disco books – Join the Sparkle Army

One word that comes to mind when looking through “Disco Dancing Tonight” by Andy Blackford, is “lurex” because this shimmering metallic yarn is woven into many of the outfits featured throughout this literary gem. Another word is “fascinating”, as this book begins with a very entertaining hypothetical situation where archaeologists of the future discover the ruins of night clubs and make some interesting, but incorrect deductions based on their findings. However, soon after it moves on to the real message, which is that disco was “the single most important cultural influence of the decade”.

This book has gobs of photos of disco-tastic fashion (can you say spandex?), instructions for the hottest dance moves and information about the most famous night clubs so that people would know where to shake their booties in style. I also love that it includes some of the lighting effects used back in 1979 to ensure party goers could dazzle on the dance floor and have the most fantastical night of their lives. In fact, my favorite moment in the book comes in a paragraph that refers to light-up dance floors as “underfloor lighting” to “give a flashing chessboard effect”. Get it? They didn’t have the official name of “light up dance floor” yet- adorable! Because of all the endless magic inside, “Disco Dancing Tonight” is truly a fabulous addition to my already fabulous collection.

I recently received my copy of “The Fabulous Sylvester” and as expected, it’s a marvelously entertaining read chock full of not only glitter and sequins, but of fascinating stories from the many people who knew him. It seems that from the very start of his life, Sylvester knew exactly who he was and had no time for those that didn’t accept him as is. Right now, I’m on the section about his time living in San Francisco and performing with The Cockettes, the infamous commune and performance group that loved to dress in drag and sing show tunes but pretty soon, I’ll be moving on to “Disco Superstar” territory! Of course, the end of this story is no secret: a beautiful bedazzled angel of song who was put on earth to bring light, love and fabulous entrances to the masses is taken from us too soon. Just remember that we continue to pay homage to him each time we step on that light-up floor and dance like there’s no tomorrow so we must do it as much as possible. I’m also hoping that “Mighty Real”, the documentary about Sylvester, will be available in the very near future because this trailer has me gagging to see it!

ORIGIN

The Sparkle Army was created in 2006 when I first began writing about an OTT love of all things glitter, rock n’ roll and disco began in 2006 for a now defunct music website. Then we moved on to that glorious thing called MySpace (the original) and eventually moved to our own SA website. Now the blog lives here. Apologies for any outdated links.

From 2009 through 2012, we hosted Join the Sparkle Army, a legendary intergalactic disco party in the magical city of Berlin, to bring Sparkle Soldiers together in unity. And that we did.

Thanks for stopping by and for SPARKLING!