sophisticated fun

[hankhank at ccwf.cc.utexas.edu]

On Fri, 24 Jan 1997, Diana York Blaine wrote:
> Um, Heikki, was it the 50% gay or the 50% straight that gave you pause in
> entering that club?  

As much as I would like to keep you guys in tension, I recall giving away 
already how stupefyingly straight I am. (A bit reluctantly - this "Lou
Reed at the Factory" complex.) I hesitated because I was quite tired and
wanted to be in peace, not in the mood of taking moves in on me. A feeling
quite familiar to you ladies, undoubtedly, even when not tired. (Still, in
Finland, at least, it's not so unusual that XXs are after unescorted XYs.
E.g.: Frank Zappa visited Helsinki frequently in the 70s and was happily
surprised by the "Ladies' Ball" phenomenon. It means usually 30-somethings
and middle-age ladies. Once a week in almost all dance restaurants (where
they mostly do tangos, waltzes, and "humppas", the Finnish version of fox
trot) it is ladies' turn to pick up men to dance. Of course, this one-night-
in-a-week can be seen as an exception that confirms the rule. Anyway, Zappa 
always wanted to find time to be there in a dance restaurant at the Ladies' 
Ball night; there were always swarms of women wanting to dance with him.)  

So, truth to tell, "excited" may not be the right word to depict my feelings
in The Connection. Rather "filled with unexpected empathy"? Anyway, one gay 
dude from SC, an early modern lit expert, told me in Kansas City that the
hottest place in Looh-vul really would've been some gay strip club just next 
to The Connection. Added, though, that I *might* not feel comfortable there. 

However, local people told me that the best music scene in L-V is Bardstown 
Road outside the downtown. Been thinking about taking a cab and checkin it 
out. Wanna join me, Diana? Maybe we could also dive in the Ohio river and
try to spot the Olympic gold medal which Muhammad Ali (sure, Cassius Clay
at that time) so fiercely and adequately threw there in 1960 after not
being allowed to enter some white bar. Hopefully it was not the bar of our
Seelbach (Suhl-back), where one could hear quite strong jazz last year? 

Heikki