Porn hotels, nightclubs, poetry slams, and Urvashi Vaid: My weekend thus far

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Yesterday after class I went to Mount Holyoke with my friends Angelina, Rosita, and Carrie. We went to see a lesbian slam poet, Alex Olsen. It was a lot of fun- the atmosphere at MH is really queer friendly (or it was at th event we were at), and it was just a fun experience. Alex Olsen reminds me a lot of Ani DiFranco sans the guitar- similar politics, similar voice. There were two other slam poets who were performing with her, and the best part of the night was when her and the guy poet did an improv slam trying to seduce the girl in the back. Hilarious, to say the least.

After the slam (and quite a few wrong turns), we went to a gay nightclub and danced until about two. I’d never been to a nightclub before, and it was a strange experience. I could not hear a word of conversation, and it was the first time in recent memory that I’d had to rely just on lip reading and gestures.

After going clubbing, we had to find a hotel. We wanted to get a room with a double bed, have three people on the bed, and have the fourth on the floor in a sleeping bag. We pulled into the first one we saw. It was advertising heated waterbeds. I thought tat it was a little strange, and I said so. The other three girls brushed it off- it was late, we were tired, ect.

Then I saw that it featured “specialty rooms…”

You know where this is going, don’t you?

Rose and Angelina went to get a room, and I just knew. I looked around at the rooms- they all had names on the door. “Colonial room.” “Valentine room.” “Egyptian room.”

I thought for sure they’d pick up on it… they didn’t.

We got the Bed room. Opened the door. The room consisted of a double waterbed with red satin sheets.

There were no walls. There were mirrors.

There was no ceiling. There was a mirror.

There was a very small bathroom, a very small shower, and a television as well. But… a bed and mirrors for walls. No real floor space to speak of. Four lesbians, none of whom were dating each other.

Bow bow chicka chicka bow bow… :wink:

We all slept on the bed with the sleeping bag over the sheets. It was hilarious. We didn’t get much sleep at all- to fit, we all had to spoon against each other.

I should mention that I sleep with a teddy bear. Part of it is to keep the circulation in my arm. So I’m used to having my arm around something as I sleep. I woke up at various point in the night with my arm around Angelina. It was like the damn thing was migrating. I was teased about it all day.

So, dopers, I slept in a heated waterbed with three other extremely hot lesbians, all of whom were completely sober, and without any debauchery whatsoever. Applaud my self control.

Oh, and I got to hang out with Urvashi Vaid when we got back. She’s staying at Dartmouth for a few days- very cool, to say the least.

It’s only Saturday night. Tomorrow should be good.

When I called quietgirldownthehall and told her about all of this, she asked me very quietly to never speak of it again. :smiley:

2

Oh my.

There are just not many words that come to mind right now.

Couldn’t you have tried just a teensy-eensy bit of debauchery?

Una

3

Arrgghhh! If only I had known in advance you were going to be in the Five College area! We could have had a mini-Dopefest! Rats.

4

Hmmm…an “adult” motel in the Western Massachusetts area? It had to be the infamous Pines Motel, right?

5

Yep, that would be the one.

Anything else I should know about it? Other than the fact that I probably was one of the only people to visit there who didn’t have sex?

Geobabe: What are you doing Wednesday night? I’m going to a Moby concert at Holyoke. I’m sure I could arrange something… you up for it?

6

Well, the Pines has a bit of a reputation around here for being quite the sleaze pit (we’re an otherwise “respectable” bunch of people around here, the strip club a mile or so away–the infamous Anthony’s-- notwithstanding). My dad was formerly a paramedic and more than once he had to go pick up heart-attack victims at the Pines.

7

Hmmm…I usually work Wdnesday nights but I may be able to switch shifts. Lemme get back to you on that.

Adult motel story: Way back in my Navy days, I was out drinking with a friend one night. We meet a group of guys, start chatting, after a while one of them suggest we all go barhopping. I think that is a smashing idea. After discussion, it turns out to be only me and one guy who are going to go. I don’t have a car, so he drives. We go to another bar, maybe two–I dunno, my memory’s a li’l fuzzy.

As it’s getting late, he gives me the old line “I’m too drunk to drive, let’s go to a motel; just to sleep, I promise I won’t try anything.” I have no car plus I’m pretty drunk myself, OK, fine, I’ll take your word for it. He drives to this motel; while he’s checking in I look up at the sign and realize it’s the infamous local adult motel. Oho! Is that so?

We go into the room–with a jacuzzi, no less. He immediately strips down and hops into the jacuzzi. I get in the bed and start trying to go to sleep. He tries for some time to get me to get in with him, finally gets pissed off and leaves. Cool, now I can get some sleep!

Early morning a knock comes on the door. It’s the manager, I guess checking to see if anyone is still in the room–maybe the guy checked out or something, I don’t know. He says, “Well, it’s pretty unusual to find someone alone in a room here.” I told him the guy had got me there under false pretenses and gave him a synopsis of the previous evening.

I think I went back to sleep for a while and ended up calling a cab to take me back to the base. Funny night. Of course, I was really lucky he didn’t try to force things.

So anyway, you’re not the first person to spend a platonic night at a nookie motel!

8

That story could have ended so much better.

9

(thinking of Elvis singing “Let me be your Teddy Bear…”)

10

Dear God…4 lesbians in a bed with no debauchery!!!

Pray tell why?

I mean, even just a tad bit of debauchery would have been ok…fact is, that little migrating arm did things she’s just not admitting…mmmmhmmm!

j/k

I would have paid good money to be the fly on the wal…err…mirror!

-SS :smiley:

11

Is that what it was called? Or did you make a typo on “Red”? Or was that what they considered their low-key, least gimmicky room? Also, aren’t places like that kind of pricey? It sounds like it would have run a bit higher than what you probably budgeted for a motel.

12

Actually, I think the lowest key one is the “floor room”, for the really cheap ones you can live out your shoolgirl fantasies in the “Janitor’s closet”

13

Oh I so miss my “five colleges area” days… went to UMass Amherst for a semester, dropped out of college and bummed around the Happy Valley for a year after that.

I have a funny Urvashi Vaid story… we got her to come speak for Pride Week one year (I went to Bridgewater State College in Bridgewater, MA). Me and a few of my friends spent the day with her, and after she gave her talk, we went out for coffee. One of the “bad guys” involved in campus politics that we had told her all about came by and was chatting her up, trying to win points with the “queer crowd”. So after about a half hour of this jerk commiserating with her, all transparently to make himself look good, he called her “Urv.” To which she replied, cooly, calmly, and collectedly, “Please, call me Ms. Vaid. I don’t want to know you that well.” So for the rest of this guy’s college career, we called him “Rog”.

14

No, no typo. It was called so just because of the focus on the bed. It was 70 dollars- the thing was that we broke their “2 people per room” policy, so between 4 people, it wasn’t bad.

Er… it wasn’t expensive.

15

So many things I could say…

bites tongue

16

Oooie, my home away from home. Plus you’re all talking about places I know pretty well.

andygirl, next time you go to MHC, stand outside of Skinner Hall and think of me. My family used to have all the money that school got. :smiley:

Rasa - Bridgewater, eh? My wife went there for nursing school and Grandma R was there in the Class of ‘40 (when it was still Bridgewater Teachers’ College).

As for the actual story in this thread… you’re wasting your college days, going to places like that and not partying down like dogs in the street. Shame on you all. Shame shame shame. :laughs:

17

Just a curiosity. What’s a slam poet?

18

About ten bucks an hour. Ah-hahahahahaha!

Nobody else gets that, do they?

Damndamndamn. I need a new sense of humor. Mine’s obviously warped.

19

There used to be a motel in Tucson called the “No-Tel Motel.” Mr. Legend and I would usually stay there when we were rolling through town just because it was cheaper than any other place. I can’t remember if we ever put their (ahem) ambience to good use or not, but the sheets were reasonably clean and the pool was never crowded.

It did give me pause the first time we went there, though, when the desk clerk asked me if we wanted the room for the WHOLE night.

20

It’s a very in your face style of poetry that is very political, expressive, and nontraditional. Free form and improv is often encouraged. If you do a search I’m sure you’ll find some good examples.