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<DIV><FONT face="Lucida Sans Unicode" color=#000080 size=2>tonight's world
series game on Fox had an internet poll "Which city has the better night life,
New York or Miami?" NYC won 52 to 48. must have been
peaches who tipped the balance.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Lucida Sans Unicode" color=#000080 size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Lucida Sans Unicode" color=#000080 size=2>R</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Lucida Sans Unicode" color=#000080 size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #000080 2px solid; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=dhenwood@panix.com href="mailto:dhenwood@panix.com">Doug Henwood</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=lbo-talk@lbo-talk.org
href="mailto:lbo-talk@lbo-talk.org">lbo-talk</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Sunday, October 19, 2003 8:33
PM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> [lbo-talk] cultural notes: a
night out with Peaches</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>New York Times - October 19, 2003<BR><BR>Peaches: Tough Girl
Tender<BR>By DAVE ITZKOFF<BR><BR>IN just a single performance on a recent
Saturday night, the <BR>provocative rocker Peaches assumed multiple personas:
a tied-up <BR>bondage victim, a brutal police officer and (with the help of a
wig) <BR>a blond bombshell. Afterward, in the basement of the East Village
<BR>nightclub Plaid, she played her most surprising role yet: den
mother.<BR>Advertisement<BR><BR>On a narrow staircase outside her dressing
room, Peaches (whose real <BR>name is Merrill Nisker, and whose real hair is
brunet, worn in a <BR>shoulder-length mullet) was wearing a black lace dress,
her eyelashes <BR>thick with mascara and her lavender eye shadow smeared all
the way to <BR>her temples. She was surrounded by a half-dozen friends, and a
<BR>bouncer was concerned they were creating a fire hazard. "These are my
<BR>children," she protested. "I can't just put them out on the
street."<BR><BR>You would never know it, but Peaches was once a schoolteacher
in her <BR>hometown, Toronto. But what she does for a living these days is
<BR>wholly inappropriate for the young. Her electronic rock combines
<BR>catchy drum beats, guitar riffs and the occasional Joan Jett sample
<BR>with sexually charged lyrics so unambiguous they would make Anaïs Nin
<BR>blush. With its anthems of liberation and odes to various parts of <BR>the
body, her 2001 debut album, "The Teaches of Peaches," became a <BR>staple of
gay and straight dance clubs alike, and a familiar beat on <BR>the fashion
runways. On her newest record, which has a title that <BR>cannot be printed
here, her music continues to stomp all over <BR>traditional boundaries of
gender and sexual orientation. As she says <BR>in the chorus to her song "I U
She," "I don't have to make the <BR>choice, I like girls and I like
boys."<BR><BR>Now a resident of Berlin, the 36-year-old Peaches, who stands
barely <BR>5-foot-3 in a pair of white leather boots, has a fan club that is
as <BR>diverse as her taste. She has recently recorded duets with the
<BR>godfather of punk, Iggy Pop, and the rock diva Pink, and will be
<BR>opening for the Gothic shock rocker Marilyn Manson on a European tour
<BR>in November.<BR><BR>Another musical pal, the bawdy rapper Princess
Superstar, was waiting <BR>on the staircase to present Peaches with a gift in
a shopping bag <BR>from the Lower East Side boutique Babes in Toyland, which
sells <BR>sexual aids. Peaches rushed off to show the gift to her backup
<BR>dancers, two statuesque women named Annabel and Billie, who were
<BR>changing out of impromptu fetish costumes made from garbage
bags.<BR><BR>As you might expect from a woman who cribbed her stage name from
the <BR>Nina Simone song "Four Women," there is a softer side to Peaches,
<BR>too. On a recent trip through France she surprised her dancers by
<BR>taking them to a concert by the trashy American rockabilly band the
<BR>Cramps. "We were in Cologne, and I told them that I was going to be <BR>on
TV, and I wanted them to be on the show with me," Peaches recalled.<BR><BR>Her
dancer Annabel interrupted. "When we got there, we were like, why <BR>did she
take us to see a Cramps cover band?" she said. "Then we <BR>realized it was
the actual band."<BR><BR>As her entourage expanded to include a British club
promoter, Sean <BR>McCluskey, and J. D. Samson of the feminist pop trio Le
Tigre, <BR>Peaches fielded suggestions on where they should go next. "I want
to <BR>take you to Carousel," Princess Superstar said. "It's a strip club
<BR>where all the dancers look like Lil' Kim."<BR><BR>Peaches said, "Ooh, I
want to check that out, but I should probably <BR>go to my own
after-party."<BR><BR>So the group instead moved to a private room that had
been reserved <BR>for them in the cellar of Lit, an East Village bar, where
the city's <BR>smoking ban seemed to be regarded as a friendly suggestion. The
<BR>after-party was supposed to be guest-list only, but at least one fan,
<BR>a doe-eyed blonde with a vaguely European accent, managed to slip
<BR>inside and approach Peaches directly.<BR><BR>"Your show was the most
amazing thing I've ever seen," the woman <BR>said, grasping Peaches by the
wrists. "I think some of it rubbed off <BR>on me."<BR><BR>Peaches smiled.
"Just play safe," she
replied.<BR><BR>___________________________________<BR><A
href="http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk">http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk</A></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>