Taxi Driver Remake with Scorsese and von Trier?

So you may have noticed that I've been AWOL for a few weeks -- thanks to an amazing vacation in Panama. And do I have a couple good Panamanian cab stories for you. That and water taxis, which are almost cooler than cabs because, well, they're boats. And you're on the Caribbean. And it's hot, humid and sunny. Need I say more?

But in the meantime, feast on this tasty nugget:

A rumored remake (Variety reported the scoop) of Scorsese's Taxi Driver as challenged by Danish-director-of dogma-fame Lars von Trier? Oh, von Trier, can't you leave amazingness alone? Because I hear they did a good job on that flick the first time around.

Laziness, and Taxi Stories on WNYC's Brian Lehrer

Alright, here's the deal. I've been remiss in my blogging because I started a full-time job this month. Yes, my first fulll-time job in years. It's great, but it's putting a cramp into my blogging. (What, you mean I have to get out of bed and get to work every single morning?? And I shouldn't blog from the office?)

But not today. Today you're getting a post. That said, I'm kinda cheating. After being interviewed by WNYC's Brian Lehrer, people wrote into their website with their own taxicab stories. Check them out here. And I promise, soon I will be back in my full blogging glory.

Taxi Driver (the movie): then and now

So unless you were born in a cave, you've heard of the movie Taxi Driver. And seriously people, if you haven't seen it, stop reading this and rent it already! With Robert DeNiro playing a crazed taxi driver, a pimped out Harvey Keitel, and Jodie Foster as a teenage hooker -- not to mention the seedy New York of the 70s -- what more could you want? Oh, a handful of Oscars? Got that, too.

But I digress. There is a fab new website called Scouting NY, where a film location scout blogs about what he finds and what he sees.

And he's taken stills from Taxi Driver, the movie, and compared them to the exact same sites today. Cabs aplenty in these photos, people! Not only can you compare the old-school Checker cab to today's Crown Vics, but you can really see how New York's grit has been rubbed off for a squeaky clean. Click here to check it out.

Story: Taxi driving sucked so badly he only lasted a week

Story: Howard Leibowitz, former cabbie: I was having lunch with a friend of a friend, Howard, when he told me he drove a cab for one week in the 70s.

Really, just one week?

He had hit hard times after sinking all his money into a big music project that went bust. Even worse, when he learned he was broke, he went home to find that his live-in girlfriend had left him and cleaned out their apartment – furniture, TV, everything.

He spent the next couple of days sitting on the middle of his floor feeling sorry for himself, until a friend stopped by and told him to snap out of it. This friend was a cabbie making hundreds of dollars a week. He even told Howard how to make these hundreds of dollars -- illegally – by driving off the meter. Back then, cabbies split their take with the garages. But if they turned off the meter, they would collect all the money from the passengers, with the garages being none the wiser.

The next day, Howard got his hack license. “You could have mold for brains and still pass that test,” he said. He drove a cab from 4 p.m. to 2 a.m. every day for one week. But he felt guilty going off the meter. Also, he kept getting lost and felt guilty about it, so he undercharged almost everyone. At the end of the week, sore and tired, he got his envelope of wages. Inside there was only $5.

His friend called him a nimrod. Howard quit driving taxis. (This photo is of Howard in '72.)