Hi Neil:
I not only play at Bagatelle, here on SMP, but I have lived here for decades. Well, at the time he speaks of, the cops used to have a detail early in the morning to scoup up the boddies of dead overdosed kids off the sidewalk between second and third before folks going to work would be offended by the sight. Now, during the summer, we still get a lot of kids from New Jersey getting tanked and leaving their dinners on the sidewalk late on Friday and Saturday night, and of cource, as there are a lot of restaurants on that particular block of St. Marks, the rotting garbadge before the moring pick up and spruce up, in July and Aug. is pretty rank. So, to get an image of the sent he referes to (though again, it is seasonal, like going to Cardiff when the hops are being roasted) take the contents of your fridge, put it on your roof on a day when the temp gets over 90, add a dead dog or other large mamal, though on a can or two of Amercican beer - Budwieser for authenticity, a few labratory smells to get the right heroin smell - if you are aiming at the seventies sent, let stand for a long weekend, then, place your chair next to the mess, put on Tom Paxton, and enjoy the full effect.
Now, just as there is now a mall on the Holy Ground in Dingle, there is a city corportation of some kind that actualy cleans St.Marks between 2nd and 3rd all day long, and so, one needs not be so offended by the smell in these new days of NeoFacism provided by our agust little mayor, Rudy, so, other than having to deal with kids coming to play in a place where many do not card the bars (by the way they do at Bagatelle and it is well run and good food!) St. Marks is a ghost of its former smell, I mean self
Get the picture?
Larry