The Last Headshop is Both Less and More Than What It Seems

Your children might ask you what a head shop is, and you might have told them that's where you bought blacklight posters and tie-dyed t-shirts. Or bongs, if you want to be honest. Or you might have told them that head shops sold skulls, especially in New York City. You can even show them the documentary.

The short film The Last Headshop by Matt Lenski and artist Sy Goldstein with some assistance from artificial intelligence, is a project that conjures up Lenski's memories of New York City prior to Rudy Giuliani's "broken windows" clean up operation in the mid-'90s that started the ongoing gentrification movement. The city was a collection of gritty subcultures and businesses in which a skull shop could believably fit in. But there really wasn't such a thing, so this is an imaginary documentary that evokes the flavor of the city in those days. The first time I visited New York City was in 1979, and I know of which he speaks. You can read about the inspirations and the meaning of the film in this interview with Lenski. -via The Awesomer