new york dolled up

new york, new york. what a slinky dress seductress. the city is chock-a-block with confessions of its love affairs. the bastard children have taken on the name of its inspiration: the new york knock 'em sock 'em coffee breath attitude, the brooklyn dodgers (whom ran away with the name and are now living in sin in california), and the new york dolls.

the new york dolls, a seminal band for the making of future cross-dressing, pom-pom haired glam bands like hanoi rocks to the angry saunters of punk bands like the sex pistols and their anthems of social alienation. http://www.nydolls.org

these fathers of musical invention played for free on friday night at southstreet seaport's pier 17. http://www.seaportmusicfestival.com/ to prep for the show, i donned on heavy black eyeliner and patent leather red stilettos, in the same manner a boxer ritualistically wraps his hands before a match and an atheist high school senior prays before opening up their college acceptance/rejection envelopes.

my friends and i couldn't name any new york dolls hits, but with my panda eyes, i felt secure enough to pose like a rock star and funnily enough, gnaw on some tender bamboo shoots before i left the house.

the crowd was a motley grouping of accidental tourists, wall street suits, mtv assembly line twenty-something year old punk wannabes, and aging rockers accessorized with their kids perched on top of their shoulders. the crowd spilled out onto the streets and onto the balcony restaurants of the shopping centre, where one man paid $1500 for his table, as we were told by the manager as he shooed us away.

the sound system was terrible and the claustrophobia alert was set to code red. there was a moment of uncertainty about whether i had stumbled across a live rendition of pirates of the caribbean with the frontsman, david johansen, in rocker/pirate standard-issue eyeliner and pirate hat. the lack of girls toting "i heart you johnny depp" banners reassured me that i was indeed witnessing founders of protopunk, not protohunk. with the energy from the band and that of the crowd, the new york dolls certainly proved that they were new york's doll.