THE NIGHT THEY INVENTED ECSTACY

The morning of Dec 31, 1979.Miss Jones, Rolly, The Lady & Michelangelo are getting their winter coats from the weary checkroom girl of the huge dark empty STUDIO. They are in their 20's as is almost everyone back then - It is 9 AM outside while inside STUDIO it is still night. A single strobe light flashes on the dance floor, illuminating the busboys wearing only tight silver shorts as a familiar sad note begins to play which invigorates the Four who rush back to the dance floor for one last desperate dance. It is their Last Chance. (Last Dance.....Donna Summers) Afterwards the dancing cave falls too dark, they are the last of the last to leave as busboys getting ready to go party offer farewells, and they stumble out of STUDIO into the frightening nuclear morning light of Manhattan where strangers going to work look at them with envy/disdain. Their collars up, scarves encircling their pale faces, sunglasses hiding their exhausted eyes, they try to hail a cab and riding downtown they sink into oblivion. (Stranger on Earth....Marianne Faithfull) Another oblivion surrounds 17 year old Robin and her brother in a Canadian Mental Institution. They sit in front of a window where a vast white snowbound world fills their view. He counts out 12 pills into her hand and closes her fist around them, "Celebrate the New Year for me Ecstatically; OK?" She nods. (Family Affair...Sly & the Family Stone) They kiss goodbye. He watches as she walks down the path to a waiting limo and the limo disappears into the white world. He turns to the Victorian ballroom and dances with himself. (I'm Building Up To an Awful Letdown...Fred Astaire) Robin on the phone in an airport; she holds the phone as it rings unanswered. Now on the empty plane she looks down at the bare world. (Heart of Glass...Blondie) The Dancer who Robin is in love with dances frantically by himself in a mirrored rehearsal studio as the phone rings endlessly. (I Love A Man In A Uniform....Gang of Four) The Sailor is leaving his ship; his younger brother waiting with the treasured Camaro. They hug/laugh/joke. Miss J & Rolly lie tangled in white sheets trying to come down; they fall into each others arms hoping sex will wear them out. The Lady works at a coffee shop bored and trying to avoid all the guys hitting on her. The Sailor eats pizza in the Queens neighborhood where he was raised; friends flatter/taunt him. (Jive Talkin....Rufus) Robin at JFK on pay phone: No answer. The Dancer wants to be a dancing machine as phone rings. (Dancing Machine...Jackson 5) Michelangelo spray paints a wall of his apartment with a violent sexual mural of hell. He is obsessed and dances/thrashes while spraying. (Dance/Disco Heat.....Sylvester) Now Miss J & R hold court in the bathtub of their tiny bathroom; they receive guests, make phone calls, snort drugs and splash. The Dancer cruises a steamy bath house. Robin rides in a cab towards Manhattan. The Lady sits on the toilet across from Miss J & R painting her fingernails. M is buying a huge bouquet of flowers at a corner stall. (Don’t Leave Me This Way...Thelma Houston) Robin arrives and joins Michelangelo, The Lady, and Miss J & R in the bathroom. She shows them the 12 jeweled pills from her brother used experimentally for his schizophrenia. They dance like children with unlimited candy. An incredible night out is made by the drugs and wardrobe: half of their problem is solved. (Shame....Evelyn Champagne King) Night has arrived. They head out onto the streets where revelers are loose. They cram into a cab and offer the driver some coke which he gratefully snorts at a red light while a bunch of early drunks pound on the car demanding some of his powder. Now they are all flying uptown while the city blurs outside the cab and only hours of the 70's remain. (See No Evil.....Television) The Sailor finds himself wandering in the tilting city as the Dancer rushes past him into the Grand Lobby of Robin's parent’s penthouse building. The elevator opens directly into the penthouse where they are acting out the history of their alternative world. Robin throws herself at the Dancer. Black butler & maid stand ready to assist anyone. (A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall.....Bryan Ferry) The Sailor has contacted Michelangelo, his unlikely old friend from the neighborhood, on Robin's phone held by the butler and he soon joins them in the penthouse where Desire is roaming: Miss J wants Rolly & the world; Rolly wants himself & the world to want him. The Lady wants Rolly and to be wanted. Robin wants the Dancer; the Dancer wants the stranger who is presently the Sailor. The Sailor doesn’t know what he wants. Michelangelo wants all of them. (I'll Keep It With Mine.....Nico) They dance. Changing partners. Kissing. Some sadness. The butler & maid dance, too. Below them the city and world prepare to eliminate the 70s and 60s and Inaugurate the Decade of Greed and Denial that lies hungrily waiting. (Ballrooms of Mars....TRex) But it is time to leave for STUDIO: It is all RUSH from this moment on. (From This Moment On.....Bobby Short) How wonderful is the world when it only wants to love you? They ride in Robin's parent’s limo towards STUDIO. (I Wanna Be Your Lover....Prince) Rolly plays DJ in the limo. (DJ.......David Bowie) As they arrive at STUDIO they find the street closed because of crowds. Police everywhere laughing and celebrating. People dancing & pushing to get closer to the entrance to STUDIO where the New Year will be celebrated at 3 AM; it is too cool to celebrate at midnight and Everyone will be there at 3 AM. Pounds of artificial snow will fall on the dance floor as coke & poppers are snorted. They make their way through the crowd and a path is cleared by the bouncers- except the Sailor is stopped: "He's real," Robin explains & he is admitted. (Shattered......Rolling Stones) STUDIO is filled with huge blocks of dry ice, creating a maze to the dance floor. Andy Warhol stands in the doorway being interviewed and turns to greet them as they pass. Rolly has a huge 80 spray painted on his chest; Miss J wears a man's suit with no shirt; Michelangelo wears underwear; the Dancer wears Nureyev's tights; Robin wears a tutu; the Lady is understated; the Sailor is in uniform. (Uh Yes, Uh No.....Andy Warhol) They find a red velvet nook where ceremoniously they ingest one pill each from Robin's jeweled pill box. While her brother in white room in Canada takes his pill. Richie DJ sees them from his booth over the dance floor and plays their song. (Pills........NY Dolls) (Miss You..... Rolling Stones) The dance floor is Heaven on earth: wild,fun,energy,insane,free. (Young Hearts Run Free....Candi Staton) Miss J dances topless; Rolly spinning in place; The Lady dancing beside Rolly; The Sailor is crawling on the floor laughing and reaching for something just out of reach. Miss J falls into Rolly's arms and he proposes marriage - Why not?! - They roll onto the banquette delirious with sex and possibilities while strangers encourage them. Robin is perched like an angel above them high as heaven. Photographers fight to get photos of this tableau. The Sailor reaches Miss J & Rolly sliding up from the floor as the 3 wrap around each other: Flashes!! (This Time Baby....Jackie Moore) Michelangelo stumbles through the gutter on the wrong side of town- How did he get here? He doesn’t know. 2 punks threaten him, push him down into gutter, drag queen runs out of the darkness to chase the punks and help Michelangelo to his feet as snow whirls around them. (Leave Me Alone....Lou Reed) In the darkest part of the balcony of STUDIO the Dancer hides frightened by what he sees below- a spinning mass of matter adrift in the cosmos. He is overwhelmed by it all. (Straight to Hell.....The Clash) But it is only the dance floor expanding! The artificial snow is falling; the celebration commences. Robin delicately hands another pill to Miss J, Rolly, The Sailor, Michelangelo (who has reappeared in the drag queen's coat with no explanation), the Dancer lurks in the background reaching a shaking hand out for another hit and Robin swallows the last one. (Higher Ground.....Stevie Wonder) Now it is the Ecstatic Times! No images/All images. Flesh&Soul. Orgiastic melting/mending. Tribal/solo. Visions/Blindness. All Light/All Darkness. Pure Light flooding their pools of consciousness into one Bright Stream of Ecstatic Joy. Hear its Flow?! (In The Light of the Miracle....Arthur Russell) Years Pass. Things Change. Stories come and go. Still Ecstasy calls. (Ecstasy.....Lou Reed) FINI © 2005 by Richard Sassin	Download THE NIGHT THEY INVENTED ECSTACY.MP3 (2 hours, 22 min.) 200 Megs
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