7th Street returns to 1981 for filming of young Barack Obama movie ‘Barry’ [Updated]

Crews were out today along Avenue B and Seventh Street for "Barry," the story of a college-aged Barack Obama "trying to find his way in 1981 New York City."





Per the Hollywood trades, newcomer Devon Terrell has the lead. The independent drama is being directed by Vikram Gandhi, a Vice correspondent who made the documentary "Kumare."

Photos today by Derek Berg

Updated 4/27

EVG reader Charlie Chen shares a few more photo of the police cruiser when it was parked on East 10th Street waiting for filming...

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles...a new president takes office

The Los Angeles Times accidentally called our new president Barack H. Hussein in a post on the full text of Obama's inaugural speech...

And readers were nice about it, really.

You might want to fix the final word of this piece ... he is President Obama, not President Hussein.

Posted by: Mike | January 20, 2009 at 09:52 AM

Barack H. Hussein - a typo or a fruedian slip?

Posted by: flatop | January 20, 2009 at 09:53 AM

I apologize if I'm missing something obvious, but why does it say that the speech was authored by "Barack H. Hussein"? I'm relatively sure the word "Obama" should be in there somewhere.

Posted by: shadowskillet14 | January 20, 2009 at 10:02 AM

Thanks to those astute readers who pointed out an error in Barack Obama's name as it's written at the end of his inaugural address. We've since corrected the error.

Catching up on some Obama graffiti on Inauguration Day

On East Seventh Street near Avenue C.

"It was a gray city, a weary one, an older one"

Novelist Kevin Baker has an op-ed in the Times today. It's about his arrival in NYC in the late 1970s. Here are a few excerpts from the piece titled "New York was so much older then."

It was a dirtier city then, more violent, more interesting — more accessible to poor, eager young people. We lived four and five to a railroad apartment, the bathtub in the kitchen in some places, the floors lined with clumpy chalk lines of boric acid that were our useless defense against the cockroaches.

We feasted on $4 platters of Indian food in restaurants on Sixth Street where you could bring your own wine. We went everywhere by subway, riding in gray, graffiti-covered cars where half the doors didn’t open and a single, sluggish fan shoved the air about on summer nights. We took a cab sometimes, when there were five of us and we could get a Checker, one person riding on the jump seat, staring out at the long avenues of the city.

And:

It was a gray city, a weary one, an older one. There were, in those days, pornographic theaters in good neighborhoods; Bowery-style wino bars with sawdust on the floor on Upper Broadway; prostitutes along West End Avenue slipping into cars with New Jersey license plates. It was a city, too, that seemed to open up into an infinite series of magic boxes, of novelty shops and diners, delicatessens and corner bakeries, used record stores and bookstores.

Like Barack Obama we read everything we could get our hands on. It was a movie-mad town then, and we lined up for hours in the cold on the East Side to see the latest Fassbinder or Fellini, the new Woody Allen. We nailed long, flapping schedules of all the revival houses to our walls, from the Thalia and the New Yorker, Theater 80 St. Marks and the Bleecker Street Cinemas. I saw my first Broadway show, “Equus,” for $3, and sat on stage.

[Photo of the 1970s East Village by Litter Bugged via Filthy Messes.]

Reliving Tuesday night, when people broke out into song ("We are the Champions," no less) in the streets

Finally getting back to Tuesday night when, as you read exclusively here first, Barack Obama was elected as the 44th President of the United States.

I stopped by the usual places in the neighborhood during the evening. I went by Sophie's too -- and the place was full. Good for them. I've never seen the old place so crowded. Lots of longtime regulars were there. Like Caveman and Freddy. Freddy had been in his native Puerto Rico in recent times. He was telling people that he came back just to vote in New York. Anyway, there were balloons and food. Couldn't stay long, though -- nowhere to sit. Or stand, really. And I wanted to be near some of the people that I knew. So I moved on to the next place. Next time.

Meanwhile, there's all sorts of video from the celebration that erupted on St. Mark's...here is just a small sampling that provide a few different views:

From willgmcc:





From jewishnyactor:



From Caity180:



From the Play the Game of Life blog:





Meanwhile, Bob Arihood was there for compelling photos and a narrative. And Jeremiah has photos from his trek from First Avenue and St. Mark's to Union Square. Hunter-Gatherer was there too.

About that Obama/Luke Skywalker vs. McCain/Darth Vader video

Four weeks ago (Christ, where did October go?), I had a post on the Obama/Luke Skywalker vs. McCain/Darth Vader battle in front of the NYSE on Wall Street. It was obviously some pro-Obama propaganda. Sure enough, someone involved with the project sent along a note telling me that the final product was ready. So now you can watch the two light-saber battle (can this be a verb?) their way around some familiar NYC landmarks:



This is all fine. But, as an ethical journalist, I can't allow a pro-Obama bit to go by without hearing from the other candidate. I need to put my politics aside and be fair. So, in that spirit:

The networks are taking the presidential debates a little too far

Obama/Luke Skywalker vs. McCain/Darth Vader in front of the NYSE today on Wall Street.