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Musto on the e-volution of nightlife: Being an astute observer of — and enthusiastic participant in — nightlife since the ’80s, Michael Musto has seen the scene change over the years. He says social networking in particular has changed the dynamics of clubs, mostly for the better: “It’s taken a lot of the sexual urgency out of nightclubs for straights and gays and anyone else, because anyone can get laid online. Anyone can hook up on Craigslist, or for the gays it’s Manhunt or Grindr — and they’ve probably already done so by the time they’ve gotten to the club, and they can do so again when they get home. So the clubs are no longer a place where you have to meet somebody,” he says. “I actually used to think that was a problem, but now I think maybe it’s good. It’s good that there isn’t that kind of horrible pressure on the situation, and the bright side of networking is that you can put out your invitation to a mass audience and really get a crowd. In the old days, you had to like sit and mail them out or call and beg people to come, but now you just press ‘click’ and your club is filled with fabulous people.” “It was pretty easy, because in some ways my column was the original blog … because it was not traditional reporting — it was basically a first-person diary that took me around to different scenes that make New York interesting, written with a very personal, subjective point of view,” he says. “I found it came naturally to me and it was a great way to get quick bites out there into the blogosphere, especially when you have a breaking story or a point of view that you want to get out there right away” The Internet has not only sped up the news cycle, but it’s empowered nearly anyone with a smartphone to become a vigilante gossip reporter. But Musto’s experience and perspective has helped him maintain his position as an elder statesman among pop culture commentators. “It’s bizarre because originally the gossip family was about 10 people, now you’re competing not just with other sites, but with everyone on earth who has a blog, who posts on Facebook, who has a cellphone … So now I really feel like every individual on the planet is a gossip columnist, but what has kept me going this far is my point of view makes me unique. I will still go to places, both literally and figuratively, that other people won’t go to, won’t think of or won’t dare to go to because
I have free reign at the Voice to Fork on the write whatever Left, Knife I want,” he says. in the Back “So it’s weird release party 1 P.M. TO 5 P.M. to not be the SUNDAY only snarky one THE COUNTRY CLUB, anymore, to 634 LOUISA ST., not be the only 945-0742; WWW.THECOUNTRYCLUBNEopenly gay one WORLEANS.COM anymore, but I still find that I’m pretty hard to imitate.” Also hard to imitate is Musto’s tone towards the VIPs he covers, which is simultaneously harsh and reverent — call it benign bitchiness. Musto recalls gossip and celebrities helping him survive a lonely childhood when, as he says in his book, he “didn’t even have imaginary friends.” “I put myself in the position of the one who wants to bring people down a notch when they deserve it. And they do deserve it a lot. But I’m not afraid to show my appreciation and be a fan, because celebrities are my salvation,” he says. “They got me through my childhood and adolescence. And to this day, they pay my rent. I love celebrities. I find them radioactively exciting and worth covering. I hope they can take my abuse.”
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Gambit > bestofneworleans.com > aUGUst 30 > 2011
like Musto’s conversation with a Psychic Friends Hotline operator who provided a wildly inaccurate reading. Some columns are centered around that week’s gossip fodder and blind items, making the book partially function as a historical almanac of fleeting tabloid news. Remember when “Bennifer” broke up? “I didn’t want to elaborate on (those gossip items) or add any footnotes or explain anything. I thought, let it just be … If it proves that gossip is ephemeral, then I can live with that,” he says. “But I think people might be fascinated and have their memories jogged by reading this old stuff and thinking, ‘Wow, I remember that moment when Ellen DeGeneres was actually in the closet.’ Or when George Michael first got caught (having sex in a public bathroom), or when Arnold Schwarzenegger was running for governor … Or if it doesn’t ring a bell, you could at least get off on it.” Because of the Internet, these kinds of gossip nuggets are now disseminated and consumed in the time it takes to compose a tweet, which might seem scary for a scribe from pre-Gawker times. But as he writes in the essay “I’ve Entered the Blogosphere,” starting a blog for the Village Voice site and adapting to the Internet’s fast pace felt natural for him.
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