After the humongous Simon and Garfunkel free concert in Central Park, next up for me was to see Twisted Sister at the Queens College Student Union; talk about your extreme dichotomies on just about every level. Twisted Sister was our favorite band on the Long Island club circuit and were on the cusp of breaking through to the big time and a mass audience. The 4th floor of the Student Union was not ideal for a headlining gig as it was just a big empty space and not ordinarily utilized for musical acts (the college’s Colden Auditorium was the venue for more established mainstream acts). Many years later, while working in the police department, I met a gentleman with the New York State Police who looked vaguely familiar but with an interesting goatee, definitely not your ordinary law enforcement dude. I had heard or read somewhere that Mark “The Animal” Mendoza worked for the State Police under his given name in order to keep a low profile, and here he was sitting in front of me. I called Mark into my office and asked him to close the door. He looked slightly uncomfortable as if he thought he may have done something wrong during the training he was providing our officers. I asked him if he was, in fact, the bass player for Twisted Sister as I suspected; he took a deep breath and laughed. I told him that my S.M.F. Friend of Twisted Sister card that I had kept in my wallet for years had been removed when the wallet was lost on Queens Boulevard and returned by mail. A little bit of cash and my prized possession cracked plastic S.M.F. card were all that was missing. A couple of days later I missed a text from my buddy Sandy who was going with his son to catch Twisted Sister perform their holiday concert at The Paramount in Huntington with backstage access. I missed his text, and the show, thereby also missing an opportunity to reconnect with my law enforcement colleague at his side gig as rock star!

I Wanna Rock (on)

GQ