Live From New York Day 2/THE STORY OF NIM

After the gym Pam and I headed into the city to the Angelika to see THE STORY OF NIM.    This documentary is the strangest and most upsetting film I've ever seen!!  It portrays a look of life in NYC in the 70's which includes a narcissistic Psych professor from Columbia University who has sex with students and continually picks pretty females to care for Nim, a chimp baby who is cruelly removed from his mom at 6 weeks.  Nim lives in a chaotic household of two blended families where the mother in the family admits to breast feeding Nim and letting him have absolute rule over a West Side brownstone.  An 18y.o. beautiful student is sent into the home and removes him to a lab at Columbia and she ultimately becomes psych professor's latest heart throb.  No valid scientific data is collected, signs are continually taught and noted but no formal research is collected.  The chimp ends up living in a Riverdale estate with a number of long haired gorgeous students who all fall in love.   He's violent, managed at people's whims, seriously hurts people and is used as a photo op by the professor.  He's given booze and pot and one feels they're losing their mind during this film! Nim ends up back at his birthplace which is a jail for chimps, then is sold to a medical lab that uses chimps for drug and vaccine protocols and ultimately is bought by Texans to live on their animal sanctuary.  He's lonely, his advocate Bob maintains contact imploring the owners to bring in other chimps.  His original brownstone crazy Mom visits and of course is treated violently by Nim who bashes her head into the floor (she had me feeling violent as well!)  Ultimately new owners take over the sanctuary and more chimps arrive and Nim ends up a much happier chimp and a papa chimp as well.  Pam and I cried, laughed, held our heads and were so happy we didn't bring the guys!!

After this bizarre film we headed over to DOS CAMINOS for delicious frozen margaritas and Mexican salads.  We gallivanted around So Ho: shopped, laughed, talked about the wedding and were reminded of how close we are even though we're now thousands of miles apart.  I'm home in Austin now.  Life is sweet.  Night y'all.