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!