Obama Communicatiosn Director Idolizes Mao Tse Tung (who killed 70 Million People_

Thanks, rufus/metalhead. Very on-topic thread. Can we expect a bundt cake recipe thread from you soon?

ah, at least there's some value in a good bundt cake recipe.

At least metalhead disappears after starting a thread.

Mao on Alpie and New Jersey: "A good comrade is one who is more eager to go where the difficulties are greater."

Long Live Chairman Meow!!!

i'll spare you the actual video, but felix salmon has a great clip of Jim Cramer comparing those who wish to cap banker bonuses with stalin. purportedly Cramer took seven classes on communism as an undergrad (he really liked the topic but apparently didn't catch on too quickly).

i'd bet you weren't aware of that area of "expertise."

Is he friends with Miss Kitty? Hello Kitty?

I don't think the higher order thinking Chairman Meow would consort with the madam of a bordello (even though 1960s TV stardards defined Miss Kitty as a "saloon keeper"). As for Hello Kitty, other than feline origins and an inexplicable popularity in Asia, I can't imagine what CM could have in common with him/her.

I've always wanted to name a cat Chairman Meow but every time I get the chance its never the right cat.

I was told that her full name is "Hello Kitty Goodbye Money" ... but that was when she was an exotic import, and all the range among little girls of a certain set.

Miss Kitty was a saloon keeper much in the same way that these nice young ladies were dancehall hostesses:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG3VfKlfDEk
(which one is a young Dolly Lenz?)

skip to 2:00 if you don't like slow and atmospheric

Awesome choreography (I've obviously heard the song before) but although granted there were no leg or neck close ups to judge from I could have sworn some of those "ladies" were trannies or ladies playing trannies. Unless I'm just to used to sublty in my hookers, like the ones from 30th and Lex, 12th and 3rd Ave or 36th and 11th. (Not to mention the NYC trannies, does the name Gilded Grape mean anything to you?).

I'm embarrassed to admit that I had to search for Gilded Grape ... but I hope to redeem myself by saying that I was friendly with the owners of the then-recently-reopened Peppermint Lounge, so I got to see lots of the costumes and stuff left behind from GG Barnum in a private lounge (it had been that tranny-trapeze-circus-type club between Peppermint Lounges). And wow!

The original GG didn't have the trapeze acts etc, although you could have called it a "circus". I remember once winning a "Name That Tune" contest at GG and they almost didn't want to pay me off (I think the prize was the then princely sum of $50) when they realized I was a natural born female. I also vividly remember the Haymarket...the boy who got one of my best HS friends "in trouble" was a bartender there.

See what you "uptown boys" missed?

I rue.

But I'm impressed that you made it all the way up to 45th Street. Where were the other two? What venues preceded/followed in the same spaces?

"The Deuce" (42nd Street and environs) was an acceptable destination even if it meant going above 14th street (going two for one through the turnstiles was much easier than jumping them outright). The Gilded Grape was on 8th Avenue between 45 and 46 or 44 and 45 on the west side of the street in the building called Camelot. Haymarket was on the other side of 8th Ave (east) around 47th street. I don't recall what preceeded or succeded either place although I know that the GG site is no longer a club/bar.
As you may have deducted, there was a ownership connection between these establishments and places in the Village. I'm not sure how it came about (after all we are talking about 30 years ago) but one of my close guy friends somehow found out about GG as a place to make money (he was supposedly straight but..., I lost track of him in the early 80s and I always wondered and prayed he made it through the AIDS epidemic) and started to hang out there.

Is it not astounding that some supposed Washington hot-shot connected type could be clueless enough to mention Mao as a hero? This is like manna from heaven for Fox News ....

As soon as I see Glenn Beck's face it loses all credibility. I could careless what this woman says, she's not running the country. Glenn Beck is such a HACK. I love that advertisers are pulling their ads from his show in droves. All he does is try to divide the country and brainwash people into hating the President. I'm not a Democrat but I support Barack Obama 110% and will continue to do so until he, himself, gives me a reason not too. Go Barack!

I also hung out at the Pep lounge in the very early 80's. Saw some great music like nash the slash, modettes, 999, Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Bad Brains...Maybe we knew each other LIZ?

ILuvNewYork

We can support Obama all we want, but man, how in the world can he have people working for him who are dumb enough to quote Mao in a positive light? This was 4 months ago! The Republicans are stupid, but what does this say about the intelligence of the people surrounding Barack?

The whole thing was taken out of context and blown up....Consider who she is and the background. And the Mao thing is absurd, she's just saying think for yourself and don't let others define you....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/14/AR2009101403850.html?hpid=moreheadlines

With her CNN appearance on Sunday attacking Fox News as "a wing of the Republican Party," the White House dispatched its communications director to make one of its most aggressive salvos, in part because she alone in the communications department can withstand the blowback.

A source inside the White House, who was not authorized to speak about strategy meetings, said Dunn went out front against Fox first and foremost because it was her job, but also because it potentially gave the administration the opportunity to distance itself from the flap with the Roger Ailes-led news channel once she leaves the communications job.

"The whole thing was taken out of context and blown up"

and..who should know better than you -- the master of deceit and misdirection?

Keith, I was in exile in the West in the early, early 80s and when I returned in late 82 I think we were more into clubs than live music (Danceteria, Heartbeat, Area, etc), not to mention the local downtown drinking spots. Did go to the Pep Lounge a few times but don't remember who I saw. My glory days for live music were a little earlier, from Mercer Arts in 1974ish, LeJardin and the start of the CBGBs scene in 1977-78. For the record, I was GROSSLY underage at that time....but carding was unknown in NYC at the time especially if you were female. I started drinking in bars when I was 14 and working in them at 15.

Danceteria was actually about the live music, and the dance music, and (pioneering) video lounge, and "fashion" shows, and cabaret, and ...

Peppermint Lounge, I think for most people, was a place you went only when there was a band you wanted to see (but I'm sure some people will differ on that opinion).

And yes, until rich kids started strangling each other with their own underwear, the drinking age was officially 18 and totally totally unenforced, unless they had reason not to like you. I also started clubbing at 14 (although not much into drinking until my mid 20s, really, but all the other kids did it). The only major impact of being underage is that you were nearly guaranteed to be comped if you merely hinted that you wanted to be. And even if you were of age, you were unlikely to have a driver's license, and even if you did it had no photo on it and was comically pointless.

The Gilded Grape must have been right around the ginormous animated neon sign (5 stories and nearly as wide) in the early 80s. For years later, I remembered the exact wording, but it was of the classic "GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS LIVE GIRLS" variety. Mesmerizing.

lejardin--barry white..nydolls...right?

Was there any connection between LeJardin and that Queens club (before my time) the Enchanted Garden or some such name?

[Oh, and just to stay on topic once in awhile: Obamao, yada yada yada.]

I remember seeing Bananarama perform live at Danceteria in their first US show, and they were booed because they were lip-syncing.

I used to go to the Mudd Club often. But my favorite hangouts were the Pyramid Club, A7 and 8BC.

I was exiled also in the early 80s, to SF (lived in the Haight), used to go to the I-Beam and the Fab Mab to see Dead Kennedys etc.

I was also at some of the early Survival Research Labs shows there, I am amazed no one died during their performances given all the explosives being used. My favorite was "SRL Views With Regret: The Unrestrained Use of Excessive Force" performance at the Potrero Hill Middle School, despite my having to get up from my seat and run when a machine with rotating meat cleavers got out of control and headed toward the audience:

Absolutely right about Le Jardin and the Dolls U Bottom. As for any connection bet LeJ and "Queens" well there was one (especially on Monday nights if I recall) but not with the borough.

Mudd Club was very cool. First dance club I wore jeans to versus getting disco regalia.

But for a random band here and there, I went to Mudd only for Mudd Mondays, a dance party night. Very fun. Otherwise, band somewhere notwithstanding, you'd find me a block or two away at Tier 3.

Liz, great sentence: "As for any connection bet LeJ and "Queens" well there was one (especially on Monday nights if I recall) but not with the borough."

btw, what's taking Riversider so long to post about how Obama is pro-ganja and will get all our nation's little children hooked on marijuana? Medical, recreational, addiction, it's a slippery slope, right Riversider?