studio rock city

star dog
Originally uploaded by imperialviolet.

one through-the-looking-glass-element of having a child in l.a. is that she might resonably be expected to attend school with, say, paul stanley's(KISS, aw yeah) kid.

if you disregard the large mane of dyed black hair. the coiffed, archy eyebrows. the overly heeled boots. and the tricked out mercedes he rolls.... paul is just a guy playing at being a parent, like the rest of us.

we all conduct this intricate, victorian manners play around him. paul plays like we don't know that he's a "nominal hair rock god" and we pretend that he doesn't know that we really know. you try ignoring the 300 pound star child in the room. it's weird.

a surprising amount of folks have a KISS story in their childhood vaults. one dad told me that he dressed up as paul every halloween from ages 6-12. try swallowing that one while chatting about school beautification with the man.

i was too little when they were really big. even when they made the 'lick it up' comeback, sans makeup, i was a kid. and a bratty, punk rock kid at that.

but then i spent a summer in utah with dana and her big sisters. they thought it would be 'fun' to dress us up, get us plastered, and take us to a KISS concert.

dana's big sister drove a nissan nx with the vanity plate TART. we drove the whole way with open beers and motley crue blasting. my brain and lipstick felt sloppy. i warbled on plastic heels.

the last thing i remember was standing on a metal folding chair while gene simmons told a story about some 'sleaze bag' claiming that he was the father of his baby and-
"that baby had the longest tongue i ever seen!"

the crowd cheered with wild approval. yay for getting chicks pregnant! yay for your big tongue!

i woozed and fell over, striking my head on the chair. i slept comfortably until dana found me sometime after the show.

i'm tellin' that one to paul next time we work lunch line together.