I have been asked what I think of TIM LAWRENCE"S LIFE AND DEATH ON THE NEW YORK DANCE FLOOR 1980-1983, Now that the NYC HOOPLA is over I break my silence

I have publicly held my tongue when asked what i think of Tim Lawrence's book,Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor 1980-1983 . I decided to wait until his whirlwind publishing release and the events around it has been completed to break that silence and answer what many have asked me,

Tim's book reminds me of many a straight male outsider trying to get into one of my clubs. Given the criteria I had developed for the mix inside a club he would have gotten the hi sign from Houi, or Pat Wadsley or Chuck Nanny etc

Although I wish he had stuck to the original intent of his book: a documentation of the Rise of House music, he did not. . Yes, he gets many things right and also wrong. I had a very difficult time with him wanting to believe dead people, people whose substance abuse corrupted their memory and a steady stream of confabulation.

Lawrence seemed to have an obsessive interest in Rudolf Pieper and the Mudd Club. He diminishes my conceptual input into a new nightlife first manifested at HURRAH and later when I asked Pieper to join me at Danceteria,1 and 2, BLITZ, Peppermint Lounge, Modern Classic Studio 54,,and post-Pieper ON THE The Water Front. He usually describs me as simply a booker of talent. Yes I was the art, music, performace art, spoken word and fashion talent buyer as well as conventionalist ,publicity and advertising point person

I had been introduced to Pieper by Sean Cassette, who with Mark Kamins were the principal DJs at Hurrah. Cassette told me he had a friend who was trying to open a club in SoHo. Hetold me his friend was desperate to get his green card and to invest and open a business was one way. Pieper apparently could not legally go back to Berlin and did not want to return to South America where his parent had moved to in the last days of the Third Reich. I remember meeting Rudolf in the raw space of a manufacturing building on Crosby Street. We talked about the aesthetics. What he was trying to create was was based on the lighting and theatrical environment ideas of the Russian constructivist Karl Meyerhold. I knew of Meyerhold from my years of study with Lee Strasberg.

Pieper was having trouble getting reidential community support because his business partner, a Soho based real estate developer had threatened the wrong person,.She was Lee Gillant, a lesbian opera singer who was a part of the Judson Church artist community, She lived in the building next door to the raw space,

I knew Lee and I knew people on the Community Board and had partivipated in public session on community issues other than nightlife.

I agreed to collaborate with Pieper on the club and also help with the neighbors. It was at our second meeting with Pieper I came up with the name for the club : PRAVDA based on the official Soviet newspaper. The word translated as TRUTH.

I succeeded in convincing Lee that the club would be an avant arts performance space and bar, But the real estate developer again physically threatened her. You don't do that to a butch opera singing lesbian. She complained loud and clear to the State liquor Board and was successful in getting the liquor lic turned down.

Months later I asked him to join me at the first Danceteria when I was offered the space, I wanted him because I did not want any of my clubs categorized as gay only clubs Which they have been to this day by people like rock journalist Andy Schwartz ,

At first Pieper told me he was not interested "In going above 14th street." I also needed someone who could deal with the "backroom boys". While the Mudd is important as an art world insider social club, the real creative people behind the Mudd conceptually who Steve Mass depended on were Diego Cortez, the art dealer , and his best friend Anya Phillips, the partner of musician James Chance and It girl and art dealer Patti Astor,

Among the Insiders that I suggested to Tim to talk to were Francine Hunter (Jungle Red) and the photographer Dustin Pittman. Tim never talked to them .

I finely gave up on trying to explain to him his errors ,He had that academic attitude .. don't trust the original source but listen to the people around v . He also had that outsider groupie bias that made him vulnerable for confabulation that comes with the turf. I am not alone .. Blue and Genn and the real door people of fhe Mudd Club share my critique of the book. When the MoMA event was being put together , I asked to be on the panel . He said it was not possible. I think it says something about his pov that he did not see the importance of having a gay person on that panel,,,

As to Ruth Polsky, I hired her as my assistant at HURRAH because I needed one when the unexpected success made my job as conceptualist, talent buyer and publicist too demanding for one person. Since I believe in mentoring women in jobs men usually turfed out, i hired her, She was a music journalist who shared a curiosity and ear for the kinds of music I did, Yes I think it is fact that I did a good job of training her , To her credit she always called me and told me she had been offered a job to replace me as a booker. Hurrah, Danceteria, Peppermint Lounge ..always. I said to her as I did to other employees I had hired like Houi etc. "Thank you Ruth for asking , but you need a job . I trained you well . I have no desire to demand you quit, We both care about the music , I just hope if the next club I do, you will come and join me when it is ready." . I remember going to burial service in Tom's River NJ. Finally let me say I like Tim Lawrence personally, I have problems based on my own personal experiences with this book and his previous one on Arthur Russell. Saying that I am glad they are published and open a bigger conversation.

I have been asked what I think of TM LAWRENCE"S LIFE AND DEATH ON THE NEW YORK DANCE FLOOR 1980-1983, Now that the NYC HOOPLA is over I break my silence

I have publicly held my tongue when asked what i think of Tim Lawrence's book,Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor 1980-1983 . I decided to wait until his whirlwind publishing release and the events around it has been completed to break that silence and answer what many have asked me,

Tim's book reminds me of many a straight male outsider trying to get into one of my clubs. Given the criteria I had developed for the mix inside a club he would have gotten the hi sign from Houi, or Pat Wadsley or Chuck Nanny etc

Although I wish he had stuck to the original intent of his book: a documentation of the Rise of House music, he did not. . Yes, he gets many things right and also wrong. I had a very difficult time with his wanting to believe dead people as well as people whose substance abuse corrupted their memory as well as steady stream of confabulation.

Lawrence seemed to me to have an obsessive interest in Rudolf Pieper and the Mudd Club. He diminishes my conceptual input into a new nightlife first manifested at HURRAH and later when I asked Pieper to join me at Danceteria,1 and 2, BLITZ, Peppermint Lounge, Modern Classic Studio 54,,and post-Pieper ON THE THE WATERFRONT. He usually describes me as simply a booker of talent. Yes I was the booker of talent as well as art, music, performance art, spoken word and fashion. Yes I was the talent buyer as well as conceptualist and publicity and advertising point person in all of my clubs,

I had been introduced to Pieper by Sean Cassette, who with Mark Kamins , were the principal DJs at Hurrah. Cassette told me he had a friend who was trying to open a club in SoHo. He told me his friend was desperate to get his green card and to invest and open a business was one way. Pieper apparently could not legally go back to Berlin and did not want to return to South America where his parent had moved to in the last days of the Third Reich. I remember meeting Rudolf in the raw space of a manufacturing building on Crosby Street. We talked about the aesthetics. What he was trying to create was was based on the lighting and theatrical environment ideas of the Russian constructivist Karl Meyerhold. I knew of Meyerhold from my years of study with Lee Strasberg.

Pieper was having trouble getting residential community support because his business partner, a Soho based real estate developer had threatened the wrong person,.She was Lee Gillant, a lesbian opera singer who was a part of the Judson Church artist community, She lived in the building next door to the raw space,

I knew Lee and I knew people on the Community Board as had participated in public sessions on community issues other than nightlife.

I agreed to collaborate with Pieper on the concept for the club and also help with the neighbors and the Community Board. It was at our second meeting with Pieper I came up with the name for the club : PRAVDA based on the official Soviet newspaper. The word translated as TRUTH.

I succeeded in convincing Lee that the club would be an avant arts performance space and bar, But the real estate developer again physically threatened her. You don't do that to a butch opera singing lesbian. She complained loud and clear to the State Liquor Board and was successful in getting the liquor lic turned down. We had a two night run with PRAVDA . It became a legendary opening and closing.

Months later I asked him to join me at the first Danceteria when I was offered the space, I wanted him because I did not want any of my clubs categorized to be categorized as gay only clubs. Which they have been to this day by people like rock journalist Andy Schwartz. I know this because when Schwartz was writing about the history of nightlife in NYC and live music for the ROCK 'n' ROLL Hall of Fame, he excluded Hurrah, Danceteria the new Peppermint Lounge.

I knew Andy and asked him why they were excluded. He answered me : "Because we are not including gay clubs." "Really?" I said to Andy. I remeber telling that was never my intent. It was my intent to have clubs that were a mix of peple who shared the same cultural aesthetic and curiosity. I made it very clear to him I was conceiving of clubs that would have a mix of sexual orientation, gender and race.. I told him my door policy was based on creating a space safe for gay people and women and the men who liked to be with them. I told him I achieved this not onlu by who was admit to the club but how the same criteria was in place in the hiring of a employess from door people and bartenders to security that reflected that same kind of person I wanted as a customer. I told Andy because of the success of this formula we had no fights or sexual harrassement or rapes in any of my clubs, And I remember telling him many, many people found friendship, relationships and yes exual adventures in my clubs that were coinsentual. I asked him why he defined this as "gay"? He gave me no answer.

At first Pieper told me he was not interested "In going above 14th street." I knew I also needed someone who could deal with the "backroom boys". While the Mudd is important as an art world insider social club, the real creative people behind the Mudd conceptually who Steve Mass depended on in the beginning were Diego Cortez, the art dealer, and his best friend Anya Phillips, the partner of musician James Chance and It girl and art dealer Patti Astor as well as the original door people Richard Boch and Robert Molnar

Among the Insiders that I suggested to Tim to talk to were Francine Hunter (Jungle Red) and the photographer Dustin Pittman. Tim never talked to them .

I finally gave up on trying to explain to him his errors ,He had that academic attitude .. don't trust the original source but listen to the people around that source . He also had that outsider groupie bias that made him vulnerable for confabulation that comes with the turf.

I am not alone .. Blue and Glenn O'Brien and the real door people of the Mudd Club share, to different degrees, my critique of the book.

When the MoMA event was being put together , I asked to be on the panel . He said it was not possible. He blamed MoMA I think it says something about his pov that he did not see the importance of having a gay person on that panel.

As to Ruth Polsky, I hired her as my assistant at HURRAH because I needed someone when the unexpected success made my job as conceptualist, talent buyer and publicist too demanding for one person. Since I believe in mentoring women in jobs men usually turfed out, i hired her, She was a music journalist who shared a curiosity and ear for the kinds of music I did. Yes I think it is fact that I did a good job of training her , To her credit she always called me and told me she had been offered a job to replace me as a booker when I left or was removed from a club I had created: . Hurrah, Danceteria, Peppermint Lounge ..always. I said to her, as I did to other employees I had hired like Houi etc. "Thank you Ruth for asking , but you need a job . I trained you well . I have no desire to demand you quit, We both care about the music , I just hope if the next club I do, you will come and join me when it is ready." . I remember going to her burial service in Tom's River NJ.

Finally let me say I like Tim Lawrence personally which complicates my critique of his scholarship. I have problems based on my own personal experiences with this book and his previous one on Arthur Russell.

I also am not a person who lives in nostalgia.

But if a period of time which critically impacts my life is in fact reported incorrectly,I do feel an obligation to speak directly to the errors in the reportage of which I have personal knowledge and experience. I can only speak to what I know as misrepresentation from a personal observation and experience posiution.

I tried in a number of areas to give my experiential information to Tim eg: The hiring of Mark Kamins as a DJ at Hurrah, Afrika Bambaataa and Hurrah, The naming of Danceteria, the hiring of David King to design the Danceteria logo and signifier, the concept and design of the video lounge are just some of the examples. It became so frustrating to me that despite my telling him what was my experience of what actually happened with these example as well as others , Tim reject my explanations and relied on secondary resources.

Yes, Tim was confronted with a landscape full of subjective memory. I have chosen to not enumerate all the areas of factual dispute I have with Tim here.

Finally I asked to him to remove me from the book . Repeatedly. He refused.

I also recognize that from his position as an outsider who love dance clubs and in particular NY DJs of the period he dived into a very deep pool of conflicting memory and personal bias. Sometimes filter through conscious confabulations and self-aggrandizement and the human fact of how memory actually works. As a person who played a critical role in the period he covered and who was substance abuse free, I felt my recollection in many ways carried credibility more than a fragmentary memory, of a club goer or participant. Lawrence and you may feel differently.

The book Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor 1980-1983 exists , It makes real a very vital creative time in nightlife in NYC . It is his version. Not mine, Not, in my view, definitive.

Because Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor 1980-1983 does capture a critical time in NYC nightlife and the impact of the diversity of culture and participants, particularly the role of the DJ in NYC clubland in a moment of cultural and political importance, it is an important cultural history despite what ever flaws are contained in it.

RIP PAULINE Oliveros is in a new state of deep listening she was prepared for her bardo journey RIP Pauline Oliveros, Stuart Dempster, Panaiotis ‎– Deep Listening (Full Album)

thank you thank you thank you Pauline for opening third eye to listening

A force of nature , a brilliant composer and musician , a teacher extraordinaire and a visible lesbian when there were so few . Her picture has been on my wall,  for a very, very long time .. A creative long life lived passionately well .. Good Bye Good Bye Good Bye until we meet again somewhere on a sonic plane .THANK YOU

Most people know Eszter Balint from Jim Jarmusch indie film classic Strangers in Paradise   or from SQUAT the radical theater company that relocated to NYC from Hungary in the '80's,  That is  where I first saw her at age 15 in their space on 23rd Street. She and her son live in my neighborhood and I would run into her and Nora Burns in the afternoon when they were picking up their kids from PS 3 on Hudson. Over the years I would see her perform with one of my favorite musicians Chris Cochrane,   In these years I believe she put being a single mom and raising a kid first .. but in the last two years she has stepped forward again recording and playing live .. WOW...  I saw her playing strings with Tammy Faye, Stew and Heidi as well as a couple of weeks ago at a fantastic Adele Berti  show at Poisson Rouge .  Stephen Shanaghan at Pangea gave her a slot over the summer for her own show and  the buzz was on ,,, She returns with Stew as a guest September 30 at 7 at Pangea .. Be there, I will .

Here is a  terrific WNYC Soundcheck interview with music that will bring you up to date as well as a music video from last year..

SOUNDCHECK interview with Eszter













Music video 

I love Penny Arcade and her passionate commitment to using theater, stand up and music to being a reality check to the world she and we live in. I saw this show in its infancy about a year ago when she and Steve Zehentner were developing it ..since then she has traveled the world (literally) perfecting it performance by performance piling up nrave reviews in tough towns like London. Penny never stuck in repetition Penny always adds to the core of the piece what is happening in the world today. St Ann's gives you and me an opportunity to see a full production complete with the professionalism that professional production craft can being and takes Penny out of the secret places to most of you that I am use use to seeing her in. (and you too should discover Dixon Place, La MaMa, Pangea, Joe's Pub , Theater for the New City etc too if you have not ,,,they are all percolating! ) I ask you to support this artist .. if you have seen her before than sit back and enjoy the production values of St Ann' .. and if this is your first time ... go with a friend .. trust me you will want to talk over what just hit you as you experience this force of nature PENNY ARCADE...... or if you prefer the way fellow artist Tammy Faye describes Penny :Penny Arcade is the artist we need more than ever right now. Her work galvanizes, inspires and reflects our world into prisms of luminous and vivid perception. See her. She is the epitome of John Keats' "Beauty is truth, and truth beauty." She is the revelation and the revolution.

OH BOY NEW SONG : Regina Spektor - "Bleeding Heart" [Official Music Video]

OH Boy some good news .. REGINA SPEKTOR has a new song and here is the video   watch it twice and I just bet not only will you identify but it will be sticky in the  audio sounds section in your brain's memory bank.  Nice:  She is one of the few artists that actually gives credit to the creative team behind the song. 

Directed by Jack Dishel
Animation created & directed by Chris Tucci
Archival footage & photos by Ilya Spektor

AS I PREPARE TO TAKE TO THE STREETS AGAIN IN AN ANTI-STEVE BANNON DENO: I TURN TO RICHARD "DR LOVE" VAZQUEZ NEW INTERNET MIX: " A GARAGE HOMAGE MIX (ALL VINYL) TO GET MY BODY IN THE STREET MOOD

Dr Love's Garage Mix ..all vinyl JUST DO IT 

Death has rained on my parade with a fierceness of a tropical storm in  rage mood. Leonard, Cohen,  Sharon  Jones, are two public names but then there are the personal and private friends and "enemies " that leaped on the Bardo train and left me and you standing here godsmacked with loss.  David Mancuso was a giant among dj's all around the world and here at home.  To be let into his private party in the early '70 at his LOFT space was to step into a mostly black,  gay safe space to dance your "tits"  off. It was for me the first time I entered a non-white dominated dance space and found a freedom to feel as one with people in my tribe  I rarely saw let alone interacted with ..David Mancuso's  LOFT and his mastery of the vinyl "come together beat "was a critical part of my political understanding of community and the role race plays in America. It was a glorious time and slowly emerged in other places as the decade move on,  Nicky Siano's Gallery,  the Garage, the Saint, Studio 54 where the same core mix of people were seduced and body pleasred  by the sonic mixing of emerging generation of post Mancuso and Nicky Siano dj's and their driving force of the wheels of steel. I think of Larry Levant, Sharon White , Frankie Knuckles , Ron Hardy  and yes my Danceteria DJ Mark Kamins ,,  later Carl Cox and the Detroit spinners. Mancuso continued to have his LOFT parties all over the world and that an invitation to come hear him play at a private event spread from NYC to London , Singapore, etc. One DJ still alive and still mixing who  was present through all these decades of the masters of mix . He is Richard "Doctor Love" Vasquez  alive and still spinning on a regular basis in Miami ... I am helping put out his mixes into the world .. here is a most recent Vasquez mixtape spinning a tribute to the Garage magic of Larry Levant.  I played it  this morning to get my body ready to take the streets for an anti-Steve Bannon  street demonstration.. try it . ..Thanks Doctor Love

here is an anterview with Dr.Love made a few years ago

COMING OUT IS A LIFE LONG PROCESS : Jim Farber's Growing Up Gay to a Glam Rock Soundtrack - The New York Times

Growing Up Gay to a Glam Rock Soundtrack - The New York Times

Jim Farber is a critic friend that I first met at the Ninth Circle. in the Village in the '70's. The bar on Waverly Place on the same street as my apartment started off as a late beatnik bar by Mickey Ruskin and Bobby Crevitt. It was originally called Le Du Margos (oh how ever the French spell it correction please?) it was like an outsider bar with a downstairs filled with poets, bikers, artists and rock'n'rollers etc  hanging out inside and in the backyard garden. Black and white, gay and straight. When Mickey left to open Max's Kansas City the name changed to the Ninth Circle (A Dante reference) it became essentially a gay men's bar. While I know Jim tries to make it a harbor of non-political gay men more interested in black leather jackets, boys who were sometimes hustlers (aka sex workers ) but would give it away to someone they liked and the distinction of who hung out upstairs or downstairs where the pool table was,It was a gay creative culture hang Jim in this article names just a few of whom were regulars . The afternoon writers salon like the one that had been started at Julius in the '60 s one block down by Sandra Scoppettone was re-invented at the Ninth Circle by people like Frank O;Hara . While Jim was not attracted (profesional sucide?)  to the emerging politics of single issue groups like the Gay Activist Alliance or the multi-issue Gay Alliance Front,  I will tell you as someone who was both an artist and political,  we did hang out there too.. 

When hetrosexual David Bowie put on a dress and some eye make up helped by his wife Angie the nules changed followed by an invasion of straight boys in androgynous drag, Some actually were gay but not to the pubic, Some after a couple of drinks and weed fell in bed without sexual orientation barriers imposed. (TBC) Glam with Bowie in the lead in London  and the NY Dolls here in NY and people like Steven Tyler blurred or should I say bridged the gender expression rules .. and it was clear that not only girls love these gender bending rock'n'rollers,  birthed in LSD and the hippie male androgyny movement with its allowance of men to be beautiful without a sexual orientation genuflection, but also gay boys did too . 

Jim Farber coming from Rolling Stone has been the Daily News music critic for years ,  Recently his byline disappeared from the paper. Good news for those of us who know Jim Farber as one of the best rock critic to emerge in the golden days of rock journalism  under the role modeling of the Dean of rock critics Bob Christgua based at the Village Voice, and the masthead list of contributors of the original Rolling Stone, Jim never apologized for liking both metal AND glam bands and some disco divas,

I am seeing Jim's  byline popping up today free of editorial  boundaries imposed by the News. I have always loved  reading him and agreeing or disagreeing with him ,,, that is what a good critic does. ( you should have been a bird on the wall when Jim and David Fricke and I stood in the lobby of the IFC after the screening of the Bert Bearns documentary (excellent)  and talked about everything music under the sun) Obviously this essay is very special to me .. I should also remind people that when you became too "gay " in public , most critics and gay taste makers leave the room and go metaphorically   "downstairs" at the Ninth Circle to distance themselves from someone like a Jobriath. But not me.

 I can hardly wait for the debate that should take place when Martin Ashton's just published in the London to rave reviews BREAKING DOWN THE WALLS OF HEARTACHE how music CAME OUT 

is published here in the new year.. can;t wait to belly up to the bar and be a part of the critic dish with  Jim Farber, Vince Aletti, Vickie Starr, Danny Fields , Howie Klein etc to vetted it. Thank you Jim Farber for letting your gay spirit out of the box and writing so brilliantly today

Jim Farber is a critic friend that I first met at the Ninth Circle. in the Village in the '70's. The bar on Waverly Place on the same street as my apartment started off as a late beatnick bar by Mickey Ruskin and Bobby Crevitt. It was originally called Le Du Margos (oh how ever the French spell it correction please?) it was like an outsider bar with aritist and poets and bikers and rock'n'rollers hanging out inside and in the backyard garden. Black and white, gay and straight. When Mickey left to open Max's Kansas City the name changed to the Ninth Circle (A Dante reference) it became essentially a gay men's bar. WhileI know Jim tries to one block make it a harbor of non-political gay men more interested in black leather jackets , boys who were sometimes hustlers (aka sex workers ) but would give it away to someone they liked and the distinction of who hung out upstairs or downstairs where the pool table was,It was a gay creative culture hang .. and Jim in this article names just a few of who were regulars . The afternoon writers salon like the one that had been started at Julius one block down by Sandra Scoppettone was re-invent at the Ninth Circle by people like Frank O;Hara . While Jim was not attractied to the emerging politics of single issue groups like the Gay Activist Allliance or the multi-issue Gay Libertion Front , I wil tell you as someone who was an artist and political we did hang out there.. When hetrosexual David Bowie put on a dress and some eye make up helped by his wife Angie the nules changed with the invasion of straight boys in androgynous drag, Some actually were closeted gays but not to the pubic, Some after a couple of drinks and weed fell in bed without sexual orientation barriers imposed. (TBC) Glam with Bowie in Londond and here in NY with the Dolls and people like Steven Tyler blurred or should I say bridged the gender expression rules .. and it was clear that not only girls love these gender bending rock'n'rollers sexually birthed in the hippie movement with its allowance of men to be beautiful without a sexual orientation genuflection, but also gay boys did too . Jim Farber has been the Daily News music critic for years coming from Rolling Stone,  Recently his byline disappeared from the paper. Good news for those of us who know Jim Farber as one of the best rock critic to emerge in the golden days of rock journalisn under the role modeling of the Dean of rock critics Bob Christgua based at the Village Voice, and the masthead list of contributors of the original Rolling Stone, Jim never apologized for liking both metal AND glam bands, 

jim farber gay/glam NYT

I am seeing his byline popping up today free of the boudries imposed by the News. I am excted to read and agree or disagree with him ,,, that is what a good critic does. ( you should have neen a bird on the wall when Jim and David Fricke and I stood in the lobby of the IFC after the screening of the Bert Bearns documentary and talked about everyting possible under the sun) Obviously this essay  obviously is very special to me .. I should also remind people that when you became too "gay " in public , most critics and gay taste makers left the room and went downtstairs at the Ninth Circle to distance themselves from someone like Jobriath. But not me. I can hardly wait for the debate that should take place when Martin Ashton's just published in the London to rave reviews BREAKING DOWN THE WALLS OF HEARTACHE how music CAME OUT 

is published here in the new year.. can;t wait to belly up to the bar and be a part of the critics like Jim Farber, Vince Aletti, Vickie Starr, Danny Fields , Howie Klein etc to vetted it. Thank you Jim Farber for letting your gay spirit out of the box and writing so brilliantly today

KNOW YOUR ENEMY: He is white, young gay Meet the Senior Editor at Breitbart News MILO: "Men Don't Give A F*** About Political Correctness"

DREAMS DO COME TRUE: A student at NYC took a master class at the Clive Davis Institute with Parrnell and guess what happened ? Maggie Rogers - Alaska

She sang him her version of his hit ALASKA .. he quite unexpectedly wept at her version'ss  beauty .

The master class was taped and it was leaked and went viral .. result she made a video of her version with NYU Tish Students and here it is.. millions have seen it ..MAGGIE ROGERS  : Dreams do come true