The days of New York City as the world’s most vibrant center of creativity and artistic expression are long gone, thanks to the combined effects of HIV (”the monster,” as people used to call it) and another monster called Rudy Ghouliani. But the spirit isn’t entirely dead, and you can still run into things like this. Reminds of me of the swirly-headed demons from the movie Jacob’s Ladder. He’s on Broome just west of the Bowery, and there are several clones around the neighborhood.

My first introduction to what a club should really be was hearing Frankie Knuckles at Sound Factory, last weekend of 1990. Frankie rarely plays NYC these days, but he’s joining Steve Travolta at Fresh Fruit on May 20.

As John Waters says, “life’s nothing if you’re not obsessed.”