What's exciting when you publish its archives on the net is to look in detail the traffic it causes. There are documents that are appealing and are a pleasure to everybody because they find it . There are old black and white 80s, everyone loves it, too, is innoffensif and it is not binding. The articles 10 years old, already it starts to get complicated, it is not enough to be vintage dated and too controversial to be accessible to all. The Chronic resembling that said the detective in "True Blood :" Before they made fun of me because I was telling the truth, now they laugh at me because I was right, it's shit.
And then there are the recent publications Magazine. When I first put the December 31 last, there was an interest, yes, but less pronounced than I expected. I did not fly after all people do what they want and then the days following Christmas Eve, everyone is in a bad mood and not very awake anyway. That's when the interview of Butt on Magazine was published that the peak of visits was impressive. Suddenly, my site exceeded all previous records, I had never seen so many people, it feels like the first day of sales in a department store. The number of visitors after Butt surprised me. Obviously, foreigners who visit the site Butt are much more curious than the French, though most directly affected since most of the text is in French. Must say that it starts to get funny: little media interest in the French gay Maga and exhibition of the archives while Butt talks about it, it starts to be ridiculous for them m'enfin
... Everyone knows that to motivate an interest in sustainable any site, it should be fed daily. Which is totally fictitious and burdensome anyway. It is not the post office and I do not want to become slave to my own website after 40 years to be Slave to the Rhythm. My initial analysis is that the French are less interested in the idea that the U.S. Archives (The site of Butt in New York, not in Amsterdam). This is not because the U.S. has a population five times greater than ours, they are genuinely curious about the archives they do not fully understand but which are part of gay culture in general. The French are interested in archives Magazine, but it easy, and it is their right. For example, they are very rare to forwarder on their site archives Maga, to talk on FB, Twitter and Tumblr, while Americans are more likely to encourage Reblog a comment.
We will still say that I favor American culture, I always look at what is positive and the negative in their home. After all, Americans have not mobilized when many LGBT bookstores have closed one after another. And the disappearance of the famous libraries and symbolic, like A Different Light in New York and San Francisco, Giovanni's Room in Philadelphia, accentuate this phenomenon while the words in the mouth of Paris still exists. An interesting comment on a U.S. website deplored the closure of gay bookstores and loss of ambience found there. There was a feeling in these important areas and warm. Alison Bechdel has done a lot of comics from the world of libraries lesbians. For my part, whenever I went to New York or London, I could not conceive of not going for a ride straight to Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop or Gay's The Word .
All this long introduction (if you're still reading this, is that you really are a curious person) to arrive at the description of one of the places I love most in the world. I have often expressed my love for Housing Works, but I have never written a text that explains why I so love this bookstore Crosby Street in New York. Housing Works is a association that was created at the height of AIDS. The idea was simple. AIDS patients died and left behind them collect full of books and records. Instead of throwing it all out on the street in the rush to a funeral often problematic, Housing Works proposed to recover these collections and resold. And with the benefit of the sale, the association helped the sick by offering therapeutic apartments for those who became homeless before dying.
Not only the concept is totally unique and generous, but especially: he walked. With an ethical and disciplined organization, books and records in the database came directly from missing persons and we felt in the past these objects of the deceased. Some books are annotated, some even had autographs of authors, some with dedications man gay gay man, and then many of these books had a rare perfume culture of the time. Today, the bulk of books sold by Housing Works does really comes more people died from AIDS, but there are always lots that arrive every day, for a full case, death, a move, divorce, a drama of some sort.
This is not the drama that interests me here. Housing Works is far from a gloomy place. It is a large loft, open to the street with a circular walkway on the first floor, like a normal library, with shelves and shelves of books by theme. And what is wonderful in this American spirit of the passion of the book is that there is a small bar that sells fruit juices, cakes and everything is delicious and simple in the context of a search book. Another significant interest in a city where it is so difficult to find a place to pee or poop, there are free toilets always clean (with beautiful sinks, fact fans). So when you walk in Manhattan, it is always wise to include a visit by Housing Works for a drink, warm (in winter) and go to pee room.
The atmosphere of this place is magical. You can sit for hours without the slightest look of inquiry from an employee. The mood is studious but cool, people talk in whispers. Everything is wooden. There is a section LGBT quite stunning, with ancient and modern books. There are historical and scientific sections, all subjects in fact, a sort of mini-Strand where the price of books is frightening: a dollar for a classic, a few dollars to a collector. The only dilemma is to ask how we will bring all those books in France, where heavy baggage at the airport.
The years pass, everything changes, but as soon as I arrive in New York, Housing Works is still one of the first things I do immediately after my arrival. It's a lucky charm a way to start the holiday off right, like going to see what the store sells Supreme , right side. It is a ritual of welcome that also gives me an idea of the current American literary as in the batch of books, many are recent. In the blink of an eye, it turns the page of the country's political discourse. Because of its history, Housing Works is a boutique frienfly gay but not gay per se. It is a place minority, mixed, women, blacks, Latin, anything. I remember one day I had to be very sentimental when I went to checkout, I made a sort of statement like "I come here every trip to New York for 15 years and I wanted you say that I love this place "and the seller had gay watched with a detached look, as if I open overshare, and I had felt stupid, but I did not regret having said what I had on my heart. As Marvin Gaye when he made a double album his ex-wife, "Here My Dear."
short, everything to speak text archives. Internet bookstores close one after the other is normal. It is irreversible, but there is a feeling in these places unique. After all, in 10 years, I'm sure there will be books that will make the apology the first Starbucks in Paris, such as next to Cox in Paris. "You remember the Starbucks next to Cox?" Say the young crazy today, who spend hours chatting, talking on their phones or whatever the fuck do THEY feel like doing. So I'm just arouse in you the desire to go to Housing Works for the next time you're in New York. Remember that these places will disappear, like the wonderful Pop Shop Keith Haring which was 50 meters of Housing Works. should breathe the atmosphere of these places before they are dispersed by wind modern day.
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