On this lazy, rainy Sunday afternoon in Islamabad, I got around to watching the movie "The Town." You know, the one where Ben Affleck finally decides to do a movie in/about Boston just to shake things up a bit? (Sorry: too easy a target, Ben.)
Once you've lived in a place, it is imprinted on you. I know a real Boston street in my bones: I know the specific blue and white striping on the police cars, the sound of Joe Castiglione calling Red Sox games, the smell of roasting sausages at Fenway. I know the brick-paved sidewalks downtown, the exact look of a T stop sign, a Southie accent, and the newsstand in Harvard Square. I lived in Boston for ten years before moving to Pakistan, and watching the movie was like having a two-hour visit with an old friend, because "The Town" got all the details right.
Most movies manage to flatten out the quirks of a city into an easy blandness that could be Anytown, USA. But no one can fake the details of a place you know well. Say what you will about good 'ol Ben (who also directed the film), but he has Boston down: the security guard sitting in the armored van reading the Herald, how beautiful the Zakim Bridge is at night, the hoop earrings on the trash-talking townie girlfriend, and of course, a scene in a scruffy Dunkin' Donuts.
Of course it makes me wonder what details will stick out most vividly about Islamabad when I eventually leave here. I have a few guesses: the guy who bikes around the neighborhoods all day yodeling for everyone's old newspapers and rags. The faint white haze when you drive down the wide avenue of the Blue Area, or the hawks that slowly circle out of the Margalla Hills over the rooftops into human territory. The whiff of burning trash, and the smell of the guards making roti outside for dinner. Of course, men in shalwar walking together in the park, the stately streetlights on Seventh Avenue, stray cats, and the occasional, acrobatic monkey on the terrace next door.
I feel that way about DC movies. Like a little taste of home.
ReplyDeleteRight! Like when I was living in Adams Morgan in the late '90s and Will Smith runs all over 18th Street in "Enemy of the State." An 18th Street which immediately runs right into Dupont Circle, somehow. But anyway, small complaint.
ReplyDeleteThis is my favorite line, "lived in Boston for ten years before moving to Pakistan." It will forever be stunning that you lived in these two places. I love this entry and what you capture about Islamabad even in that one paragraph. I mean, what is the point of a blog, or taking a good photo, do we want to name what we see for ourselves to highlight its unique details. How do we begin to share a place with others. There is so much to talk about here. Miss you Sullivan.
ReplyDeleteI miss you too Meyer: these days more than ever. I was thinking when I wrote that paragraph that you would have your own imprinted memories of Islamabad that stick with you, and I was wondering what they were. Lots to talk about indeed.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this blog entry. It touches on my eternal question of what it takes to develop a sense of place.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much! It IS an eternal question. And definitely worth asking I think.
ReplyDeleteFor London, my internal map is temporal as well as geographic, with vivid memories from my first summer there (1970) underlying all the others. The rag and bone man I got a ride with disappeared after that, as did Biba's and the King's Road and the smell of onions drifting out of the ubiquitous Wimpy Burgers.
ReplyDeleteAh, the overlaid temporal maps! This is such an excellent point. Thanks for that, and also for reminding me about Wimpy's (from my own map of London circa 1984, coming into the city by train with my parents, destination: Hamley's).
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