"Glorimar" a.k.a. Terre circa 1991

In November of 1991 a friend told me that they were looking for a DJ at Sally's II located in the ballroom of the Carter Hotel on 43rd Street in Manhattan. The current DJ, a straight and homophobic kid playing freestyle, couldn't take it any more. It was a tranny sex working scene and not much else, until showtime. then, for maybe about an hour, a few of the girls became stars to themselves and each other. some of them belonged to Sally's "house of magic," or "house of tragic" as it was more commonly known by outsiders. Sally, the house mother, was often too lazy to get dressed up and usually settled for lipsynching to barry manilow tunes when it was her turn to take the stage. Most of the girls were Latina and African American - the White girl scene was over at Club Eidelweiss, where they catered to a different type of John. I had brought a cassette of North Jersey and Loisaida deep house with me to give to Jimmy, the manager, whom I walked in on while he was getting head from a pair of silicon-injected lips gone wrong.

Jimmy asked me to wait while he went to his room in the hotel to check out the tape. He came back a few minutes later asking, "You did this tape? You'll spin this kind of music? You'll bring your records here? When can you start?!!" I was hired for Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights from 10pm to 4am. I was paid $60 per night. I knew the money was shit, but I figured that meant I could spin whatever I liked. Besides, Dorian Corey hosted shows on Thursday and Saturday. Dorian said she wasn't used to a DJ who could actually read her play list. She was always sweet to me. At first a lot of the girls thought my music was too deep, but when they heard Junior Vasquez play the same tracks at the Sound Factory, usually several weeks after me, a few got the idea that I was a fucking genius. Some of the rich Johns, on the other hand, didn't agree. In particular, one tacky bastard who dressed like Tatoo from Fantasy Island was upset because I refused to play Gloria Estephan every time he sat his fat ass down in the ballroom, and he pressured Sally to fire me. In March of 1992, after the trannies had voted me Best DJ of 1991, Sally told me I had to start playing major label tracks or leave. She said the trannies didn't pay for the club - the Johns did - and the Grammy meant nothing. I was devastated and quit that night. Despite Sally's name on the Grammy, in my heart it has always been the trannies who gave it to me. This wasn't the first time I had lost a gig by refusing to play major label tracks, but it was the last. Unable to find a place to spin the music I loved, I decided to become one of the invisibles who made the tracks I so often bought. Time quickly moved my emphasis to types of audio production other than deep house, but it was the turmoil of that time that instigated any type of production at all.

In 1997, Sally's II was forced to close because of Walt Disney's buyout of Times Square/42nd Street - a deal in which the city of New York sold Disney control of the morality of the area. Disney and city officials began shutting down all aspects of the mid-town sex industry. Some might say the city told Sally what she told me... trannies don't pay for the city - the corporate Johns do. But the loss of the mid-town drag scene breaks my heart. The city has been censored. Peoples' lives have been censored. This 12" is dedicated to all of those beauties searching for their livelihood's next stage.

I hope you are safe.

Love, Sprinkles