hello to you all, i know i haven't communicated for a while, but i only got my connection set up last week after the horrendously difficult move. but allow me to relate my adventures.
i am officially a man. melinda, i'm sorry, but i could've beaten your dad at the "roadeo." although i have not maneuvered an 80 foot truck before, i have driven a 17 foot uhaul down delancey street and across the williamsburg bridge. i would wager that my task was a hundred times more difficult, and i have presently have the chronic ulcers to prove it. it took us 11 hours to get to NYC, and it took me 2.5 hours to find an adequate parking space. i didn't get to bed until 3 in the morning.
but, brianne and i are happily settled in our southside apartment. are apartment is large, and the neighborhood is for the most part quiet. quiet, except for puerto rican day, when the entire neighborhood was swamped in a cacophany of latino techno, blasting above the decibel level of a dc-10.
i have found, though, that i've been playing the part of a pawn as brianne and i have noticed that most of the people residing in our building are white. we are participating in the hassidim effort to gentrify the neighborhood, and we both find this extremely upsetting. this isn't just a suspicion of mine, as one of our former brokers pretty much admitted this.
alas, another pride week has come out and gone, and allow me to say it was rather exciting. brianne and i took part in the drag march from thompson park to the famous stonewall's bar (the site where a 60's brawl between gays and the police broke out). it was lots of fun, filled with drag queens and all sorts of interesting characters. in particular, i was accosted by a columbian male of my age, who wasn't there for the march, who showed me the stuff of his wares to me: two bags of heroin hidden within an aspirin bottle. Of course, i had not asked to see the heroin, and i especially did not want to see the shit because there were about 10 cops twenty feet away. it didn't help the matter that he was hanging all over me and practically kissing my ear (reminds me of england).
the sunday pride march, though, made up for the uncomfortable encounter with the crazed columbian. 5 hours of dykes on bikes, queers, queens, butches, sad0-masochists, etc. lit up fifth avenue with an unparalleled spirit of festivity. i'm sure that somewhere within the repressed recesses of my unconscious i fell in love a hundred times. especially wonderful, and not to be outdone by any other group, were the brazilian and carribean floats. although one could pick up on the hints of divisiveness among the various subgroups of the gay community, there still existed an encouraging sense of unity, and the mixture of fantastic, fun sites with the sobering literature concerning aids and social repression led me to recognize how incredible a tradition this is.
also of note: brianne, miguel and i saw david sedaris give a reading at the union square borders. he walked by us, and although brianne had brought her copy of Me Talk Pretty One Day, she was too embarrassed to ask him to sign it. so miguel went up to him and asked for the signature. Mr. Sedaris asked what her name was, Miguel replied, and Sedaris' response was: "What a fucked up name, she must be from California." He wrote in her book, "Brianne...I'd be embarrassed too."
We also passed by Parker Posey on fifth avenue.
If you can believe it, though, both Brianne and I would consider this a pretty boring few weeks, especially since we've rutted ourselved into a trench of domesticity. Routine is welcome and necessary, though, as i still have three papers to complete, lots of french to learn, and my thesis to begin.
Anyway, i must be off to study heidegger's critique of historicism. i should be coming home sometime in late july or early august for a little bit, so i hope to see y'all soon. (and i'll try to come on to the blog as often as i can)
posted by sean at 10:30 PM link/comments
