young couple offered us their table and chairs, thereby giving us a seat and a great view. This first evening was
cool -- we actually had to cover up with the blankets we had brought to sit on. It was Kelsey's first time to see Psycho, and she approved of it because it was scary but without all the gore.

On this past Monday night, we saw The Wizard of Oz. We arrived later so that we wouldn't have to wait so long for the movie to begin. Might have been a minor mistake, but we survived. We found a seat on the ground at the very back of the park against the wall. As much fun as the movie was was watching the people come dressed as characters in the movie. My favorite was a man dressed as Dorothy, complete with pigtails, a basket, and a stuffed dog. I wish I could have snapped a picture to share. Of course, many people sing along, clap and yell at memorable points in the movie, which was basically the whole movie this time.
Our funniest moment of this evening was when we were passing the time waiting on the movie to begin, I posed like I was asleep and Kelsey snapped a pic, which she then sent to Mama K-T, who appropriately went beserk, and told Kelsey in no uncertain terms to wake me up immediately thus providing Kelsey and I with a good 10 minutes of laughter at Mama K-T's text messages warning us what could happen from sleeping in the park. After all, it doesn't take much to entertain a country mouse in the city.