New York 2011, Day Two

Started the day off a little late.  I had been to the Strand Bookstore the day before and bought about 7 books or so and this morning I went over to the post office to mail them.  I got the idea for getting a few of my favourite books signed and contacted a few authors who almost all responded.  The problem was I couldn't buy US postage in Canada to send them a self-addressed stamped envelope to send the books back to me.  I found a nice patent gay men, also named Adam, at the Grand Central Post Office, he was in his late 50's or so and served to remind me when he recognized a few of my gay authors that not all gay men fit into boxes, appearance wise.  He was very nice and patient and we got all the stamps on but it turns out the customs forms here are more complicated than like anywhere else on the planet.  The person has to take the envelope into a post office, not use a mailbox, and has to sign and date the envelope in front of a postal official.  Who knows if anyone will go to that much bother.  I considered signing and dating with a scribble so that it couldn't be made out and then if they get dropped in a box maybe they'd still make it to me?  Or they could be destroyed as a bomb?  I don't know.  In the end I filled out everything but the signature line.

I didn't get to the LGBT Center on day one as I wasn't feeling well and was cut short.  I went this morning after the post office trip.  I walked in and there was a guy at reception who didn't look up.  I figured if I asked if I could see the Keith Haring bathroom he might say no so I went up to the second floor, found the directory, and walked in.

In this photo you can see where the original fixtures were. In 1989 at the height of the AIDS crisis Keith Haring painted this mural titled "Once Upon a Time" of men having sex in washrooms in remembrance of a time that sex was less complicated.  He went on to become hugely famous and later died of AIDS himself less than a year after this was painted, and this room was converted to a meeting room.

It was smaller than I thought it would be, but I suppose for a NYC bathroom it would have been small. This is the view upon walking in.

I love the detail, I don't know how you think of something like this and keep a coherent message.

I love the giant penis dinosaur, that was my favourite part.

As I walked into the room I noticed a desk and a laptop in use with papers around.  If I had been unscrupulous I could easily have taken it.  I tried to hurry as I knew the person was coming back and about 60 seconds later he did.  He walked in, quite surprised to see me, and asked what I was doing. I explained I had come all the way from Toronto and I had to see the room and I would be quick and thank you and sorry and kept walking around.  The man kind of said nothing.
I walked around looking up at the drawings and asked if the man worked there or what.  He was very nicely dressed.  He looked at me and said "I own the building." and I nearly died.  I was like "Ah, so.  I'd better hurry up then!" I still didn't leave but I did hurry and was glad I hadn't asked, I would have been refused!
Upon leaving I walked up Christopher St.  There's a play at the gay theatre that previews the day I leave.  I was pissed as I looked all over the internet specifically for something like this and this one starred Jonathan Groff from Glee and Spring Awakening whom I love. The theatre ticket was $60, another night at the hotel $85, changing my flight is $75 plus the difference in fare.  When I booked the plane was $109 back to Toronto, it's now $389. So that would be like $500 to stay an extra night and see this play so that's not really happening.
Anyway, I walked through and found the monument to the gays below in front of the Stonewall Inn.

Then it was time to head it over to see Mr. Radcliffe in "How to Succeed in Business (Without Really Trying)".

I got to the theatre just after 4 for the 7 pm show as I had the idea of getting Daniel Radcliffe to sign my Equus poster as he went in.  When I saw him in London he didn't come out for signing that night after the show and I had missed him.  I also heard very few people wait before the show and so I thought this would be my best hope.
I sat there and soon a young girl about 12 and her dad came and joined me.  They had seen the show the night before but had missed getting his signature as it was "crazy" after the show.  I would soon find out just how crazy.
There was no where to sit so I kind of parked half my butt on a fire hydrant and soon found you couldn't really do anything else like read or play a game, this required my full concentration.  I didn't know how he would be arriving, in a car or walking, I heard he would be incognito so I had to look at everyone to make sure they weren't him in disguise and I had to look left and right and really it was a full time job and not a little stressful.  A short two hours later he arrived at 6 pm for the 7 pm show.  His black town car pulls up, his bodyguard gets out to clear the scene and says "he's not signing". Daniel Radcliffe gets out, walks directly into the stage door without turning his head left or right and in about one second he`s gone.  Now keep in mind it was still just me, the girl and her dad, not like a huge mob, so I was disappointed to say the least. Also I couldn`t carry my poster, my marker for signing and point and aim my camera all at the same time so I couldn`t even get a photo, nothing.
I went around the corner and had a piece of pizza, at this point it was only 45 minutes to show time and I felt disheartened.  I questioned the concept of celebrity and why I had bought into it. Why had I bothered waiting, why had I sent those books, why didn`t I just stay with my own life and ordinary people and be done with it. I finished my dinner and went in to the show, the theatre was smaller than I thought it would be and the seats were SO TINY.  The girl beside me kept giving me looks as my legs were kind of in her way, but as I said, I would have had to remove a part of my body to better fit in those seats.  I didn`t have room to slouch at all and had to sit up super straight which I bet the people behind me loved and I didn`t even really have room for my arms.
The show starts with Daniel Radcliffe coming up out of the orchestra dressed as a window washer on a pully platform.  I was second row centre and if I had reached out my arm I could have touched him.  Well, if I could have moved my arm that is. The show was fantastic, the best comedy musical I`ve seen.  The actors were amazing, the songs were catchy, the staging was complex and the dancing, the second last song `Brotherhood of Man`was the best performance number I`ve ever seen.  It brought down the house, there was like five minutes of steady applause, the movements by all, even Daniel, were a level I had never seen and with such a large ensemble, it was fantastic.  John Laroquette was fantastic and funny, the whole cast was great with the exception of the love interest `Rosemary` whom I didn`t think had any personality whatsoever.  The show was narrated by Anderson Cooper, Daniel Radcliffe can really sing (in quite a high pitched voice!) and he moves well and is charming and the whole thing was beyond fantastic.  Loved it.
I went out for a smoke at intermission and saw there was people already lined up for an autograph and I thought `This isn`t good`. After the show I was one of the last out as I was in the front row and the crowd was already 15 deep.  There were about 10 or 12 police men closing the street, people lined up forever, it was a mob scene. I quickly ran over to the far side of the street before it was fully closed and was only about 4 deep at this point.  There was a very short girl in front of me which I figured I could use to my advantage.
Daniel came out with his bodyguard blocking him so no photos.  When he came over to my side I used a trick I had learned when Jamie Oliver signed my cook book.  Stand near short women and hold the item to be signed over their heads. I didn`t know if it would work this time as Daniel is also so short.  As he approached I reached out at the last second and held out my poster and pen.  There was no way he was taking my pen, I had been silly to think he would, but as I was being shoved and jostled around I felt my poster move a little.  I pulled it back and looked and viola!  He had signed it!
I was quite happy as he quickly sped away and felt reassured again in the world.
Times Square at night on my walk back to the hotel. Note the Army Recruiting station on the left.

New York 2011, Day One

I'm a little behind in my blogging as I haven't been feeling well.  I've got a cold or flu or something and staying up late to blog after my adventures hasn't yet been an option. I finally bought some cold pills and took them today, it's 1:30 now and I hope to quickly type this out.

I started off my vacation well, Porter flight was great as Porter always is but the negative is you don't pre-clear customs like you do at Pearson so there was a huge line when we got to Newark which took about 45 minutes to get through.

I took the train to Penn Station and then a taxi to the hotel.  The hotel is amazing, I love it, I love having my own air conditioner, lots of space, I can walk to Grand Central Station and Times Square, love it!

I dropped off my stuff and went out to the Museum of Sex.  There were no photos allowed but the guards were all chatting to each other and not paying attention so I took a bunch, particularly on the Samuel Steward exhibit.

I took this with my Ipod as there were several people around.  The male and female real dolls.  These things cost like thousands of dollars.  Two questions came to mind, where do you put it when company comes over? and look at the guys face, it's straight out of a horror movie, who could have that around and not hide in fright?

Okay then on to the Samuel Steward exhibition.  It was fantastic, better than I could have hoped, and as it was near the back and all about gay sex, there were very few people there and no guards so I was able to snap away.  I realize I uploaded a lot of photos here but as anyone who has read the book Secret Historian by Justin Spring can attest, these are all major artifacts of gay life from the 1950's and seeing them in person was incredible, I couldn't trim these photos any further. Click any of the photos to enlarge them.
This was Steward's "Stud File" where he kept index cards with every man he slept with all indexed and cross-referenced.  First of all doing this on a type-writer would have taken forever, and secondly with the McCarthy witch hunt senate hearings going on at the time, this one item would easily have put Steward in jail for many years. It's amazing that it exists and it's amazing it survived, so often when gay men die their overtly gay or sexual items get tossed out by family.

A list of payments to hustlers over the years.  Some of these numbers are quite high given what you could get for $5 at the time.

A sample card from the stud file.  Steward wrote in code for some things, mostly in French which he had learned in Paris while visiting Gertrude Stein and other notables. "$3 mille" is three thousand and "Amoureux" is obviously love.  Perhaps this code wasn't that well thought out, I just broke it.  Listed below are all the dates they had sex.  Did he re-type this every time?  Yikes.

An ad for Steward's Tattoo shop, for which he had to adopt an alias.  The alias became less effective as he became the most notable tattoo artist of his day and lost his teaching job.  What was great in the book was when Steward tried to buy a set of tattooing needles he found it very difficult.  There was no internet, he had to go in to tattoo parlors and ask and they didn't want to tell him as it would just be more competition.

I love how overt the ad below is. The ad for the tattoo shop lists the times the trains leave back to the military base!

Steward's autograph book with a signature of Rudolph Valentino.  Mr. Steward was 17 when he met and slept with Valentino and took a lock of his hair.  Valentino died soon after.

This is fantastic, a contract between Steward and one of his students at the time exchanging sex for grades.  The fact that it was typed and signed and still exists is brilliance. It's unfortunate that there are so few places who would keep something like this.  It should be displayed in museums as part of an exhibit that travels the world, it speaks to Steward's audacity, the sexuality of the times, it's fantastic.

A letter, mentioned in the book, written to Steward by George Platt Lynes, a famous photographer in the day.

Steward's collection of Polaroids.

Look at how big this camera is!  And it's a Polaroid!  How do you casually whip this out? Who exactly are all these young men willing to be photographed in sex acts and where are they now?

Steward paid a huge sum, like $300 in the late 1950's, for an illustrated version of Querelle De Brest by Jean Genet while he was in Paris.

More Polaroids, there were boxes.  Again, who are these men? What is their number?

The sign at the entrance of the exhibit.  I took this last as it was nearest the door and I didn't want to be caught taking it first and not get any of the other shots!

Most of the exhibits at the Museum of Sex are frankly crap.  The whole third floor is dedicated to sex between animals with like stuffed penguins.  Who cares?
On the floor beneath the Steward exhibit was an exhibit on cartoons and sex which was quite good, well worth seeing. A highlight for me was the Eric Stanton piece below.  He only draws straight scenes but I love his art, his empowered dominatrixes and their pointy tits; fantastic detail and colour.

This was a giant head statue near Bryant Park. I thought this photo would look weirder than it does, I think the day was a little too overcast.

I stumbled across a statue of Andy Warhol.

And I ended up in Grand Central Station, which is the nearest subway stop to my hotel!

End of day one recap, 2:08 am, gotta go to bed!

Laser Me

I had laser eye surgery two weeks ago tomorrow at Lasik MD here in Toronto.
I was quite nervous prior to the procedure due to the media, stories like Kathy Griffin's, and a general rumour that things could go wrong.  This wasn't helped when I went in for my consultation as they give you three prices, $2400 for the surgery, $2900 for the surgery and a 5 year guarantee, or $3900 for a custom wavefront surgery and a lifetime guarantee.  I had already decided the $4000 was too much but if I took the $2400 would I be blind or have the dreaded night vision problems?  And they said I had *gasp* large pupils!  Run for the hills.
All of this was played up like a bad horror film and if I didn't get the $4k option I may as well shoot myself.  Having previously decided $4k was too much, it made me wonder if I should just skip the whole thing.
I started looking around on message boards and found a few people who were very unhappy making 75,000 posts per day.  The best/worst was this one girl who wrote in for advice and some guy wrote back to her as her future self. "This is your future self writing.  You decided to have the surgery and now you're blind, your dog died, the world ended" etc. etc.
The thing that changed my mind is talking to people in my office who have actually had the surgery.  They all said they loved it, it was the best decision they ever made, and any problems they had were very small in relation to having to wear glasses.

_____

I opted for the cheapest surgery with no warranty.  The warranty reminded me of electronics stores where they sucker you in.
I was nervous the night before and slept little.  On the day of the surgery, I woke up and took a tranquilizer. Once I arrived at the clinic I took another.  I knew I had the option of watching a video of the surgery beforehand but I had opted not to, the "Clockwork Orange" eye opener thing was too creepy.
I waited and filled out forms, saying things like "I agree not to hold the clinic libel" or "I understand the risks" or "I acknowldge the surgery may do nothing and I have no options". I didn't care at that point I was pretty relaxed.
They gave me another tranqilizer and they took me in to a room and I lay down, they put drops in my eyes and taped my eyelashes down.  The metal eye holder thing is no big deal, it looks terrible but you don't even feel it, especially with the numbing drops they use. They put a suction cup on my eye which apparently cuts it for the flap, I didn't feel a thing.  Nothing.  They lift the flap up which is a weird sensation but again I felt nothing and then you look into the laser.  All kinds of lights flashed around my head, like when you rub your eyes for too long and see stars.  I could smell my eyes burning from the laser, which was also weird and then it was over.  They put on sunglasses on my face and led me out.  I waited in the waiting room while someone came by to put drops in every few minutes.  When I could leave I took a cab home and fell asleep.  I don't remember how well my vision was at that point, I was really out of it from all the drugs. 
I awoke six hours later, about midnight, and it was a miracle, I could see.  I felt fine, no pain, I was paranoid about touching my face as they said I could move the flap so nothing above the cheeks was touched.  When I put in the drops I let them run down my face which was also weird but no wiping.
I went back the next morning and had 20/40 vision and was given clearance to watch a little TV or read.  Previous to that I wasn't allowed to focus my eyes so I would just listen to the tv.
The doctor said there was some inflamation and advised me to take more eye drops.
The next day I went outside at night and when I looked at the street lights or headlights of cars I did see a halo around them but it was really a minor complaint and even if it never improved I knew it was better than glasses.

_______

It's now two weeks since my surgery. I was a passenger in a car last night and had no halos or night vision problems. The inflamation in my eyes (which I never felt) is gone and I only have to use the drops three times a day now.  I expect this will lessen as time goes on.
I am beyond happy with the results.  I got my hair cut the other day and I could see what she was doing.  My vision is 20/20 and better than it was before even with glasses.  I love it, I love it, I love it.  Very glad I got it done.

A Sad Day

New York, September 2011

Getting excited, lots of fun stuff to see in New York!

Wed Aug 31
- arrive via Porter at 13:00
- staying at the Vanderbilt YMCA
- the Museum of Sex is having an exhibition on Justin Spring's Obscene Diary which I must see! I found a coupon for $3 off the $17.50 admission and the museum is open until 8 pm.
- I will likely want to see the above right away and can continue down to The Strand Bookstore and The Stonewall Inn
- if time permits I could even continue down further to the Taschen New York Store and the Leslie/Lohman Gay Art Foundation which is only open noon-6 pm so I better make contingency plans. It says they have a new exhibition opening Sept 1 anyway.  Watch me wait to go to it and it's something lesbian.
- also the Keith Haring bathroom on the 2nd floor of the LGBT center. 

Thurs Sept 1
- the Leslie/Lohman Gay Art Foundation which is only open noon-6 pm and the above stuff I don't get time for
- 7 pm, Daniel Radcliffe in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying

Fri Sept 2
- I want to see the Roosevelt Island Tramway. The entrance to it is really close to my hotel.  The question is then of course what to do on Roosevelt Island? I suppose walk around and find out.
- There's a NYC transit museum that looks great.  $7 to get in, open Tues-Fri 10-4.  It's located in a dis-used subway station.

Sat Sept 3
- 8 pm, had a ticket to My Big Gay Italian Wedding which just announced it's closing on Aug 20 so I got a refund. I think I'll go see Priscilla instead. There seems to be some good discounts on tickets at Givenik. In fact I found a ticket in the third row there right beside the premium level seats for $95.

Sun Sept 4
- The Tenement Museum looks amazing. Open 10 to 6.
- 7 pm, There's an off-Broadway play called "Tricks the Devil Taught Me" I may go see with discount tickets here for $45.  I'll have to read more about it first.

Mon Sept 5
- 11 am, I have been near it but I can actually go to Ellis Island and see the Statue of Liberty. Only 240 people per day are allowed to go up and see the crown area and these tickets are of course sold out until Hell freezes over so that's out.  Turns out only 3000 people per day can even go to the base so I bought that now from State Cruises.
- 8 pm, Going to see Avenue Q off-Broadway

Tues Sept 6
- The Forbes Galleries have some cool stuff hoarded by the founder of Forbes magazine including old Monopoly boards and the glasses Lincoln was wearing when he was shot. And it's free! 10 am-4 pm.
- 7 pm, The Book of Mormon, NYC's hottest show

Wed Sept 7
- my place is right beside the UN Building so I must go. $16 admission and a 30-45 minute security check both sound great (NOT!), it's open 9-5:30 pm.

Thurs Sept 8
- flying back, arriving in Toronto at 2:25 pm

Saved - Factory Theatre

*I feel like some of my reviews lately have been overly critical. Okay, not just lately. Anyway, I now want to attempt to be more constructive in my reviews and highlight areas for change rather than strictly outlining faults and have started with this review*

As I sit in the courtyard waiting for this play to start, I read the director's notes in the program.  He talks about disenfranchised middle class youth in Canada contributing to the G20 and Vancouver riots because they are "repressed by their disconnect to themselves and society". That these youth feel nothing towards our society "except hate and anger".

The play features a group of adolescents who feel disconnected and commit a shocking act of violence. This is the play that Sarah Kane's Blasted should have been and this play pre-dates Blasted by 30 years. The play is fantastically written, not falling into the trap of so many plays about adolescents and overly focusing on their ennui. This play has relate-ability for youth, but also a forward moving plot, humor and character development. I can see why the director chose to stage it.

The production was good but some things can be done to make it better, even now half way through it's run.

1. Change the season. The theatre has no air conditioning and was about 35 degrees the night I saw the show. The cast has been forced into jackets and sweaters and when one character says "its too cold in here" laughter erupts from the audience. Change the season to summer, get the cast out of their sweaters and stop the sweat from dripping off them. The summer of violence rings truer anyway.
2. Pick a time. The play is written and set in 1965 yet the directors notes claim the setting was moved to 1997. You can't have lines like "I'll text you a photo" in 1997 and cell phones the size of credit cards.  Also in 1997 it's unlikely a woman would be trying to fix her stockings with a needle and thread, or that she would be going out to the cinema to see the latest Tarzan picture. Clean this up.
3. Two of the three leads are perfect. The young man who opens the show sounds and acts like Dick Van Dyke in the movie Mary Poppins. He's more likely to host a tea party on the ceiling than start a knife fight. Toughen him up and have him watch Mary Poppins for a lesson in what not to do.
4. Drop the opening scenes.  They're too confusing.  One second he's asking her name, the next second they're on a boat, the next second they've broken up?  It moves too fast and only serves to distance the audience from the material when the play starts. Drop these scenes and start with the break-up.
5. Give the old man an ironing board! He stands there for five minutes in a pivotal scene ironing his shirt on the back of a sofa and it's ridiculous. An ironing board would bring your total props to I think three? Its not too much to ask.

Fantastic source material and moments of brilliance.

"A society that maintains an underclass tolerates a measure of barbarity."—The New York Times, in their review of Saved

Excuse Me, Would You Like to Buy a Bar - Bathurst St Theatre

The author of this play, Wesley J. Colford, caught my attention as a handsome dancer in the recent performance of Reefer Madness. I saw him outside Mickey & Judy, we spoke, and I decided to add his play to my already lengthy list of nine.
An attractive young cast that really commits to their roles and some great scenes.  Is this supposed to be a drama or a comedy though?  It felt like the serious scenes were being played for laughs, and there was some laughter, but then why were there serious scenes?
At the beginning two women are talking and then a Chinese xylophone plays and the two women forget who the other person is or why they were talking.  Then they suddenly start talking again, then again with the Chinese xylophone, then again with the memory loss.  Then the play moves on and never mentions the Chinese xylophone or the memory loss ever again.  What's up with that? Parts like that take away from the good aspects of this play.