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Étiquette : gay
Stairways of Crystal : Tuesday’s at Monster’s West Village New York (2023)
This is the story of a Tuesday Night in Manhattan’s West Village in New York. For any party goer, Tuesday’s can the most legendary « out of the world » night. Indeed, that is where the devil of the eternal party lies. This time New York made him proud!Future Starts Slow
The whole soirée started out kind of slow, I got lost in MANHATTAN bicycling. I arrived two hours late to meet my friend at Ty’s (the second gay bar ever opened in New York). Like old school partners the rendez-vous was given « meet me there at this time », no phone, no anything. It feels much more relax.Descending the stairway of Crystal
Capture the feeling : you are in New York, in the middle of the West Village, right beside The Stonewall Inn, where the gays first appeared and you go down a stairway full of mirrors : a disco ball is pending from the wall and music is blasting from the entreance.Saturday Night Fever has never felt so real.The Dancefloor is the party
A performer is singing every word the dj is playing. More mirrors and a wall full of light is pulsing at the music.Dancing is a communion
In this place, dancing is a communion. The term posing takes its meaning here.People are standing on the wall waiting for their moment. An impulse of being watched and then becoming the show makes the vibe thrilling.I have been dancing and thrilled to be watched. An old man comes to me :Work it, work it work it, do it, do it, do it. Come on, give it your allAnd I work. It is not a competition but I am on stage. Where is my limit, whose gonna work it more.And he doesn’t leave me until I show them moves.Donna Summer is singing a remix and I am working it. Moves from the arms and the legs are only an emulation of what I see around. People are beautiful and people are having it. The performer is making an exit in a grave position lying on the stage showing her elegance to everybody.Last Dance : Time To Shine
Lesson of partying on a Tuesday : It is not about the quantity but the about the quality. True legends come out on Tuesdays.Tuesday’s night is a reminder that you can have the best party in a party of 3.
Side note, I have been introduced to a great dj called Jamir. He is playing Sunday at The Hangar. Guess it is a rendez-vous! (After Eagle 😉2025 Update (I did not go;) ).See you New York 💋
Daddy & Son Never Been So Hot – ManonMan Concert Review (2023)
I saw Man On Man live in Montréal, the musical tale of a Daddy & a Son. A first for me : a gay rock show with other stuff than drags or non-binary people. Finally it happened to me! It did not feel queer more than it felt « brosy » and normal. To be honest, I find this vibe very hot. At some point, I felt they were both playing with their…. guitars….Sidenote, Daddy is the former drummer of Faith No More and the son is his boyfriend.
The Creepiness of Web 3.0
This is a band that was recommended to me by the algorithm. I guess it knows I’m gay and I would be attracted to them… And it worked…It is very weird to be bombarded by pictures of someone and then meeting them in real life to realize they have no idea who you are.
A Great Album : Provincetown
I enjoyed listening to the album. It is very intimate, soft and passionate. I think it was recorded at their home in Provincetown. I saw their stories and I can easily imagine they sang the songs to each other on their bed. The way sometimes the chorus sound like lullabies for children gives me that impression. It has a childish « teenager in love » vibe which is kind of cool and sweet.
Favorite line : « I don’t get the references, but I get the message »
Making music with Daddy has a nostalgic vibe
Music wise, it was the setting of The Kills guit//synth + drum machine. I call it cold rock because of the mix of drums machines, guitares, synchronised synth pads and melodies. It has a square mechanical vibe that resembles the steady pace of electronic music unlike typical chaotic rock. It did have a feeling of nostalgia.
In fact, their whole album (like I bought a cd and they where like « a what? » 😉 ) has this feeling of the past : the best years of the 00s indie rock. Its slow progressions, eery voices and a perfectly balanced mix of rock and synth makes it a perfect portrait. Like listening to « daddy’s polished new music », it does, nevertheless, feel like trying to recapture the the best of the past. Bring me back to the glory daze.
Man On Man is Wholesome Duo.
They started their show with a kiss and I was already smiling in my heart. I must say, that aspect of their brand is really cool and novel. Gay men didn’t really kiss or showed affection like that in Montréal back in the 00s. On stage like on their album « Provincetown », it is clear that they love each other pretty much and I enjoyed wittnessing it.
Stage Presence :Slinging their guitars like big dicks
Guitarists are hot. Ask any groupie. They are way hotter than djs even though djs are hot too. I couldn’t help myself but to be slightly aroused by the guitar gymnastics of the duos « man on man ». I had a video on my stories of them almost rubbing their two guitars together. I mean guitar playing steams from the penis and these two were definitly vibing together. The couple effect of Man on Man was in full action.
In conclusion
If Instagram does not show your crush a picture of you then don’t try 😉 meaning I definitly didn’t make an impression on them. Though I am glad to have seen a rock gay duo à la Daddy & Son. I liked how they stayed relatively prude compare to your average « queer performance » : the fact that they stay pretty clean about their performance is even hotter. It is definitly palpable that they love each other and sometimes less is more.
MAN ON MAN are currently on tour
Last note crowd incident
Let me put my Québécois hat and tell you about a unsound incident in the crowd. After a joke of the singer about his inability to communicate swiftly in french, a guy in the audience softly shouted « Fuck French » just loud enough so people around we could hear it but not the band. This is a great example of « your typical Canadian micro-agression against Québecois » for no reason. I didn’t say anything but it was hurtful….especially since nobody said anything. The double-standard is weird for such a « queer militant » space. I say this to raise awareness about those kind of « unsound » incident in Montreal when you are Québécois : they happen all the time. And to break the « narcissistic » canadian nice guy image, they only do that to us. It is like if every culture has the right to live but ours. They would never had said that about any other culture. End of the drama.
We Need To Talk About Hell’s Kitchen Gay Scene (2023)
Tom Tales was in New York Hell’s Kitchen, more particularly at Hush for Bears Happy Hours when they played Michelle Branch and Vanessa Carlton back to back. Hiding in a corner while the female equivalent of Nickelback singed while holding is 9$ beer, he became hopeless….. what has become of gay culture and New York « edgy » bars? Britney was not even on yet but he felt she was about to come….He later told me Christina Aiguilera “Genie in a Bottle” is a hit at Flex……
Manifesto : We Need To Talk About Hell’s Kitchen Music
Welcome to The Corporate “Taste” du Jour : a place where you are free of any judgement about anything you like and where only money drives the intentions of any given cultural statement. Music is not art, it is a way to make you drink. Inclined with Spotify, major labels and what television tells you, you will be able to listen to it while working at the bank or shopping at the mall. Drake is your friend and Taylor Swift is your god! « Gurlll », you are in heaven!
If you think the previous songs are jams, then you have very corporate tastes my friend.
The Musical Gay NPC lives in Hell’s Kitchen!
A musical NPC (Non-Playable Character) is unthreatening to the system and willing to spend a fortune on things fed to him by the machine without question. They are everywhere and perfect fit to justify paying overpriced tickets for any Live Nations Act while buying this new Ice Spice Starbuck Coffee after clicking on targeted ads via their latest iphones.
I Will Become A Machine
Machines took over the music in the last 5 years. It means now, every bar and coffee shop in America runs on Spotify playlists.They just work, are easy to use, reliable and somewhat good.
Flat White Corporate Taste all over America
The dark side of the machines is that it flattens our general music taste and leads to mainstream. I have travelled to many cafes, and they all now play a derivative of lo-fi Chill Cow music. No personal flavor : New York is not special anymore.
Lets put it this way, Netflix pays for shows. Thus, it is good for Netflix to have the highest number of listeners for the lowest number of shows. So what does the algorithm do, it curates the specific to bring you slowly towards the mainstream without even you noticing it. IT TRAINS YOU to become generic. That is what it ALWAYS DOES. The ads money is in the mainstream….and these companies want money…..
Don’t brag about your Spotify Recap
Think about this. Did you really picked the song on your playlist or was it the machine based on your “tastes”. Either way, don’t brag about it : it is not healthy for humanity.
(2025 update : it is the machine)
In retrospective, normalizing that the most expensive bars in New York have the lowest taste in music is marking the death of the city : corporate bankers can’t have good taste since they are the machine.
Tom Tales is considering going to Coachella with a plan payable in a 12 month plans after hearing one song of one artist on « randomly » on Spotify.
It was called : Do it gurl!
Sour Candy & Chaos : my life with Michael Alig : The « Real » Sequel to Party Monster (2024)
The Parties have died a long time ago and the jail time has been done. After 17 years, Michael Alig, former King of the Club Kids, is now free once again. After being 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.
Watch the clip here :
https://youtu.be/NRTNy_PuEOk?si=tggcjuyGz16gKYEg&t=683The Sequel to « Everything that happened before »
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