Back to the Future

One of the things I love about NYC is that there are so many fun and interesting things to do all year long in public spaces. The city parks, libraries, and museums all year long host a slew of activities that are free for city folk to quench their thirst for fun, educational, and cultural things to do. Last night in Bryant Park near mid-town Manhattan, was the last movie of the Summer Film Festival. Bryant Park is one of my favorite parks and I was very committed to making it to this last summer event with my friend Jenny. It was a great night, the weather was perfect with a cool breeze, no mosquitos, and the Bank America building changing colors once night fell made a nice back drop.

Jenny and I met over a year ago at the NY Female sub/slave Forum, and we made plans to meet up at the park around 6:15ish. I’ve made a few really good friends over the past couple of years from the few all female s-type groups here in the city. I was very happy to have Jenny’s company. We’re both single in the city and we’re near the same age, so Back to the Future is a classic 1980’s film for us. The obvious coolness is that we are now in the “future” travel date shown in the movie! One of the other dates shown in the movie is November 5, 1955 and I have a friend who was born on that date. Anyway the Great Lawn at Bryant Park was packed! Luckily I got there a little earlier than Jenny and even though we were too late to find space on the great lawn, I managed to grab us some chairs just to the side of the lawn. When Jenny got there we thought about trying to squeeze into a space on the lawn. Jenny is a native NY’er and I was going to send her to do the dirty work of getting us a space. We decided not to sit on the lawn though, because we wouldn’t have been able to lay down, worried our backs would end up hurting, so we thought it was better to sit in the chairs with a back rest. The chairs were a good idea, but the location not so much. It’s a learning experience, but the chairs we picked bordered the perimeter and were roped together and not movable. It turned out that directly in front of us was the walking path and we had to deal with people constantly walking in front of us and blocking the view. Jenny really had it with those people. I on the other hand was very annoyed by people stepping on my shoe and a couple times on my toes. At some point I got the brilliant idea to kick anyone who stepped on my toes. I started saying loudly to passerby’s, “If you step on my feet I’ll kick you!” Some guy not paying any attention did step on my foot and yes I kicked him. Okay other than that we had a great time… Well actually the kicking threats were a little fun and even the revenge kicks were a little fun too. Jenny put up with me although she definitely did not encourage me… The movie was great, the crowd cheered, laughed, and roared!

I love NY.

 

Paris is Burning!

Tonight I am heading out to Macomb’s Bridge branch of the NYPL (New York Public Library) to watch Paris is Burning. I’d never heard of the movie until about a month ago when a group of friends were talking about great movies, documentaries, and recording community history. All I truly remember was hearing the title and saying I had never heard of it, being told I must to see it, and that it was going to be shown at a local library branch in Harlem. Until a few minutes ago, I managed to control myself and not do a search on the movie to see what it was all about. I had been intrigued enough to want to go see it based on the credibility of the source telling me I must see it and the flashiness of the title. Finally though, mainly because of fatigue, I decided to look up what this movie was about to see if I truly needed to drag my ass off this couch and see this movie. It turns out I do.

Paris is Burning is a film made by a NYU film student documenting the late 1980’s and 90’s Golden Age of New York City’s drag balls. From what I read in the cliff notes about this movie it explores how its subjects deal with racism, poverty, AIDS, sex workers, sexual reassignment,  and intentional families social groups, performance teams, plus more. This sounds like a large body of work and Jennie Livingston, the NYU student who under took this project, spent seven years interviewing her subjects to learn how they dealt with their adversities.

I can see why my friend told me I must go see this movie, since I am a firm believer in the idea that we must explore the past to understand the present and shape the future. Also my friend just loves drag queen to pieces! Also, I was thinking about why it feels important to me to go see this and this thought came across my mind,”When someone you respect and view as an elder and Leather Daddy of that community says, ‘Go’, you do.” Something else in my thoughts is a curiosity about what type of cross section from the vanilla and the kink/BDSM community coms out to see this picture tonight.   I’m not sure if this movie is available for check out from public library systems, but you can find Paris is Burning sold on Amazon. As a final note before I bath and dress to head out the door I like to suggest this as a super excellent stocking stuffer for those who celebrate the holidays in that way 😀