15 weeks later the assessment kicks in

I remember my first thought was to document every movie theater that existed in Manhattan prior to discussing this topic with Shannon.  But one quick search put that idea to rest immediately, I don’t have that much time on my hands.  However, I was still interested in the history of movie theaters and wanted to pursue this idea more.   I frequented a number of theaters around Union Square so I proposed to research the area and make this project personable.

 

I wanted to start from the beginning and work my way into the present, because I knew a lot about the existing theaters and the companies behind them.  However, it was an exhaustive struggle looking for information at first as the Union Square area doesn’t show up in very many books or articles if Times Square is in the picture.  The glamour and grandeur of midtown dominated the library archives I had put together, blocking my hope for starting backwards, but the Internet has a way of making people forget how easy it is to locate information.  I would say 90% of the map was composed thanks to internet search engines and Cinema Treasures with the other 10% coming from blogs and intuition.   I had no intention of giving into the medium so one-sidedly, but I could not locate very much at all without its presence.

 

In using URT I would have been lost without the help of other projects, because I am a learn by doing personality.  I need to see how things work in order to operate, and without the early development by some students I might have found myself creating this project a week ago.  Thankfully that was not the case, although I definitely should have started adding the information I had to URT sooner as I was scrambling to put together the arguments because I had too much to add for each point I created.  Not to mention this project was suppose to cover Union Square…

 

This whole process brings back memories of that old homage, shoot for the moon and you’ll end up in the stars.  There will never be enough time to finish a project like this, as the information is endless and the area of focus can grow with the arguments.  It was exhausting, frustrating, distracting, and time consuming among other things.   I think my blogs  cover this area quite well, but most of all I honestly can say it was fun.  Never did I expect to unearth so much information about such a small area of New York, and never did I think about the abundance of history that surrounded me.  I found myself walking with my wife through the East Village and pointing out all the places where theaters use to reside.  She could care less, and I can’t blame her because her background is in Dentistry, but through this excitement for sharing details about past remnants I can proudly say that I will never forget this information or time in my life.  The misery and the agony of it all will retain a spot in the back of my head, forever reminding me that I overcame it all and in a way I did end up in the stars.

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