THE ROOTS OF CONTACT 1976 - April 18, 1978 - BAD POETRY

THE ROOTS OF CONTACT 1976

By

Peter Nolan Smith

Downtown
A disco.
Flashing strobes
Deafening drum bass
A young weekend crowd
Dancing

Sexually fearless males on 'ludes
Disco waifs on blow
All of us 99% dead by dawn__

A thin wanton teenager sensually sways to Donna Summer's ' LOVE TO LOVE YOU, BABY'
She dances with me
Her body seducing my drugged libido
She's high <>
"Love to love you, baby."
She lipsynches the chorus
"Love to you you baby."

Sara
Her name.
Sara is in high school
Private school
I push Sara away hard
Girls like her are danger
To themselves
To everyone around them__
I thread my way to the bar
"A vodka-tonic."
The bartender wants me
Jhoury pours a double and slips me a 'lude

I lean against the bar
A voyeur__

White boys dance with black men
Girls with girls
No one is straight
Not even 10%

The DJ pushes the beat on and on and on
I drop the 714
My second

Across the dance floor a brunette
Beauty
Alone
Surrounded by admirers
Famous
A Vogue model
Everyone knows her name.
Gia___
I am a no one, but I am the most no one here

Gia sees that
Her eyes fall on me
Mine on her.
Mirror to mirror
I know her

Gia famous
A Vogue model
I am no one
But I am the most no one here__
LOVE TO LOVE YOU BABY
Segue to silence
The dance floor stalled to a near-stop
The DJ smiles under a spotlight

More silence,
One second, two seconds fifteen seconds
Then Diana Ross' breathless voice
We all know this song
We sway
We all know what is coming
LOVE HANGOVER

Almost a ballad
Then Magic
The bass, the drums, the guitar and Diana on top of it all
Gia and I meet on the dance floor

She said her name
I tell her mine.
Names mean nothing in our world
Her body to mine
The 'lude hits
The madness of flesh

Gia and me
Immortalia
For now and eternity__

December 29, 1978 - East Village - Journal Entry

Disco was king on 1978. Rock and roll was a distant second and punk barely scratched the airwaves. Everyone was into Disco. Donna Summer, a Dorchester native, ruled the charts with MacArthur Park and Last Dance, Chic took over in December with Le Freak. The shout for Disco echoed across the country and world. While Jimi Hendrix had played the National Anthem soloing with her teeth at Woodstock nine years ago, thankfully no one disco covered GOD BLESS AMERICA or THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER.

Rock's dilemma is that the genre has stagnated with the corporate middle-of-the-road all stars simply recording formula stadium rock. Only metal and punk fight the trend with the old aged executives taking the easy path for profit. The radio is all MOR and Disco. Where have Motown and Stax and Philly gone? After the race uprisings of the 60s and 70s, white people didn't want to see blacks anywhere. The NBA is dying and disco has no politics to it.

I sit at home listening to the old 45s, playing solitaire, and await a phone call from an unknown source saving me from further ruin. None come, and solitaire loses its appeal once you cheat at it.

Tonight I'm going to CBGBs. I haven't been there since last Friday's peyote trip with Bill Yusk. Completely fried.

Rock and roll decay The Rolling Stones mellow Mainstream The Beatles dead Still on the radio Fucking Rockie Raccoon The stars of the 60s Fat, drunk, or dead Useless, boring, or wasted. Not Van Halen or Black Sabbath Certainly not Iggy Or the Dead Boys. They'll never make it on the AM charts.

Drinking beer has temporarily killed my thirst. In the world Iran awaits the Shah's death. Taiwan feels betrayed by our treaty with Red China. Murders never-ending murders across the USA. Fuck it. No one cares about anything,

The old wind shivers through the drafty windows. I wait for the clock to hit 11, then I'll head over to CBGBs. The Theater. The Dictators and the Dead Boys.

Safe Sex In Pattaya

On my first visit to Pattaya in 1991 I went to the Marine Disco and picked up a girl. We had sex. More than once. Nothing bad happened. She didn’t get pregnant. I didn’t contract an STD (sexually transmitted disease) and we didn’t get married. We were lucky, since I hadn’t been wearing a condom.

No one comes to Pattaya for the water. Not the beaches, maybe the golf, but thousands of men past their prime arrive in the Last Babylon with expectations of fulfilling fantasies previously available only through fast-forward action of a porno DVD.

Girls. Girls Girls.

Pattaya has more girls than you can shake a stick at and almost all of them will say yes, but yes does not mean yes to everything.

CONDOM USE

“Feels like taking a shower with a raincoat.” Many men quote from an anonymous source about condoms.

Wearing a ‘French envelope’ might be not as pleasurable as bare-backing your tattooed and pierced sex kitten in a cheap short-time hotel off the Beach Road, but the casual tourist has to consider the risks of this action, which is not easy after swilling a dozen beers and ingesting 2 Viagra.

In the early 90s Thailand was beset by AIDS. NGOs blamed the pandemic on the sex trade. The real reason was that the DEA had eradicated opium plants and the hill tribes started shooting heroin with swapped needles. The sex trade was also at fault and the government waged a very effective publicity campaign to educate women of the benefits of using a condom.

Condoms are now a fact of life in Pattaya.

While not 100% effective, they cut down on the risks of catching anything you wouldn’t want from a toilet seat.

Many men complain about ‘rubberitis’ i.e. the touch of latex leading to dreaded loss of wood before coitus-a-g-go. I suggest cutting down on your alcohol consumption, having sex before 3am, or take a blue boy to adjust any chemical imbalance. (caution – it is rumored that scores of middle-aged farangs are admitted to the local hospitals after suffering a heart failure as an after-effect of taking a Viagra). While condoms diminish pleasure, you can still achieve ejaculation and that’s all men are really after in sex.

If a woman wants a friend, then she can buy a dog.

Here’s some pointers about Condom Use

Use latex condoms.

Brands such as Lifestyle, Trojans, Kimono, or Durex are usually reliable. Natural skin condoms feel good, but do not prevent diseases. If you or your partners are allergic to latex (it might give you a rash or irritation), try the polyurethane condom called Avanti.

Get the right size. In the USA the condom makers downsized their product one step to make men think they had bigger penises. You might not be the XXL you thought you were, so check the size first. Also some girls will offer you a smaller size if only to cut off the blood from its appointed destination. If the shoe doesn’t fit don’t wear it.

Lubricate!

Most condoms come with some lubrication inside. Whether you believe it not most of the women you bed in Pattaya are not into sex because you look like Brad Pitt. Spit is nice in your videos, but Thai girls think it’s disgusting. And butter despite Marlon Brando using it in LAST TANGO IN PARIS ruins hotel sheets.

For the pleasures of intercourse without discomfort, you will probably want to use additional lubricant on the outside of the condom… use only water-soluble lubricants that do not irritate you or your partner… never use petroleum-based lubricants or other oils or jellies because these will rot latex and cause damage to your condoms.

Use care to roll the condom down the shaft of your penis as soon as you get erect. (If you’re uncircumcised, you’ll probably need to pull your foreskin back before putting the condom on). Pinch the reservoir at the top of the condom so that there’s no air bubble trapped inside the condom (air bubbles can cause breakages). Some girls are orally adept at equipping your member and you’d never know it happened until after the moment of joy.

Beware of jewelry or sharp fingernails as these can cause small rips or tears in a condom (which later lead to breakages). That also goes for larger objects too.

Keep the condom firmly on your penis until you ejaculate. Then, if you are inside your partner withdraw and carefully remove the condom and dispose of it. Use a new condom each time you come inside your partner. Unless you are really cheap.

If you want a kid or a dose of the clap, try some bare-back bronco riding.

Nothing like that first burning sensation or getting a phone call from your teelat.

"We have to talk."

Law ke khun or up to you.

More Ludes

From a female friend in Palm Beach; I remember 'ludes well. I have a story about thinking I had a brain tumor and/or an allergy to rum because I kept passing out after I had a couple of daiquiris on a boat that was in harbor and coincidentally had very good drugs. I'd wake up at 4AM, splayed out on deck, sometimes in the rain and had no idea what had happened. This went on all summer and I actually went to Providence and saw a neurologist who did a brain scan. He said nothing was wrong with my brain but the episodes persisted. I switched to vodka but I still passed out. I also was a regular on the boat as there were other perks that I couldn't resist. After the summer, the boat left for the Caribbean and suddenly my blackouts stopped. A year later the mate confessed to me that the captain had been crushing up ludes and putting them in my drinks. The captain was a Welsh pig and I hate to think what really happened to me but I never asked nor do I want to know. Another time, I handed out half a lude to a fellow passenger on a flight from St. Maarten to NYC. After about a half hour he said nothing was happening and asked for the other half. I gave it to him reluctantly because he was a lude virgin and I didn't know how well he'd hold up. The last time I saw him, he was curled up on the baggage carousel at JFK, going round and round while his parents looked on in horror. I got out of there fast and made a note not to share with strangers.

Extinct Ludes

From a friend My favorite quaalude adventure took place @ the Hyatt Regency Hotel sunday afternoon tea dance in the gigantic lobby that had a fountain in the center w/a bench surrounding the pool of water. My 3 friends & I had taken quaaludes on our way to the dance and by the time we arrived, we were obliterated. I sat on the bench for a few minutes, then laid back into the pond and fell in completely under water with all of my clothes on. I remember being underwater, looking up and hearing the muffled sounds of the orchestra and thinking how serene it was. At that moment, a security guard reached in and pulled me out by my shirt collar. He stood and watched me as I took off my boots and dumped the water into the pool, then when I took my shirt off and wrung it out he politely told me shirts were required so I put it back on. He then walked away and left me and my equally wasted date to ourselves. Later that evening, I slept through an entire Lou Reed concert still wearing my soaked clothes. oblivion is always easier to achieve than enlightenment - james steele

Donna Summers RIP

Music critics have argued over whether the first disco song was the Hues Corporation's "Rock the Boat", George McCrae's "Rock Your Baby" or"Kung Fu Fighting" by Biddu and Carl Douglas, but incontestably the greatest hit of disco was LOVE TO LOVE YOU BABY by Donna Summer. Sadly the Queen of Disco has passed from the Here-Now. When I first heard the news, I hit youtubes to hear her hits and found myself crying as soon as I heard her voice set on top of that electronic monometric beat. I FEEL LOVE brought me back to 1975 and dancing with my gay friends at Boston's 1270 Club. Her death signaled the end of an era for her fans and my tears were diamonds of love for the Dorchester native and her many fans already lost in the Here-Before. Here's some of her best songs SALLY GOES ROUND THE ROSES http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCH6jiJ8iyM&feature=related THE HOSTAGE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YY5z3IX65Io&feature=related LOVE TO LOVE YOU BABY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1ArZEFwRsY I didn't realize how much I would miss her until she was gone. Donna Donna Donna