August 31, 2007

In New York, there's always somebody making a movie...

And what I love about it is, it makes me feel completely free to take photographs of strangers.

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Who are these people who are taking over the place and behaving like celebrities? They're obtruding on my environment, so I get to obtrude on them.

I've decided to use the word "obtrude" more, because I'm reading a book that keeps using the word. I don't really know why we Americans always say "intrude" instead of "obtrude," but I note that although both words contain the word "rude," "obtrude" sounds more rude. Something about "ob."

12 comments:

Paddy O said...

"intrude implies the forcing of oneself or something upon another without invitation, permission, or welcome [to intrude upon another's privacy]; obtrude connotes even more strongly the distractive nature or the undesirability of the invasion."

"Intrude" suggests a measure of apology, "oh, sorry I'm intruding, but I really need to get a couple little packets of sugar. There. Carry on."

"Obtrude" on the other hand suggests being bold and unapologetic. "I shall stand here and take up space, knowing full well I'm bothering you, but since you're bothering me too, we shall both feel this moment as an irritation."

Intrude suggests one having priority over the other. Obtrude suggests two equal, relative, forces interacting. You step into their world, their world has impeded yours.

It is an interruption which does not concede priority or identity.

MadisonMan said...

Obtrude seems much more New York to me. The person obtruding is obliviously obdurate to their obtrusion into other spaces.

People in the midwest are much more likely to intrude -- they're polite.

Welcome to the City! You're changing your vocabulary appropriately.

rhhardin said...

It looks like Spanish TV. Illegal obtrusion.

Anonymous said...

"Ob" makes obvious the obnoxious obtrusion of obtuse snobs.

John said...

On any given day in downtown Manhattan, you will find NYU film students, fashion photographers, "Law & Order", and the tourists, all with cameras.

Maxine Weiss said...

The myriad of ways New Yorkers have of...wasting time. And, to think: that was once one of the most industrious towns!

No profit in amateur video, when everything's free on YouTube.

It's like these designer boutiques....how do they stay in business?, when I can just buy the same thing, for nothing, on Ebay!

Chip Ahoy said...

Obtrude is egg-zakly the same thing as intrude, 'cept differn't. Obtrude is worse than intrude. Obtrude is thrusting or protruding, brashly self-assertive. Intrude is interrupting. Both are uninvited. That is to say, both are New York. Miami, on the other hand is also extremely photographed but far less obtrusive.

There's also STRUDE, a stock of breeding mares, and UNRUDE, oddly 1) not rude or polished and 2) excessively rude.

Anonymous said...

Most painful is being extruded upon. More prevalent in the manufacturing belt, I'd say.

hdhouse said...

my guess is that is a wedding photographer and this is where they met...just a hunch but my daughter did the same banal thing even though i wanted to shoot her for it.

rcocean said...

"my guess is that is a wedding photographer and this is where they met..."

If so, he must be rich.

At least he's not wearing shorts.

John Stodder said...

I lived in New Jersey in 1980 and spent a lot of time in New York. I got to watch two cool filmings:

Cheryl Tiegs filming a commercial, in which someone sang "It's got to be Cheyrl Tiegs," and then she'd turn around like she was surprised and beam out a great smile.

Frank Sinatra, filming a scene from "The First Deadly Sin," his last detective flick. Faye Dunaway was also in the scene. Man, was that ever glamorous.

I've lived in and around LA for decades, and seen plenty of filmings in the streets, but none were as exciting as those two.

dick said...

Better be careful about filming inside a business. I think there was a lawsuit about that and you have to get the permission of the business people before you film inside there.