Hot Child in the City

Day Twenty-Two

Saturday was quite a long day for Elke and I, especially given our normal level of activity.

Despite efforts to the contrary, we didn't get out of here until after 3.00. We headed straight to the Museum of Sex, but this involved a lot of walking due to the shitty weekend subway schedule. Elke was hungry, so we had to stop to get some pizza, but we finally reached the Museum of Sex around 4.00.

The museum turned out to be pretty cool, albiet uncomfortable. There were three exhibits. The first exhibit was an exploration of the male body and society's relationship with male nudity. It traced male nudity from the ancient Greeks through body-building beefcakes all the way up to gay porn. It was especially interesting to see the reaction of the men there. They all obviously came to the museum expecting to see a bunch of naked women, and a lot of them were REALLY, REALLY uncomfortable with the plethora of male nudity. Some went so far as to dash quickly through the exhibit and wait at the end for their fellow museum attendees.

The second exhibit made me want to run out of the room quickly. It was about the history of "stag" films, aka early porn. Basically, this exhibit consisted of early porn movies with a descriptions of them posted next to the screen. Some of them were silent films, which meant they had to go to a black screen to show the "sexy" dialogue. Despite the fact that some of these movies were from as early as the 1920s, they were all pretty hard core - the sex WAS pretty plain Jane, but the fact that there was sex on tape at all is nuts.

But all of this meant that I was standing in a room watching old-school porn with a bunch of strangers. It was really awkward. The men in the room were continuously adjusting their pants, making things that much more uncomfortable. I also kept thinking about the fact that if any of these people were still alive, they probably had great-grandchildren. I can't imagine how horribly, terribly taboo it must have been to be in "stag" films back then - espeically as a woman. Oh, and we found out that the person who put the whole exhibit together is a TCom professor at Ohio University

The last exhibit was just a bunch of weird sex artifacts. They had this insane chair that allowed gross men (and women, I suppose) to vicariously fuck a woman over the Internet by controlling a dildo installed in the chair with a video showing how it worked. My favorite thing, however, was the collection of old sex ed videos starting as early as the 1930s. They were completely ridiculous. They didn't even mention abstinence until the '50s because in order to mention the absence of sex they would first have to mention sex, and such a thing was just unheard of.

We spent a bit of time in the museum store and then headed back outside. We just picked a direction and went with it until we realized we had ended up in Union Square. We decided to go to Heartland Brewery for dinner because Elke really wanted to try their Apricot Ale. We both got nachos, but neither of us really ate much of anything, so it kind of felt like a waste.

By the time we got done with dinner it was nearing 9.00. We were supposed to meet Shannon at the club she works at just a few blocks away from Union Square at 11.00, so there didn't seem to be any point in going home. So of course, at my urging, we went to The Strand. However, it was much, MUCH too hot to really look at much, even though most of the store is air conditioned. And by that point we were both too exhausted from walking in the 100+ degree weather to do much browsing anyway, so we found seats in the children's section and spent a good hour looking at kid's books.

After a bit more browsing, we were finally kicked out at 10.30. I was going to get a couple of books, but the line was REALLY long and I just didn't feel like waiting. So we went to the bank to get some cash and headed up to 21st Street to meet Shannon at Stitch. She wasn't there when we got there, so we went to the McDonald's around the corner to get some French Fries.

Shannon finally showed up and we spent the next two hours hanging out at the door with her (it's her job to take people's money). It was really interesting to watch the doorman - he determined how much each person had to pay to get in based on looks and gender. Girls were anywhere from free to $10 and guys were $5-$10. Kinda sick, isn't it. Shannon tried to explain the politics of bars and clubs in New York, but it mostly just made me want to avoid them completely in the future.

But we did have our first celebrity sighting. Tommy Lee stopped by the place for a bit. I didn't even see him come in, but Elke and Shannon informed me that the man who had just brushed against me and almost knocked me over was Tommy Lee. I did, however, see him on his way out. Yet again, they had to point him out to me - I wouldn't recognize him if we were making out.
After a couple of free beers and some nice people watching, Elke and I decided to head home. After all, not only had we been out for hours, but we definitely looked it - we were still in afternoon clothes and stuck out like sore thumbs. We weren't very near any subways, so we walked for about 20 blocks and then took a cab. We could have made it further, but it was just SO HOT neither of us could take it anymore. Plus, we both had to pee.

By the time we got home it was after 2.00. We hung out for a bit, but we were both exhausted, so we went to bed soon-ish. I think that was the night I was up until 4.30 on the phone, but I can't remember for sure.

posted by Megan @ 9:53 PM