Lectures, Gay Centers and First Times

The week began on Monday with my going to a lecture at some huge art gallery in Soho. Helen, Marcela and I went to see Slavoj Zizec. He's a film critic who works very closely with the psychoanalysis of Jacques Lacan, whose theories on identity are becoming interesting to me. Zizec is a total freak but very entertaining.

And I have to like anyone who uses Hitchcock in his lectures. I grew anxious, though, by the end because it was freezing in the gallery. On Thursday, in an attempt to fight my way into NYC's gay community (I hate the word 'community'; maybe I'll just start using 'space'), I attended a panel discussion at the gay center on violence against gay and transgendered women around the world.

I was impressed with the panelists. They came from Sri Lanka, Puerto Rico, and New Jersey. I only stayed for the speakers. I'm not big on question/answer sessions at this juncture in my life. I lack the patience to sit through the answers. Tonight, I went with a friend of mine to the gay center's Trans Cinema Arts film showing. I sat through a number of mediocre films on the subject of transgenderism and transsexuality. Some were good; some were ok.There was one in particular that centered around three little girls whose Uncle Bill was transitioning into Aunt Barbara. It was very well done. After the films, we went to a little place on 8th and 14th to eat. As we approached 14th, we noticed a fire truck and an ambulance. As we got closer to the street, we saw one or two police cars and a gaggle of photographers and camerafolks staring at the ground. Just then, a few paramedics began walking toward the ambulance. Before they walked by the car and into my line of vision, I had prepared myself to see a gurney with a man or a woman being oxygenated with a mask but who would be all right eventually as a result of the paramedics' efforts. That was not to be, however; instead, I saw a body bag, which I don't think was completely zipped up (I didn't see anything, though), being loaded into the ambulance. Three of us turned our heads when we saw what it was. And I also noticed the disappointed photographer who apparently didn't get the shot he wanted. My first dead body.