Moving all my junk in yesterday, one of the movers carried in a box that said “Playstation 3″ on it.  I got this from my old roommate who gave me boxes to pack with.  There were a bunch of kids hanging out front of the building I’m moving into and one started going “Oh man!!  Playstation 3!!  Awesome!!”

The older kid looking over at the box said, “Wow, you are going to get robbed.”

Every time I walk down Driggs Avenue from Greenpoint to the L train, I noticed they had added two new stop lights along the avenue.  Taking into account all the new things on Driggs Ave like all the ugly-as-hell condos and another branch of the Rip-Off (Millennium) Market got me thinking to myself about how much has changed in the three years I’d been walking up and down this street regularly.   Normally I’d assume three years from now I’d recognize it even less, but maybe not since the economy has come to a grinding ha

Learning about the history of the random neighborhoods I end up in has become a hobby.  I think Williamsburg and Greenpoint have some of the best history I’ve read so far.  My interest started with my fascination with maps of Brooklyn and how the neighborhoods have change over time.

I also get to talk with the my older neighbors on warmer days who spend the days on their stoops.  I’m glad I’ve made a point to talk to them for a number of reasons but the best is simply learning about how much the neighborhood really has changed.  For instance, there used to be a trolley on Manhattan avenue, the tracks of which you can make out on this photograph:

My neighbors were also kind enough not to laugh at me too much when I was completely shocked by their pointing out that the street names in Greenpoint are alphabetized…
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To complement any street-level time traveling is of course the book, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Everyone who lives in Williamsburg should read this book.  It’s amazing to learn about Manhattan Ave, Metropolitan and Lorimer Streets in the context of the extreme poverty of Williamsburg circa pre-World War I.  Or to imagine Francie hopping on the Broadways Elevated train (or nowadays the JMZ line, or the train Jay-Z got his name from, or the train that roared past the windows of the first apartment I ever lived in):

Anyway, this sort of brings me back to Driggs Avenue which is kind of a wasteland before but is now slowly filling with all the detritus of yuppie living: FroYo, expensive salons, “organic” markets, expensive vintage clothes for men, etc.  But I saw this photo looking north on Driggs Ave from North 6th on Brookyn Revealed (where I got all the images in this post) and realized that this place has always been changing.  I suppose that’s why it’s New York.

No article that isn’t about the Bush Administration has ever made my blood boil like this article in the Worst Section of the New York Times did this morning:

You Try to Live on 500K in This Town

I would love to!

The article is really worth reading.  At first, I assumed it was just another sign of how the Sunday Styles section is the worst piece of trash published by a reputable newpaper.  You know, that the Styles section is the lowest form of reporting (bullshit observations of my rich friends!).  You really have to wonder about people who write this shit and you have to REALLY wonder about the people who let it be published.

Anyway, then I realized this article was actually just a joke.  No one in their right mind could write an article talking about the costs of living in New York (which includes your CHAUFFEUR WITH A GUN and your $45,000 NANNY, obviously) would follow that up with the following paragraph:

The total costs here, which do not include a lot of things, like kennels for the dog when the family is away, summer camp, spas and other grooming for the human members of the family, donations to charity, and frozen hot chocolates at Serendipity, are $790,750, which would require about a $1.6-million salary to compensate for taxes. Give or take a few score thousand of dollars.

Yes.  You’re right New York Times, we should feel bad for them.  The HANDFUL of executives who are effected by this and drove their companies into the ground so that they needed the Federal government to bail them out will definitely suffer if they only make $500,000 in cash every year PLUS ALL OF THE UNLIMITED STOCK OPTIONS THEY CAN STILL BE GIVEN.

Last night I protested in front of the Mormon church for their involvement with spreading disinformation in order to pass the bigoted Proposition 8.  10,000 of us then marched down Broadway to Columbus Circle chanting “Hey hey, ho ho, Homophobia has got to go” and “Gay, Straight, Black, White, Marriage is a Civil Right!”.  (As a side note, why are all chants at protests basically variations on these two rhyme schemes?)

It was a great experience, seeing people come together and stand up for their rights.  In fact, my friends and I joked that it was one of the few times we’ve gotten together for something other than getting drinks at night.  Funny because it’s true.

It’s interesting reading some the elder gays talk about the protests.  Andrew Sullivan thinks this is a new gay awakening. Joe at Joe.My.God thinks it’s a big deal now too.  Chris at Citizen Crain seconds Andrew Sullivan but he also asks the best next question: what now?  (He also rails against the horrendous HRC which has not said one positive thing about our protests and has issued only one statement which has admonish people who blame minorities).

I think the protests are important.  They serve a lot of different functions.  For one, it gets the message out that we, the LGBTQ community, are not going to sit back and allow discrimination any longer.  You can’t give us a taste of our rights and then snatch them away.   Two, it helps build a sense of community among the LGBTQ, hopefully getting us to think about how we can work together to help each other out more.  Third, the national day of protest shows that LGBTQ people are everywhere.  And finally, protesting together will give everyone–from alienated communities in Tennessee to accepted communities here in NYC–a sense that we are part of this together.  We won’t stand for the discrimination inflicted on California families as much as we won’t stand for the hate inflicted on our Arkansa families.

So what do we do now?  I’m skeptical that something will come of protesting concretely.  Do you think your representative hears our pleads any clearer now?  I don’t think so.  Do you think that President-Elect Obama will suddenly push forward an agenda to fully repeal the federal Defense of Marriage Act?  We asked for change, we are protesting for change, and Obama is silent on our rights.  Chris Crain points out how expectations are actively being lowered already:

Note how repeal of DOMA and DADT have been disappeared, and relationship recognition is reduced to a employment benefits package for federal employees. Why exactly are they more deserving than the rest of us?

And if this is all we’re to expect then why, oh why, did we debate full vs. half-repeal of DOMA, and why did Joe Biden pledge in the veep debate that, “in an Obama-Biden administration, there will be absolutely no distinction from a constitutional standpoint or a legal standpoint between a same-sex and a heterosexual couple”?

The goal of these protests should be to create a sustainable organization of grassroots activism that will be able to harness our numbers and our many talents to lobby for not only ENDA but for repealing all bigotted legislation.  But whose going to do that?

Saw this Obama poster in the East Village:

He’s come to save America!

One for the road:

I went to the Nike store in uptown Manhattan the other week to get the Nike+ sensor for my new iPod touch (so I can be reminded of how lazy I am on my iPod).  Anyway, this was what I saw in the window:

Ew.  What the fuck?  I get this is suppose to look like a bunch of jocks standing around muddy after a hot, rough game but… Seriously.  Diarreah. Here’s one for the road: