My mind is all jumbled because this post is a little late, and I'm trying to work out how to organize a run-down of my recent adventures for you. *sigh* Okay.
Two weekends ago, I took the subway to Wall Street and joined Mom and Dad for a stroll around the financial district. There are lots of really cool buildings, both historical and modern, around that part of town.
We also went to Battery Park, where you can look over the river and see the Statue of Liberty in the distance. I've still never actually seen that thing up close!
On Sunday, June 28, I went over to 5th Avenue around noon to watch the Gay Pride Parade-- a celebration of GLBT self-expression, equality, truth, peace, and love. There were plenty of drag queens and hot guys to go around. Gotta love it. I took hundreds of pictures at the parade, so I've compiled a slideshow of a small selection of them. I also took several video clips (but I think I'll upload those on another post because Blogger is giving me a headache). There were a few notable people marching in the parade, including the governor of New York David Paterson, Oscar-winner Dustin Lance Black, activist Cleve Jones, and I'm pretty positive I also saw Jaslene Gonzalez from America's Next Top Model.
The parade was way longer than I expected, but I stuck around for most of it until I was basically starving to death. After a meal of pizza and breadsticks, I proceeded to take the subway over to the PrideFest Street Fair, which took place over in The Village (At least, I think that's what they call that area). There was lots of junk food and rainbow-themed gifts for sale, but I just bought a lemonade because, as I've noted before, I don't have much money. I did enjoy walking up and down the street fair checking out guys and stuff. By evening, I was exhausted, especially because I didn't sleep well the night before. Ah well, it was a fun, gay-filled day anyways.
In other news, I've been watching way too much baseball lately because there's a Yankee's game on 6 days a week and dad got me into it. Me? Watching sports? Crazy talk! I know, right? But as usual, I've also been diggin' lots of anime. Since I finished watching the intellectually stimulating series "Kino's Journey," I started on another great series I bought a while back, "Samurai 7," a futuristic rendition of Akira Kurosawa's legendary epic film Seven Samurai. Thus far, it's a fairly impressive series, with a diverse cast of characters, an engaging story, samurai action, and subtle romance. I also rented some great anime films recently: (1) Kiki's Delivery Service, a family-friendly coming-of-age story about a young witch, directed by the masterpiece factory himself Hayao Miyazaki; (2) The Sky Crawlers, a pensive, complex, and mysterious study of the human condition punctuated with stunning CG aerial action sequences, directed by Mamoru Oshii of Ghost in the Shell; and (3) Tokyo Godfathers, writer/director Satoshi Kon's quirky tale about three homeless people who discover an abandoned baby in a garbage dump and try to find out who her mother is in an adventure full of chance encounters and holiday miracles.
Over the past week, I also worked on making some curtains for my room out of cheap bedsheets. I did it with mom's help, of course, because I didn't really know how to sew before. They look pretty good now, except I think they just need one more finishing touch.
Last Friday, I went with the parentals to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where we admired all kinds of amazing art--what else? I took a lot of pictures of the incredible statues, which are probably my favorite kind of artwork to look at. The amount of skill that went into creating these realistic figures is astounding. The photos will have to come on a later post because this one's long enough already!
For July 4th, we had a picnic in the shade at Central Park. It was a gorgeous day! After we ate, we took a little nap on our picnic blanket and enjoyed the breeze blowing gently over us. Then we walked around the park and checked out the beautiful Conservatory Gardens, which feature fountains with bronze statues, topiaries, colorful flower beds, and lush ivy. I'm mad that I forgot to bring my camera that day! But of course, I can go back and take pictures any time I want. Because I live in New York City.
