[The 90’s raw: NYC streets #5]

Raw footage shot for the TV series The 90's. Skip Blumberg goes around the streets of New York taping everyday people and some of their thoughts. A portion of this video shows some of his family life. A larger portion is concerned with the performance of a cheerleading-type routine by a group of girls, which Blumberg has called "The Street"; there are several takes of this spanning about a third of the footage. The recordings take place outside the Marcy Houses in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. On a subsequent tape, the group is called "The Champions."

0:00Copy video clip URL Open on Federal Express post office where the videomaker chats with the clerk about the lost decadence of the ’80s and the “mass confusion” of the ’90s.

0:56Copy video clip URL The videomaker seems fascinated with light and the shadows it casts drawing attention to a number of specific examples as he exits the post office and walks down a New York City sidewalk.

2:49Copy video clip URL The videomaker, Skip Blumberg, enters his house continuing his monologue to the viewer. Greets his wife and child and talks about his work.

5:30Copy video clip URL Blumberg and his family go to someone else’s apartment with another middle aged man, at least one other woman, and an elderly man who has trouble speaking English and prefers Spanish. Based on the dialogue it seems likely that they are all related in one way or another but the exact genealogy is rather murky. Also present is another child who plays with Blumberg’s son.

12:20Copy video clip URL Blumberg zooms into the chandelier in order to transition between scenes which is quite interesting especially with regards to the rest of the footage which is fairly straight shot. The next scene shows the children playing again and the other middle-aged man singing a Spanish nursery rhyme to one of the children, probably his daughter.

15:20Copy video clip URL Blumberg cuts to a NY street where he talks with a man monitoring gas lines. This is followed by rapid cutting to various urban scenes.

18:00Copy video clip URL Blumberg begins speaking with some men about the neighborhood they are in and its dangers. He continues to exchange light conversation with more people on different streets around New York, asking “What’s new in the ’90s?”

20:45Copy video clip URL Begins talking with with a woman about compensation for filming. She appears to be the coach for a group of girls and it takes quite a while before she agrees to allow him to film.

28:23Copy video clip URL At this point begins a very long sequence in which we see the aforementioned girls performing some sort of cheerleading type routine which Blumberg seems to have aptly titled “The Street.” There is a chant that goes along with it which is firmly based in the ideology of ‘don’t take drugs, go to school.’ There are several takes finished in two different locations. This occupies more footage than anything else on the video.

44:27Copy video clip URL Blumberg goes to a park and records children playing for the camera. They all clamor for his attention.

47:55Copy video clip URL Video ends.