NYLine Days 6 & 7- The Line Adventure continues
Posted by Suzanne on
Number of people currently in line: 1000
Well, Well, Well...21 hours on the Line...The NYLine. It all started 10:30 a.m. Thursday, May 2nd. Rain...Wind...Rain. The shift crew builds a kick-ass tent module. A woman jumps out of a cab, drops off a box of Twizzlers, tells us "May The Force Be With You." A police van stops, we think "Oh, No...They've come to take us away..." but no such thing – they wanted to see if we were OK. A Board member from Starlight stops by and Congratulates us. She asked many questions, but to be honest, I don't remember much because her perfume was so intoxicating. Columbia University TV plus British magazine, Splash stops by. Then the real madness begins. Rumors begin to fly...Ticket Day tomorrow...Ziegfeld pay phone doesn't stop ringing. Every trip to the bathroom an adventure with the Ziegfeld doing a test screening of Episode II. Very hard to concentrate on taking a piss while you can here some battle sequence going on in the background. Line starts forming outside the Ziegfeld for an exhibitor screening of EP2. At one point, there were 3 lines – us, the general public and the exhibitor line. Our contact at Clearview Cinemas approaches me and says, "So, Suzanne, do you want to see it?" He hands me 2 screening passes. I'm flabbergasted, but know deep in my heart, that I want to see it with everyone at midnight, not with some boring "suits." Give the screening passes to NYLine members. Then late, late, late in the evening, the Ziegfeld gives us OUR tickets. Relief, Jubilation, Utter Joy, Lots of Jumping Around!! Go home, shower, sleep for 6 hours, return to the Line.
8:00 a.m., Friday, May 3rd. Two dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts and 100 mph winds on 54th Street. NYLine tent comes down for fear that someone will get stabbed with flying poles. The line for general public ticket sales takes about 1 hour - most people had already purchased their tickets on Moviefone beginning at 2:00 a.m. or did not know tickets went on sale at 10:00 a.m. The Line sees its customary 90 minutes of sunshine. The winds continue to be biting and icy, that not even super glue could keep your hair in one place. As always, interesting characters pass our Line with interesting comments:
"Either you guys are homeless or Star Wars fans!" - Truck driver on 54th Street.
"Episode 2 is Magnifique. It will knock Spider Man on its butt." - Unassuming old lady with a big wooly hat.
"Oh, My God, I gotta take a picture." – Tourists from Philadelphia.
But, as always, the best part about being on Line, are OUR conversations. Hours of why the French love Jar Jar, think George Lucas is a "Genius" and the revelation that Jabba the Hut is a 400 year old French man - Pizza delivery at our street level location - Why the LA Line sucked in 1999 and still sucks in 2002 - 54th Street as the coldest spot in N.Y.C. – Why there were so many buses constantly being parked in front of us – What it means to be the only smoker in a group of non-smokers...
Alas, 7:00 p.m. rolls around. Finish giving an interview with a Portuguese newspaper, and notice that I'm really tired. Hugs all around with promises of being on the pavement bright and early tomorrow morning...