Bash Compactor: Sister of the Moon
Last Friday, upon a midnight dreary, I decided to get the hell out of the house and threw on my black Goth girl outfit with the wizard bell sleeves and cabbed it down to the Highline Ballroom.
As I made my way through the packed and sweaty house to the front of the stage, various Muppets and bewigged freaks like Rob Roth and Zazoo and Satori nodded and gave me the high fives I get wherever I go. Suddenly there came a tapping, as of someone gently rapping, rapping at my rear end.
Tis some visitor, I muttered, tapping, only this, and nothing more. And I was right. Hey! my ex said with a grin, waving and holding aloft a video camera. He was with the new girl of the month and they were digging the action on the stage: statuesque Amber Ray shaking her booty and a white-winged mistress swirling to the tune of Gold Dust Woman. The audience was rapt with wonder and joy. These fans were hard-core. One woman was wearing a huge box with sign around her neck that read, I am Stevies Closet. They were dancing by the light of the moon for sure.
It was the 20th annual Night of a 1,000 Stevies, popularly known as NOTS. I confess: I did buy Fleetwood Macs Greatest Hits a decade ago, but I dont know much about Stevie Nicks. Im learning, thanks to this yearly celebration of the endearing quirks and fashions of this moon maiden singer, a priestess of song.Chi Chi Valenti and Hattie Hathaway were our hosts, and Johnny Dynell was DJing with Poison Eve and Craig Spencer. New performers this year included Ericka Toure Aviance, Rachel Klein, Gusty Winds, Julie Myers (aka Nearly Nicks) and The Pearl Dandy. Looking at the costumed loons around me, I finally understood Stevie. Think white doves, velvet, tambourines wrapped with scarves, black robes, long blond hair, pagans and Wiccans, cloaks, coke spoons and platform boots. It reminded me of my last acid trip.
After seeing the way all of these enchanted nightcrawlers were inspired by Nicks, I realized her recent and disappointing performance with the awful Taylor Swift must have been the teenagers fault. Swifts vocals on Rhiannon were off-key, too. Kanye, where were you when we really needed you? [GERRY VISCO]
Revelers at Night of 1,000 Stevies.