Shea Stadium

Today was my last full day. I was awoken by the drunk guy from last night getting up and trying to find his pants. He went to sleep after 4 and got up at 10, when does he sleep? When do I?
Anyway, it turns out I've been ostracized for my political beliefs, a friend of mine won't read my blog because it's full of Conservative crap. Now I know what Nelson Mandella felt like. I must just say that for so long I viewed the Conservatives as evil. In my book I'm reading now, a woman spit on Peter Wildeblood as he was going to trial for homosexuality and I equated that with Conservatism. But as I grow older I realize there is less of a line between wrong and right. That there are good people on both sides of the fence, and that when a Conservative leader says he wants to help poor people, it's possible he just might actually mean it.
So this morning I went to the Central Park Zoo. It was ok, kind of small.

Afterwards I made the long trek to the New York Aquarium in Brooklyn, right beside Coney Island.


It was good too, the second best aquarium I've seen. I got there just in time for the sea lion show:

and I learned that you shouldn't eat squid because they're endangered and no shrimp because they feed other animals. She said something like 15 animals die if you eat shrimp. Don't touch this crab:

From there off to Queens to Shea Stadium to see the Mets. I got there about an hour early so I thought I would wander around and find somewhere for dinner. There was nowhere. There was a lot of mechanics, not like 3, I'd say about 200 beside each other with no other stores in between, it was like the Twilight Zone. I had to walk for 20 minutes to find a can of Coke, and then I had to pay $2 for it. If I had money I would open a store there. I can't get over how strange it was, no vendors outside the stadium, they had a picnic area but no food. WHY? Everyone was tailgating in the parking lot and cooking burgers, but NOTHING for sale. Strange.
Anyway, they're building a new stadium for the Mets, you can see it in the back of Shea Stadium:

I'm beginning to rethink this whole 30 parks thing, do I really want to go to Texas? Kansas City? And what happens when they move stadiums, do I have to go to ANOTHER Mets game?
I only knew like 3 people on either team, it was Mets vs. Washington and I left in the 7th with Washington winning big. The Mets for some reason got Jorge Sosa from the Braves. I've hated him ever since he came from Tampa for Nick Green, I call him the black Nick Green. So he sucked in Atlanta and they sent him to New York and then they brought him out tonight so I knew the game was over. He sucked of course and blew the whole game. I hope if you saw any of it on T.V. you heard me booing, I was the one booing the loudest.
The stadium was cool, nicer than Yankee stadium. Wrigley Field felt old, Yankee stadium really didn't, they took out all the old stuff and didn't add much new stuff, it kind of sucked. And the biggest bonus, I got a REALLY good picture of me in Shea, I've very happy with it:

The disadvantages of hostelling

It's 3:35 a.m. and I'm still awake. An Irish guy who's drunk (redundant) is in my room talking to everyone, asking them where they're from. It went something like:
Drunk guy: Where are you from?
Tokyo guy: What?
Drunk guy: Where are you from?
Tokyo guy: What?
Drunk guy: Where are you from?
Tokyo guy: Tokyo.
Drunk guy: What?
Etc.
The people here are the rudest and loudest of the 3 hostels I've stayed at. Which is weird because none of them are from New York.
Yesterday night this guy was snoring the loudest I have ever heard and some other guy was rubbing himself all night long.
I'm hoping if I can kill half an hour drunk guy will be asleep. Or I can kill drunk guy, either way.

Boat cruise/the city at night

I am sleepy already so this won't be long.
Parking in NYC is very expensive:

They were filing some movie or TV show in front of the Met and there was a "murder" on the steps. This one guy from the tour bus goes "Is it real?"

I started out today going to the Museum of Modern Art. It was cool, I spent a few hours there, the best gallery I've seen so far in NYC.

Then I walked about 2 miles over to the UN Building to go on the tour. It turns out "Hitler" is in town (the president of Iran) and the UN was closed for MANY blocks and I couldn't get in.

So then I walked all the way back across town to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. It was actually pretty good, on most people they do a good job. A few sucked, like Madonna and Lance Bass:

But I did get my picture taken with Michael:

Then it was off to a boat cruise for 3 hours. Yes, a 3 hour tour. It was very good, I highly recommend it. The Statue of Liberty is small, like 300 feet high, and I heard the wait can be like 4 hours to get to the island and then you have to stand at the foot of the statue. How can you get a good picture like that?

So this tour was the best option. It went all the way around Manhattan, including the Brooklyn Bridge:

and others.
When I was done I went over for the night view from the Empire State building and something called the Sky Ride which sucked. It was like a IMAX show of NYC narrated by Kevin Bacon and VERY corny with stupid jokes.

Broadway bound

I did so much today and once again I'm very tired to this will be shorter than yesterday.
I started off this morning, dressed and out the door by 10 am which I thought was great. DO NOT BUY A BUS TOUR PACKAGE IN NEW YORK CITY! You may have heard of traffic troubles in Manhattan? Well the bus is not very fast. Plus I bought from the wrong company, the other one comes twice as often. D'oh. I am debating whether to buy a subway pass and give up on the stupid bus tour, what a waste of money. Luckily the City Pass is very cool and I am making good use of that, getting into everything for free, so the $139 is not totally down the drain.
I just checked, I was supposed to go to the Yankees game tomorrow night and they changed it to a day game, I only paid $5 for the seat, I'm not sure if I want to go. I'd have to give up a whole day of sightseeing as the game is from 1 - 4 and the tourist stuff closes at like 6. Hmmm... Can't think now, too tired.
So I started off at the Guggenheim, it was crap, VERY small, I went through the whole thing in 10 minutes. Then off to the Met, there was this cool statue:


I want him in my living room, aren't his buttocks sublime?
Then there was this cool photograph, Kansas, 1967:

I loved it. Then I finally did find Central Park:

Then I went to the Empire State Building:


It was cool.
Then the Museum of Sex. It was a bit disappointing, but okay. The best part was watching this group of women giggling over the sex toys. They also had a "real doll" there, and they let you feel her. I know it's just a doll but it felt weird fingering a woman. Then they had a cool, but small, collection of gay porn.

I think I should start collecting vintage gay erotica.
Then off to see Rent, here's me at intermission:

Then afterwards I bought Anthony Rapp's book and got him to sign it:

The other guy was there too, the one who got the Tony nomination but he's straight and has the "straight privilege" going on, and I was just in the mood to see my fellow mo'. He stopped when I handed him the book to sign and looked at me for the longest time. At the time I thought he was going to take me away with him to get married, but in retrospect I think he was waiting for me to say my name so he could sign it. Oh well.

Tonight was heaven

Well, if every night in Hell is the Bi Bash, every night in Heaven would be tonight.
I started the day at about 11 am, I was tired after sleeping upright in the back of car. I went the the Yankee game, here's the new Yankee stadium they're building across the street:

So everyone in New York has a bad attitude. On the way in this woman shouts "If you have a book bag, you can't get in!" So I asked if I could take my bag in. She suggested I give it to my wife, like only ladies carry bags. Then laughed. She's dead now.
So they heard I was coming so there was a 1.5 hour rain delay. I slept most of the time. When I awoke and they were getting ready to start the game, I was dying for a cigarette. Apparently you can't smoke ANYWHERE in Yankee stadium, even outside. So I snuck out and got a warning for smoking from security, she ripped the corner of my ticket. I'm lucky they didn't throw me out, the would have been the first $75 cigarette of mine.
So the game finally started:


And it kept going, and going. 6.5 hours after I arrived I had to leave in the 7th inning so I could get to Hairspray on Broadway. I got 2 different people to take my picture, they're both terrible.


So then I went to Hairspray. On the way I passed Grand Central Station:

And Radio City Music Hall:

It was the best musical I've ever seen, I loved it. One review said "It brings the house down so many times it's a wonder the place is still standing" and it was true. I loved every second down to my soul. Afterwards I bought the soundtrack and I was kind of debating, should I download it? After all Lance Bass (from N'Sync), Jim J. Bullock (diagnosed HIV+ in 1985!), Ashley Parker Angel and Tevin Campbell (who had a #1 with "Round and Round" on the Prince movie Graffiti Bridge), the 4 I came to see, were all not on it. But it's a good thing I did. After the show I saw Lance! I almost died. He and Jim J. signed the CD. Now I must treasure it and sleep with it always. Here's Lance:

And Jim J. Bullock:

It was an amazing night. I wandered for a bit around Time Square and thought of going to get the boyfriend for my Billy doll (his name is Carlos) but I was at 52nd and the store was on 8th, and it was midnight, so I didn't want to walk 44 blocks and find it closed.
Oh yes, and the picture of the park in the post from yesterday was not Central Park, turns out I went the wrong way. Another day as well.
Tomorrow I have to get up early as I have my sightseeing tour thing. It's already 2 a.m. and my pictures haven't finished uploading yet. Gotta go!

Lots of pictures

I started out today at Times Square:

I can't believe how busy it was. It's full of people, the stores are open until 2 a.m. There is never any privacy, guys come up to you on the street and offer you hot merchandise, it's WILD.
Then I went to the World Trade Center hole:


It was odd. They've put the Berlin wall up around it so you can only peek through holes. Across the street was a fire station with this memorial:

In an older post I had mentioned I wanted the baseball playing gay Billy doll and ever since the start of August I have been checking Ebay daily and nothing. I was walking around downtown today and I saw a few Billy dolls in the window. I honestly figured they weren't for sale but I went into the shop and they had a ton of them, which is strange as they went out of print in 2001. Is there some underground gay doll market I'm not aware of? Anyway, I asked the guy how much, expecting about $200 and he said $50! So I got it, here he is:



Now I have to resist going back for his boyfriend. Who am I kidding, I should go now.
There is WAY too many people here, the lobby is like FULL of people.
So after I bought the gay doll I went to the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop, the world's first gay and lesbian bookstore:

I asked if they had the other book written by Peter Wildeblood, the author I'm currently reading who writes about being imprisoned for being gay in England in 1955. I'm in love with this book, here's a quote:
"When I am embittered or revolted by the conduct of someone like myself, I try to remember two men. One was a young pianist with a brilliant talent, who killed himself for grief after the death of the man he loved. The other was a surgeon, respected and discreet, who threw away his good name in order to remain, night and day, at the bedside of his friend who was dying in hospital. A love which can evoke courage and sacrifice like this cannot, I think, be wholly evil."

Anyway the book was last published in 1957 so I'll put it on the list. While I was there I noticed a flyer saying Bob Smith would be there at 7 pm Friday signing copies of his new book. I left thinking it was too bad I was going to a play tomorrow, then I realized today was Friday and it was 6:50 p.m. already! So I got him to sign my book:

Pretty cool. I've seen him in movies and I believe his first book was the first gay book I ever read. After I left I remembered I should have taken his picture. D'oh!
Right next door was the Stonewall Inn:

a very small bar where the gay liberation movement began:

Here's my hostel room, it's pretty small, like in London, and the plug is on the bottom bunk so I have no idea how I will recharge my batteries.


The location is ok. When I went to get my bus tour pass the guy was like "You're WAY out there!" I'm still in Manhattan!
This is a bit all over the map chronology wise but I'm very tired. Just before I came home from my 20 MILE walk, I wanted to see the Statue of Liberty. They stupidly put it in the middle of a river, so this is the best I could do at night:

Sucks, eh?
Then I dropped off my purchases and got the bright idea to walk around Central Park alone at 11 p.m. Never do that:

It was just me and I kept seeing these really fast squirrels running around. Then I realized they were rats. Eeek! One way you can tell a true New Yorker, they completely ignore crossing lights, ever time, pedestrians and drivers, it's wild. Sleepy, night!