davidfcooper

The celebration began three days before at a kiddush at our synagogue we co-sponsored with another couple who married on the very same day (Aug 29, 1982) at which our rabbi pointed out that in Hebrew gammatria the number 24 corresponds to the word דודי dodi which means beloved.

Our original plans to spend the actual day in Atlantic Highlands, Sandy Hook, and Red Bank, NJ (suggested by

herb_lehman's post about his visit) was nixed by the rain, so we went into Manhattan instead. On the train ride in we were so engrossed in conversation we neglected to change trains at Jay Street (F>A>4>6 lines) and instead changed several stops later (F>V>6 lines; fewer trains but less direct) and got off the 6 train at 77th Street and walked up Lexington Ave to 79th street where we had lunch at Candle 79 where Shoshana had the Ginger-sesame grilled tofu sandwich which had very nice bread and came with a tasty cole slaw, but otherwise was disappointing, and I had the BBQ seitan sandwich which was delicious. Nothing on the pricey dessert menu caught our fancy, so we left the restaurant and shared a brownie from a local bakery.

We headed back downtown (this time on the bus) and went to the Museum of Sex at 27th Street and Fifth Ave. The sign outside says "Museum of Sex: Do Not Lick, Fondle, or Mount The Exhibits." The exhibits began with Peeping, Probing and Porn: Four Centuries of Graphic Sex in Japan, a fascinating exhibit marred by displaying nearly all the images in little poorly lit boxes in which one had to peek as it were. The exhibit provides a survey of Japanese erotic illustration from Edo era prints to contemporary anime and manga.

The best part of the next exhibit Stags, Smokers & Blue Movies: The Origins of American Pornographic Film was an animated short in the style of the Fleisher brothers whose protagonist has sex with a woman, a donkey, another guy, and gets a blow job from a cow. If Betty Boop was suggestive this cartoon was quite explicit and a hoot. The other old pornos in the exhibit were in grainy black and white, but showed many of the themes that became the stock and trade of later more technically proficient porn. There were also film interviews of guys in their 70s reminiscing about seeing such flicks at stag parties (they recalled trying to appear cool and hiding their erections). My college years coincided with the golden age of celluloid porn by which point stag parties were a thing of the past.

The final exhibit was a selection of objects from the main collection including Abyss Creations LLC's Real Doll, a selection of sex machines of which Dan Siechert's "Monkey Rocker" looks like the most promising (see the middle right photo in this review), a bare from the waist up presidential bust of Senator Clinton (you have to visit the museum to see the whole thing--oddly enough there's a lace motif covering her nipples), an historic survey of burlesque and stripping in still photos, an exhibit of turn of the previous century vibrators (one of which looks like an egg beater), erotic holograms, 19th century anti-masturbation devices, antique condom boxes, and sex manual and other sex-ed texts from the early 1900s through the 1960s.

Readers of this el jay post may want to add their own sexual histories to the museum's Mapping Sex project. Also check out highlights from past exhibits in the Virtual Museum.

The gift shop is fun to browse through including some clever $4.50 refrigerator magnets ("blondes may have more fun, but brunettes remember in the morning"), a small selection of sex toys, and various books on erotic subjects.

We left the museum, went home, ate supper, and made love. Pretty good anniversary.