Night of 1000 Stevies 2008 - "NIGHTBIRDS"

[Phoenix]

Originally Posted by vivfox

Time Out New York / Issue 658 : May, 2008
Old saint Nicks
The beloved Night of a Thousand Stevies reaches the far edge of 17.
By Bruce Tantum
BIG MAC ATTACK The Ho-Hos, click on link to see photo, are among the star attractions at the gigantic Nicks fest.
[B]Is Nicks aware of Night of a Thousand Stevies?
Valenti: Oh, yeah. Apparently she discovered it when she was on an airplane and her steward showed her pictures of him dressed as her in platform boots. She’s commented on it in interviews, and seems very flattered by it. She’s even given us Stevie memorabilia to auction off.
Dynell: On the other hand, Lindsey Buckingham has called us a bunch of freaks. He seems really bothered by it.
Valenti: Oh, that’s just because there’s no Night of a Thousand Lindseys.


Night of a Thousand Stevies: Nightbirds is on May 9, 2008.

http://www.timeout.com/newyork/artic...ld-saint-nicks

BBBBBBaaaaaaaaaaaahahAHAHAHHAAH. So true.
but good god, could you imagine. a million lindseys playing big love at the exact same time yapping on about "faith in cycles".

[HejiraNYC]

Originally Posted by Phoenix

BBBBBBaaaaaaaaaaaahahAHAHAHHAAH. So true.
but good god, could you imagine. a million lindseys playing big love at the exact same time yapping on about "faith in cycles".

Could you imagine if they did organize a Night of a Thousand Lindseys? Every shop in Chinatown would wonder why their inventory of silk kimono robes has suddenly been depleted.

[TrueFaith77]

Night Of A Thousand Lindseys???? I'd so be there.

[petep9000]

I'm intrigued by a Night of 1000 Christines. We'd all dress up in shoulder-length bobbed blond haircuts, with tunics, leggings and scrunchy boots. Wine glass in one hand, lit cigarette in another. And practice our whithering British accents.

[HejiraNYC]

Originally Posted by petep9000

I'm intrigued by a Night of 1000 Christines. We'd all dress up in shoulder-length bobbed blond haircuts, with tunics, leggings and scrunchy boots. Wine glass in one hand, lit cigarette in another. And practice our whithering British accents.

I'd wear my tweed jacket with patches on the elbows and my bestest mom-jeans. Oh, and my hair would have that little mutant-tail sprouting from the front:

[petep9000]

Originally Posted by HejiraNYC

I'd wear my tweed jacket with patches on the elbows and my bestest mom-jeans. Oh, and my hair would have that little mutant-tail sprouting from the front:

and don't forget the white plastic hoop earrings for an authentic TITN look.

[HejiraNYC]

Originally Posted by petep9000

and don't forget the white plastic hoop earrings for an authentic TITN look.

But then again I'm starting to warm up to Mars Attacks-era Christine:

[AliceLover]

JAZZ!!!

Stand Back was so great! What an awesome version to choose! Excellent job! I can't wait to see more!!!

[AliceLover]

Originally Posted by vivfox

Time Out New York / Issue 658 : May, 2008
Old saint Nicks
The beloved Night of a Thousand Stevies reaches the far edge of 17.


By Bruce Tantum


BIG MAC ATTACK The Ho-Hos, click on link to see photo, are among the star attractions at the gigantic Nicks fest.

Photograph: Wilson ChanIt’s hard to imagine now, but there was a time when NYC nightlife was dominated by a polysexual, performance-oriented, creative kind of clubbing, at venues such as the Pyramid, Area and Mother. Giuliani and gentrification largely put the kibosh on that world, but there are still a few people fighting the good fight, including Chi Chi Valenti and Johnny Dynell, who ran Mother from 1996 until its closing in 2000. The pair was also the driving force behind the much-missed Jackie 60 affair, which is where Night of a Thousand Stevies—probably the biggest and weirdest Stevie Nicks–Fleetwood Mac tribute party in the world—was born in 1990. On Friday 9, the annual get-together returns for its 18th go-round with performances from Stevie impersonators old and new, including at least one second-generation Nicks knockoff. One mainstay won’t be there, though: Downtown performance icon Dean Johnson, one the event’s earliest participants, passed away last year, and this edition of NOTS is dedicated to his memory.



When you started Night of a Thousand Stevies, did you have any clue what you were getting yourselves into?
Chi Chi Valenti: She turns 60 later this month. We’re almost a third as old as she is! The first time we did it, we looked at it as just another Jackie theme. But even that night, we could tell something was up—it brought in a whole crowd of people that were so much more into Stevie than we were.
Johnny Dynell: No one usually showed up till 11pm or so, but that night we had a line at 9 o’clock, with tambourines and everything.
Valenti: That was the first Jackie party that we realized we should do annually. But back then, we thought that meant maybe three years, tops.

What is it about Stevie Nicks that inspires such devotion?
Dynell: I think it’s because she’s the exact opposite of someone who tries to reinvent herself all the time. She projects such a consistent image that she seems very true to what she is, which can inspire a serious kind of fandom.

Speaking of serious, this year’s venue, Highline Ballroom, is your biggest spot yet.
Valenti: This is like our dream stage. We’ve gone from baby’s breath sewn on ribbons to Broadway flats covered with white-winged doves. We now have facilities for more performers—we have 105 this year—along with things like a big opening number choreographed by Julie Atlas Muz. Even the back of the house is huge.

It’s probably bigger than some of the fronts of the houses you’ve been in.
Dynell: And bigger than some that we’ve live in!

You have a lot of veteran Stevies performing, but I imagine not having Dean Johnson there will be kind of sad.
Valenti: Oh, yeah. He was always the most controversial Stevie. He would happily portray her darker side to what he called the Stepford Stevies. But he loved Stevie, to the point that he named his cat for her.

Is Nicks aware of Night of a Thousand Stevies?
Valenti: Oh, yeah. Apparently she discovered it when she was on an airplane and her steward showed her pictures of him dressed as her in platform boots. She’s commented on it in interviews, and seems very flattered by it. She’s even given us Stevie memorabilia to auction off.
Dynell: On the other hand, Lindsey Buckingham has called us a bunch of freaks. He seems really bothered by it.
Valenti: Oh, that’s just because there’s no Night of a Thousand Lindseys.

Has she ever come to one?
Valenti: We think she may have come in disguise as just another Stevie the last year it was held at Mother. But we can understand why she would never publicly come—it would be pretty overwhelming.

She does seem like the delicate sort.
Dynell: Well, you know that song of hers, “Too Much Love.”
Valenti: Even as a Stevie substitute at these parties, I sometimes feel overwhelmed from too much love. So I can totally empathize.

Night of a Thousand Stevies: Nightbirds is on May 9, 2008.

http://www.timeout.com/newyork/artic...ld-saint-nicks

WTF is too much love?

[michelej1]

Originally Posted by AliceLover

WTF is too much love?

LOL. Usually we can figure out what song they're talking about (like Thunder Only Happens When It's Raining), but with "too much love" I don't even know where to start.

Michele

[[email protected]]

Originally Posted by michelej1

LOL. Usually we can figure out what song they're talking about (like Thunder Only Happens When It's Raining), but with "too much love" I don't even know where to start.

Michele

I would assume "Nightbird". But I could be wrong.

[vivfox]

Originally Posted by [email protected]

I would assume "Nightbird". But I could be wrong.

Nightbird is the song that first enters my mind too. Hi Barbara, welcome back and where the heck have you been?

[vivfox]

May 13,2008

Fighting Off Wig-Stealing Drag Queens At 'Night Of A Thousand Stevies' [Sisters (and Misters) Of The Moon]


"Sometimes, the most beautiful thing, the most innocent thing - and many of those dreams - pass us by." Well, my friend Bennett Madison and I were determined not to let the 18th Annual "Night of A Thousand Stevies" (NOTS) pass us by, and if you recognize the quote above as a line from the (best) Stevie Nicks song (ever), "Angel," then you already understand why we were motivated to attend an event that brings Stevie Nicks impersonators from around the country to perform in front of an audience full of...Stevie Nicks impersonators. If you don't understand, read on: you just might learn something about one of the greatest artists of all time, and the bizarre, semi-sad, hilariously gay and nerdy and over-the-top cult that has sprung up around the singer.

For starters, it's pretty easy to put together a Stevie Nicks costume in five minutes at any Salvation Army. It's sort of like the adage about what you're supposed to wear for your wedding, except instead of "Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue," it's more like "Something old, something black, something fringey, and some kind of a shawl or cape or corset or top hat or sparkly beret." The theme of NOTS 18 was "Nightbirds," and in the song "Nightbirds" Stevie actually gives specific instructions for how to replicate her signature look:

"And then the summer became the fall/ I was not ready for the winter/it makes no difference at all/Cause I wear boots all summer long ... Eye makeup dark and it's careless ..."

Keeping this in mind, I applied Bennett's makeup very carelessly. After a beer, we headed out to the Hammerstein Ballroom.

My costume was a little bit less dramatic than Bennett's, partly because I had decided to wear my real hair instead of a wig and partly because I was born female.

Once inside, we encountered a few setbacks. The entertainment was not, at first, as awesome as we had hoped. One too many drag queens had elected to lip synch "Stand Back," which has never been a favorite song of mine. (Note from Bennett: "I LOVE STAND BACK!!!") It's from Stevie's second, more disco-y solo album, and I'm more of a fan of her work with Fleetwood Mac and her first solo album, Bella Donna, which was made when she was dating that guy from the Eagles. The great thing about being a fan of Stevie Nicks, though, is that Stevieism is a big tent. Here is my theory about the demographics represented at NOTS:

1) Theater nerd girls who just enjoy wearing capes and corsets and crushed velvet. See also: Renaissance Faire Laydies. Their favorite song is Rhiannon, of course, because it's about a witch from Welsh mythology.

2)The male equivalent of these girls. These dudes would have grown up playing Dungeons and Dragons and reading Lord of the Rings if they were straight, but instead they had to like Stevie Nicks.

3)Gays who are into the coke-addled era of Stevie. Their favorite song is "Stand Back."

4) Heterosexual couples who are into the romance of Fleetwood Mac - the idea of being in a band with someone you're in love with, and then breaking up with them in a messy, druggy, cheating-related way, but always sort of carrying a torch - and singing about it! That is hot. We saw a lot of these couples, including a few who were dressed as Stevie and Lindsay Buckingham. If I ever find a guy who is willing to accompany me to this kind of event dressed as Lindsay Buckingham, or Mick Fleetwood, or even Don Henley, I will have found my soulmate, I think. Extra bonus points if he also wants to learn the harmony to "Leather and Lace."

This couple wasn't dressed up, but they were getting really amorous in a cute way.

Outside, we caught performance artist Julie Atlas-Muz and took a picture of her as though we were the paparazzi, and she gamely played along:

The second setback we encountered was that someone stole Bennett's wig! They just came up behind him and yanked it off his head and disappeared back into the crowd! In a moment of true STEVIE REALNESS, Bennett chased after the thief, felled him with a fierce karate kick, and bit him in the face, leaving a puddle of blood and sparkles in the dance floor. Just kidding! Actually, a frightened and humiliated Bennett just made a pathetic face and turned his cape into a headdress, making him look more like Little Edie than Stevie, but whatever. Later someone complimented the headdress as being "very Timespace" and he was happy again.

Night Of A Thousand Stevies [Mother NYC]

http://gossipfeast.com/fighting-wig-...d-misters-moon

[[email protected]]

Originally Posted by vivfox

Nightbird is the song that first enters my mind too. Hi Barbara, welcome back and where the heck have you been?

Hi Honey Bun!
I pop in now and again, say a few things, or try to help someone out looking for something I may have....then, go on with other business, LOL! Hope you are doing great! The Ledge looks nice, I like the new graphic design!

xoxo Barbara

[AliceLover]

Originally Posted by michelej1

LOL. Usually we can figure out what song they're talking about (like Thunder Only Happens When It's Raining), but with "too much love" I don't even know where to start.

Michele

That really pisses me off. How long have these broads been running this program and they don't know the name of the song Nightbird. Please.