(Everybody Violet founder and SD scenestress extraordinaire Kristi Maddocks contributes practical tips for female food ‘n’ frolic in the San Diego underground.)
Author’s note: I have so much to say about the Che Underground, but I didn’t know where to start. So I began with the obvious: Being a female in the scene put you at a bit of a disadvantage … Even if you were smart and had creative contributions to make, the better sex was still received, perceived and judged on its looks and physical persona first and foremost.
Even though the sexual revolution had occurred in the ’60s-’70s, ironically feminism wasn’t a player in the retro mod/psyche scene of early-’80s San Diego. I was as guilty as the next girl for using my legs as a personal weapon or batting my big eyes at the boys in the band. Heck, these maneuvers got me in the door — and definitely helped me get deep into the scene and later helped me front my own band, Everybody Violet.
Miss Kristi’s Top Ten Food Choices for Anorexic San Diego ‘It’ Girls, or Go-Go Girls, ca. 1982-86
10. On a hot day, a breakfast of two pieces of Laffy Taffy or Red Vines, followed by an ice cream cone for lunch, purchased at the corner store along with a packet of smokes. Throw in a Snickers bar and a bag of Nacho Cheese Doritos if you’re really hungry and feeling rich.
9. A handful of peanut M&Ms, gummi bears or jelly bellies, every 6 hours as needed.
8. Three rolled tacos with guacamole for $1.25, or a machaca burrito for $1.75, at Roberto’s on University Avenue, following a show at Kings Road or Cafe International.
7. One small low-fat frozen yogurt: up to three a day whenever possible.
6. An extra-large Diet Coke in lieu of water, a beer, shots of Jack Daniels, tequila or margaritas!
5. Three-day-old pastry or bagels for 25 cents each w/a cup of plain coffee with free refills at Pannikin, La Jolla. Hey — there was an art to making your $2.00 last all day while sitting on the deck and chatting up friends under the So Cal sun while wearing a hot parka or a tiny little mini skirt!
4. After starving in LA for two days, finally submit to eating a hot dog at Pinky’s, but pick out the green chilis to save calories.
3. Chicken soup in Tijuana (nice idea — but she’ll refuse to eat it due to the chicken-scratch claw that is poking up out of the bowl) … better make that a couple of Tijuana carne tacos from a street vendor.
2. Cup of endless coffee with french fries or a side salad at Sheldon’s in PB around 2am — after a show at Headquarters while hanging with your friends — or even THE BAND!
1. A Kentucky Fried Chicken two-piece basket with one biscuit … yuuummm! Following go-go dancing at a Crawdaddys, Manual Scan, TTH, Wallflowers or Morlocks show and not eating for 2 days, this meal goes down like surf ‘n’ turf!
Miss Kristi’s Top Ten Activity Choices to Maintain Anorexic Figures for San Diego ‘It’ Girls, or Go-Go Girls, ca. 1982-86
10. Don’t eat.
9. Stay in motion at all times. (Sex is always a good move.)
8. Plan a career in modeling and exercise upwards to three times a day. Again, don’t eat.
7. Work at the Pannikin Cafe in La Jolla; undertake swim aerobics at the nearest beach during your lunch hour or at the end of your 8-hour shift.
6. Spend your free time as a hair model at Avanti salon in Pacific Beach and learn how to work the catwalk. Allow Todd Tomorrow to dress you in torn sheets. Eat your heart out, Cesar!
5. Spend the remainder of your free time rifling through all of the thrift stores scattered about San Diego County, OC or LA — searching for the perfect outfit!
4. Run away to LA and scrimp on the mean streets of Hollywood, even though your folks are fairly wealthy.
3. Disco dance at Studio 9, Club ID or Club Zu and hope nobody “cool” sees you.
2. Hang out with Joe Bender or Jerry Cornelius drawing, making collages, and discussing the evils of the Illuminati and other conspiracy theories.
1. Go-go dance until the cows come home … then do it again one day later.
— Kristi Maddocks
Man, I love your biting personal irony! Was it your father, who had the consumingly
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Man, I love your biting personal irony! Was it your father, who had the consumingly
0
I want the biscuit!
I want the biscuit!
Whatup Kristi! Where you at?
Whatup Kristi! Where you at?
Nobody here has mentioned 2am french fries with gravy at Denny’s followed by that bottomless cup of coffee until the sun came up. Ah, memories…
Nobody here has mentioned 2am french fries with gravy at Denny’s followed by that bottomless cup of coffee until the sun came up. Ah, memories…
Cyndie: Ray Brandes is your soul mate … In an earlier thread, he cited this very delicacy among “the short-lived, unpredictable fads that seemed to take place with respect to ordering food.” I think we know what to put on the chafing dish at our rockin’ reunion! 🙂
Cyndie: Ray Brandes is your soul mate … In an earlier thread, he cited this very delicacy among “the short-lived, unpredictable fads that seemed to take place with respect to ordering food.” I think we know what to put on the chafing dish at our rockin’ reunion! 🙂
I did miss Ray’s astute comment -- I always knew he was cool.
I did miss Ray’s astute comment -- I always knew he was cool.
Not being a member of the better sex, I can’t claim to have walked in these shoes. But the “don’t eat” part of this post does bring back some memories…
Before I left town, I was living at my folks house, and had no car of my own, so to go out on the town had to go by car, my folks’ or more often in Matthew’s. I figured out early on that when one goes to hang out at Pat Works house, or the Morlocks’ Golden Hill pad… eat before you go! Because the occasion rarely arose otherwise.
Raising the question- how is it that the whole scene didn’t come down with scurvy?
… And if you pooped at the Morlocks’ place, you had to pay Leighton a dollar! (It said it right on the sign.)
Scurvy — LOL!! Rickets … Osteomalacia … Kwashiorkor …
Jerry claimed that he and Mike Stax lived an entire summer on Twinkies and Pepsi. Could we look at the nutritional info on the side of each package and computer-simulate what that would do to the human body?
… And if you pooped at the Morlocks’ place, you had to pay Leighton a dollar! (It said it right on the sign.)
Scurvy — LOL!! Rickets … Osteomalacia … Kwashiorkor …
Jerry claimed that he and Mike Stax lived an entire summer on Twinkies and Pepsi. Could we look at the nutritional info on the side of each package and computer-simulate what that would do to the human body?
I recall the graffitti reading “If you sh%*, give Leighton a nickel”! A dollar was big money then. You could get more than a gallon of gas, a used album, or 3 rolled tacos with guacamole for a dollar.
I recall the graffitti reading “If you sh%*, give Leighton a nickel”! A dollar was big money then. You could get more than a gallon of gas, a used album, or 3 rolled tacos with guacamole for a dollar.
It was just a nickel? I coulda taken ’em up on it! Only … That bathroom was SCARY.
It was just a nickel? I coulda taken ’em up on it! Only … That bathroom was SCARY.
Kristi,
When I think of you, I always remember that cool purple leather poncho you used to wear! Whatever happened to that?
Oh, and I spent quite a bit of time hanging out with you and Cathy in 1985 and . . .uh . . I’m pretty sure it wasn’t all diet and exercise that kept you so slim!
Kristi,
When I think of you, I always remember that cool purple leather poncho you used to wear! Whatever happened to that?
Oh, and I spent quite a bit of time hanging out with you and Cathy in 1985 and . . .uh . . I’m pretty sure it wasn’t all diet and exercise that kept you so slim!
Was the ice cream from Thrifty’s, like on University and Fifth, if memory serves me correctly? They have a Thrifty Ice Cream place in Ensenada, very popular….
Was the ice cream from Thrifty’s, like on University and Fifth, if memory serves me correctly? They have a Thrifty Ice Cream place in Ensenada, very popular….
I did love the 25 cent Ice Cream from Thrifty’s…
But I used to almost daily eat flavored ice pops for lunch while I was living at my Madison Avenue apartment, that tiny one bedroom that I shared with up to 6 people at a time (that’s a story in it’s self, to be dealt with later) …I’d just walk to the corner store and grab snacks for meals, cause there was never anything in our cubboards or fridge. If I remember correctly, the only real appliance we had there was a rice steamer and a popcorn popper-bought by either Cathy Bozzo, Michellle Krone, or I. I did have fake food props about the place-yaknow, the kinds that kids use to play grocery store with. I’ve got some great piucs of Ted Friedman, Leighton and I in that kitchen-surrounded bt my pop display of fake food.
Of course, none of the guys contributed to our gastronomical fare-they were the ones living on cigarettes.
Smoking was one of the few bad habbits I didn’t pick up!
I did love the 25 cent Ice Cream from Thrifty’s…
But I used to almost daily eat flavored ice pops for lunch while I was living at my Madison Avenue apartment, that tiny one bedroom that I shared with up to 6 people at a time (that’s a story in it’s self, to be dealt with later) …I’d just walk to the corner store and grab snacks for meals, cause there was never anything in our cubboards or fridge. If I remember correctly, the only real appliance we had there was a rice steamer and a popcorn popper-bought by either Cathy Bozzo, Michellle Krone, or I. I did have fake food props about the place-yaknow, the kinds that kids use to play grocery store with. I’ve got some great piucs of Ted Friedman, Leighton and I in that kitchen-surrounded bt my pop display of fake food.
Of course, none of the guys contributed to our gastronomical fare-they were the ones living on cigarettes.
Smoking was one of the few bad habbits I didn’t pick up!
Kristi,
Do you remember when it was “nickel ice cream” That was the mid-70’s. Ten cents, with a ‘dip.’
Kristi,
Do you remember when it was “nickel ice cream” That was the mid-70’s. Ten cents, with a ‘dip.’
About that poncho--it was really cool! As I remember, most of the “mod” girls and guys tended to be more conservative in their dress, but there were a few girls who, like Jerry, psychedelicized the movement. I did not, at the time appreciate the absolute Romanticism of Jerry’s look. I’d kill for some of those clothes today, and I’m thinking in particular of that 1840’s get up in one of the Cyndie Jaynes photos.
About that poncho--it was really cool! As I remember, most of the “mod” girls and guys tended to be more conservative in their dress, but there were a few girls who, like Jerry, psychedelicized the movement. I did not, at the time appreciate the absolute Romanticism of Jerry’s look. I’d kill for some of those clothes today, and I’m thinking in particular of that 1840’s get up in one of the Cyndie Jaynes photos.
Yeah…about that fabulous poncho…Ponchos were one of my “things”….I used to have a cape collection that included one in bright red polysester, another in bright orange cotton, a blue suede number, and a very Romantic Civil War Tunic style brown suede cape with a neru collar ( one of the only ones I still own today). I am sorry to say that I let go of that purple/magenta one in the nineties. I may no longer have that cape,
but I have the next best thing-A photo of me wearing it….and it was at a Tell Tale Hearts show! That might be why you remember it so well…
I always adored Jerry’s getups…
Like him, I loved wearing the psychedelic garbs!
My fashions will be displayed soon in a photo blog…
Yeah…about that fabulous poncho…Ponchos were one of my “things”….I used to have a cape collection that included one in bright red polysester, another in bright orange cotton, a blue suede number, and a very Romantic Civil War Tunic style brown suede cape with a neru collar ( one of the only ones I still own today). I am sorry to say that I let go of that purple/magenta one in the nineties. I may no longer have that cape,
but I have the next best thing-A photo of me wearing it….and it was at a Tell Tale Hearts show! That might be why you remember it so well…
I always adored Jerry’s getups…
Like him, I loved wearing the psychedelic garbs!
My fashions will be displayed soon in a photo blog…
Thanks, Ray! Thanks, Kristi!
I was having fun with that stuff -- I suppose it remains, in a vestigial way.
There were precedents…
Thanks, Ray! Thanks, Kristi!
I was having fun with that stuff -- I suppose it remains, in a vestigial way.
There were precedents…
There were precedents…but damn..we did put the P back in Psychedelic Phashion, the Rrrrrrrrrrrrr back to Romantic flamboyancy…
In fact Jerry, for a guy who seldomed showered back then, you always looked Sweeeeeet! You had to be one of the only (straight)Dandies prancing around San Diego in the early 80’s…outside of the posers who danced the night away at New Romantic haunts..or house parties with 91x playing over the sound system…
“Don’t you want me baby…don’t you wnt me ohhhhhhhhh!”
There were precedents…but damn..we did put the P back in Psychedelic Phashion, the Rrrrrrrrrrrrr back to Romantic flamboyancy…
In fact Jerry, for a guy who seldomed showered back then, you always looked Sweeeeeet! You had to be one of the only (straight)Dandies prancing around San Diego in the early 80’s…outside of the posers who danced the night away at New Romantic haunts..or house parties with 91x playing over the sound system…
“Don’t you want me baby…don’t you wnt me ohhhhhhhhh!”