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BW's New York Minute

8/15/2011

7 Comments

 
cardboard signs
I spent the past week in New York.  The trip had several high points, including the best chocolate chip cookie I have ever eaten (at Levain Bakery--thanks for the rec, DXH!), a brief visit to the Stonewall Inn, and a thorough inspection of Chicago's O'Hare Airport during an eight-hour (surprise!) layover.  You might not know that some of the most advanced airports in the U.S. are making the switch from traditional monitor displays to crudely penned cardboard signs in order to conserve electrodes.  Thanks, O'Hare, for doing your part! 

I also got a chance to explore several different parts of New York City, and have a few observations, some gay-relevant and others not:
  1. I saw few obviously gay people, even fewer obvious lesbians, and almost no butches (compared to other large US cities, that is--tough midwestern housewives notwithstanding).  This held true in the West Village, on the Upper West Side, in Times Square, Sutton Place, Battery Park, Chinatown, and on about 20 different buses and subway trains. 
  2. Despite #1, no one stares at you in New York.  This is because they don't care about you even a teensy little bit.  This is both the good news and the bad news.
  3. New York men wear Windsor knots for a regular day at work.  (In many other cities, a Windsor is more like a statement that you're getting all fancy-like.)
  4. People in New York go absolutely batshit for smoked and preserved fish. 
  5. We went to Henrietta Hudson's (a lesbian bar) and there were about fifteen people there.  It was loud and smelled vaguely of vomit.  The bartender was kind of butchy, as was one other woman.  No one else.  A little disappointing.  Any readers from New York want to shed some light on the NYC Butch Deficit?
  6. Some Manhattanites are slightly out of touch with nature.  In Central Park, my DGF and I saw a family whose members were tremendously excited about seeing a squirrel.  Dad was videotaping, Sis was offering it her hot dog bun, Bro was trying to pet it, and Mom looked positively stricken.  I would have pointed out some nearby ants to them, too, but I didn't want anyone to pee from all the wildlife-induced excitement.
  7. If you are gay, and you take the Staten Island Ferry, you will be the only gay person on the Staten Island Ferry.
  8. This exists:
  
Aunt Butchie's Desserts
 

  9.   As does this: 
Dykes Lumber Co.
 

10.  Despite the plethora of entertainment options available in their bustling metropolis, New Yorkers are particularly fond of shapeshifting and crafts (as the selection of used books for sale at Symphony Space revealed):
Picture
Picture

And lastly, my two brushes with fame:

I am 99% sure  we encountered John Bartlett while he was out walking one of his dogs in the West Village.  I didn't know anything about him, but after we talked to him for a while about dogs and walked away, the fashion designer friend we were with told us, "Oh wow--that was John Bartlett."  So I googled him, and not only is he a famous (gay) fashion designer, but is very committed to animals, particularly dogs.  (And he's even cuter in person.)

In the taxi line at LaGuardia right after we arrived, my DGF noticed that the address on the luggage tag of the (het) couple in front of us was a few blocks from where we were staying.  Resourcefully, my DGF asked if they wanted to split a cab.  Indeed, they did.  During the ride, we learned that the woman was coming back from the west coast, where she had just been at the Frameline Film Festival promoting a film in which she had acted.  What film, you ask?  "Jamie and Jessie Are Not Together."  She was surprised I'd heard of it, and had no idea that it's been getting great buzz in the lesbian blogosphere.  Has anyone out there seen it yet?  I'd love to post a review.

7 Comments
Arwen
8/15/2011 08:06:16 am

You were apparently at Hank's (HH) at the wrong time. It doesn't get good until after 11 on a weekend night. Next time pick up a copy of GO NYC magazine to find out what's happening- it's always changing!

Reply
Butch Wonders link
8/15/2011 10:23:43 am

Hmm, yeah, maybe I was at HH too early... though not by much, I don't think. Thanks for the tip re: GO NYC!

Reply
Max link
8/15/2011 10:35:16 am

Hey BW! Thanks for reporting from the front - As a former butch New Yorker (now I represent as the only butch in Los Angeles, it often seems), I can mention a few neighborhoods where we hang:
the East Village, the Lower East Side, and Brooklyn, particularly Park Slope, Prospect Heights, and Greenpoint/Williamsburg.
I lived in all of these neighborhoods specifically because of the queer and butch presence there - and while the West Village is fun for late night debauchery, it is largely the playground of rich gay men who can afford to live there. In Brooklyn, I played in the Park Slope Women's Softball League, and I can tell you there can be seen MANY a butch in the parks come Sunday morning. And don't even get me started about the scene the organic food co-op...


Reply
Lyndsay
8/16/2011 04:11:24 am

See your problem is you were tourists. You need a native next time, to show you all the good place, Stonewall is good but kind of touristy recently. Next time, try going to Queens, or downtown Brooklyn, Williamsburg if you want a good scene. Also as lame as this sounds I have notice a large amount of butch women live in Jersey.

Reply
Victoria link
8/17/2011 06:40:37 am

I went on a whirlwind trip to NY several years ago with a friend. We went to the Village, and met some lovely (and very young) butches who took us to a few different lesbian bars, one with some gorgeous femme pole dancers on the bar.

And as for the comment from Max--I'm an LA femme, and I assure you, you're not the only butch there. :))

Always love your blog, BW.

Reply
bloomie link
8/27/2011 10:05:17 am

Your problem is that you didn't get to Brooklyn where hot visible queers are plentiful. That's also where the parties you should have gone to are based. More of my friends identify as gender queer than butch but there's a bunch of you (not as many as I'd like, but a bunch) in Brooklyn.

Reply
PB
11/17/2011 05:05:34 am

Two pennies worth: there are actually some places where squirrels are exotica. I know it's hard to believe, and I know it's odd, but having been with my young nephew the first time he saw a squirrel and caused a commotion trying to follow it up a tree with a camera...it happens. The kid was born and raised in Hawai'i, no squirrels, no snakes, just geckos, bufos, and mongooses...

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