Mommy, Where Did Daddy Go? Cruising for a Jack Shack in Times Square [Gotham After Dark]
Posted at 3:28 PM Jul 15, 2008
On Tuesdays, Charlie Vazquez writes Gotham After Dark, a peek into what goes on in Manhattan's queer nightlife, with club and event reports and profiles of fascinating New Yorkers.
I’ve been reading much about the Times Square of yore lately—the sailors, hustlers and hard women. I work on 8th Avenue and go to lunch around 1PM. While trying to figure out what to eat, I see other men—in the camouflage of whizzing crowds—trying to figure out where to get off. Eighth Avenue, from Chelsea to midtown, is home to dozens of DVD stores—where guys buy porn, lock doors to viewing booths and mess around with one another.
And although Times Square proper has been cleaned of smut, the survivors of that holocaust aren’t far away—they’re down the street, in fact.
Though others might mock our city’s cultural facelift, the sex industry is far from gone—it’s in fact proliferated freely and nearly invisibly via the internet. And there’s still a handful of good ole’ fashioned sleaze joints near Disneyland NYC, too.
Beginning at 42nd Street and 8th Avenue, I found the Show World Center which offers private booths and an all-male basement. At 43rd Street, Gotham City Ladies World and Lace offer everything from silicone lube to juicy lap dances. The DVD Depot at 45th was hopping (boys, boys, boys!) on a Sunday evening and the DVDs Palace at 46th has a sign reading “peeps inside.” Gotham City on 47th offers booths and live girls and the sidewalk outside Vishara near 48th was bustling with cruising guys—at 7PM.
As video/public scrutiny have become an invasive fact of life—especially in post-9/11 NYC—sex workers operate under the radar. And while the witch hunts against pornographic businesses are undeniable, the shift from public to private space and entertainment (theaters vs. DVD players) is also a factor to consider. Men used to go to dark parks, dirty movie theaters or dangerous red light districts to pick up whoever/whatever was available—risking arrest, mugging or worse. Not so much anymore. Women cruise and advertise sex on the internet too and I dare say that people are getting laid more now than ever. As for the classic smut joints where I learned the ropes—they’re still around, too.
Charlie Vazquez is a Brooklyn-based writer, part-time fetish clown and the assistant to Diamanda Galás--but really, he's nice.
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