Oh my! What’s going on here? What is this place? More importantly… how does it stay concealed?

The answer to the first two questions is Mr. Black at Bardot Hollywood, the most vivacious gay club night in Los Angeles. Instead of the bald and buff types that flock to West Hollywood, you’ll find a peacocked flock of nightlife eccentrics here. Such as…

… the infamous poet, performer and “hyper-hyphenate” Clint Catalyst, who led us down the rabbit hole and into a half-naked, makeup-heavy bacchanal.

… and our beautiful, flame-haired hostess, Lenora Claire: artist, model, muse, scribe. She and Clint were featured in a Canal Plus documentary about LA nightlife — I’ll be working with the same producers for the Tokyo documentary I’m co-hosting in May!

Talk about an eclectic crowd: that night, Samantha Ronson DJ-ed and Lindsay Lohan tagged along. At the always-busy Mr. Black, you’ll elbow fashion designs, painters, drag queens and even denizens of the dead. (V-fingers for Kynt.)

We started our nightcrawl at Pimai It’s Thai restaurant around the corner. (Can you tell that Clint loves his sticky rice with mango sauce?) He’s wearing a tailored Alice in Wonderland suit by avantgarde American Gothic designer Jared Gold. I wish I had a photo of the matching blue spats…

Hair decorations: If you want to join the “neon hair color club” but are hesitant to commit, try pinning a bright scarf over your locks. Flowers, bows and feathers are other fun ways to add color. Or how about oversized paper clips?
Eyelashes: Flip long, fake lashes and paste them under your eyelids, for a doll-like look. Try it!
Lips: Outlined in MAC Cyber (dark purple) and filled in with light blue No She Didn’t from Lime Crime.
Black lace longsleeve top: It’s hard to see the detailing, but it’s a vintage find from a NYC shop.

Yukiro is a chameleon with his arsenal of wigs. The shirt reads “Playboy”; the butt advertises “My hips don’t lie.” Not surprisingly, he got cat-calls in the parking lot.

Mr. Black happens every Tuesday night at Bardot (Hollywood and Vine) — make it your next outing! Do say hi to Lenora and friends for us.

In the last post, many of you expressed appreciation for K’s dashing looks and Gackt poses. Happy news: with his help, we’ll be bringing you regular J-rock and Visual Kei news roundups!

† Tokyo Decadance is coming to Moscow — with Kaya! (See promo video above.)
† Versailles announced a new support member… Masashi from COSMO.
† ScReW has a new bassist, Rui (formerly in Gimmick, Garnet, Mudgett, juliadoll and Jewel). Read more here.
† Tragic news… Gakido vocalist Piyo died in a car accident. K writes: “Gakido, a unique Visual Kei band featuring three vocalists with lyrics in both Japanese and Korean were in a serious car accident on the twelfth of February. One of the vehicle’s tires exploded and control over the car was lost. Yohya, Rito, Yuu and Shutaro are all in good condition. Tossy and one of the band’s staff members are currently hospitalized, but are fully aware and conscious. We can hope for their quick recovery. Unfortunately, one of their three vocalists, “Piyo” was ejected from the car, and hit his head. He died on impact. The band was just preparing to release their first PV for the song “Yanderu Toki ni Utau Uta”. The future of the band has not been dictated, and hopefully they will be able to continue on in his memory. Deepest consolations to Piyo’s family and friends.”

Have you heard of other head-banging J-rock and Visual Kei news? Please share in the comments! (I try to respond to as many as I can.)