Bash Compactor: They Don’t Wanna Be Sedated

“Father
dear… at home I’ve heard you use the following words: ‘Spic,’ ‘nigger,’
‘faggot’ and ‘psycho.’ Well, I want you to know your daughter is one.” Those
are the loving words to “Your Daughter Is One” by The Sleez Sisters, Nicky and
Pam, the two runaways girls featured in the 1980 cult classic Times Square. Nicky’s the rebel, Pam’s the good girl with the politician
dad. The kids are alright, but after sharing a room in the mental ward, they
both flew over the cuckoo’s nest and moved into an abandoned warehouse on the
West Side Highway. It’s teen rebellion at its finest. The punk soundtrack is
legendary but only available on vinyl.

There’s
nothing like the pre-Giuliani gritty dirty Times Square, land of the pimps, hos
and filthy 42nd Street movie theaters of my youth. Back in the day, Times
Square the movie
was mainstream, so I never saw it. What better way to spend a Monday night than
at the IFC Center in the Village? It’s funny how 30 years will propel something
to cutting edge. I had no idea that every month or so, a bunch of renegade
queers get together to show provocative films and chat and laugh about them.
QUEER/ART/FILM is moderated by Butt magazine co-editor Adam Baran and filmmaker Ira Sachs. Members of the audience went out
for drinks together after the movie. This time, the guest curators were the
ever-subversive dyke art collective Ridykeulous (AKA Nicole Eisenman and A.L. Steiner). Pretending they themselves were
in the flick, they joked on the Facebook invite: “nothing was more
disappointing then the producers cutting out our sex scene, perhaps the hottest
sex scene ever recorded on film between two Jews.” Clearly, the film documents
two girls in love. Every gay woman in the audience groaned audibly when they heard
the kissing scene footage was forever lost. Considering this was a bunch of
people watching old movies, there was barely a seat in the darkened theater so
I plopped into the first row, all the better to see the Midtown sleeze-fest.

“Maybe this
question dates you, but what gay man in the audience recognized the porno
theater?” Sachs asked. It was

The Adonis,
the old cruising porn palace on Eighth Avenue. “That wasn’t the real Times
Square! They should’ve been raped and robbed,” a woman said later in the toilet
stall next to me. Yeah, and what happened to the crack and smack?

Watching
young women revolt against their lot in life is liberating, but there’s still a
lot of glitz in this Robert Stigwood production. Famed for Saturday Night Fever, you can tell he fired the
director midway and stuck some Bee Gees at the end, adding an operatic quality.
The duo had become overnight rock sensations with the unique promotional idea
of throwing TV sets out of high-rise windows. No surprise: this is Courtney Love’s
fave movie, calling actress Robin Johnson “Mick Jagger plus Marilyn Monroe.”

It was a riot when Steiner and Eisenmann came to the stage wearing garbage
bags, the trademark of Nicky and Pam who wore them to say loud and clear,
“we’re not garbage!”