Cell phones pose another problem. Pre- cell you would call your friends and have to wait for them at a club till they showed. While you waited you would drink and meet other people. Cell phones keep people from meeting outsiders, you see it all the time- girls sitting alone in a bar texting their friends. Instead of being open for a conversation they’re engaged in a virtual suspended existence.
AIDS and other sexual diseases also tampered the night life scene. Actually, it ruined it… In the past, a healthy mix of the gay contingent made a night club a congenial scene. Their presence alone would ensure attention to cultural concerns other than immediate sexual gratification with the opposite sex. In a sense, the gay entourage acted as a healthy buffer to the premeditated hetero male looking to score at all costs. When you use to turn up to The Mudd Club, The Blue Angel, Save the Robots or Jackie 60 there would be a vaudeville collection of distinct personalities whose very presence and aura affirmed an experience out of the Jazz Ritz circa Berlin early 1930’s, a Otto Dix painting.
Today it’s morphed into a tense, high-stake game of whether you can get in or not just so you can pay premium dollar to be seen and paraded – because being seen and talked about has now become more important than seeing and talking of. But that’s bottle service for you, and as long as the trolls and the pedigreed make their rounds you will be scampering to compete with them as if your life depended on it.
Hip Hop life style, money and hos, need I say more. Is there anything classy about this idea? Dumb bimbos half naked, bumping and grinding with free bottles. I don’t know, after the millionth bump, grind does anyone really care? But that’s promotion for you, a millionth grind can always be repackaged as some wonderful idea. That is, until you realize you’ve been duped once again by the same ho from a hundred years with a new hair do that is checking you out vacantly…
So what have we learned? Nothing, but I hope that club owners get the crack out of their nose and wake up a little earlier and think tank some new ideas cause I haven’t spoken to anyone in a while, from the young and new to the old die-hards that know where to go.
If you think you have any ideas call me and we’ll talk shop…
Jacob’s Angels; Living the Life you Want. A Night out at Buddha Bar and 1 OAK.
There’s a good piece in today’s Times about “dressing up” again for nightlife…Suzanne Bartsch is the only one who can still manage to be relevant when it comes to mixing and matching personalities in NYC.
What killed NY nightlife was David Sarner and bottle service, he proudly proclaimed this on an Urban Daddy promo piece with Belvedere, by “turning the tables into mini-bars,” he was able to let ANYONE with a credit card into a club and take over. This “go-go” money machine killed the diversity as club owners grew more and more greedy and forgot why people go out in the first place, they killed the dance floor by playing to the table service.
We went from mega clubs in the 90’s (remember Peter Gatien?) to the lounge scene and smaller places to Marquis which reconciled the size of a mega (slightly, not really) club with the lounge scene, the dance floor there is almost an after thought. Now, we’re left with a mix of also-ran’s when it comes to a choice–and who wants to even go near the west side anymore with all that obnoxiousness–certainly not a real New Yorker (sorry).
Good Units under the Hudson has a glimmer of bygone NYC clubs, its raw big and fun to get lost in, good luck to Josh and the crew from Morgans hotel to get it up and running in that ‘hood.
so why the fu*k doesn’t someone get with someone with a ton of money and open a new club? i mean no matter what everyone looks for places to go and everyone will always love trendy so why not bring back the old, sell it as the new, well to “the new” and make a billion dollars and enjoy the nitelife again? shit, if i had the connections i could talk them into it, and you sound like you have the knowledge and the know how, everything old becomes new again, right? look, it’s NOT the same, it’ll NEVER be the same, it’s ALL different everywhere, in any sort of thing that was your thing when we were younger…ya know? but you are working with a marketable idea if you can find the investor you got a goldmine, thougth you didn’t? shit, EVERYONE loves transvestites and they love the 60s 70s and the 80s and there gots to be a lot of club goers loving the 90s too, work it out, i bet you can and if you need a hand, email me! why not? i figure you won’t but hey if you do and you end up becoming the next big hit on the scene, just make sure i get in the door, know what i mean? anyway, whatever you do, have fun, and be happy………see ya!
Sad but true. I thought I was just getting old(ish) and jaded then spent some time in Montreal. You would think NYC could support one real club. And all the underground shits been gone from Newark for years. Sigh.
I remember the first time I took you to Carmalita’s–you are not jaded–the club scene does suck–from top to bottom!!!
1 Oak is a dump. Place gets the worst crowd. Sorry mate, not a fan of those clubs that look like a Sushi restaurant in LA, 1 Oak, Avenue, SL etc… Places need some more character. Bring back the Beatrice…!!!!
I don’t live in New York anymore, but you make it sound kind of depressing. Cheer up, winter’s right around the corner.
You hit that one square on the nose. SO true!
Re: “guy who points out spelling mistakes.”
You’re wrong. it IS barely. “barley” is a cereal crop.
Great piece, unfortunately London feels the same way, too much roping-off VIP bullshit!
Wonderful piece Stuart! There is a definite nostalgia for New York nightlife past these days, though I wish there were more of it. The Box is definitely one of the last ambassadors of old New York still standing…
Barley legal girls.
Agree, was carded and refused a drink at a place at 31 years of age in NYC recently.