January 9 1998, Friday

I forgot to mention this the other day when it happened, but I received the following (no doubt robot-generated) email:

T

he day grew gradually more seasonable; the unusual muggy warmth was pushed aside by cold clearness. I was forced to shut my window some time in the afternoon. It had been open for three days.

I took a long nap in the late afternoon and evening. When I awoke, Matthew Hart and Deya were hanging out, but they soon went to bed themselves in an effort to save up waking hours for tonight.

T

yler (from the Haunted House) came over at around ten PM, and hearing the noise of our conversation, Deya and Matthew woke up (no, they hadn't been sleeping together) and came down to join us. We had a series of interesting conversations about things like:

• In the days of Big Fun, my friends and I used to sneak into the Tokyo Rose just about every weekend for punk rock, smuggled vino, and related chaos. In those days, Tyler was part of the Tokyo Rose staff, and he used to hate us intensely. He vividly recalls my heckling of Ian Svenonius, the flamboyant frontman of the Make Up. Lots happened subsequent to that; Tyler started working at Macadoos and then the C&O, where he became better acquainted with us and gradually came to the realization that we are human beings after all.

• We had an amusing conversation about "whatever happened to Guns 'n' Roses"? Tyler is sort of a music industry insider, and he said he'd read that that Axl Rose is getting back together with some of the old G 'n' R boys (maybe even Slash) to record music again. But the story is that it's going to be less like hard rock and more like electronic and industrial music, "sort of like Prodigy." Just as I do, Tyler thinks G 'n' R set the groundwork for the later emergence of anti-glam bands like Nirvana. Still, Tyler wonders what exactly American music was like between G 'n' R's Appetite for Destruction (1988) and Nirvana's Nevermind (1991). He seems to have some sort of amnesia there. I recall that in those days I was a big fan of MTV's Headbanger's Ball, and that when Nevermind finally came out, no one knew quite what to do with it, and it was played on all the heavy metal shows. I was into speed metal in those days, so of course I thought "Smells Like Teen Spirit" sucked. But I really liked the video. Incidentally, Matthew Hart claims he learned how to mop from watching that video.

• We also discussed the first time I ever had an altercation with Aaron the SHARP (Spring, 1996). He had promised to break all the fingers in my hands, but in the end we had a fairly rational conversation (see Aaron the SHARP in the glossary).

T

he Brick Mansion in the 'Hood was having a "petit suaré" [sic] tonight, a sort of farewell party to Sam, who is moving to New York City.

Deya and I went there together. It was a pretty laid back affair, but there was a keg in the back, and there was quite a diversity of people. There was even a joint of opium being passed around upstairs. Matthew had to wait around for Angela to get off work, and he showed up late. He was a little upset to find he'd missed out on the opium. But it hadn't really done much to me when I smoked it.

Seth Alecka and a few of the girls were attempting to teach each other how to dance the Merengue [thanks for the spelling and link, Anita], which is a simple Latin dance that was popular in the 50s (it's nothing like the Macarena). Ballroom stuff is kind of becoming popular again, I've noticed. Of late I've been witnessing a dizzying array of retro fashions flurrying by among my friends: everything from Neil Diamond to oldies radio to gangster movies. Just a few short years ago, it seemed there was cool and there was uncool and people stuck with the cool stuff and avoided the uncool as much as possible, without risking the potential embarrassments that can attend experimentation. Now it seems that there's a constant search through the attic of the uncool to see if any of it might be salvaged and made cool again (or for once).

T

hat wacky girl Jen, the basement bartender at the Tokyo Rose, showed up wearing her striped blue and white pajamas. She, Deya and I watched an impromptu spoken word/mandolin performance delivered by an extremely animated guy (who went on to fart on my head later in the evening) and Ches playing bass lines on acoustic guitar.

Meanwhile, Jen Fariello's date had gone home without her, and she was sad. "He's gay!" she explained, "and I don't have what he wants, a penis!" I felt kind of sorry for her and wouldn't have required much persuasion to salvage her night.

But I avoided all the usual pitfalls and went home with Matthew and Angela, sleeping alone in my own bed.