Sour Candy & Chaos : my life with Michael Alig : The « Real » Sequel to Party Monster
The Parties have died a long time ago, the time has been done and Michael Alig, former King of the Club Kids, is free and out of jail. After 17 years incarcarated for manslaughter, what will happen when the infamous Club Kid Killer comes out? No one knows better than the ones who actually lived with him. Riding the craziness of his everyday life, here is the natural sequel to the cult classic Party Monster
voici
Sour Candy & Chaos : My Life With Michael Alig.
The Club Kids « Myth » never faded out
The « Club Kids » were a group of young party creatures that populated, shaped and ruled the nightlife of New York during its heyday, the 90s….. until today. They made more, more, and more …than anyone. Michael Alig, among others including Ru Paul, was a pipe pier of the movement, organizing many parties in the biggest clubs of the city. Disco 2000 was his weekly party at the Limelite.
To put things in perspective Disco 2000 was a Wednesday party that involved regularly around 2000 people paying up to a 40$ cover price….in 1991. It lasted 5 years and propulsed Michael into a stratosphere of fame, glamour and excess.. 30 years after its end, we still talk about the era and its grandeur.
Sidenote : They were the first young « Gays & Trans » on television.
As a way to promote his parties, Michael Alig setted appeareances on various 90s talk show showcasing his group of young outcasts, they became the first generation of gays on mainstream television. Unappolegetic, they had the looks, the youth, the ambiguous gender and sexual orientation to capture America’s attention. These shows helped shaping the look and attitude of the gay scene for years to come.
At the height of his popularity and under scrutiny of the FBI, Michael Alig murdered a fellow club kid and drug dealer in a twisted drug haze in his appartement.
The well is poisoned beyond repair : the scene and his legacy have this unwashable stint for years to come. To make matters worst, he tried to hide it and was free for around 6 more month after his crime, like detailed in Party Monster 1. The swindle collapsed was sentenced to 17 years in prison until his release : where Sour Candy & Chaos starts.
While Party Monster tales : The Rise, Transformation & Downfall of Michael Alig & The Club Kids, Sour Candy & Chaos tales The Comeback & The Afterlife.
A shocking intro
From the get-go we are literally inside Michael’s daily routine : no curtain, no wall, nothing. It does feel at time like reading the Kurt Cobain journal : lot of details about someone’s private life exposed with a certain morbid fascination. It makes you wonder how Michael would have felt having his life revealed like that.
How I Met the Monster : A new Narrator
Not yet a friend, nor a roomate, the narrator is waiting calmly in his Bronx appartement until arrives the « famous » friend of his husband Ernie Glam. Michael Alig, the Party Monster himself, enters, followed by James St-James, and a bunch of camera crew. The Party is On.
For this « next chapter », the perspective of James St.James is taken this time by the author, David Maurici, husband, of the club kid Ernie Glam (the Chicken in Disco 2000s), one’s of Michael closest relationship. His perspective is very insightful on the « behind the scene » of the glamourous life of party makers.
The Comeback Kid Magazine : The Pee-ew
Our protagonist, now free, is on path to reclaim everything he lost that night : his once coveted fame and position. Uploaded with a new image : le peintre, Michael Alig, though, cannot throw parties until his parole ends nor can he takes drugs.
Nevertheless, the « club kid » still has it for up-and-coming trends ; he quickly discovers the relishly new possibilities of he internet and e-shops. For the fame …or the fortune, he starts a satire of The View, on Youtube, a show called The Peews and sells club kid memorabilia. This is 2017, everything could happen now!
I was a listener of The Pee-ew. I watched it with amusement and its daily dose of gossip was quite entertaining and soothing. Jake Paul was yet to be even an adult and it felt like Michael Alig still had a shot at reclaiming his nightlife glory.
Welcome the Cancel Culture Michael!
Unfortunatly, for him, the queers of New York didn’t appreciated his antics and his comeback was blocked by another group : The Culture Whores….ironically the spiritual daughters of the Club Kids. More than this, his badmouth also prevented him from cutting a deal with the production house behind the first Party Monster Movie and Rupaul Drag Race : World of Wonders.
New York was having a blast putting him down and he was not having it!
The Drama with The Culture Whores is still iconic to this day.
When reality sinks in : everyone is sad
The book retails the drama behind the episodes and depicts an individual extremely conflicted by his story and plagued with self doubt while looking pretty chill on camera.
The bridge with reality of experiencing the show while it aired and now hearing about all the drama is very interesting, yet very unfortunate. Riddle with self-doubt, a crazy ego and a forever legacy to transport as a burden, one expression is de mise : Self-sabotage.
A cautionary tale for all procrastinating artists
The book gives great insight on the life of a struggling artist trying to reclaim his glorious past old of more than two decades. It is a great warning filled with self doubt, procrastination and doing too much at the same time : on some level it feels extremely relatable : in a way, Michael was destroyed by the internet and his ADHD behaviours were worsen by it : a warning for everyone.
Spoiler Alert : he dies from an O.D. alone on Christmass Covid Day
We can’t really assume Michael had any closure with his mom, but we do get some insights on the behind the scene « real » vibes behind his iconic « parade of his mom on ecstasy in the 90s ».
Michael Alig had probably one of the saddest life and one of the loneliest death. After spending 17 years in jail and 5 of them in solitary confinement, he died from a fentanyl laced heroin overdose on Christmass Eve during Covid. His controversial ashes are back in Indiana close to his mother..
The book shares some follow details to his release. For sure, it wasn’t all that pretty behind the glitter and the glam.
Added to that, he never realy was capable of fully expressing honest remorse about his terrible crime and also, his probable bitchy moves and antics he had done in the past while in power : he had a lot to be forgiven about.
Closure in death
This book that no one waited, actually seems to put closure on Michael Alig’s life. From a biais perspective of a « frenemy » his life is effectivelly tailed until his death on Covid Christmass Day.
Unlike what his contemporaries probably thought, his aura lasted until many years after his initial demise in 1996. Michael Alig had a unique taste of what was edgy and a capacity to express it in a party manner unique to himself. He had the « provocative witt » and was a key figure of the 90s.
Had he persevered, showed remorse and stopped self sabotaging, he could have been a key figure into making New York cool again.
Because, let’s face it, New York is not as important culturally as it was 30 years ago during his heyday.
In a twisted way, New York needed him to be New York but elsewhere around the world. As depitcted in the book, he, ultimatly, refused. It does seem like a stretch, but it reminds of the unique reasons who Elvis Presley never did a show outside the U.S.A. ultimatly died of it.
MAKE NEW YORK COOL AGAIN.
Buy Michael Alig’s Sour Candy & Chaos from author David Maurici here : https://a.co/d/3IiSO4w
Laisser un commentaire