Author Archives: Peter

Open City declared Peter Nolan Smith an underground punk legend of the 1970s East Village. The New England native spent many years as a nightclub doorman in New York, Paris, London, and Hamburg. The constant traveler has lived for long periods of time in Europe and the Far East. After a forced retirement from the Schmatta trade in Thailand, Peter Nolan Smith returned to New York to work in the international diamond trade. At summer’s end he resumed the life of a writer. The world’s leading leisureologist is currently based in Sri Racha, Thailand, Fort Greene, Brooklyn, and Luxembourg City. He has no address.

#17 By Peter Nolan Smith

November 20, 2024 – 3:02 am

In April of 1976 I drove a stolen car from Boston to New York. The Olds 88 wasn’t really stolen, since a Back Bay lawyer paid $300 for the disappearance of gas-guzzler. Several hours later I abandoned the Detroit clunker by the Christopher Street pier after midnight. I threw the plates into the Hudson and […]

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30,000 Feet over Burma – May 5, 1990 – Journal Entry

November 20, 2024 – 1:10 am

Previously published May 24, 2023 I have a flight to Kathmandu. I wish I could stay in Bangkok, but my money is getting low. I called New York from the Malaysia Hotel lobby. A collect call to Rickie Boy, who complained, “I haven’t had anyone to drink with since you left. The city sucks. The […]

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Nacht Und Nebel 2011

November 18, 2024 – 9:24 am

In the summer of 1982 Count-No-Count phoned my East Village apartment. Kurt was calling from Hamburg with an offer of a job as ‘tursteher’ at his nightclub BSIR. The pay for a doorman was $150 a night, free accommodations, and all I could drink. Being dead-broke and wanted for questioning by the NYPD Internal Affairs […]

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Loy Krathong 2000

November 15, 2024 – 8:06 pm

Loy Krathong 2001 I spent the festival of light with the worst girlfriend of Pattaya. Three months earlier Mam and I met at a bar. I only had another week in Thailand. My next stop was Kathmandu. In bed Maam said sadly, “Why you go mountains, when you can climb me?” There were a thousands […]

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Loy Krathong 2007 Pattaya

November 15, 2024 – 8:00 pm

Back in 2007 November 8 was Loy Krathong. The Thai New Year Pattaya City police geared up for the annual water festival by conducting street sweeps of undesirables in order to clean up the coastal city’s image for the traditional festival. No kathoeys, street walkers, insane people allowed. Last year the boys in blue had […]

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