Friday, August 3, 2007

Only Living Boy in New York

I live in New York City. I was born here, and with the exception of a summer in San Francisco (living in the basement of a Chinese laundry in the Polk Street Gulch and not really understanding why all the guys on the street were checking me out), I've never lived anywhere else. And I've come to realize that I probably don't know how to live anywhere else. I'm trying to learn the skills necessary by spending more and more time in a small town on the East End of Long Island (not the glamorous Hamptons).


I check up on about two dozen blogs on a more or less daily basis, most of them based in the bdsm or adult sexual world, and as soon as I have sufficient patience to figure out the software, I'll list them out on a blogroll. Some of them I know are written far far away (subgidget is north of San Francisco, Elodie somewhere in Scandanavia I think, the dirty couple in Virginia, Mrs. Kelly in Tokyo, others elsewhere), and I know that some of them originate in NYC or the greater metropolitan area ). Engrailed shows the city as her address, tess of urban gypsy is also from here, as is plum, I think, and designing intimacy, which I no longer read, is a college student here.)

Living here brings people up close and personal on a constant and consistent basis. We are close to one another walking on the street, in buses and subways, grocery stores and bodegas. I'm always wondering, have I seen local bloggers face to face? And how would I ever know? We are cloaked in a veil of electronic anonymity, revealing ourselves layer by layer as we write our periodic postings, and can only put a face to a name when everyone agrees to do so.

Sometimes I love the anonymity of it, as it allows me to reveal things about myself that are kept sooo private, and at other times I desperately want to know what everybody looks like. I know that tess started worked hard this spring in the gym with a trainer, and thinks she has a long, hard road to get to how she wants to look physically, and shibari, if the photos she posts are of herself, is drop dead gorgeous from the neck down, but the rest of it is a mystery.


Earworn: Rickie Lee Jones, Easy Money

3 comments:

EeeFah said...

I understand what you are saying. I too read blogs and wonder who the people are. Or wonder when I pass people what their desires are.

I also reveal parts of myself in my blog which I could or maybe should not do to people I meet.

Looking forward to reading more

aoefe

Spring, Ph.D. said...

Sometimes I love the anonymity of it, as it allows me to reveal things about myself that are kept sooo private

That's it exactly. I feel very free to reveal what I want to reveal, knowing that no one knows me. While a few friends read my blog, it is mostly anonymous. And with the friends, the more personal bits of what I write are generally not discussed in person, as they seem to understand that what I write is an internal part of me and not for idle conversation over a beer.

Glad to see you blogging. It will be interesting to read you, knowing you've been reading me. :)

Oh, and almost NYC here. Just north.

Tess said...

Jesus christ, how did I ever miss the fact you had a blog. I admit I've been really bad about checking my stats of late, but here you are giving me such lovely compliments and I am somewhere off in lala land.

Not only that but you write well and are interesting and I love finding blogs as they start.

So thanks for the compliments and I am now going to read all your posts and play catch up.

We can talk more about anonymity later.