Last night was another in a series of nights at Howl! Happening Gallery during the exhibit Secrets of the Great Pyramid: The Pyramid Cocktail Lounge as Cultural Laboratory. The opening night celebrated Cafe Iguana and last night was Whispers hosted by Hapi Phace (Marc Phred) and Hattie Hathaway (Brian Butterick). From their own description back in the day Whispers was conceived as a response to the gentrification and pasteurization of New York in 1984, and billed as;

“The Complete Suburban Gay Experience as a party for hairdressers, display queens, theatre folk, fashionistas, florists, and sensitive straight people.”

Whispers was tongue firmly-in-cheek and last night brought it all the chickens home to roost. Back in the day I hosted a Sunday night series called Straight To Hell and as I explained to the crowd last night, STHwas the Manhattan Review of Unnatural Acts, which was true homosexual exploits in ‘zine form. (The exhibit includes the issue of STH with a 19 year-old me on the cover.) I put together a lineup which I cannot believe in retrospect. The first dozen or so Sundays featured John Waters, Cookie Mueller, Fran Lebowitz, Jackie Curtis, Taylor Mead, Quentin Crisp, Kenneth Anger, and on and on. We also had wet underwear contests and sexy guys dancing on the bar. I enlisted party promoter pal, Daniel Nardicio to find me a guy and he sent me the very cute Alex Killborn, who danced on the bar along with David Caskie as “The Painted Man”.

Hapi and Hattie bantered along and introduced the performers when they weren’t cracking us (and each other) up with corny jokes. The night began with pioneering experimental theater guru Agosto Machado who told a story of dancing on the bar with the late drag legend Ethyl Eichelberger. Drag icon Charles Ludlam appeared in the crowd and when they saw her, they hopped off to head to the dressing room where Charles asked Ethyl…

“WHY, oh WHY are you dancing on the bar! You’re a legend!”
To which Ethyl replied,
“For the view.”

So Ethyl, and so true. It was THE view from up there. (You could see all the cute boys you wanted to flirt with when your set was over.)

Poet Kennon B. Raines was up next and –not to toot my own horn– but she gave me a surprise shout-out from the stage, saying I was one of the first to encourage her to read her poetry. Well, she mesmerized the crowd and it all came back why I thought she was SO good. Electrifying. Probably why I didn’t get a better picture. Sorry, Kennon. (I’m also sorry I stepped outside for a minute and I missed Edgar Oliver but I heard he was fantastic.)

In from Montreal, our resident chanteuse Marleen Menard wowed us as all with an original composition and in a tribute to the late trans superstar, International Chrysis, Bobbie and her own hot guys gave a updated taste of glam and sexy bar moves. And to top it all off Whispers & Pyramid co-founder Sister Dimension pulled off a last-minute performance that left us all wanting more. Butch icon Dee Finley finished off the night with her own brand of bar dancing.

It really was a fun night night marred only by our missing comrades and the very recent passing of Edwidge & Anita Sarko. They along with Ann Craig, John Sex, Wendy Wild, Bobby Bradley, and unfortunately scores of others were toasted and adored. As I said to Johnny Dynell as we were leaving;

“This is what happens when you don’t die.”

Me on the cover of STH, design by editor/ art director Victor Weaver

My STH shirt photographed by Andy Warhol in the Pyramid dressing room

Angelyne, Nina Hagen & Cassandra Peterson (Elvira) wearing an STH shirt

Straight To Hell posters, designed by Trey Speegle

My Hapi Phace t-shirt postcard/Whisper promo postcard. (Note the performers include The Pop Tarts, aka Wow’s Fenton Bailey & Randy Barbato!)

Hapi & Aleta Wolfe were SO happy that you’re gay…

Cutie Alex Killborn was our lone STH bar dude

David Caskie as “The Painted Man” with Alex Killborn. Photo by Aleta Wolfe

Kennon B. Raines was razor sharp despite my blurry pic

Bobbie’s tribute to the late trans icon, International Chrysis was spot on

Sister Dimension came from another dimension...

Bar dancing’ Dee Finley closed out the night…

The Lower East Side (LES) and East Village (like the rest of New York City) are packed with history, cool stories and drama. I’m doing a mini-salute to the area with three posts about proposed new Lowline Park, the new show Sister’s Follies at Abrons Arts and the legendary 80s club, The Pyramid.

Secrets of the Great Pyramid: The Pyramid Cocktail Lounge as Cultural Laboratory is curated by Brian Butterick(aka Hattie Hathaway) at Howl! Happening Gallery. Secrets of the Great Pyramid is an exhibit that pays tribute to the legacy of the famed 80s nightclub, named for the stepped pyramid motif above the entrance of the bar, the Pyramid really was an epicenter of the EV & LES artistic communities. Along with other clubs that came before and after, like the Mudd Club, CBGB, Danceteria, Area and others, it sparked a cultural revolution in music, dance, theater, drag, video, fine art, performance art, activism, feminism and LBGT politics. The opening last night ast night was, as it advertised, was…

“…more than a reunion, a retrospective, or a forced march through niche history, Secrets Of the Great Pyramid shows how a simple cultural laboratory continues to resonate in Post-Millennial America.”

On December 10, 1981, Ronald Reagan had been president for less than a year when a group of New York art-school flunkies threw a party at a Polish/Ukrainian dive bar on Avenue A in New York’s East Village. Ed Koch was mayor, the East Village was nearly in flames, the street drug trade was rampant, but rents were cheap! (I was working at Vogue at the time, when I moved to Avenue B in ’82 and First Avenue was viewed as the farthest east any sane person would dare go. When I told an editor at the magazine I was moving there, they grabbed my arm to say, “No! You CAN’T! You’ll be murdered!”)

Featured in this three-week only exhibit is a recreation of the legendary Pyramid with artwork and visuals from deceased trailblazers and working artists embraced by the club along with ephemera and ancient artifacts. (To my shock an issue of Straight To Hellmagazine with me on the cover, was in a glass case below the piece I contributed as a tongue-in-cheek remembrance of our long-gone pals, Forget Me. Also included in the exhibition is work by Stephen Tashjian, Greer Lankton, David Wojnarowicz, Laura Levine, Tanya Ransom, Alice O’Malley, Jayne County, Connie Fleming, Chris Tanner, Keiko Bonk, Frederick Nunley, Lynn Grabowski, Antony/Blacklips, Andé Whyland, Aleta Joy Wolfe, Billy Beyond, Nelson Sullivan, Richard Oszust, Jack Pierson, John Kelly, Flloyd, Dug Wah and more…

Last night was also a revisiting of first Sunday night party at the club, called Cafe Iguana. Part Weimar-era Cabaret, part cracked Broadway last night was held together by host Heather Litteer, who was channeling the late Ann Craig, Iguana’s original MC. Alternative Theatre founder Kestutis Nakas flew in from Chicago to regale us with what we were like and the “non gender-specific” Seattle burlesque icon, Paula Now killed the crowd with her strip tease to And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going from Dreamgirls when she tossed her wig and it landed PERFECTLY on the crystal chandelier. John Kelly closed the performance with amazing rendition of “What makes a Man” and said to me after the show, that when Paula’s wig landed on the chandelier.

“… the night was MADE.”

Artist Chris Tanner was in beautiful voice contrasting a raucous and very interactive performance by Jack Waters & Peter Cramer who had us all doing keigels to warm up before dancing on the bar which everyone who had anything to with the Pyramid has done, including your's truly in my pajamas.

I saw SO many old friends (and frankly, I successfully avoided several!) and some flew in just for the night; Downtown PR legend, Susan Martin, artist Izar Patkin, performer Nora Burns, Pyramid regular Frederick Nunely, photographer Janette Beckman, the legendary Connie Girl, Perfidia, Debra Ortega, Carlo McCormick, Maripol, Mark Phred (Hapi Phace) and the list goes on and on…

Today, Sunday October 18th at 3 PM is a panel discussion moderated by Hattie Hathaway with Victor Mendolia (Anonymous? Productions), Kevin Malony (TWEED TheaterWorks), Hapi Phace, Kesutis Nakas, Paula Now, John Jeserun, Iris Rose and more. I'm going to miss it, but come next Friday to Whispers, where there will be a surprise performance, not on the calendar. Scroll down for the rest....

WHISPERS TRIBUTE– Hosted by Hapi Phace: Saturday October 24th, 8 PM
Conceived as a response to the gentrification and pasteurization of New York in 1984, Whispers was billed as “The Complete Suburban Gay Experience” and as a party for “hairdressers, display queens, theatre folk, fashionistas, florists, and sensitive straight people,” Whispers was distinctly tongue-in- cheek, featuring everything from the hanky code, to roller disco, Sixties kitsch, drag queens and kings and the fine art of the lipsynch. Performers include Pioneering Experimental Theater performer Agosto Machado, Poet Kennon B. Raines, from Montreal, chanteuse quebecoise Marleen Menard, Hapi Phace and Hattie Hathaway, and, in a tribute to International Chrysis, Bobbie. PLUS: Bar dancing turns by Butch Icon Dee Finley and “The Painted Man”, David Caskie!

FILM/VIDEO PROGRAMME– Thursday October 29 7 PM
Including works by: Disturbed Form Theater, Tennevision, Tom Rubnitz, Mark Oates, Nelson Sullivan, Tabboo!, Blacklips, Flloyd, Marjan Moghaddam, TWEED TheaterWorks & more.

LIVE PAINTING SHOW: SCOT WRIGHT– Day Of the Dead, Monday November 2nd 6 PM
Former Pyramid door person and frontman for the legendary 1980s Synth-Metal Band “Dem Vackra,” Scot Wright has turned his talents to creating angular, near-Rorschach water-colors of epic proportions. Tonight we transform HOWL! Happening Gallery into the artist’s studio, with Scot, his models (in various stages of undress,) and gallery-goers alike, invoking the spirits of those dear and departed.

CHANNEL 69 SALUTE– Wednesday November 4th 7:30 PM

LINDA SIMPSON’S DRAG EXPLOSION –Despite a demanding career in publishing, Minnesota native Les Simpson found time to create the iconic Wednesday night bacchanal Channel 69 which featured DJ Dany Johnson and lasted into the 1990’s, while concurrently releasing My Comrade/Sister, a high-end Lesbian and Gay ’zine. Author of several plays, one time Time Out NY editor, and currently touring round the globe with a slick audio-visual presentation as Gay “herstorian” Linda Simpson.

CLOSING RECEPTION/BLACKLIPS PERFORMANCE– Saturday November 7th 8 PM
Performers include Beaut (featuring Marti and Twinkle,) Flloyd, Kembra Pfahler (The Voluptuous Horror Of Karen Black), Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV legend Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, Poison Eve and Craig Curiousity, Video Art by Antony and more. Plus the return of Aloe Vera!

The exhibition runs through November 7, 2015 at Howl! Happening, 6 East lst Street, New York. For further information go here. All events are FREE.

WHISPERS NIGHT AT HOWL!HAPPENING GALLERY BROUGHT BACK THE GAY OLD PYRAMID

"SECRETS OF THE GREAT PYRAMID" AT HOWL! BRINGS BACK NYC IN THE 80S