Disasterama!: Adventures in the Queer Underground 1977 to 1997

(Paperback)

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A brilliant and often humorous memoir about the San Francisco queer punk/camp underground in the 80s and early 90s.

Explores the devastating effects of AIDS and how the camp counterculture used humor to stay sane.

An superb addition to the #ownvoices queer history genre.

Author Alvin Orloff has previously written three humorous queer novels, including I Married an Earthling, Gutter Boys, and Why Aren't You Smiling

As manager of one of the premier LGBTQ+ bookstores in the US, author Orloff is deeply enmeshed in queer literary community and will be instrumental in marketing.

Includes 60 iconic b/w photos from the period

Reviews

***LAMBDA LITERARY AWARD FINALIST***

If you really want to relive the retro-camp glories, thrift store marathons, punk-rock Tupperware parties, illicit Castro ice-cream parlor after-hours, New Wave hooker adventures, and amphetamine-fueled art projects of a hallucinatory period equally split between AIDS tragedy and in-your-face, nothing-to-lose queer rebellion, than snag a copy of Alvin Orloffs new Disasterama! 48 Hills

"Orloff can finally tell others what this time in history was likesad but also wonderful. . . . An important memoir to add to any librarys collection about the turbulent beginning of the AIDS epidemic." Library Journal

"Orloffs memoir constitutes a valuable work of cultural history, as well as a heartrending portrayal of his own lost friends.Lambda Literary

Disasterama! showcases Orloff's wit and poignancy as he relays the true tale of how a bunch of pathologically flippant kids floundered through a deadly disaster, and, struggled to keep the spirit of camp and radicalism alive, even as their friends lost their lives to the plague. University of Michigan Library

A fascinating look back at time in LGBTQ history that was always tinged with the lurking horror of the AIDS epidemicFor any fan of San Francisco queer history and anyone who adores the current crop of San Francisco stars (Heklina, Peaches Christ) heres a fascinating look at the era that preceded them. Seattle Gay Scene

"Theres a strange love I have for these times that can be hard to explain. How can I love what I lived through from a time that was as bad as that But as I read this, and those days came into view again, what I think of that love now is that there was a beauty to the beauty you found then that was made the more fierce by the horror of what was happening. If you could still find the worth of your life, still find sex, love, friendship, your own self-worth amid these attempts by the state at erasure and the ravages of the AIDS epidemic, then it had the strength of something forged in fire." from the introduction by Alexander Chee, author, How to Write an Autobiographical Novel

"Clever and funny but also dark. . . . Prepare yourself to clear your day before you begin to read because you will probably not do anything else until you close the covers. Reviews by Amos Lassen

No one is cooler than Alvin Orloff, and Disasterama! proves it. Orloffs madeleine is Day-Glo, his Balbec the lost queer punk scene in San Francisco at the height of the AIDS crisis. This is memoir in the classic (or classic Hollywood) sense: a witty and glamorous raconteur whos lived a wild life tells all. Andrea Lawlor, author, Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl

"Alvin Orloff's memoir of San Francisco queers facing the mounting AIDS crisis and freaking, caring, denying, performing, and carrying on is a witty remembrance that avoids cheap sentiment or easy responses. Tackling a mass of contradictions with unflinching realness, this book both entertains and inspires. Michael Musto, author, Fork on the Left, Knife in the Back

Alvin Orloff's Disasterama! is a darkly funny memoir depicting SF's Queer Underground during the height of the AIDS Crisis when we were young, angry and horny as hell! This is a remarkable evocation of a heroic time. Long live the queens!!! Justin Vivian Bond, author, Tango: My Childhood, Backwards and in High Heels

Disasterama takes us deep into the 80s and the daily creative resistance that saved the culture's soul during the plague years. With wit and flair Alvin Orloff gives us a guided tour of the era's vibrant subcultures; glittering, pointed reactions to a cold-hearted status quo. Heartbreaking and hilarious, sexed-up and political, Disasterama is a deeply personal coming-of-age story. Michelle Tea, author Against Memoir and Modern Tarot

A book that all at once reads as a memoir, a eulogy and a love letter to San Franciscoset in those critical years between the death of disco and the first tech boomDisasterama! offers up a chronicle of fags, dykes, punks, freaks, and club kids partying on the Best Coast and the impact of AIDS, art, and activism on the post Baby Boomer/ pre-Millennial van garde. SPOILER ALERT: the last three chapters will completely rip yr heart out. Brontez Purnell, author, The Cruising Diaries

Alvin Orloffs Disasterama! is a time machine constructed of exuberant, candy-coated prose. It first transports us back to the fun-house days when gay life was a 24-hour party until AIDS announced last call and then takes us to the grim years that followed, when mortality became a daily preoccupation. The book serves as a billet-doux to the club queens, rent boys, and boy toys who helped the author discover who he was; an elegy for the comrades and crushes who didnt survive; and a bitch-slap across the chops of the Leviticus-screamers, who not only approved of the devastation caused by AIDS, but publicly celebrated it. Joel Allegretti, poet, Platypus

An irresistible and seminal work that gives us a glimpse into an explosive era of outspoken and unprecedented art, breathless interpersonal discourse and dysfunction, dug-in protest culture, and mind-bending fashion that put the word flamboyant to shame. Richard Loranger, author, Sudden Windows

"I've never read a better story of the true love of friendship. Alvin tells the story of the San Francisco I lived in when I first arrived, when all kinds of social misfits and cultural weirdos could call it home. No matter who you were, you could come here and find a place to not only fit in, but to shine. Bucky Sinister, author, Black Hole

Filled with such poignant and vivid detail you felt like you lived through it . . . oh wait, I did! Leigh Crow, aka Elvis Herselvis

High Praise for Previous Work by Alvin Orloff
Insightful, lively prose and believable, adorable characters. . . . Publishers Weekly

Hilarious. The San Francisco Chronicle

Its rare to find such erudite and analytical displays of biting camp logic. Bay Area Reporter

A fun ride. Comet Magazine

A delightfully hilarious coming of age story that asks us to laugh at ourselves, at pop culture and religion, and at all those things people just dont laugh at quite enough. Lambda Literary Journal

Alvin Orloff writes with a sharp mind and a gentle touch. K. M. Soehnlein, LAMBDA award-winning author of The World of Normal Boys

Quirky, insightful . . . glam as hell. . . iconic.The Bay Area Reporter

Highly enjoyable. The San Francisco Bay Guardian

Wonderfully whimsical yet astutely political . . . Strangely and defiantly cheerful without being trite or sentimental." Trebor Healey, author,Through It Came Bright Colors

Author Bio

Alvin Orloff began writing in 1977, while still a teenager, by penning lyrics for The Blowdryers, an early San Francisco punk band. He spent the 1980s working as a telemarketer and exotic dancer while concurrently attending U.C. Berkeley and performing with The Popstitutes, a somewhat absurd performance art/homocore band. In 1990 he and his bandmates founded Klubstitute, a floating queer cabaret devoted to the ideal of cultural democracy that featured spoken word, theater, drag, and musical acts. In 1995 the club, whose staff and patrons had been ravaged by AIDS epidemic, closed its doors and Orloff suddenly remembered that all he'd ever wanted to be was a writer. He subsequently published three rather whimsical novels, I Married an Earthling, Gutter Boys, and Why Aren't You Smiling before producing his memoir of life amongst San Francisco's queer underground during the height of the AIDS crisis, Disasterama! Orloff currently works as the manager of Dog Eared Books, a literary hot-spot in the heart of San Francisco's Castro District. He lives in San Francisco.