the clarity of sobriety

This is a supplement to my previous post...

The clarity of sobriety has revealed a few conversations from the previous Saturday night which had escaped me.

1. I spoke at great length to a spastic kid with a wifebeater, skinny arms and several tattoos about the military. Apparently he had spent seven to eight years as a sniper, with a tour in Kosovo. He was extremely knowledged in various weaponry and hand-to-hand combat techniques. He told me that he was discharged for becoming a headcase. Later in the evening he showed me several pictures from his time in the military. All of it checked out. At various points in the night he would cut himself short and say that he needed to "find his wife..." One of the strippers at the party told me that the girl he was looking for wasn't his wife, just the mother of his kid. Now that I think about it, that guy seemed really dangerous.

2. Another guy I spoke to - Dom - befriended me with a smile and a one-hitter. He told me that he'd just gotten off of work. It was 3 am so I asked him if he worked for a bar. He said no - he was "a driver." I asked what kind of a driver and he told me that he drove strippers from bachelor party to bachelor party. So I got it... he was the guy that walked into the room of 20+ drunk horny guys waiting for the stripper to appear and let them know the ground rules. I asked him if he carried a baseball bat. He said that he openly carried a foot-long metal Mag-lite flashlight. I asked if that was enough. He smiled and said that he kept a .38 in an ankle holster. I asked him what the one commonality that all the strippers had. He told me that it was control - control over the man.

I've thought about that one for a bit. That sounds like a stupid thing for a stripper to think. I'd believe that most men mentally place strippers into a category completely separate from other, typical women (yet maybe strippers think of all men in the same way... powerless to their sexuality). I would believe that men look at a stripper taking her clothes off for money the same way they'd think of "take your shirt off... let me see your body... here's a dollar (ONE dollar)." Kinda like watching a girl get naked and then throwing change on the ground and watching her pick it up.

I have no idea... I don't know any strippers socially and have never had a real chance to pick their head.

3. I spoke to a club promoter (at 6 am) who was opening a new club. Personally, I've grown to hate all club people... they're shallow, vapid subhumans who's main currency seems to be either their social/business connections or their physical appearance. Anyways, I did have a good time talking to him about his involvement with the Chicago House music scene in the early to mid 80s as a DJ. At the end of the night he encouraged me to check out his club and gave me a pass. Club people are always hustling.