Michael Alig Dead Of Overdose at 54

[Lazarus]

https://www.tmz.com/2020/12/25/michael-alig-club-kid-co-founder-party-monster-heroin-overdose-suspected/

 

Does anyone remember this ”club kid” from NYC & The Limelight from the lates 80’s to early 90s? I just watched the movie Party Monster based on his story starring McCauley Culkin. It was pretty cheesy & bad, but I kind of enjoyed it.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/21/michael-alig-interview

[YOUNG_LA_DOM]

What a shame !!!

Ashes to ashes

 

dust to dust

[Luv2play]

I wasn’t very focussed on the NY scene during the period of the late 80s and early 90s as I had built a cottage in a compound with other gay friends and we spent all 4 seasons having fun in the natural environment. It only lasted 5 years as the core group got AIDS and died. But at least drugs didn’t get them. It was a crazy time. Lucky I survived.

[Monarchy79]

For anyone who is interested or curious, here’s a really good (related) documentary:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnBjzj7gfMQ

[+ Pensant]

Wow, never heard of him. Heroin overdose at 54.

[+ 7829V]

...very predictable.

[Luv2play]

I’ve watched over half of the documentary and will finish watching it later but the main story has already been told of the rise and fall of Michael Alig. What a story. It covers the period when New York hit bottom in the late 70s and early 80s and then through to the resurrection after the demise of the hedonistic club scene of the 90s which Alig had been such a central part of but consumed by ultimately. Giuliani is credited with routing out the druggies of the club scene Alig inhabited.

 

He and his kids flourished after the death of Andy Warhol, whose pop art style is reflected in their style. I remember tales of the Limelight but my time a decade earlier had been to the dingy clubs on the west side like the Anvil and the Ramrod. Completely different style of gay life.

 

Quality of Life became the watchword and it led to the gentrification of NYC which allows hedge funds to flourish and artistic creation to wither away. So life goes.

[+ nycman]

Only surprised it didn’t happen sooner.

 

The canonization of the “Club Kids” as royalty of the late 80’s/early 90’s NYC club scene has always amused me.

At the time they were viewed more as an annoying narcissistic byproduct of the scene. The later mythology

makes them out to be much more important than they ever were.

 

Truth be told, whenever they showed up, you knew it was time to vacate the club. Within minutes the place

would be overrun with middle class children from Brooklyn, NJ, and middle America. They never could pay

for their own drinks, much less their own drugs and the vast majority had little to no real talent or creativity.

You certainly never wanted to get trapped into having to try and have an intelligent conversation with one of

them.

 

Michael Alig’s story is the tragic final coda they all longed for and needed to stay relevant. Unfortunately for Angel,

they and he got just that. I still remember when the original story of the murder in NYC broke, no one really cared.

“Some random club kid killed a drug dealer”......dog bites man....it wasn’t news. It’s almost comical how decades

later it‘s portrayed as a corner stone of NYC nightlife at that time.

[Luv2play]

One great line from the doc. is spoken by a gay man who said, “who we really wanted to have sex with were the bridge and tunnel guys who came over to party”.

[EastbayMike]

It only lasted 5 years as the core group got AIDS and died. But at least drugs didn’t get them. It was a crazy time. Lucky I survived.

I'm not sure I understand what you're trying to say. Better to die of AIDS than drugs?

[Luv2play]

Having now finished watching the entire doc I came away with the thought that Michael Alig did leave a legacy that will endure. What struck me the most was what incredible art and effort went into the club kids’ costumes and makeup for a night on the town. Truly monumental and worthy of a retrospective in a museum some day.

 

Near the conclusion they cite the example of Lady Gaga and how she profited from their inspired creations. Also a lot of other celebrities who adopted the extravagant look the club kids pioneered.

 

It also became clear Alig worked hard behind the scenes to make these nightclubs successful in their day.

 

And then finally, learning he spent 5 years of his 17 in prison in solitary confinement was stunning to hear. This guy killed someone but he was no Charles Manson.

[Luv2play]

I'm not sure I understand what you're trying to say. Better to die of AIDS than drugs?

What I was trying to say in perhaps a hamfisted way was that my friends were victims of AIDS who unknowingly contracted the virus in the late 70s just by having good old sex and not seeing the dire consequences as no-one did at the time.

 

Those who died of drug overdoses knew what danger they were courting when they engaged in such risky behaviour.

[Lazarus]

For anyone who is interested or curious, here’s a really good (related) documentary:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnBjzj7gfMQ

Thank you for posting this. It brought back great memories of when NYC actually had an exciting nightlife before Giuliani became Mayor & ruined everything. There were so many clubs to go to in Manhattan. Now there are hardly any. (Thanks to COVID there are zero that are open). As for Michael Alig...he was given another chance after doing 17 years for murder. Too bad he could not stay clean.

[+ Lucky]

And then finally, learning he spent 5 years of his 17 in prison in solitary confinement was stunning to hear. This guy killed someone but he was no Charles Manson.

The guy he killed didn't deserve it. He was chopped up in parts and left in a bathtub until Alig and friends could take the parts one by one and bury them somewhere. True depravity. His passing brings no sympathy from me.

[Luv2play]

The guy he killed didn't deserve it. He was chopped up in parts and left in a bathtub until Alig and friends could take the parts one by one and bury them somewhere. True depravity. His passing brings no sympathy from me.

According to the police and lawyers portrayed in the doc. the three including the victim got into a fight in Alig's apartment where the victim had come to collect a drug debt. Angel, the dealer, pushed Alig first and then Alig and the other man tried to subdue Angel. It was either a lawyer or the cop who said after Angel had died if Alig had simply called the police or a lawyer, he would have got off on self defence. But Alig was under the influence of drugs and they made poor choices in trying to hide thebody.

 

After 8 days they decided to dispose of the body and to get it to fit in a large box, they had to remove the legs. They then, with the help of a taxi driver, threw the crate in the Hudson River, where it floated to Staten Island and washed up on a beach there. The dectective said if they had drilled a hole in the box, it would have sunk in the river, which is what mobsters do, but these guys were no experts.

 

Angels friends, which had included Alig as well, started looking for him and the cops put 2 and 2 together. Alig himself made self incriminating statements before he was arrested.

 

The story reads like a film noir. Did you ever see The Black Dahlia? The victim there was cut in two as well.

Edited December 27, 2020 by Luv2play

[+ Lucky]

According to the police and lawyers portrayed in the doc. the three including the victim got into a fight in Alig's apartment where the victim had come to collect a drug debt. Angel, the dealer, pushed Alig first and then Alig and the other man tried to subdue Angel. It was either a lawyer or the cop who said after Angel had died if Alig had simply called the police or a lawyer, he would have got off on self defence. But Alig was under the influence of drugs and they made poor choices in trying to hide thebody.

 

After 8 days they decided to dispose of the body and to get it to fit in a large box, they had to remove the legs. They then, with the help of a taxi driver, threw the crate in the Hudson River, where it floated to Staten Island and washed up on a beach there. The dectective said if they had drilled a hole in the box, it would have sunk in the river, which is what mobsters do, but these guys were no experts.

 

Angels friends, which had included Alig as well, started looking for him and the cops put 2 and 2 together. Alig himself made self incriminating statements before he was arrested.

 

The story reads like a film noir. Did you ever see The Black Dahlia? The victim there was cut in two as well.

You want to try the case here? Judgment has been made by the real courts.

[Luv2play]

You want to try the case here? Judgment has been made by the real courts.

I'm not saying the courts got it wrong. He took a plea deal after all.

 

The DA figured they didn't have a strong enough case for premeditated murder, even though ironically Alig had once done a blood covered club scenario where he chopped off someone's head. It was all depicted on a poster; he was apparently quite attracted to blood.

 

But the circumstances didn't support such a situation. It was the typical, banal homicide in a drug deal gone wrong. Alig acknowledged drugs had screwed up his life. That is the real tragedy here because the guy obviously had talent.

Edited December 27, 2020 by Luv2play

[+ Lucky]

I think the real tragedy is that a guy died by Alig's hands. Drugs were his nemesis, yet he never gave them up. I find his death a fitting end. So I guess we just disagree.

[Luv2play]

I think the real tragedy is that a guy died by Alig's hands. Drugs were his nemesis, yet he never gave them up. I find his death a fitting end. So I guess we just disagree.

I’m not sure we disagree. That drugs seem to hAve ended his life does seem fitting, in a sense.

 

The list of celebrities, both big and minor, is endless in this regard. Huge number in music realm, which of course is tied in with clubbing.

 

Stars with a lot more to lose than Alig, ended their lives prematurely with hard drugs.

[Lazarus]

Here is a NYT article about him from 2014 when he was released from prison.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/15/fashion/michael-alig-the-former-king-of-the-club-kids-after-prison.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article

[maninsoma]

Here is a NYT article about him from 2014 when he was released from prison.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/15/fashion/michael-alig-the-former-king-of-the-club-kids-after-prison.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article

 

Interesting read. Hindsight is 20/20, I know, but that article certainly does hint that things would not turn out well for him. He doesn't seem to have changed at all in prison, and returning to the same group of friends he had at the time of the murder (some of whom thought it would be funny to mock the murder by bringing a toy hammer when they picked him up upon his release) wasn't a decision of someone who wanted to chart a new and healthier course.

[Luv2play]

I agree with Prof Corona of the Fashion Institute of Technology who said in the article that Alig is the bridge between Andy Warhol, who died in 1987, and Lady Gaga, as fashion icons who created a New York life style based on a group of society misfits. It is all about glam and glitz.

 

That life style has seeped into society at large, watered down, yes, but still recognizable. Today we even have a makeup place in our small town called Glitz, and young people flock to it to get made up.

 

Two weeks ago, I had never heard of Alig. But now I can see his place in the evolution of pop culture.

[+ Lucky]

I agree with Prof Corona of the Fashion Institute of Technology who said in the article that Alig is the bridge between Andy Warhol, who died in 1987, and Lady Gaga, as fashion icons who created a New York life style based on a group of society misfits. It is all about glam and glitz.

 

That life style has seeped into society at large, watered down, yes, but still recognizable. Today we even have a makeup place in our small town called Glitz, and young people flock to it to get made up.

 

Two weeks ago, I had never heard of Alig. But now I can see his place in the evolution of pop culture.

We sure view this differently. How many died from doing Drugs he provided? And you don't have to die to have your life ruined by addiction. I have known of him for a long time, watched the move, read the book and news articles, and even lived in the building where they stored their victim. When I rode the elevators I had to think of which body part was brought down in this elevator!

[Luv2play]

We sure view this differently. How many died from doing Drugs he provided? And you don't have to die to have your life ruined by addiction. I have known of him for a long time, watched the move, read the book and news articles, and even lived in the building where they stored their victim. When I rode the elevators I had to think of which body part was brought down in this elevator!

Yes I guess we do take different things from this saga. I don’t recall he or anyone else say that he was a drug dealer. Angel was his dealer at the time of the murder.

 

I had a friend in Montreal, an older lady who was an antique dealer. She was born and raised in New York and helped her father in his antique business in Manhattan. One day she took an article to Warhol’s Factory to deliver it to him. He invited her in and she saw a bunch of his acolytes lying around stoned on drugs in the middle of the day. That was New York.

 

Another time I visited a friend in Manhattan during the 80s and was going to stay with him. When I got in from the airport, he had a gathering of friends sitting around a big coffee table in the living room. They were all snorting coke. He was an executive with one of the large TV networks. That was New York.

 

Another time I visited with my then boyfriend and we went to a friend’s apartment overlooking the East River. He had a senior job at the UN, working in the Secretary General’s office. He and his several friends all took drugs before we set off for The Saint. I satisfied myself with a vodka tonic, as I always do in these situations since I don’t take drugs.

 

I always accepted that these things were par for the course for many people living in the pressure cooker that is New York City. I doubt it has changed much from when I used to visit it more often.

[+ sniper]

I agree with Prof Corona of the Fashion Institute of Technology who said in the article that Alig is the bridge between Andy Warhol, who died in 1987, and Lady Gaga, as fashion icons who created a New York life style based on a group of society misfits. It is all about glam and glitz.

 

That life style has seeped into society at large, watered down, yes, but still recognizable. Today we even have a makeup place in our small town called Glitz, and young people flock to it to get made up.

 

Two weeks ago, I had never heard of Alig. But now I can see his place in the evolution of pop culture.

He'd been in jail for years when Gaga came around. How is he a bridge?