Screen: October

NYC, a month ago.

Brooklyn Bridge by treeleaf

A month ago I was trying to get everything ready and leave for New York. A month ago I was so excited I couldn’t sleep, thinking about exploring the city, making plans with my pocket Fodor’s guide, counting my money, making budget predictions.

A month later, and it feels like my trip to NY was a year ago. Everything seems so blurry, but I’ll try to write what I remember.

Everything seemed normal when I got there, no culture shock at all. I took the train from Howard Beach to Norstrand Ave and made my transfers so naturally it felt as though I never left home. Of course, the faces, they were different, but I didn’t feel like a stranger.  It was when I left Lafayette Ave Station that I realized I was somewhere else entirely. Busy streets full of pedestrians on their iPhones, cabs, bikes, pedestrians and the hot sun with a slight and queer breeze.

Then I got lost getting to my friend Sofia’s house, walking about 10 blocks in the wrong directions. Thanks Google Maps.

It’s funny, Sofia has been insisting I go visit her since we graduated High School and I was finally there. To celebrate we hung out locally in Brooklyn, with my best friend Gamaliel, who had just gotten accepted at The New School of Drama to pursue graduate studies in Directing for Theater.  I remembering calling Michelle that night, a little drunk I must add, and telling her how I already loved it all, and how I thought we were already at that stage in which we were moving away from home, like a bunch of us, who think that staying in PR would be counter-productive to our intellectual growth. And how I felt I didn’t have any real bonds back home; Gama left, Nelson was thinking about moving, Michelle was too and me, I already graduated and needed to make a decision. My mom has always been happy with whatever decision I make academically and professionally and my grandmother seems to be against everything I do anyway, so it wouldn’t matter much.

The week followed slowly and normally, since I tried not thinking about the countdown in my head. On the second day I got on the Q and one of its advantages is it goes over the East River instead of under it so after a couple of minutes underground I got blinded by sunlight and had my first glance at “The City”, the Brooklyn Bridge and the Statue of Liberty, far away, tiny and skinny. Words couldn’t describe how I felt. I walked around Union Sq (14th St), walked down Broadway, trying to keep up with the New York walking pace. It wasn’t as crazy as my NYC friends told me it would be, because apparently for them Puerto Ricans are the slowest pedestrians on the face of the earth.  Trying to find Washington Sq Park I started seeing all the signs for the different NYU schools, and finally saw the Gallatin Bldg I was to take my information session at on Wednesday. I sat on bench at the park and just looked at people walking by, listened to the live jazz bands, saw the street performers, and my writer’s block I was suffering from for months, it completely disappeared.

The following days I basically woke up around noon, had brunch and coffee with Sofia, explored the city and in the evening met with Gama and we just walked around. Times Square was just overwhelmingly touristy, but I got to see all the theaters, I will one day see the best musicals at. Grand Central Terminal is beautiful and complicated, 5th Ave. is busy and under construction. Got to see the Chrysler Bldg (which I find more interesting than the Empire State), walked up to Rockefeller Center so I could use my discount at a very famous chocolate store (*wink*). Went down to Greenwich Village to review and visit my Gay Activist roots at Christopher St and Stonewall. Went to dinner with a friend on Thursday, which was basically “East Village Day. Had thai for the first time, visited the Highline Park, did a little Sex and The City spotting and had cupcakes at Magnolia’s Bakery. And then, of course, went to the famous Splash Club. Mood, Music and Decoraions: *****/*****. Prices: Same as Condado and Old San Juan. Local’s Dancing Skills: FAIL.

That same Thursday morning I spent at Central Park, where I got lost trying to find the Jackie O Reserve. Had lunch with a very good friend and political gay activist, Pedro Julio Serrano, who showed me around his office at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. At Wall St, while having some Mexican food, we talked about PR and its gay activists, its future, politics and I realized how I should really just get involved more with all my free time.

After exploring Little Italy and Chinatown under the rain, Friday evening I spent at the home of Puerto Rican writer Carmen Valle (Tu version de las cosas, Esta casa abierta y flotante, Haiku de Nueva York, ) her partner Hamlet, Gama and Malena, also a UPR graduate. We celebrated life, achievements, goals, and the exodus, bitterly. We celebrated being between two cultures at that time, art, music, literature, theater and our future as Not-quite-Puerto-Rican New Yorkers and Not-so-New-Yorker Puerto Ricans. The champagne flowed all night on the roof of her apartment complex, spying on neighboors and getting wet under a Tropical Storm Warning. The Empire State lay short under a blanket of fog.

The weekend I spent with some very good friends, One from Maine, another from Brooklyn and another from Japan. Junichi was kind enough to let us stay at his apartment on Alphabet City and songs from Rent filled my head all night. Sunday, my last day, rolled slowly while we had brunch, iced lattes and as I took my last train ride home on the Q. 14 th was full of people and a band paying tribute to Michael Jackson and I realized I was finally leaving and I was gonna miss the city like hell. On the way back, weird enough, the train stopped on its tracks over the East River (due to traffic) and I saw the Brooklyn Bridge for the last time.

The flight back home was short and non-stop but excruciatingly painful. I kept writing all the way back and reading Carmen’s book, Haiku de Nueva York, which she was so kind as to sign.

…and I really do think Gallatin is the school for me and what I was looking for, that NY is a place I see myself living at and starting a new life. I know I was just a tourist, just a visitor, and I wasn’t paying rent, bills, not working or studying and that make any place seem wonderful. But I’ve never felt so sure about anything until now.

Screenshot: September

I think this will be a monthly or biweekly post. Here’s what’s left of september.

Behind Schedule

Problems with my laptop had made it difficult to talk about NYC, but soon enough my (4) readers. Apparently faulty acer batteries make your keyboard and touchpad not work after a couple of years, so that’s why my lappy was buggin. Solution: Remove battery, use with AC.

Also: I erased my myspace account.

Also: I quit my job at Berlitz. They were treating me like pigs and I (and my qualifications) wasn’t gonna take it anymore.

TTYL.

Vacations

I love NY by areyeah

In all truth, I can say that the last time I went on vacations was June 2003. My grandma and I were fighting like crazy,  and my uncle bought me a plane ticket to San Diego so we wouldn’t kill each other. Stayed there for a month, taking my cousin to the Bus Stop so he could go to special-camp. But I mostly stayed inside on the computer, waiting for my partner at the time to come online and chat, so I could avoid a huge argument later. No Senior Trip followed (everyone went to get drunk at Punta Cana, Dom.Republic or beautiful Costa Rica). Me, I either worked or studied the following summers.

“New York city, center of the universe” says Angel to Mark after filming a cop and a homeless woman on the streets.  NY has always appealed to me for several reasons. It’s where the Gay Revolution started, in a small pub called the Stonewall Inn on Christopher St, which led to our current fight for LGBTT equality. Part of my family’s untold history lies there, since they did what most Puertoricans did; move to find more money. At least I’m happy they decided to come back to the island, because then my story would be told from a very different IP.

I’m also very interested in studying in the city (or any city besides Macondo USA), so I’m attending an information session at NYU’s Gallatin School of Interdisciplinary Studies. I’m sure I’ll get the same info as the brochure, but I really need to se ethe place before I decide to apply. I wouldn’t want to get there and not feel the place and hate it forever. (see also: UPR-RP)

So, tomorrow I leave, and will come back with the sounds, colors and sounds of the city in my head to share with you all. Here goes nothing.

Screen: August

Theme: Duel:Dark
Shutdown Quicklink and Rocket Dock by Gaia ‘09, with a little help from noej (Follow her on Twitter!)

Rant

While reading “Rant” by Chuck Palahniuk you come to the realization that no matter what you do and achieve, your story will be told so differently from how you actually lived it. Sadder, maybe, more sensational perhaps.

Lately and after graduation I’ve been in a very peculiar mood. I don’t know if its all the work I do that doesn’t seem to be enough to pay the bills, or going out and facing the same crowd, the same drinks, the same music, the same red and blue neon lights. Maybe I’m sick of not living by myself, of having to be oh-so-fucking thoughtfull around the house and being able to only be naked inside my bathroom and room and not in my kitchen. maybe it’s because I think sex is overrated and I think of more productive things to do, like reading, grinding levels, or learning japanese. Maybe I’m sick of debt collectors, of my grandmother and her eternal grief, of stupid personality competitions on all social networks, of my sister being on her path to destruction before being legal.

Or maybe I just need to leave this humid and hot country.

.iso FUN!

Downloaded these four this week for the PSP.

I’ve only had the chance to play MH2 which is bloodier than I thought (which I know I’m going to love) and AtariCE which is sooooo addictive. Between these 4, FFVII:CC and two more books by Palahniuk I’ve guaranteed quality entertainment for a couple of months. Stay tuned for reviews.

De héroes azules, teatros breves y livejournal.

Llevo varias semanas batallando entre si escribo algo o no, si vale la pena, si alguien lo va leer, si cierro el blog, en fin, ese síndrome del que sufrimos los más retro de los bloggeros. Me puse a pensar que lo ideal sería volver al pasado en mi mente y lo chévere que era tener una cuenta en livejournal (which I still own but haven’t updated since 2007). Lo bueno de livejournal era simplemente que era una excusa para RANT y RANT sobre lo que sea, porque para eso era, era un journal, un diario. Yo recuerdo la primera vez que vi a a lguien escribiendo en un diario. Estaba en la oficina del AAA de Fajardo, había un muchacho tipo Kurt Cobain escribiendo en una libreta de cuero y mi primo mayor le pregunta que hacía. Yo me meto y contesto, con mis 8 años de edad, que era un diario. El me mira, se sonríe y me da la razón. Ya yo sabía lo que era, porque Doug tenía uno, y le molestaba que le dijeran “diary” porque era un “journal” y en el escribía todas las noches. Esa noche empezé mi primera entrada.

Me encantaba, porque me entretenía lo montono y cotidiano que podía ser la vida de los demás y la mía. Simplicity.  Ok, so, no es como si no pudiera seguir escribiendo en el, todavía existe livejournal, pero las cosas se pusieron super complicadas, quizás por yo ser muy honesto, o por leerme mucha gente. No se cual de todas, pero lo mejor fue cerrarlo todo y esconderme. Ahora lo que queda después de tanta migración es este “wordpress-spot” donde puedo poner lo que me parece relevante, y escondo lo monótono y mundano. I am Jack’s 3.0 OS.

Rindiéndole tributo a “This is Jack’s Bullshit” me voy medio livejournal esta vez

As of Lately

Thursday, August 6, 2009 – 1:56am

Music: “Rush of Blood”-Coldplay

Mood: (none)

Haven’t done much lately, aside from working. This month has been the opposite of the previous work-wise; less hours at the store, more classes at the language center. At least I’ve cut down on my spending. Instead of the movies, I’m renting at RedBox, and yesterday I saw Watchmen. I have to say I loved the film and how it created this alternate reality in which the superheroes were involved in every important aspect of american modern history, like Vietnam, JFK’s assasination, WWI, WWII and the Cold War (and eventually World Peace). Loved the photography, the gloom and darkness behind the city and the well-thought character development. In all honesty, I could’nt have been able to see this at the theater… My bladder can’t stand movies more than 1.5hrs long and this was 3h long. No wonder so many people hated it. I loved Dr.Manhattan by the way, but apparently I saw a censored version, because I saw only one penis shot the whole time. RedBox, you owe me some serious penis time.

Lastly, Alana took me out to see some live sketch comedy at Punto Fijo in Santurce.  Teatro Breve has been at it for three years and I had not yet seen them. I recognized some faces from Teatro Deportivo, LIPIT and Iocus.  The crowd was mostly 30-somethings and 25-ettes coming out of work, or just coming out of their boring Guaynabo homes. Corporates, Yuppies, desperate hosuewives and douchebags mainly. We were COMPLETELY under-dressed and drinking Medalla while everyone was on their 3rd glass of wine. Pftt. We had an awesome time anywayand the actors were hilarious. This 81-year-old comedian called “Shorty” was a Guest Star and did some stand-up, it was mainly all sex-jokes, but hey, that’s what sells.

I really needed to get out of the house. I was getting tired of staring at the beige in the walls

*motrown comes back from livejournal mode*

…*sigh*

Upcoming Gaming Excitement

Very excited about these titles (EB Games: I will not reserve, I SAID I WON’T, LEAVE ME ALONE!)

 

Those last two are fan art, but you get the idea…