Rating: 
Summary: Clubland praises
Review: I would like to thank Mr. Owen for illuminating the dark underworld of the NYC club scene in the 90s. I found "Clubland" a very interesting, accurate, and emotional account of the forces at play during that decade. As a NYC native, this book resonated with my first hand experiences with Limelight, Tunnel, and Palladium. I commend the author on the thoroughness of this undertaking. I simply could not put the book down!
Rating:
Summary: A Great History Lesson in the World of Clubland
Review: If you have ever been involved in the NYC or Miami club scene you will not be able to put this book down. Frank Owen goes into great depth about about the origins, histories and downfalls of most of our biggest nightclubs as well as their employees. Unlike a lot of reporters who write about people they don't know, Frank Owen, writer for The Village Voice, personally knew and/or interviewed most people talked about in this book. He clarified so much biased information about the Peter Gatian trials that previously I have only heard on the news. He also talks a lot about the club kid era, which was very interesting. Personally, I feel that this book blows away Disco Bloodbath by James St. James. Disco Bloodbath was okay, but I did find it kind of repetitive and boring. Clubland covers everything James St. James talks about, but keeps it less drawn out. If you want to read about club nightlife...real club nightlife, then definitely purchase this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Now I Know
Review: In 1994 I was 17 and working at Baskin Robins when a fellow employee told me if ever I was to venture to New York, I must go to the Limelight. Living in Metro Atlanta, I was used to Buckhead and Little Five Points as well as the Rave scene going on down there, but never had any idea about what went on else where. Needless to say, I never made it to New York, I out grew recreational oblivion and moved on to a "normal-less-chaotic" life but had watched documentaries on Alig and Peter Gaiten with interest of a life I once took advantage of. I also became quite frusterated with local news broadcasts about "new" drugs on the streets that had been around for quite sometime before everyone living in La La Land discovered they existed.
Anyway, I feel Frank Owen did a wonderful job telling the story of this culture from it's rise to it's fall. Having been in the middle of it all beginning with his article for the Village Voice on Special K, he had the upperhand when it came to compiling information on the individuals at the core of it all. I also liked the fact that he had knowledge about the trials in detail.
Who ever would have guessed this was going on at the time? I never knew what happened to the Limelight, why it all came crashing down to the point that, even in Atlanta, the whole scene had changed by the time I was 19. The fall of club culture didn't just affect New York and Miami, but most everywhere in between.
Rating:
Summary: Now I Know
Review: In 1994 I was 17 and working at Baskin Robins when a fellow employee told me if ever I was to venture to New York, I must go to the Limelight. Living in Metro Atlanta, I was used to Buckhead and Little Five Points as well as the Rave scene going on down there, but never had any idea about what went on else where. Needless to say, I never made it to New York, I out grew recreational oblivion and moved on to a "normal-less-chaotic" life but had watched documentaries on Alig and Peter Gaiten with interest of a life I once took advantage of. I also became quite frusterated with local news broadcasts about "new" drugs on the streets that had been around for quite sometime before everyone living in La La Land discovered they existed.
Anyway, I feel Frank Owen did a wonderful job telling the story of this culture from it's rise to it's fall. Having been in the middle of it all beginning with his article for the Village Voice on Special K, he had the upperhand when it came to compiling information on the individuals at the core of it all. I also liked the fact that he had knowledge about the trials in detail.
Who ever would have guessed this was going on at the time? I never knew what happened to the Limelight, why it all came crashing down to the point that, even in Atlanta, the whole scene had changed by the time I was 19. The fall of club culture didn't just affect New York and Miami, but most everywhere in between.
Rating:
Summary: An Epic Journey into the Underworld
Review: It is difficult to overstate the merits of "Clubland."
From a literary point of view, it is brilliantly written. Owen's nimble narrative voice effectively combines dispassionate reportage with vivid prose, sprinkled here and there with moments of subtle, geniune wit.
Personally, I cannot disagree more with Linus Van Pelt's libelous review (below). Clubland is, without a doubt, marvelously written, and extraordinarily readable (a distinct quality that the other 16 reviewers unanimously agree upon). In fact, I would say the most impressive aspect of Frank Owen's opus is the degree to which he brings utter lucidity to an underworld that is, by nature, impossibly shadowy and inextricable.
From a cultural perspective, Frank Owen has done a hero's task in writing this book. Not only did he (quite literally) risk his life to illuminate the shadowy depths of this sinister underworld, but he successfully wrapped his mind around a colossal kingdom of nighttime pleasures, and pieced together a lucid collage for all of us to comprehend. Owen's efforts have ensured that this epic moment in america's "forbidden" cultural history is accessible to all.
For anyone remotely fascinated by the nocturnal side of human nature, "Clubland" will terrify you, edify you, and give you a deeply humbling awareness of a world you rarely, if ever, get a chance to see for yourself... one that you probably wouldn't want to see for yourself.
Rating:
Summary: WICKEDLY WONDERUL READ!!!
Review: NY F****** CITY or FREAKS in the CITY, this book will have you hooked licking back each page with a frightening ferocity salavating for more......
This was NY at its most fabulousness-
Read It it'll make you feel strangely normal.
Rating:
Summary: Slam dunk of a book
Review: The most well researched, carefully written book of nonfiction "true crime/documentary/scene coverage" I have ever read. Very well written. Never dull, never heavy-handed.
Rating:
Summary: Gripping Portrait of The Nihilistic Demimonde
Review: This book, to be colloquial about it, was OFF THE HOOK. I am one tough-to-shock reader, but there were passages in this book that had me literally dropping my jaw and gasping. As I mentioned in my review of 'Disco Bloodbath/Party Monster', James St. James' frothy, breezy, and dishy account of the Alig fiasco, I enjoyed it immensely but was looking forward to reading Owens' book for a meatier, more in-depth examination of the seething underbelly of 1990s Manhattan. Happily, Owens does not disappoint. Skillfully illustrating the gestalt of the era, Clubland offers us a nearly exhaustive account of Peter Gatien's nightclub empire and the shady-but-fascinating denizens slithering through one dank VIP room after another. Michael Alig is clearly the most well-known and notorious of Gatien's 'directors', but the story of wiseguy-turned-impresario Chris Paciello is compelling as well. Owens does a great job of keeping the Byzantine labyrinthe of squalid interconnectedness (reminiscent of Alig's infamous 'wheel of hepatitis') clear and understandable in a world that is anything but. What was most shocking is the sheer extent to which absolutely everyone involved seemed to be on the take in one way or another - a collection of ruthless, amoral characters all bent on getting one over on each other, the public, and even themselves. While Paciello and Caruso, two promoters under Owen's microscope, were always tinged with Mafia flavor, the real tragedy seems to be that of Michael Alig and his crew of club kids. Owens provides a riveting background portrait of Alig's Midwestern roots and past as a natural-born, from-the-cradle prankster and hustler nonpariel. How this demonic little genius, the toast of New York by age 22, ended up as a pathetic, opiate-enslaved persona non grata is an epic tragedy. That bankrupt amorality does not equal flinty fabulousness may be the hardest lesson that Alig ever has to learn. Having spent my time in the trenches of the demimonde, I understand all too well how what seems like just having a good time can turn dark beyond belief in an instant....my reaction to the 'downward spiral' of Clubland was the same as when watching the 'Party Monster Shockumentary'.......overwhelming sadness at such great creativity, energy, and promise being squandered needlessly. Thankfully, Owen was able to bring the depth and humanity to the players on the stage, as well as including minor characters (i.e, Gatien's wife Alessandra, several DEA snitches, murder victim Angel Melendez's brother, Johnny, and many more) that added greater context to the well-known, sordid story. It would be easy to lay the blame for the tragedy at the feet of drugs, as plenty of junkies, convicts, other casualties of excess, and we as a culture, are wont to do. What Owens manages to illustrate is that this kingdom of glitter wasn't brought down so much by drugs as by greed, dark ambition, mercurial loyalties, and power. What was a groundbreaking movement was destroyed by an almost inhuman lust for power and status, expressed through money, drugs, and the threat of violence. A five-star book, without a doubt.
Rating:
Summary: THE DEATH OF CLUBLAND
Review: Veteran journalist Frank Owen, regarding himself as "one of the last of the gonzo journalists", has probably written one of the most seductive moral tales brought to the press in a long time. With a list of characters ranging from the foolish to the fantastic, the absurd to the alluring, and delightful to the dangerous, set in the environs of New York City and South Beach, and coving a period of approximately 10 years within an immediate context of the last 40 years of the 20th century, he has managed to demonstrate the decadence and decline of western civilization with a stroke of linguistic genius amid an era of Caligula-like clowns and killers. Coursing through this expertly written exposé, these character sketches become invaluable as the reader makes his way through the text. Not just a journalist, but a teller of tales like Hunter S. Thomson, Frank Owen works on many levels always starting with a very straight forward premise to be followed by social-historical and/or social-philosophical context and commentary, all woven with his own personal experiences in Clubland, becoming a filter and everyman as this tale is told. "The era of Studio 54 that had been the scene of well-documented, glamorous decadence faded as a new empire of clubs - fueled by more potent drugs and an extreme culture of self-indulgence - stretched across American cities." To the point, Mr. Owen gives a very germane treatment of the decline of Western civilization in the latter half of the 20th century as seen through his experienced eyes in the Clubland of New York. Excerpts from a review by:
Marc Mege
Real Detroit Weekly
May 21-27, 2003
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