Intersections

While I blog mostly about sex and society, my partner Will blogs mostly about New York Harbor, working waterfront issues, and takes fabulous pictures of tugboats, and in rare moments of synchronicity our interests blend in beautiful and unexpected ways.

One recent such blending occured when I chose the location of my Sex Blogger Calendar photo shoot. We shot it on Frying Pan, a beautiful yet decaying light ship that now serves as part of a floating bar and grille at Pier 66 on the Hudson River. I love exploring the artifacts of urban industrial history. I also think boats - workboats in particular - are pretty sexy. So when Will said he had connections and we got permission to shoot there I was thrilled. (To get a sneak peek at the shoot click here.)

Another unexpected intersection between our worlds occured last weekend when we spent Sunday at the Great North River Tugboat Race and Competition, the Working Harbor Committee's annual celebration of New York City's working waterfront. More than a dozen tugs participated and we ended up gathering afterwards with Will's sister, some of my friends from sex-blogger circles, and some of Will's friends from waterblogger circles. Several children rounded out the group and we all had a great time

But the most recent intersection between waterblogger and sexblogger worlds came just yesterday. We spent Friday and Saturday in Waterford, NY (a bit north of Albany where the Hudson River turns into the Erie canal headed west and Champlain canal headed north). We were there for the annual Tugboat Roundup. I was chatting with Don Sutherland, a prominent working harbor photographer and journalist, sipping wine, and waiting for the fireworks to start (best fireworks ever!) when the subject of my blog came up. He pointed to the tug attached to the fireworks barge. It was New York State Marine Highway's Mame Faye. He asked me if I knew who Mame Faye had been. I did not. So he told me.

Mame Faye was a madame. She ran a very successful brothel in Troy, New York (a small city between Albany and Waterford). Penny Lane and Annmarie Lanesey made a documentary film about Faye's life. Sitting On A Million: The sometimes true story of Mame Faye is an attempt to document a life about which little is known for certain. I have not seen the film, but in making it Lane and Lanesey collected oral histories from folks whose lives overlapped with Faye's (Faye died in 1943), some of whom have since died. At a time when blogging and social networking would make us think that sexual history can never be lost (even when we wish it could) this film reminds us that much of the sexual history of our cities and towns is gone forever since those who knew it were never asked about it.

I'm grateful to Will for introducing me to Don Sutherland who introduced me to Mame Faye. And all because of a tugboat festival! (And many thanks to Fred of Tug 44 for his hospitality while we were in Waterford).

I'm especially grateful to Mame Faye and her namesake, without whom all manner of fireworks would not have happened.

PS: Thanks to readers who voted for Tug Cornell as a result of my tweeting and facebook posting. Your votes made a big difference! Meanwhile, I want to introduce you to another tug that I've come to love: Shenandoah, of the Rebellion Tug company. Their logo:

Perhaps there are some interesting sexblogger-waterblogger intersections there, too ;)