Tag Archives: 1980s

IN ABSENCE OF AMNESIA – Chapter 5 by Peter Nolan Smith

July 31, 2017 – 7:16 am

When a French worker says, “A month.” he usually meant six weeks, so I arrived at Rue Faux, expecting no change after a two week absence. I was pleasantly surprised to see a new wall, the entrance restored to its gaudy glory, liquor bottles over the bar, and the dance floor shining from a new […]

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A La Porte De Le Balajo

July 17, 2017 – 11:37 am

In the mid-80s DJs Albert Grintuch and his partner Serge Duprat took over the Bastille nightclub, Le Balajo. Once a week our crowd of rockers filled the large dancehall.I worked the door with Jacques Negrit as security. The barmen and waitresses were the same surly staff as the other nights of the week featuring accordion […]

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Hiding Behind Fats

April 23, 2017 – 8:28 pm

Back in the 80s I worked the door at the Bains-Douches in Paris. The owner suggested hiring new blood for security. My first choice was Big Jacques. Jacques Negrit was a tall, handsome and good-natured voyo from the slums of the peripherique. His gang was called Les Bufalos. Jacques was just out of prison. I […]

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CRACK ISLAND by Peter Nolan Smith

July 7, 2016 – 12:42 pm

Crack cocaine swept across the Lower East Side in the summer of 1986 and East 11th Street between Avenue B and C on the Lower East Side of New York was the destination of choice for its many adherents. All day long hundreds of crack zombies lined the sidewalk before the tenement building on the […]

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# 17 by Peter Nolan Smith

October 26, 2015 – 9:24 pm

One wintry December night in 1976 I stumbled home from a derelict bar at the corner of the Bowery and Houston. The icy wind slashed through my thin clothing and I was about to hail a taxi to my SRO tenement on 11th Street, when the thump of a frantic bass emanated from a white […]

By Peter | Posted in 80s, NEW YORK, PARIS, semi-fiction, women | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (1)