Loyal readers may remember an entry I posted back in 2010 about a forgotten indie film from 1993 called "Manhattan By Numbers." Click here to read it and get a quick plot synopsis. As I said back then, despite its promising premise, it really wasn't that great a film. Years later, however, in the same fashion of "Downtown `81," the film takes on new resonance in that it inadvertently captures a slice of NYC that largely no longer exists. That doesn't make the execution of the film any better, but for avid nostalgists, gentrification-phobes and plain ol' New Yorkers who love their city, it makes for a fascinating glimpse.
As it happens, someone has seen fit to put the whole film up on YouTube. I'm selecting the snippet below in that it features some lovely exterior footage of the notorious Gas Station on Avenue B, which was an old gas station (natch) that turned into an shooting gallery for smack heads and then became space for art and performance, somewhat infamously as the final venue to ever host a GG Allin show. You can read more about the Gas Station here. It's now a Duane Reade, I believe. In the interim, enjoy this slice of "Manhattan by Numbers."
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