BEg2 chapter 14 slight return immersed in nightclub fun

[Michael Bailey]

“While for some the night is growing blurry, for Maxine it’s turning
staccato, breaking up into small microepisodes separated by pulses of
forgetting. She remembers looking at the sign-up sheet and seeing she has
apparently, not fully knowing why, called Steely Dan’s up-tempo ballad of
memory and regret, “Are You with Me Dr. Wu.”

“Next thing she knows she’s up at the mike, with Lester unexpectedly
stepping in to sing harmony on the hook. During the saxophone break while
Koreans holler “Pass the mike,” they find themselves doing disco moves.
“Paradise Garage,” Maxine sez. “You?”
“Danceteria mostly.” She risks a quick look at his face. He carries a
furtive fantasizing gaze she’s seen too many times before, an awareness of
living not only on borrowed money but on borrowed time also.”


A) Maxine’s gotten dolled up in a Dolce & Gabbana dress she plucked at 70%
off in Filene’s basement from the grasp of a Collegiate mother whom it
wouldn’t have fit anyway (there’s additional scurrilous talk directed at
Collegiate elsewhere in this book, which is written by a Collegiate father)
but why is she blanking out? - no word on what she’s drinking afaict. Maybe
the excitement of it all. Maybe flashbacks to her clubbing days?

B) are you with me Dr Wu - the Koreans presumably  object to the anti-Asian
overtones of the song?
- the song contains the line, “just when I’d spent the last piaster I could
borrow,” playing into the look Maxine sees in Traipse’s eyes.

C) Maxine’s clubbing history comes into the narrative & not for the last
time.
She cites Paradise Garage as her disco move alma mater
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise_Garage
Tim Curry had a song about it.
Apparently it was quite a place; they didn’t serve liquor, so they could
stay open all night, and they emphasized dancing. Madonna performed there.
So did Diana Ross.

Traipse cites his previous stomping grounds as Danceteria, also a famous
New York discotheque. Madonna’s first public performance was there,
according to Wikipedia:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danceteria

https://youtu.be/YpHXQqFO9sMj (clip of the appearance)

It was not unknown to a laundry list of performers including The Rolling
Stones.

Both places were famous for what David Foster Wallace (requiescat in pace)
might have characterized as “too much fun.”

Maxine however is made of sterner stuff, having managed to survive - the
look she “risks” at Traipse being a precursor to survivor’s guilt, maybe a
feeling that as a veteran of that scene she is not unfamiliar with?