Skip to main content

Into the Belly of the Beast

 

Photo: CinemaTreasures.org

After my first New York lunch of "dirty water dogs" on the Post Office steps near Penn Station, I headed up to the belly of the beast —Times Square. 

I didn't need my map to know when I entered the zone. The donut shops and check-cashing stores on 8th Avenue gave way to porn emporiums around 39th and 40th Streets across from the intimidating Port Authority bus station. The number and sizes of the shops swelled as I got closer to 42nd. Each one was lit up with bulbs and neon in all colors of the rainbow. The storefronts didn't have names, just descriptions of what they offered: 

XXX MAGAZINES

HOT PORN VHS N BETA

PEEP SHOWS 25 CENTS

Windows were decked out with magazines and video boxes of naked women displaying all of their wares to equally nude men. I had seen my share of (straight) porn in high school and college, but I felt naughty seeing these images out on a Sunday afternoon. Like I was going to be caught by a cop and reprimanded for being a pervert. 

I pressed on, strolling across 42nd Street. No one was in a hurry. Men trudged in and out of the stores, eyes down. The few women I saw walked even slower, throwing out a hip here, bending over there, making sure they were seen. But I avoided eye contact with them — with everyone. I was by far the youngest person on the street. And I did not belong there. 




Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Van Halen vs. Tone-Loc

This week in 1989, Tone-Loc was blocked from the #1 spot on Billboard's Hot 100 by Paula Abdul and her first hit song "Straight Up."  Sharp-eyed readers will note that this is the third mention of Abdul on this blog, something I never would have guessed when I launched this.  Anyway, Tone-Loc's "Wild Thing" rocketed into the hearts of music lovers around the world thanks to a classic hip hop move: Borrowing an element from something that was tired at the moment and re-inventing it for new audiences.   In this case, the song's guitar riff and drum roll were instantly identifiable from Van Halen's "Jamie's Cryin'" off their first album in 1978 (!) According to Wikipedia (the primary research resource here at "Little Brett, Big City"), the Van Halen management team allowed the sample to be included in "Wild Thing" for a flat fee of $5,000.  But apparently the band members hadn't heard anything about it. Drummer...
Post a Comment
Read more

l i t t l e b r e t t , BIG CITY

When I left college in 1989, I was a virgin with corn-fed drive and a terrifying secret. It could disappoint or disgust my family and friends. It could even kill me. But I couldn’t hide from it anymore.  With "The World's Heaviest Briefcase," I escaped on a midnight train from Lima, Ohio to the YMCA on West 34th Street in Manhattan. Being gay had to be easier in New York, even though I was arriving with no home or job.   Right away, a hooker chased me in Times Square, and perverts watched me shower at the Y. I filled payphones with quarters each day, desperately seeking work. Ultimately, I was confronted by my biggest fear when dating my first man – a member of AIDS activist group ACT UP.  Could I really survive in one of the hardest cities in the world? Or would I fail and return to Ohio, back in the closet to find a wife and a lawn to mow.   l i t t l e  b r e t t , BIG CITY celebrates finding your own place in the world. Here I...
6 comments
Read more

You Went To School At A Subway Stop?!

In 1989, I graduated from Bowling Green State University. Which is a mouthful. So when people in New York asked me where I went to school. I would just say "Bowling Green."  The first time, I got a quizzical look and a "Huh?" The second person finally asked, "You went to school at a subway station?" My turn to go "Huh?" I then learned that "Bowling Green" is indeed a station on the #4 and #5 lines on the NYC Subway system, way downtown in the Financial District. I'm including a pic of the Bowling Green "head house," which is the rare, above-ground part of a station that contains escalators, elevators, and ticket agents. (Thanks again, Wikipedia.) (Wikimedia Commons/DSchwen) This little beauty is a New York City-designated landmark and is on the National Register of Historic Places. And I still haven't been there yet. 
Post a Comment
Read more