Tag Archives: 1980s

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 […]

By Peter | Posted in 80s, PARIS, semi-fiction | Also tagged , , , | Comments (0)

A La Porte De Le Balajo

July 15, 2016 – 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, at which I worked the door with Jacques Negrit as security. The barmen and waitresses were the same surly staff as the other nights of the […]

By Peter | Posted in 80s, Nightlife, PARIS | Also tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

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 […]

By Peter | Posted in Drugs, East Village, semi-fiction | Also tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

# 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)

Making An Entrance

December 4, 2014 – 4:57 pm

Area on Hudson was one of New York’s most popular nightclubs in the 80s. Every night hundreds of people waited beyond the velvet ropes for entrance. Admission wasn’t a given. But in this photo the baldish man in the foreground was headed to the bar to order a cognac and coke. It was his drink. […]

By Peter | Posted in 80s, Nightlife | Also tagged , , , , | Comments (0)