"Hey, Karen," I whispered. "I think that's Mink Stole right next to us."
We were at the bar with Carlos and Juan waiting for Kimberly Kim's notoriously potent cocktails when I noticed the pale-blonde (or was it white? Hard to tell in a club.) in a pink silk jacket with the collar standing tall.
Celebrity sightings are a dime a dozen in L.A. You can go virtually anywhere and stand a chance of running into Nicole Ritchie or one of the unfunny clan from That 70s Show. It's not everyday, though, that you find yourself standing right next to someone who has appeared in every John Waters movie as well as such cult classics as But I'm a Cheerleader and such awesome television programming as Married...With Children and Get a Life. (That's not sarcasm, I love those shows.)
Ten minutes later, Ms. Vaginal Davis, dressed as a swami, announced that Mink Stole was ready to perform. She sang what sounded like an Edith Piaf number in a very-Piaf voice.
Not too long after that, amidst the crowd of girls in flapper dresses and boys looking like Charlie Chaplin, we noticed David J., bassist of Bauhaus and Love and Rockets and collaborator on many a hip project. Okay, so David J. has lived in Los Angeles for the past decade (at least) and he goes out a lot, but still, the only thing cooler would be to see him and Peter Hook in the same room with their basses.
This being the Parlour's last stand and all, the hallway was lined with flyers from past events at the club. This included, but was certainly not limited to, our Discourse flyers and many a Transmission flyer.
For two years, Transmission was my baby. I booked the bands, set up record release parties, passed out flyers, et cetera. Every Wednesday night, I would come in and play for four hours straight (well, unless there was a band, in which case I had a half-hour break). Transmission was where I went from playing songs at clubs to really DJing. I spent hours every day learning to mix, which is much more difficult than it appears until you finally learn the skill and it becomes second nature, and used everything I earned there to order the records that no store clerk could find for me. It was probably the first place where a lot of folks heard the Rapture's "House of Jealous Lovers," Scissor Sisters' cover of "Comfortably Numb" and a lot of other now-popular songs. Eventually, the club sort of took it's toll on me and I had to end Transmission. However, the Parlour remained my home away from home. Aside from the fact that we threw our Discourse parties there, I went a lot just to chill. I'm going to miss this place.