Cheap and Free

Since I'm trying to be better with the little bit of money that I have, I'm looking for things to do in the city that are either relatively cheap or just altogether free. It's really not that hard to do if you just look around and do a little leg work. Or check your e-mail, which is what I did for my first activity today, a movie at Film Forum.

Film Forum is where I saw The Godfather. So I pretty much love this place. Right now they're having a Breadlines and Champagne repertory to go along with the recession and hard times. Films from the 30's and 40's are playing, and today, opening day, tickets went for 35 cents--the price of a ticket in the 30's! Today's Opening film was I'm No Angel, starring the sexy Mae West and the never-more-charming Cary Grant. It's amazing how saucy and sexy she's allowed to be in this film! It was made before the Hays Production Code, the predecessor to our current-day MPAA ratings system that instead of rating films actually censored them and said what could and could not be in a motion picture, and so got away with a lot of things that even now seem very on the edge. As Tira, the circus performer who moves her way up, she has great dialogue and even great confidence to back it up with. The movie was preceded by ads, a newsreel and cartoon from the same time period. It was a great time travel to the past, and the only thing that brought me into the present was that I paid $4 for my bag of popcorn.

Then, after running into Marky Mark on the subway, I headed to the New York Historical Society on 77th and Central Park West. I walked by this place on my trip around Central Park and noticed that on Friday nights they have free admission. I had just enough time to check out their Grant and Lee: In War and Peace before they closed. It was a great exhibit, complete with swords, guns, uniforms and maps. I truly love history, and especially the Civil War, and will always lament the fact that I didn't study it in college. And when I stepped out of the museum, the moon was shining in the night sky over Central Park. Yep, I live in New York. Wow. I still have moments where I can't believe it (and can't believe I'm leaving again for such a long period of time...)

And, since I was close, and even though as previously mentioned I'm leaving in four days, I stopped by Fairway to buy a few food essentials, and finally found cheap milk! I bought a half gallon for $1.79! I don't know where this milk has been hiding all this time, and I can't believe I uncovered it on the eve of me leaving. I bought one. Not only because it was cheap, but because my dad had sent me some cereal, and it would be a shame to pass it up.