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.