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?