MEAN STREETS AND PIZZA BOXES

I’ve started watching Apple TV’s new five-part series on Martin Scorsese, entitled appropriately enough "Mr. Scorsese,"and so far, it’s been a real joy as he recounts growing up in Little Italy, New York. A chronic asthma sufferer, Scorsese found himself able to breathe better while attending picture houses with his father to watch movies, a perfect metaphor for his lifelong dependency and devotion to the art form.

It's also been good to see his lifelong collaborator and editor, Thelma Schoonmaker, feature so much in the early part of the story. I had forgotten that she had attended New York University with Scorsese in their college days. Coincidentally, the same day I started watching the new series, I got a random message from her son-in-law, Columba Powell (son of the director Michael), which got me thinking back to a great story I’d heard from a local artist friend a few years ago.

The friend in question had bumped into Thelma and Columba in a local charity shop, Emmaus, in search of some type of box containers to transport some old cine-reels of Michael Powell's found in the attic of his home in Avening to send back to New York, most likely to be used for reference for the documentary she was working on with Marty, Made in England, about the life and work of Powell and his co-writer/producer Emeric Pressburger. My friend suggested they simply go to the local pizzeria (Fat Toni’s) at the bottom of town and grab a whole load of their pizza boxes to use for putting the film reels in.

Now, Stroud is famous for a few things: home to the inventor of the lawnmower, Edwin Beard Budding, as well as the creator of Thomas the Tank Engine books, Rev. W. Awdry, but I can assure you, pizza is not one of them. Somehow, it made me laugh to think that a provincial town in the South West of England, with its one genuine pizza establishment, was having their boxes transport precious cargo to New York, world famous for its love of pizza, gangsters, and movies.

Just to think of Scorsese unboxing the reels of film in a Fat Toni's pizza box from Stroud seemed hilarious to me. The man who gave us Mean Streets and Goodfellas (with its many Italian food scenes) was having an appropriated part of his own Italian American, New York culture sent to him via the Cotswolds in England.

Having previously written for Digital Renegade about my own fantasies of acting out scenes from Goodfellas as a teenager, in relation to one of the nightclubs my brother and his friends used to run, it somehow made sense that these two worlds were made smaller through such seemingly trivial connections.

Actually, it was just the other evening at the Cheltenham Festival that Italian writer Chiara Barzini introduced the word apophenia—the tendency to perceive meaningful patterns or connections in random or seemingly unrelated ways—to me and the audience, and so, I guess this is as good a time as any to try and make use of it.

THE KRAYS OF GRAYS & THE GOODFELLAS OF STROUD

There’s nothing like the smell of stale lager on pool table cloth. It just has a certain heady aroma that grabs you by the nostrils. To my mind, it smells something like small town dreams that have spilt over in a premature fizz and taken weeks to dry out under

DIGITAL RENEGADEDigital Renegade

I'm looking forward to watching the rest of this series, but I'm already convinced that one of Scorsese's greatest achievements in his over half a century of work was rescuing the reclusive Michael Powell from exile and shining a light on his extraordinary work in film, as well as befriending him and introducing him to the likes of George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola, where he was employed as a creative consultant for Zoetrope Studios. No doubt Scorsese seeking him out of obscurity in Avening also led to Michael marrying Thelma.

Now that I think of it, if I can be bothered, I might swing by the guys at Fat Toni's and suggest they dedicate one of their pizza toppings to Scorsese.

Some ideas I've been considering:

• Mean Meats – Pepperoni, spicy sausage, pancetta, chili flakes
• Gangs of New Pork – Prosciutto, bacon, chorizo, and BBQ drizzle
  — A turf war of bold flavours.
• The Irishman – Corned beef, potatoes, mozzarella, and mustard drizzle
  — You’ll paint this house with sauce.
• Raging Beef – Spicy beef, blue cheese, jalapeños
  — A knockout hit every time.
• Shinebox Supreme – Spicy sausage, pepperoni, roasted peppers, onions, jalapeños, extra cheese, and maybe a drizzle of hot honey
  — Get da fuck outta here!
• After Hours – Blackened sausage, smoked mozzarella, caramelized onions, roasted mushrooms, roasted red peppers, and a drizzle of chili-infused olive oil
  A pizza that’s bold, smoky, and a little dangerous, just like the streets after midnight.
  — The night's just getting started!

And now, I need a lie down.

Ciao!