A New York state of mind

Last Friday, 26 June, Milton Glaser, the designer responsible for what is thought to be the most imitated piece of graphic art ever – the I heart New York logo – died on what would have been his 91st birthday. 

Spookily, his passing coincided with the release of Fuck, I Love New York, a film that captures the typically cantankerous begrudging type of affection its denizens feel for their home town. 

With a two-person crew (themselves) Joaquin Baca-Asay and Lalou Dammond donned their masks and hit the streets to film fellow New Yorkers expressing, in delightfully potty-mouthed terms, all that they love/hate about the Big Apple. Along with the noise, cycle lanes, the G train, the witty script, by Mat Jerrett, carries more specific declarations like “fuck the shrimp cocktail you buy on the stand, there’s only three shrimps, that’s rude!”

The directors commented: “New York has been a pretty surreal place during quarantine - a bit sad and eerie and inaccessible. A swath of New Yorkers left town, some permanently. But we feel all the more strongly about our love for the City. So this film is a native New Yorker’s insider view, with a specific New York attitude.”