Quick vids: New York, New York!(New York: A Documentary Film)(New York in the Fifties)(Top Hat and Tales: Harold Ross and the Making of the New Yorker)(Picturing a Metropolis: New York City Unveiled)(Video recording review)

 
  One belongs to New York instantly; one belongs to it as much in five 
  minutes as in five years.--Thomas Wolfe 

None of us has control over the place of his or her birth; we see first light in Patterson or Paducah or Pasadena, and that's pretty much that. Whatever we may feel about our hometown or the place we've currently come to hang our hat, somewhere along the line many of us also adopt a spiritual home or two. You don't really even need to have lived in a city for it to tantalize you or speak to your soul. Over time, I've formed serious romantic attachments to a number of such dream metropolises. San Francisco--my own personal Oz. Paris--mais naturellement! …