Gotham

Got back from NYC a couple of days ago. Trip was five days, and the thrill is definitely gone. Stayed with Alan in Crown Heights, who has to leave the U.S. soon, having allowed his work visa to expire LAST JULY!? He's just as much the semi-literate, giggly 13-year-old schoolgirl trapped in the body of a 38-year-old Filipino man as ever, working 6 or 7 days a week as an architect, and going out and getting somewhat drunk nearly every night. I simply can't relate to lushes and addicts. Nutbars, I can relate to, though. All Alan's friends are irritating media and advertising-employed corporate types, as well. And now he wants to move to Dubai, which sounds like my idea of Hell.

My love affair with NYC may be over, as well. It's an exhausting place, the subway's a pain in the ass, summers are too hot, and it's ridiculously expensive, and feels more American than in the past. Maybe i just need a few years without a visit. On the plus side, did explore parts of
Crown Heights and Bedford-Stuyvesant I hadn't seen before.

Went to both the East Side and the West Side Clubs. The latter first, on a Saturday, when it was quite hopping. Staff as rude as ever, but had some fun with a well-hung Ben Kingsley look-alike, probably in his fifties, as well as a guy who looked like Frank Langella's younger brother. At the ESC the following Tuesday, the crowd was definitely older, but did someone I had had an encounter with a couple of years before. Staff marginally friendlier. Was hit on by a couple of older Jewish guys and a short Latino, and cruised by a big-dicked twentysomething Negro I found quite hot, but was too intimidated to respond to. A youngish guy in white flipflops kept walking by me and asking 'S'up?', which was kind of amusing.

Also had a very brief visit to the Whitney Biennial, which was pretty good, especially a couple of Video installations, one called 'The Alchemy of Comedy... Stupid' by Edgar Arceneaux, featuring simultaneously-playing footage of David Alan Grier performing the same brilliant comedy routine at 3 different venues, and the other a video by Olaf Breuning, sort of a sendup of cheesy reality shows and adventure travel TV programs. Also liked the paintings of Robert Bechtle. And I saw Michael Cunningham there, too. Every time I go to NYC, I see someone mildly famous: last July it was Bobby Cannavale, last May Anna Wintour.