Pride Rally, Kinokuniya, and Burnt DVDs for Rental

Saturday kicked off the GLBT Pride festivities (in spite of still more rain) with the Rally in Bryant Park, featuring a slew of activist speakers, comedians, singers, and other performers supporting our pride and promoting the cause of gay rights. I checked it out after I got lost in Times Square (as seen above) for a little bit. The crowd at the Rally was surprisingly small, maybe because of the weather. When I arrived there, I barely caught the end of Dustin Lance Black's speech--he's the young Oscar-winning screenwriter of the film Milk! So he's kind of a big deal and all. I was mad I didn't get there in time for his whole speech. But it's awesome that I saw him in person. As a matter of fact, he walked out amongst the audience casually and he literally walked right behind me! Right behind me! Like not even two inches away! As I farted around all star-struck, I contemplated the idea of asking to get a photo with him-- I mean, what an opportunity right? But you know what? I freaking didn't. Because I'm a freaking moron and I don't take hold of the chances that are right in front of my freaking face. IDIOT. He left the park a few minutes later and I will most likely never get the chance to get a photo with Dustin Lance Black ever again.

This is the best photo I could grab of him, or rather the back of him (he's the guy with the white shirt tucked in, carrying a cup of coffee), with my slow camera. Lame, I know.




Here's a shot of the whole rally.


After battling with my dissappointment in myself, I left. Well, I also just got bored of standing around watching the show by myself. There were some cute guys around that I was checking out, but I suck at talking to people so I didn't meet anybody. Geez, me being an idiot again. GAH.

Well, here's some pretty pics in and around Bryant Park.






Anyways, one of my favorite stores in all of New York City happens to be right across from Bryant Park--Kinokuniya Books. It's a Barnes & Noble-esque bookstore dedicated predominately to Japan and all things Japanese, including a basement floor comprised entirely of books in Japanese. But the best thing of all is the second floor, where they have an incredible selection of domestic and imported manga and manga artbooks, plus a decent selection of anime. I couldn't buy anything since I spent money back at Forbidden Planet. Sad face. Frustrated face!

And by the way, to take full advantage of the awesomeness that New York City has to offer, one needs money. And to get money, one needs a job. I hate job searching. Hate it. But I'm freaking dying here. So much manga, so little money! Well. I'll let you know how that job search goes.

Um, Sunday's not really worth mentioning apparently because I can't remember it.

On Monday, I was supposed to have an appointment at Hunter with an academic advisor, but to make a long story short, the bus was really late and the traffic was bad so I missed my appointment. That frustrating experienced started off my day badly and it didn't really get interesting after that anyways.

The past couple of days, I've felt a little down. It's hard to explain, but I think I'm just lonely and frustrated because I don't have any friends to hang out with. I don't mind hanging out with my parents, but the conversation can only cover so much, you know what I mean? My nights have often been spent watching anime by myself, which is all good, but it would just be so much more fun if I had someone here named Mike with whom to analyze and discuss it.

I watched an incredible anime movie this week called Metropolis. It's a modern classic with great characters, dazzling animation, and interesting themes. Hm. That statement was a pretty generic comment that goes for pretty much any great anime film, wasn't it? Well, let's just say Metropolis is probably one of my new favorites. You should watch it.

On Tuesday, I checked out our local library on 100th St. It's a small and humble library, but they actually had a decent selection of manga including a single yaoi manga. I was amused. But I have to get a library card before I can check anything out and I applied for one online. I can't wait to get it because since I can't buy manga, I'm definitely down to check it out for free!

Here's a random pretty church I found in the neighborhood while looking for the library:




Today I had a successful appointment with an advisor at Hunter. I went over some questions I had about... collegiate stuff. You know. After that, I took the 6 train down to Grand Central Station and got lost for a while trying to find a Japanese video rental store. When I finally found it... well, let's just say their merch wasn't exactly legit. Ha. Okay, you know what, I'll just tell you: their DVDs were burnt discs with photocopied covers on the cases. No lie. Cute, huh?

New York Living: Day Something or Other

Monday was an important day. That morning, I had my transfer student orientation at Hunter College, where I learned about registration, general ed requirements, and all of that exciting stuff. My preparation for my new college has just begun though; my list of things to do has greatly increased since I learned all the things I have to take care of before school starts. Ah, well. All part of being a student.

Hunter's facilities frankly aren't very attractive, except for the cool old building you see below. The quality of the education is supposed to be great, though. It sure as hell better be, haha. Their Film program seems promising but I have to say I'm dissappointed with their offerings of Japan-related classes. They have a whole program dedicated to China and the Chinese language, but Japanese is merely thrown into the "Classical and Oriental Studies" category. Apparently I won't be getting a minor in Japanese at Hunter. Honestly, it makes me have second thoughts about finishing school there; maybe I'll transfer yet again to another school in New York that has more Japanese offerings--if there is one.


Speaking of things Japanese, after orientation I checked out this beautiful shop nearby called Things Japanese. They had all kinds of genuine Japanese antiques, woodblock prints, paintings, decorations, dishes, and such. And I do mean genuine; this wasn't the cheap, touristy Asian gift shop I'm used to seeing. They had real, old Japanese stuff. That equals tres pricey, my friends. So, I couldn't afford anything, and I just gazed around and dreamt of the day when I'll be a wealthy film maker picking out all sorts of nifty decorations for my apartment on Central Park West. Or Riverside Drive. Or 76th Street.

On my way back home, I walked through Central Park because it was such a gorgeous sunny day. Here's some photos.




On Tuesday, my mom and I spent the afternoon shopping for groceries and other household necessities. It was actually kinda fun checking out our neighborhood. I also peeked in a store called Futonland, which had some nice futon furniture, shoji screens, and shoji lamps--which I loved because they're exactly the type of Japanese-style lamps I've always wanted to buy. But they were kind of overpriced.

On Wednesday, I headed to Pier 1 Imports, but before I found that, I stumbled upon a cool comic book shop called Time Machine. They didn't have much in the way of manga, though, so I didn't stay long. Anyways, after buying a cushion (for my desk chair) at Pier 1, and getting some good ol' New York style pizza, I walked to Forbidden Planet (near Union Square), a paradise for comic book and manga enthusiasts. They have lots of decently priced action figures from all the biggest franchises--mostly Western, some Japanese--but they didn't have much DragonBall stuff this time around. However, I spent the rest of my afternoon on the second floor, which is dedicated to manga and anime. Their selection is pretty fantastic, and of course my personal favorite thing about Forbidden Planet is their outstanding selection of yaoi manga. I have never seen another store with such a large section dedicated solely to the genre. For that matter, I've never seen another store with a yaoi section at all. Freakin' sweet. I bought some, not gonna lie.

But enough of my gayness. Thursday, the heavy rains came back and I just spent my day doing things around the house and writing up lists for college-related tasks. It's been quite a process getting our decorations up and it's still not even done. I've still got to figure out exactly where I'm hanging things in my room. But last night we did get my shoji screen up behind my bed to act as a decorative headboard. It looks pretty awesome. Today, I drove myself crazy working on arranging and rearranging my room again, and mom and I took a walk down Broadway.

No pictures of our place yet. Sorry. All in good time.

New York Living: Day 10

The sun came out today for a very welcome visit! The weather was totally gorgeous--the perfect temperature, partly cloudy, a light breeze. Aaahhh, yes.

I started off the day going to church. I found a Unitarian Universalist church pretty close by on Central Park West and 76th: Fourth Universalist Society in the City of New York (4thu.org). And what a change from the little portable building I'm used to back in Tucson. Check it out:

Of course, there are beautiful churches like this all over New York. The people here were very welcoming and friendly. It felt like a perfect spiritual home and the service was conducted very similarly to the ones back at UUCNWT (uucnwt.org). It will do just nicely for me! I was thinking about checking out the famous All Souls UU Church (allsoulsnyc.org) on the East Side of town also, but since Fourth U is so close, I think it'll be the one I attend most Sundays. Here's what you see when you walk in the front entrance:

A closer shot of the altar (or whatever you call it):

The building had a huge organ like most of these old churches, as you can see from the gold pipes, but the music director just used this ornate antique grand piano, which I thought was so pretty I had to take a photo:

The intricately carved pulpit (which they didn't use, by the way) on the upper left and the chalice on the right:

The service today was mainly just to recognize some of the people who have served the congregation faithfully, so there wasn't a traditional sermon, but I can already tell that the minister will be a joy to listen to. She has a warm spiritual presence. Here's another view of the church and the street:

Since Central Park was right across from the building, I was compelled to take a few shots of the lush greenery:

After church was over, I walked down 76th, a quiet street lined with beautiful trees and 5-story townhouse mansions with detailed facades. I noticed one with boarded-up windows and a sign that said "Mansion For Sale." I thought to myself, "Hmmm, maybe one day..."

I also decided to take a look at a nearby flea market on Columbus Avenue. I found a vendor with all sorts of fascinating old Asian trinkets, charms, Buddhist statues, and even some antique pornographic woodblock paintings (obviously pre-photography era). I got a kick out of that, not gonna lie.

I decided to walk all the way home since I found there was street fair going on along Broadway in the 70's and 80's. It was basically your typical New York street fair with all sorts of vendors and food stands, and it was so much fun (of course, it would have been even more fun if I had some friends to enjoy it with). My personal favorite vendors were the several with cute bonsai trees and lucky bamboo arrangements. Another one that caught my eye was a High School Musical ("On Tour") merchandise booth!

I ended up resisting temptation today and I didn't buy anything. I came home pretty exhausted and had a snack lunch, but then Mom and Dad came home and the three of us took a little walk to Riverside Park, which is basically just a block or two-ish behind our apartment building. Here's Mom and Dad walking through our neighborhood:

To get to Riverside Park from our place, you cross a little strip of greenery between two streets called "Joan of Arc Island" that has a statue of its namesake:

I was mad that after this point my camera battery died, so I don't have any photos of Riverside Park here, but the beauty is that I can go back any day and take some to show you later! I had never been to this park before and it was hella gorgeous, with flower gardens, tall trees, and all that great New York park stuff. There were lots of people out walking their dogs and playing with their kids. We also took a look around the neighborhood and gawked at some of the more ornate apartment buildings on Riverside Drive. But I reminded myself of how blessed we are just to be living here in the Upper West Side of freaking New York City, and I got over my envy (mostly).

Whew. I was exhausted by this time because I haven't done that much walking until today! So I took a nap back at home until Mom got me up for dinner. Since it was such a beautiful day, we took our spagetthi and dishes up to the terrace on the roof (which is open for all residents in our building to use) to eat and enjoy the spectacular view. We can see the Hudson River and New Jersey from up there!

New York Living: Day 8

After wasting time experimenting with video recording on the laptop and testing out a video upload on blogger, I have learned that uploading a video here takes a rather long time, and at the moment I don't feel like sitting around waiting for that to happen, so I'll tell you what's been going down the old fashioned way.

I've been living here in the Upper West Side for a whole week now, but I've hardly gotten to explore the neighborhood because most of my time has been spent unpacking and organizing our stuff. Mom stayed back in Utah for an extra week, and Dad works during the day of course, so I've been stuck here doing most of the work myself. I'm pretty sick of unpacking and putting crap on shelves, not gonna lie. Luckily, that part is all done now. However, the apartment is still cluttered because the decorations and some of the furniture have yet to be put in there proper places. The chi is not yet flowing properly.

I've been working hard on getting my bedroom organized and decorated, which seems a simple enough task, but you wouldn't believe the stress I've been through during the process. First of all, I didn't realize my room was going to be so... well... huge! There are a bunch of decor things I left behind in Tucson that I wish I would have brought, because I've seriously been going crazy trying to figure out how to place things. It's like I'm having OCD episodes or something. I rearranged my DragonBall figures like five times. And now I'm not sure I want to have all them out on display. The cartoony colors are interrupting my feng shui. I want my old feng shuiy room back!

Ah, well, I will get over this grief soon enough. Moving is always stressful. But I must say, I'm impressed with how not stressed I've been throughout this move. I'm not very emotionally disrupted to be honest, except that I miss my Tucson besties. I was just ready for this, you know? It feels normal being here.

The weather has been cloudy and wet most of the time here, with the cityscape covered in a blanket of mist, but I'm enjoying the change of scenery. My first night here, Dad and I went by our local EuroPan Cafe and got some pizza. The next night, he took me out to a fantastic Indian restaurant called Indus Valley. Yum, yum-o.

Yesterday, Mom flew into town, but Dad took her on a romantic getaway at a B & B in Brooklyn, so I spent yesterday and last night all by my lonesome! I decided to go out on the town in the evening and look for something to eat in spite of the wet weather. I walked for a while down Broadway but couldn't decide what I wanted, and eventually came upon a little bakery restaurant (called Broadway Bagel, I think) where I ordered the Lumberjack breakfast! I couldn't resist having pancakes for dinner. As I was enjoying my hearty meal all alone in that cozy cafe, a couple of guys walked in and proceeded to snort coke at the back of the restaurant. Hm. Not so inconspicuous.

Anyways, I didn't stay out for much longer, because I was actually getting kind of cold and wet. I came home and watched anime in my room all night (I have my own 32-inch widescreen TV!). I've been watching a new series I bought a while back called "Kino's Journey." It's really fascinating and full of philosophical fables and thought-provoking stories. Good stuff.

Mom and Dad just got back a little while ago, so I'm hoping we can get down to business this weekend and get the decorating done. Then this house will really feel like a home. Pretty soon I'll have some photos for you, and I'll give you the grand tour of our apartment. Stay tuned.

Peace and Love,
Sean

Welcome to New York City!

And welcome to my blog, dear reader! It's my 6th day living in Manhattan, and my real adventures in the Big Apple have yet to begin. Because my move from the dry desert of Tucson to the lush concrete jungle of New York is kind of a big deal, I've decided to keep this blog to document my experiences in this new and exciting world. I'll be sharing videos, photos, and on days when I'm too lazy to do my hair, just old-fashioned text will have to do. Anyone who has blogged before knows that it's quite a commitment, especially for a very non-committed guy like me, so you're comments and flattery are much appreciated. I hope you'll join me on this life-changing journey in the big city.

Peace and Love,
Sean