Another east coast trip

I'm in Newark, N.J., halfway between my company's office in central New Jersey and Manhattan, at the Airport Hilton. Airport Hiltons are great -- they're cheap and extremely well kept up. The L.A. Airport Hilton is *very* ritzy; the fact that it's right next to a sleazy strip joint and a Carl's Jr. doesn't matter. In fact, those are positive amenities compared to the Newark Airport Hilton, which is next to a huge cemetery and a Budweiser brewery. (You've seen the latter if you've ever flown into Newark; it's right across the highway from the airport, a huge brick edifice.)

The hotel does have a free shuttle bus to Newark Penn Station, and last night after eating dinner in my room, I took a PATH train to Greenwich Village. I walked east along Houston St. and Prince St. and went to see the new Godard film, Eloge d’Amour (“In Praise of Love” is the American title), at the Angelika Film Center. For me, going to New York means going to see films that haven't come to San Francisco yet -- I feel so cultured doing it.

There was a moment of levity in the lobby, where they make you line up for each film that is going to be shown. While we were standing in line, another film was starting, and they announced over the loudspeaker, "This line is only for 'In Praise of Love.' If you have tickets for 'Amy's Orgasm,' please come right to the door. Again, 'Amy's Orgasm,' come right up. 'Amy's Orgasm!!'" the guy added unnecessarily, apparantly just because he liked saying it. Chuckles in the lobby. Then when we were seated and before the film started, a young man engaged me in conversation, which I thought was very odd and unusual for New York. He asked me if I were French and started talking to me about Godard movies. He wasn’t hitting on me because his girlfriend had just gone to the restroom -- maybe he just wanted to practice his French. Anyway, I’m so anti-social that we stopped talking as soon as his girlfriend came back from the restroom. If I were more outgoing, I might have turned it into a real conversation with them.

When the film ended, I jumped into a taxi and was taken back to a PATH station, and the train came within five minutes and soon I was back in Newark. Even though it was 12:45 when I got to my room, ESPN was showing the Giants game from San Francisco, so I watched the end of that -- a scoreless tie won in the bottom of the 9th after a double and a single -- with pleasure.