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Denizens Of The Night
By Mardi Clark
Visit your basic large American city, you know, the size where
people can really live without a car (!!), and venture out on
the street at night and you may well think you are on the set
of "The Crow"! Midnite, two am, they file by, intent
on a destination, white faces, blackest hair, pierced, black-clothed,
refugees from "Dark Shadows"...The Goths! Others, black-leather
clad, male and female, silver chains and rings and handcuffs dangling
from elaborate belts tromp by in heavy boots and or heels...The
S&M crowd! Then color...and a non-somber expression!...a young
group dressed like a Frederick's catalog, shimmery silver minidress,
go-go boots, strappy heels and sequins no less..The Clubbers!
All these people are doing a different scene, mixed in places
but distinct. Since you'll see these folks..and many more variations
(humanity is such a zoo!) you need to be in on what they're
up to...right? So let's take a closer look.....
Mardi
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Two of the groups which seem to hang together the most are the
S&M people and the Goths. The music they enjoy is pretty similar
if not the same--all instrumental, often very heavy, clashing
percussion with complex and slow rhythms set off by an often shrill
flowingly undulating melody....Sinatra it ain't.
The dancing is very distinctive and reminds one of a bunch of ghouls dancing
in a moonlit stone-walled courtyard in the light of the moon,
widely flowing whole-body gestures( the best simply beautiful
to watch) more like theatrical than recreational dance. The Goth's
fascination with the dead and dying and already dead and their
sometimes regretted link to a sub-group, the Vampires (who mimic,
sometimes TOO well, the behavior associated with these figures
of the macabre) all stem from a basic linkage to their perceived
state of our society, which they are symbolically mourning as
they see humanity as in it's final death-throes. Sound depressing?
Well, they aren't exactly a bunch of cut-ups that's for sure!!
But neither are they threatening as almost without exception they're
as gentle as they are somber.
Like in every group, there are the
oft-derided "posers"....identified in this case as persons
who are "Goth" only at night...the real McCoy live it
as a lifestyle, 24/7 as we say, and endure a significant amount
of harassment along the way as well...something else some of us
can appreciate. Maybe it is because of this that I have found
a certain friendliness extended to our ilk...a kinship of radical
alternative appearance if you will.
The S & M Crowd
Perhaps because of their shared taste in clothing and serious
demeanor, the S&M crowd often cohabit the same space as the
Goths but there the resemblance ends--as Sado and Macho isn't
in the Goth repertoire. Sometimes running afoul of the blue laws
in various states and thus often having a significant underground
element, the S&M is a practice often linked inextricably to
sex. Typically conducted in dungeons and special meeting places,
and often linked as well with the pagan community (more for their
noted toleration than any particular reason otherwise) they enjoy
sessions of bondage coupled with various levels of physical torture...whipping
mostly but creativity is definitely a forte here! The fetish scene
is linked in here as well--this is the leather/latex crowd and
they actually wear colors! Red, black, purple and even white skintight
clothing, with some spandex thrown is for good measure as well.
Tammy |
Although this crowd can be pretty conventional in their actual
sex practices (reatively speaking of course!!), sex combined with
bondage without the pain element is very popular... in the way
of masks, gags, handcuffs and various creative restraints often
applied almost ritualistically. As with S&M, this scene uses
the concepts of top and bottom, master and slave routinely. Here
is where transvestitism intersects----in forced crossdressing/feminization
and the whole dominatrix specialty scene. One of the most avant
scenes is London, England and the club Skin-Two. The gay
leather scene is an offshoot of this whole genre as well...these
are the guys with the studded leather wear, black military caps
and riding boots. This is a pretty closed bunch but they're mostly
harmless if very macho or butch as the case may be. If ya go into
one of their bars, don't bother looking for women's restroom..they
probably don't have one....same for a strict women's bar...no
men's room!!
Stay Clear: Skinheads
So whatever happened to rock & roll?? Not to worry, it is
alive and well in several scenes: Punks and skinheads, stoners,
rockers, alternatives(who are a vast vague group these days) and
the frat/jock/sorority crowd. Not all of these are groups we might
prefer to mix with tho...some are rather benignly "diffophobic",like
the frat/jock crowd, and some actively, like skinheads and some
punks and jocks. Let's take a quick peek at all of these as the
biggest groups are here and so you are bound to run into them
wherever you go at nite.
Shaved heads are getting so popular it isn't a good sign of a
skinhead anymore, tho' all of these people do have shaved heads.
Ya gotta give 'em credit for trying as a group to clean up their
act, but there are far too many of these people who do meet the
stereotype of active ultra-violent bigot to warrant avoidance
as a good policy. If the Goths are mourning the dead and dying,
these guys are bringing 'em the bodies!
Extreme metal, lots of
spikes, heavy boots, they often try to look as scary as possible
and since it is also a lifestyle , the aura is there as well--its
like looking eye-to-eye with a jackel at the zoo. Some of the
punk crowd, what is left of it anyway, is a lighter weight version...motorbikes,
and usually not Harleys by-th-way, are popular accessories
as well. This scene is waaaay bigger in Europe and has gotten
most of it's bad press from there. ANYway, head the other way!
If you hit a new bar and see alot of young BIG guys in letter
jackets around, you've probably walked into a sports bar of one
sort or another. Karayoke and top 40 rock is commonly the thing
here and it is almost always a VERY straight crowd that is very
into consumption of vast, vast quantities of cheap all-American
beer. Not the place to try out your cheerleader outfit, ok? The
jock/college crowd like to swarm some dance clubs as well..these
are the hetero meat-market places, often in the suburbs and often
local chains..like Black Angus for instance. Not a center of toleration
usually.
Stoners have been around for a long time and rockers too. The
alternative crowd, pierced, dyed blond hair, ripped clothes--this
is what grunge morphed into when it went mainstream. They frequent
live rock venues and this is a variable scene, sometimes quite
cool other times not. Gotta go with local knowledge in this one.
The Beautiful People
Last are the ravers/clubbers. This is a basically good bunch and
is the dance/disco crowd...they actually dress up to go out Saturday
nite (!!) and their places are very hot and trendy right now,
lots of fashion and style and beautiful people....the music, all
recorded (except some live electronica), includes such genres
as techno, electronica, industrial, jungle and even some old-fashioned
Saturday Nite Fever once in awhile. D.J.s are the stars of this
scene and they come from all over the world to live-mix &
spin the vinyl for crowds of hundreds on huge packed multi-level
dancefloors. This is usually a pretty mellow bunch and fights
are pretty much unheard of. This scene has lots of safe, appreciative
fun for us. There is a big after-hours scene as an adjunct here,
the "Rave". This is party-till-dawn, very uninhibited
and high energy----mood drugs like ecstasy are not at all unknown
(But none of this is the stuff that makes maniacs, like the notorious
PCP (skins, metallicas, etc), so don't worry.)
Well, geez, there is more...country, gay and straight with two-steppin'
and line dancing, the "lounge" scene with cigars and
40's dance music and a _young_ crowd, and hip-hop and rap scenes
for instance but I haven't ventured into this stuff much so I
will leave it to another corespondent! But the above will serve
ya pretty well for the big-city people watching scene and hopefully
help you find a niche where you will feel comfy and have fun and
stay out of trouble. So, enter the night and party 'till the sun
rises!!
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