Clear Some Space! Clubs, Icons, and Judy Garland Are All Heading Towards Your Bookshelf

Keith Haring, not Musto

A book is being finally done about Area, the classic ’80s downtown club where pointy-haired performer John Sex butted heads with the Barnum & Bailey unicorn, to name just one arty display presented for our woozy enchantment. Then again, the last time I heard this book was being done was 10 years ago and they needed me to write an intro “right away”. . .

More concretely, the Roxy—which hosted shirtless gay Saturdays for years of thump-thump yearning and grinding—is the subject of a documentary that owner Gene DiNino is pitching to cable, and he’s also in the midst of getting a semi-fictionalized book bio treatment. (I should know; they need to interview me—right away!)

Also very soon, noted photographer Marcus Leatherdale is publishing a book of his Hidden Identities, camouflaged icons he shot for the old Details magazine. (I’m in there, dressed as a drunken Santa from hell. My very strange Afro gives it away.)

And finally, Dee Michel is doing a book on the influence of The Wizard of Oz on gay culture, featuring quotes from luminaries (like Greg Louganis) and fans about how the ruby slippers leaped into their lavender psyches. Strangely, it will just be one volume.