Fashion Victim

Life, as they say, is about balance. Last week I was in St. Louis visiting a Jordanian businessman and his family. I stayed at their house, about 25 miles outside the city, on a nice-sized property off the beaten track. One night I accompanied him and his wife downtown -- St. Louis has a surprisingly decent downtown -- for FashionWeek, where I attended my first runway fashion show in a hotel in the shadow of the Arch. It was interesting, to say the least. How do models walk like that?
/
After scarfing down burgers at the Burger Bar in Lumiere Place (I had the veggie burger, of course), we ended the night atop the Four Seasons, overlooking the Mississippi beside a reflecting pool. The night came to an abrupt end when a fellow FashionWeek attendee had an allergic reaction to a macadamia nut he'd eaten. He looked good enough in salmon-colored hives, which makes sense considering it was FashionWeek and all. We started the drive back to St. Louis' outer reaches around 11 p.m.
/
So that was FashionWeek. A few days later I found myself at the Electric Factory in Philadelphia for what some people (not me) might call SatanWeek. With the aid of a couple Blue Moons, I stood through three or four (they kind of ran together) black-metal bands such as Skeleton Witch and Dimmu Borgir, which opened for Danzig. I have a problem with black metal. I don't care that they profess to worship Satan or that I don't pretend to understand the words they're screeching. My issue with black metal is that thay have no sense of humor.
/
I ended the too-long night with my friend Pat, standing in the parking lot till 2:15 a.m. waiting for Mr. Danzig to show his alabaster face. While I didn't hang around long enough to see him, I did see Steve Zing, former drummer of Samhain and current bass player for Danzig. The show was ... sad. I still love Danzig's music, but his live show has suffered over the past 17 years. That's understandable. But the sound was horrid. And I hate to say this but I may be getting too old to be going to heavy-metal concerts and buying T-shirts with upside-down crosses on them.
/
Then again, I said the same thing last year.