Fire Island in the 90's

"Utopia" An imagined place or state of state of things in which everything is perfect.

Went to a Morning Party in ‘97 with my then Boston BF, a gorgeous PR with a beautiful smile and a killer bubble butt. At the time I could’ve had anyone but only had eyes for him. I realize now that singlemindedness probably kept me from several nasty STD’s and addictions....

He got a taste of the circuit crowd and dumped me, I was heartbroken for awhile afterwards. I also had a client that owned a house there and invited me all the time, I never took him up on it because I was being such a prude at the time. If I could do it over I would’ve stayed with the older guy and made some elder gay friends.

This was before meth, the iPod and Manhunt ruined absolutely everything. Sigh.

PS, though The PR guy had a disarmingly charming smile and could fill out a speedo, he had terrible breath.

I might know you !!! Do tell I was there with the Boston crowd!

Agree r2. The iPod ruined everything!

Is it still a regular place to go for gays nowadays?

I never understood how the share thing worked and where you go to become part of a share.

Can't someone just rent for a week or a few days?

I don’t know - I don’t think it’s changed much. Seems less druggy - but that may be due to my age. I actually like the new building. And the Teas, Sip n twirl are still the same. Had to give up the house share thing - but glad I did it when I was young. The problem now is finding anything affordable for 2 people to visit for a weekend. A weird rental and hotel market.

Didn't a big chunk of it burn down?

You should gave seen it in the '70's before the shit hit the fan.

How did iPods ruin this?

Yes I was wondering this as well, how did the iPod change everything and what did it change about Fire Island that makes the place different from what it was in the 90s ?

The underwear party at Calvin Klein’s... The Ripped Party (you had to wear ripped clothes) where Sharon Redd sang on a rooftop the summer before she died...Steven’s parties at Sun Walk with dozens of pretty boys in the jacuzzi...

Tina Tuna Walk becomes Tommy Tuna ... Gloria Gaynor at the Morning Party ... Dionne Warwick at the AIDS benefit ... Robin Byrd and the big titted women at her ocean front palace with the retractable roof ... David Geffen and his gaggle of gays ... Volleyball EVERY Sunday ...

The White Parties at the Grove and having to crawl back to the Pines through the ‘Rack ... Ray Dragon spandex shorts with military boots ... The Volleyball tournament ... Dragging ourselves in high heels through the sand from the Pines to the Grove to invade ourselves by ferry ... the Fairy Ferry! ... the Summer if ‘90 (Summer Of Vogue) and its great music ... no ATMs so people inevitably ran out of money ... The Pantry ... Never on Sunday! ... High tea at the Pavillion ... Actually knew the people who baptized the Fire Island Club the Sip and Twirl until management had no choice but to call it that ... Danced with two other guys doing Supreme Routines atop the bar at S&T (we were asked to)... Great Morning Parties and not only the big one (until they weren’t)...

Disco Granny (she was actually a British Lesbian) ... Susan Mirabito ... Michael Fierman ... Junior Vazquez before the spoiling fame... the drugs ... the overpriced coke that made you carefully plan your weeken by purchasing back in Manhattan ... seaplanes ... water taxis ... limo rides ... whores and porn stars ... collapsing decks!

And then 9/11 was the end for me.

A few more parties:

Kentucky Derby featuring mint juleps ... the Orange Party ... Dress As Your Greatest Fantasy or Worst Nightmare ... The Party Where The Deck Collapsed... Miss America Sit-Down Dinner ... the beginning of foam parties! ... and too many orgies to count.

Just as well I was a wallflower.

I was always too poor, nerdy, unmuscled and too much of a loner to be part of much of what went on out there. I’ve been a very sporadic Fire Island visitor over the years though I do have many fond memories. Spent many wonderful hours - both early and late - dancing.

But the most beautiful image that comes to mind when I think of Fire Island is from the year I attended the AIDS benefit dance festival. Just to sit there watching the dancers on the stage perched at the edge of the bay as the sun began its descent was breathtaking.

And then a dancer appeared (was it one or two?) with an enormous headdress. It was a chandelier studded with scores of crystals. As the dancer dipped and swirled and the crystals shimmered in the light of the waning sun and the sky took on subtle tints of mauve and coral, the beauty of it all made me swoon. I’ll never forget that.

Oh, my R12. That rings some bells for me. I used to catch up with friends in Manhattan later in the week. The call went something like this:

'Great weekend, huh?!'

'Yeah it was. Really fun.'

pause

'I don't remember much of it.'

'Me neither.'

pause

'Can't wait for Friday!'

'Me neither!'

[quote] hundreds of the most beautiful men in the world

That was just the drugs talking

Well lithen to Meth Thing!

R4. I feel like Tide Pods ruined everything. It made laundry too easy and will no one think of the children!!!

While it was actually The Plague that ruined everything, not the iPod (it’s like hearing flappers with no memory of The Great War), the iPod did kill the ability of a large swathe of people to be present in the moment. And being febrily responsive to being cruised on DL lard arses does demand that!

I have to smirk when I read of people talking about the magic of the early 90s. By 1980 the magic was well and truly over. The only people who weren’t living shit scared were prudes and the stupid. The capture the REAL hedonistic abandon, one has to step back to at least 1979. The 90s were a different world to the magic of then.

The 90's what?

People who use unnecessary apostrophes are funny.

90's ?

[quote]I have to smirk when I read of people talking about the magic of the early 90s. By 1980 the magic was well and truly over. The seventies blah blah blah

I’m the one who posted the laundry list of memories...because that’s what the thread subject is: Fire Island in the 90’s. Doesn’t mean there weren’t other great times (except the mid eighties I must say). As you can tell by my age in 2001, I got a whiff of the hedonism of the seventies...and probably much more than you did, if all you can manage to summon is 1979.

But that’s not the thread subject, so stop looking down your nose at a topic you’re nor interested in and well, just move on!

I have a matchbook from the Islander's Club and posters from the Morning Party around somewhere. Haven't been back in years - but is the Islander's Club still going? If not, why? Did the train just become more convenient?

The 90s? I mean, hunny. Really. The peak of NY gay life was the 70s and early 80s, and that ended with AIDS. There’s been fits and starts since, but it will never get back to those days. FI has been literally burned down and washed away by hurricane. It’s a pale shade of what it once was. One more disaster and it will be gone forever.

It all sounds rather tawdry and unseemly.

I thought I was elder but r25 types ancient

[quote]And being febrily responsive to being cruised on DL lard arses does demand that!

How’s that now?

I still don’t see how iPods ruined the Fire Island scene

Truth hurts, R27.

IPODS???? Someone please elaborate.

[quote]Dionne Warwick at the AIDS benefit

Did that cunt leave the AIDS charity in debt, like she usually does?

[quote] iPods ruined everything.

I think you mean "I Poz" ruined everything.

FI is a place for druggies and whores these days. It’s not what it was. Just men fucking each other.

I only went once when I was hired to be a cabana boy at the white party. I thought it was pretty, but not my scene.

When I was young, I was too intimidated to go to Fire Island. Provincetown seemed so much more welcoming.

Now, I'm in my 40s I so look forward to going for a week to P-Town every summer. I don't even think about Fire Island

My bitchy gay boss from Rural Illinois that claims Chicago goes to Fire Island

*former boss

I was a hot young thing who ran around with a group of older guys with money and houses on FI. To see me with them, you would think I was a passed around party bottom...but the reality was much different. I dated one of them for a little bit and a couple of others were close friends. Still are to this very day.

Anyway, I had 3 great summers out there: 92, 93 and 94. My list of memories is very similar to some upthread ...but I will say the best party I went to was Robin Byrd’s 4th of July Sarong soiree. Jesus lord, the crazy pageantry... it was a Fellini movie come to life Drag queens, porn stars, etc. weirdly, I ended up hanging out with deceased porn star Jon Vincent. I fed him bumps of K and though we didn’t fuck, we sucked face off and on throughout the night. I felt sorry for him, he was going on and on about all of his “clients” and how he was saving up money to send his kid to baseball camp.

This sounds so vapid, and the insistence that one's own preferred decade was better than another sounds even more vacuous.

[quote] weirdly, I ended up hanging out with deceased porn star Jon Vincent.

That IS weird. How long had he been deceased?

I have to say that I am happy to have been born later.For us now, there is no space delegation for gays.The world is our oyster.

I hang on any beach w just a few of my exes and other gays and three hours later it is a huge gay scene. No need to flock to one place only.

[quote]Millennials have it better than any other time

How you gonna travel when you ain't got no job?

r43 I am a student. I live on LI. Travel is cheap.

[quote] I am a student. I live on LI. Travel is cheap.

Nothing is cheap in your area of the world. For the price of a martini four can eat in Guatemala:

Helicoptering gay men out from the Island for drug overdoses. Cool.

R2, how did the iPod ruin things? Just wondering.

It is all relative, R45

Ugh. The 90s. Rainbow-ring necklaces. Weird typography. Tower Records. Gross.

Sorry but FI is for trash. Only for druggies and whores.

[quote] I hang on any beach w just a few of my exes and other gays and three hours later it is a huge gay scene. No need to flock to one place only.

Check out Fire Island or P-town. You may think life is fine until you try these places where being gay is not only accepted but is celebrated. It's heaven

FI was very sexually charged in the 1990's and early 2000's. Meth was everywhere, which only fueled it. Barebacking was becoming common, especially with Meth and Treasure Island Media videos.

Thank you R51, I have been there (both) many times. It is fun, for sure. But, its fun wherever we go-any beach (LB,JB,HB...) all good fun.Maybe that is how it was back then.It sounds more like gays had to go to specific locations for acceptance/celebration. We just make any location that place.

You guys are ignoring how disgusting all the drugs and sleeping with anyone is.

Actually, Tide Pods ruined everything.

Meth!!!

R25 types like RuPaul.

I was born in 1990. Thanks Eldergays. I'm learning a lot about our history.

Lesson 1: Don’t bring an iPod to a circuit party.

R26 I should HOPE so!

R41...Jon Vincent died in the late 90s.

BTW...are you retarded?

R61,

R41 was just making fun of a misplaced modifier, or a missing clarifying adverb (“now deceased” would have done it). I thought it was funny. Lighten up!

The iPod meant people could listen to music ahead of time, anywhere and at their own leisure. The Napster culture destroyed what it meant to looking forward to a particular DJ mix that night, climaxing on Fridays, herding all your friends together for an event and extinguished ANTICIPATION of hearing something new and different. It also made a lot of people jaded about music access and gave them no reason towards spending $40 at a club if they can listen to music for free. It decimated a percentage of those people “on the fence” about going out.

Unlike a concert, the dance floor is the center of attention, if I can go to iTunes or Mixcloud to hear one, why would I pay $100 cover to stand around looking at guys on their phones?

What R25 said. The 70's and the early 80's were something to see.

By the '90's, Fire Island was one long, episodic, obligatory, AIDS Benefit. Necessarily so.

If anyone was having fun inthe 90's, they were too drugged to notice whatwas going on around them. And not in a good way.

AP Stylebook:

Use the letter s but not an apostrophe after the figures when expressing decades or centuries. Do, however, use an apostrophe before figures expressing a decade if numerals are left out. Examples: The 1800s. The ’90s.

R62 I thought it was funny too.

Eldergays, tell me about Fire Island in the 1890s, I hear that's when the real fun happened!!!

AP Stylebook is the law, but only if you work for the AP.

The Chicago Manual of Style recognizes the use of the apostrophe when transitioning from one style (numerals, all caps) to another (CD's, 1900's.)

It is a useful tool that has regrettably been eschewed of late, much like the use of two spaces after a period. But it is not incorrect.

The place started to go downhill once the uptight Puritans got here.

[quote]Little Tweaking Squirrel

LOL

[quote] I don't even think about Fire Island

No one does.

My 20s coincided with the 90s in FI - so I had a good time and good memories of the period. But I think it was more about money and status than sex at that point. The fear of AIDS definitely took away the sexual element. I felt Tea was like a high end cocktail party of affluent gay men. Had fun times and think it is a beautiful place. But could only do the share thing when I was young - couldn’t do that now.

The few friends I know who ended up buying a place there lost money. It seems like a good idea but is impractical. Still enjoy a week there every summer but would never consider living there.

Wrong, r64.

Oral is relatively safe and most guys had no problem putting on a condom back then.

Not everyone is on drugs. Cruising culture was still thriving in the ‘90s — and not just for seniors like today. I preferred the ‘90s to Grindr culture.

R20 upthread is right: 1980-81 was the tipping point. It wasn't utopia before that, but it was hedonism unbound in the 1970's (when, conveniently, I was young and cute and for the most part, unattached.)

Looking back, it's a miracle I'm alive.

[quote] AP Stylebook: Use the letter s but not an apostrophe after the figures when expressing decades or centuries. Do, however, use an apostrophe before figures expressing a decade if numerals are left out. Examples: The 1800s. The ’90s.

This is a very new recommendation. Sadly, AP recommendations often have to do with saving newspaper space and money

The NY TIMES and the Chicago Manual of Style changed it two decades ago as well and not without reason. According to the TIMES: "It existed mostly as an anachronism from when we had many headlines written in all capital letters, and a headline reading SALES OF TVS AND VCRS DOUBLED IN 1990S was hard to read."

An anachronism, like me.

Now, let's talk about the Oxford comma

No, let’s talk about how iPods are killing the gay community

The NEW YORK TIMES said “Not right now!”

Meth was not that big on FI in the 90s. It was trial mix hunties (K, horse tranquilizer). A friend of mine was offered a plastic bag of it by a Catholic priest at a party in the Pines.

What is fire island like these days? Anyone been there this summer?

I think every decade drew hot handsome men to FI, if you look at old pictures from the 50s and 60s there were plenty of gorgeous men on the beaches.

How long till some old twink wannabe burns it down with a meth pipe.

I was young and broke in the 1990's. I heard great stories about it but could never afford a share. I went for a day trip once but, it was just after Labor Day, and all the energy was gone.

Now that I can afford to go, I'm older and have a partner, so FI isn't even on the radar. I wish we could go for a weekend, but I am so confused as to how the housing works there that I gave up.

R81 had a friend there last summer who sent me some vids of him getting eaten out by Sean Cody models. Seems like it's still a fun place to be if you're thin/built, white, and have money (or can charm those who do). From what I'm told of the desired demographic I think I'd literally catch fire if I so much as stepped foot on the island.

R80 Meth wasn’t big on FI in the 90s??? Are you kidding? It had just begun to flood into NYC. I knew drug dealers who went out there just to sell.

I saw successful men lose everything during this time. It was sad.

its rumoured the iPad will destroy Palm Springs next

The Pines had the most vapid superficial boring gays. Even if they weren't they became so there. I went a few times and didn't bother any more after that.

Tell us about it, r88!

[quote] I have to smirk

You should have just ended the sentence there.

The Pines?!?? Oh honey, no.

I spent summers in the 90s on Two Mile Hollow Beach, relaxing around fabulous pools like Eric Ellenbogen’s on Further Lane, and driving a vintage 1955 Mercedes 190SL over to Sagaponack to pick up a few things for dinner at Loaves & Fishes.

Wait, that was YOU, r91?

Yikes!

Stay the fuck out of my yard.

[quote] At the time I could’ve had anyone...

This made me laugh

[quote] (it’s like hearing flappers with no memory of The Great War)

This may be the most Eldergay thing ever

Hidden New York: The Best Secret Places in NYC

OPPS Wrong thread!^^^

Close enough, r96.

I mean at least it’s New York related.

[quote]Actually knew the people who baptized the Fire Island Club the Sip and Twirl until management had no choice but to call it that ..

It was called the Island Club, not the Fire Island Club. I had a share in the Pines the summer that the club opened. Some guys in my house started calling it Sip and Twirl, and I thought THEY made it up, but now I'm not sure. I do know the club started to be called that pretty much right from the start.

[quote]Kentucky Derby featuring mint juleps

Yes, delicious mint juleps with tons of fresh mint available to make drinks for LOTS of guests. Just fabulous. The wonderful guy who threw those parties at his home was named Alan (sp?), sorry I don't remember his last name.

R94, I'd love for him to come back and tell us what that means.

I saw it in the 90s and the 70s. In the 70s it was more isolated- more unknown to the outside world although the chic/trendy/affluent/young straight world knew of it and rubbed shoulders- think Studio. On any given weekend in the 70s you'd see Bette Midler, Streisand, Summer, Elizabeth Taylor, Warhol, Hockney, Jagger every important designer in the world, a few politicians, on the beach or in line for a ferry- sometimes wading off a seaplane to the shore carrying bags. The Ford, Zoli, and Wilhemina (male) models lined up on the Botel staircase at tea- often with Hutton or Tiegs in tow. I never saw so much concentrated beauty and drop dead chic in my life. The houses were spectacular experiments in design and comfort. The beach and dunes were not eroded so there really were pine trees and scrub all along the beach houses as well as the interior of the island. The 90s still attracted the lookers, but drugs (and I like some of them) dominated the scene. And erosion had broken down the dunes and wipe out the beach pines. There was innocence and a sense of freedom in the 70s that was not there in the 90s, although I am sure some of the younger men thought they had landed in some kind of paradise, and they had- but it was more dangerous and expensive. I expect it all to be gone in 50 years or less due to climate change.

One of my best friends just lived and died for Fire Island in the early 90s--he would just go on and on about it. I remember he once told me he thought the gay cultural critic Wayne Koestenbaum was full of shit "because he thinks he knows all about American gay culture and yet he doesn't even go to Fire Island regularly!" When I responded, "Most American gay men will never go to Fire Island," he looked at me like I was insane.

He since had to move to Baltimore for work, and has chilled out considerably. He told me recently he thought he must have been insufferable in the early 90s (and he was).

Wow r100, never knew so many models and A listers went there in the 70s. Doesn't seem like thats happened since then, what I'm also curious about is how is it different now than in the 90s if at all? Have you been recently?

R100 sounds like it was over by the time I got there in the 90s. Like so many things.

There were still a lot of celebs, designers and models in the 90s. They just kept a much lower profile than they did in the 70s. The parties I went to with them were smaller and more private.

The 70s were unique. The world blew open in the 1960s and result was the 1970s. The boomer generation flooded NYC including gay men of course. Gay men became chic, trendy, cool, hot- and I mean from the masculine sterotypes to the queens- all were part of a scene in the NYC arts, society and party world. Thus the Pines in the '70s was more or less a world destination for gay men and (at the risk of being elitist), and the elite! It was astounding. All this crashed in the most gruesome way imaginable in the 1980s. The 90s got it going again, and while wild, full of gorgeous men, and fun, the physical changes to the Pines and the now out and politically active gay community changes the Pines. The big parties morphed from private to charity events which lasts to today. The parties in the Pines in the 1970s were not to be believed- barges coming over from the mainland with men sporting cheetah's on leashes- I could not talk about it to many straight friends because they would not believe it. Kind of like many people don't believe my experiences in the past decades in NYC on DL over the years. Who cares? The Pines still has the dance scene, the board walks- but pines have been replaced by bamboo and the men, while still lots of lookers, are nothing like they were in the 90s and 70s. I would also say that while the Pines is still expensive, its owners and renters are not the most affluent gay men. They are in the Hamptons etc. We are a much more homogenized community and spread over many different playgrounds and often indistinguishable from our straight contemporaries. Such is progress and the attainment of rights. That's how I look at it.

Did we ever find out how the iPod ruined Fire Island?

R106 yes dumbass. It was already explained in a previous post. Why don’t you learn to read lazy ass.

You'd see Robin Byrd parading up and down the beach (always friendly, usually with a pron star or two), La Geff with some amazing Adonis by his side, Barney Frank at a Lobster Bake, occasionally Calvin Klein. Tea was super fun on Friday cuz you'd watch the ferries dock and see who got off. The prime seats were on the outside ledge, but you had to get there early. The invasion was always a gas -- this back when trannies were still fun. I used to love the dawn hours at the Pav when the crowd thinned out and the music got mellow and you could dance close with whoever you were crushing on. Guys used to have small get-togethers (not really parties) in their hot tubs after you'd leave the Pav, you'd sit there and sip one last cocktail, do some blow and maybe hook up with someone. I remember walking home on the beach one Saturday morning and some guy was perched at the top of the stairs while 5 guys took turns plowing him. It was hot, I can't lie.

Wonder if there are pictures anywhere of what r105 describes, but of course not everyone was running around with cameras( ie phones) as people do now.

Many of the celebs who were out on FI in the 80s-90s have aged out and are not going there anymore.

Here's a few pics of FI from the 70s.

R111, not the 70s, 60s or earlier

I think these are the ones r111 tried to link

[quote]No, let’s talk about how iPods are killing the gay community

No, let’s talk about how iPods are killing the trans community!!!!!

Eh, Fire Island used to be more low-key in the 80s (the FIRST summer where AIDS was even on the radart was 1982, I was nineteen and there!), but it always had this [italic]arriviste[/italic] group vibe.

In my 20s a gorgeous buddy of mine and I were there for a weekend and he said, "It's mostly homely Jewish guys with money acting like they've truly arrived because the poorer hot guys act nice to them for drugs or a place to stay for free." Ouch. Kind of.

FIP became a brand that the newly out younger gays HAD TO HAVE (like a Birkin bag!) even though they had to scrimp all year for half share or a full week, so they could BE PART OF IT and TALK about it endlessly! I mean if that makes you happy go for it, but I can't say it was ever very friendly to the "non-circuit scene" gays. The guys having the most fun seemed to avoid all that and entertain small groups at home for beach days and dinner.

FIP is pretty, but at a pricey three-hour schlep from Manhattan just to turn around and come home TWO days later, the weekend scene is a nightmare. Still, if you can go for a whole quiet week and don't need a bucket of meth to feel satisfied, it can be lovely.

I once found videos on line at a sight that was devoted to FI history. WOW!! I can no longer find the site or the videos. I even found videos of pals who have since died. Anyone out there know the site I am talking about? It would mean a lot to me to be able to see these again, esp. of now gone friends.

Isn’t anybody gonna bring out that story about DVF supposedly chasing a Zoli model around some party in the Pines shrieking “why won’t you fuck the Prince? Please fuck the Prince!”

Even though we all love to hate him, Tom Bianchi’s book better documents the Pines in the 1970s.

That other link to the New Yorker article was all about Cherry Grove which, although snobby to say, ain’t no way and no how the same group of fabulous people as were in the Pines.

TB is a fine photographer. He's just a lousy philosopher.

[quote] No, let’s talk about how iPods are killing the trans community!!!!!

LITERAL LAUNDRY-BASED VIOLENCE!

[quote] Even though we all love to hate him, Tom Bianchi’s book better documents the Pines in the 1970s.

I'm not so sure.

Tom's photos are much sexier, but he had a thing for musclemen far in advance of most of the gay community. most men on Fire Island in the 70s did NOT look as muscular a he would have you think. The look then was much skinnier. So his photos, while very sexy, are not as accurate an account of 1970s Fire Island life as you're suggesting.

I think the latter paragraphs of the linked article show what a complete fantasy world Tom Bianchi always inhabits with regards to gay resort towns like Fire Island and Palm Springs. Larry Kramer portrayed this same community (pre-1981 Fire Island) as snobby, hierarchical, and judgmental in FAGGOTS. I would guess the truth lies somewhere between the two.

[quote] Always armed with a camera, Bianchi is frequently recognized and said the attention from the gay community has been wonderful.

[quote] “It’s really lovely when you go out into the world at this point in time and you have people thanking you because you helped them come out,” he said. “There has been an enormous amount of gratitude; it’s not bad to have done something in your life that attracts that kind of attention and comment; it’s wonderful.”

[quote] He said the dreamy quality to the Polaroids reflected the carefree existence of the 1970s and early ’80s for gay men, but he also wanted to make the rest of the world understand that the gay community didn’t pose any threat.

[quote] “The world we grew up in was a very hostile place, and when you look at the arc from there to when DOMA fell … we did that by seducing people into a better view of themselves, and Fire Island was a place where we discovered the power we had to change things … we made that world the way we wanted it to be: a loving, compassionate, fun place, and it’s a spirit I continually encounter today and ultimately the world caught up.”

[quote]I would guess the truth lies somewhere between the two.

No doubt. Larry Kramer made a career out of rage.

But equally, Tom Bianchi made a career out of fantasy.

But what is it like now, in 2019?

Noel Coward loathed Fire Island in the 60s. A visit to Fire Island in 1963 was recorded in the following aunt-like cadences:

I don’t really think I shall ever go again ... Never in my life have I seen such concentrated, abandoned homosexuality ... I wished really that I hadn’t gone. Thousands of queer young men of all shapes and sizes camping about blatantly and carrying on – in my opinion – appallingly. Then there were all the lesbians glowering at each other ... I have always been of the opinion that a large group of queer men was unattractive. On Fire Island it’s more than unattractive, it’s macabre, sinister, irritating and somehow tragic.

Wait - are we sure we didn't mean 'iphones' ruined things - not ipods? That would make more sense.

No, it's TidePods. What's being bemoaned is that so many gay men on Fire Island were killed last year taking the TidePod Challenge.

That many gay men in one place sounds stressful, to put it mildly.

R129 You need to bring a strong sense of humor. Nothing deadlier than a camp of gays except a pit of vipers. Oh wait.

Noel Coward Just described Datalounge to a “T.”

R126 Noel Coward was in his mid 60s when he visited FI he was past his "sell by date" and was probably invisible to most of the denizens of FI. He was from another generation and most of what went on was alien to him.

Both Bianchi and Kramer’s takes on the Pines are valid although most guys I know would say the Bianchi take dominates. All those models I spoke of lined up at the Botel tea and the many equally gorgeous men who were not models went to gyms in NYC- YMCA, European Health Spas, Jack Lalaine etc. guys did not do steroids or body groom. Hair was sexy. Kramer was as big a star fucker as I ever met in my life. He was just angry and not very good looking. He balled me out as an arrogant so and so because I politely turned him down. You know the type. He was awful and wouldn’t stop: thus he became a great advocate and activist putting all his anger to good use when HIV hit. But he tried as hard as anyone I’ve ever seen to be Mr Big Shot. I like neither Bianchi nor Kramer, but I respect their work, especially Kramer’s. I know a heck of a lot of the guys in Bianchi’s book including the lover, David, he speaks of in his forward. For me it captures the magic of the Pines in the 70s perfectly.

[quote]He balled me out as an arrogant so and so

Oh, dear!

[quote]in Bianchi’s book including the lover, David, he speaks of in his forward.

Oh, DEAR!

As has been said: for any four ladies at a luncheon table only one should be wearing a hat.

100 queens on a dock sucking in their stomachs and pouting for selfies seems a tad too much...

How do they decide who wears the hat? Do they confer prior to the luncheon?

Ach, to be young and hot and fabulous.

That's the problem, R137, none of them are fabulous. They're just needy queens.

I was just a teen but I was most impressed by Provincetown and The Upper Cape in the 70s. Great mix of people.

Wonder how it is right now in this heatwave

I'm sure the ocean is cool and there's a nice breeze.

Whenever I hear disco especially in summer I imagine it must have been crazy in the 70swhen that music was played on Fire Island and helped start the craze. Do you they still play disco there or is it more current house and EDM?

The 90's was before the AIDS cocktail. How could it have been Utopia?

If the men then looked anything like those 5 guys on the Fire Island reality show, then I dont think I was missing much.

(well, one of them was beautiful, the rest were plain as the day is long)

If only all of it had burned down so it could have all returned to nature.