I have just spent the last few hours DEVOURING the writing of Jodi Sh Doff (pictured below, back in the day) on her blog - Dirtygirl Diaries. Here is her description:
The dirtygirl diaries are the stories of life in the streets & topless bars of 42nd Street in the 70’s & 80’s – before Disney got its four fingered white gloves on it and turned it into Mouschwitz. A time when street pimps looked like Huggy Bear, silicone was the exception, lap dances were non-existent, and no one was stripping their way through grad school; where innocence was snatched away, money was stolen, lifted, spent, forgotten and night lasted all day long. We went to disappear, change our names, change our luck, make a dollah, dollah, dollah bill y’all, have a real good time, to find out what we were made of.
This is the story of a single wild night interrupted by ten years of blackouts & blinding strobe lights, of money & murders, of obsession, desperation, innocence and addiction.These are stories of hotpants & heartbreak, and every once in a while, if you squint your eyes, if you believe in fairy tales, if you listen for the laughter, it is a tale of love, survival & hope.
Times Square owned my ass for ten years, it has my heart for a lifetime. This is my love story. This is the diary of a Times Square dirtygirl.
I LOVE this kind of stuff. I've often said that I fell in love with NYC during a one-day bus theater bus trip to Times Square in the 80's. The grit, the grime, the sleaze, the danger, the EXCITEMENT - as soon as I experienced it, I knew I had to live here. But my goodness - has this city ever changed.
It's very easy to romanticize that version of NYC - the crime-and-drug-ridden streets and violent criminals lurking around every corner. Jodi, via her blog, manages to convey both the danger AND the joy of that particular period in the history of Times Square. Great stuff.
Check it out for yourself
HERE
.
