From Kiev with Love 1978

The Kiev Restaurant opened in the late '70s. 24 hours. Punks went there after CBGBs, Max's, and the Mudd Club. Bacon and eggs, as the dawn broke the morn. It was a scene. I fought with Samo over his recording me on a tape recorder and discussed a photo-roman with Klaus Nomi. They went from obscurity to fame. I stopped going to the Kiev after the cook served well-done eggs. I sent them back. The waitress returned with a plate of transparent eggs on top of the first order. His message couldn't have been clearer. That was 1980. I wasn’t welcome there anymore.

Kiev Restaurant was the only Kiev in my universe meant the Kiev until September 2009..

That year I landed in the Ukrainian capital seeking payment from a local internet company for equipment from a Palm Beach manufacturer. My friends thought I was crazy. They all thought I was going to be killed by zeks or convicts. Russia was the Wild Wild East. I needed the money for my family in Thailand. I had no choice.

A flight from JFK. An hour's drive into the city from the airport. Onion-bulbed domes gleaming in the May sun. I booked into the Domus Hotel and walked around the old town. Punks drank on the corners, goths huffed glue in the alleys, and bums fought in the parks. Broken beer bottles glittered on the streets. It looked like a tough city, but I recognized a distinct female/male advantage. Something like 55/45% in the youth. And none of the women fat like Americans.

Then again, there were no 7/11s or fast food outlets in Kiev then.

And the beer was cheap.

On the steps of a cathedral, a long-haired man was playing Nirvana in the main square.

His audience consisted of all ages. Two drunken old men danced to FEELS LIKE TEENAGE SPIRIT. They even knew the words. Not a bad town. I went to a rendezvous with the president of an internet company. He owed $60,000 to the Floida manufacturer. He was a no-show to our meeting. I drank some more beer and left the next morning for Petersburg to hunt down another deadbeat company.

Kiev 2009. I wish them peace one day. Down with Putin and Trump. I’m off to vote in Clinton Hill.