Hey friends,
Another NY story for you. This one is not about Gaga though. This one pertains to censorship like I wrote about a while ago.
In New York there pretty much is no such thing as censorship. Sometimes it’s good, other times it is kind of unnecessary. For example, you can go up to a newsstand and let me say this, there is not a whole lot of news for sale at the newsstand. They have maybe like 5 magazines located right next to about 50 different porns. I could not tell you how many nipples you will see just cruising by. Also they openly sell jock-straps in store windows like they’re puppy dogs. You can be walking by enjoying the people watching glance over and see a picture of a guy’s but in a jock strap. It’s completely random.
Another big deal is the language. Everyone says the f word. It’s like their version of a texas “dang”. It’s not necessarily bad, just different than you’re used to. I once went into this thrift store and bought a belt. It was a pretty edgy store with like heads and aliens in the window or something so they were rebellious i guess. The bag they gave me was a spin off of the typical “Thank You” in red bags where it says that all the way down the bag, only mine said “Fuck You” in the same font and color. It was their rebellious spoof on politeness. I loved the bag but had I brought it to my Houston mall and walked around Police or an angry mom would have probably taken it away from me.
The good part of this lack of censorship would be the great art resulting from no constraints. They can get away with anything on Broadway over there, while here we flip out over the tiniest of things. For example, I went and saw Houston “Tuts” put on Cabaret. That show is about a burlesque club in the 40′s right at the dawning of WWII. In the show they had two men with their butts showing; one in a thong and one with nothing but a towel over his crotch. There were signs everywhere warning you about the partial nudity you were about to see. I thought that was implied considering the show was set in a Strip club but apparently we needed to be warned at least 50 times on the way to your seat. I’m pretty sure the usher reminded me as well. When the first butt came out I seriously saw people get up and leave. It wasn’t a coincidence that they just happened to go to the bathroom at that time either. I saw them squawk to whoever was sitting with them, get up angrily, and storm out of the theater. It was so stupid. Then in New York I went to see HAIR. It is one of my favorite shows. One of the famous parts from that show is when the cast takes their clothes off in a sign of freedom and liberation because they are all mega-hippies. They all stripped down to nothing right on stage. You could see everything on everyone. Both genders were baring their all. I did not see one sign warning you. I guess the theatre assumed that you knew what you were getting into because when you hear the show Hair you automatically know there will be the nude scene, it would be like when you here Gene Kelly you know there will be a show stopping tap number, but there was still no sign warning you of the parts you were about to see. What a difference, outraged texans after seeing two butts although they were endlessly warned and saw hundreds of signs stating that if you were uncomfortable with that to leave… vs. NY where the whole cast showed everything in bright lights and full view, no warning or any outraged viewers. It was just a total opposite situation. In that sense I think the lack of censorship is good, expose people to more creative things, not just the safe ones.
~King A
