What It Is

This is what the Loved One said to me on the evening of Nov. 5.

What, you never heard of the Prez?

Continue Reading »

The Loved One says:

Go Phillies. It’s just f*ckin South Brooklyn anyway.

I remember the guy who gave me my first Birthday Party tape in 1988, a guy who liked me and hung around the disreputable biker bar where I worked, hoping I would sleep with him, which I didn’t. He made a bunch of great tapes that were later stolen from me; the Birthday Party tapes were among them. I remember his face, his taste in music (Violent Femmes, Soft Boys, Stooges) and his curly hair. I don’t remember his name. He wasn’t quite grandiose or dangerous enough for me at the time.

My loved one & I went to see Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds a couple of weekends ago, because we love his new direction in both the Bad Seeds and Grinderman. I think his collaboration with multi-instrumentalist Warren Ellis is genius. While it was great to see them do classics like Mercy Seat, Red Right Hand and Stagger Lee, I really like the new sh*t even better. Nick Cave, to my taste, is triumphing in his 50s, just like Lucinda Williams and Alejandro Escovedo, making hardcore literate rock music that’s perfect for my sensibility. Dig Lazarus Dig is an album that makes my stomach ache with joy.

That said, I was massively disappointed by the crappiness of the Theater at Madison Square Garden, and I swear I’ll never see another show there. Although the performance was exciting and the light show was well done, I’m super-jealous of DC fans who got 2 shows at the 9:30 Club. Also, the audience was so dressed-down that the LO proclaimed them “post-rock”. Not a compliment. I played a game of spotting the rock crowd (people who looked like those you would have seen at a show in 1994), like scoping out VW Bugs on the highway on a long road trip with my parents. No lie, people used to dress up to go out. Sharpen up, people, life’s too short.

And, last criticism, bad swag. The Tshirts were just flat-out ugly. And the album cover and videos are so stylish. Nick, honey, what happened?

I will have to make a shirt and send it to you somehow.

The NY Post is apparently chuffed* that Warhol collaborator and part-time Superstar Brigid Berlin (also know as Polk for her amusing habit of poking shots of speed into her hapless cohorts in the 60s, and daughter of Hearst magnate Richard Berlin and his society wife Honey- only in NYC, my dears) is having an exhibit of her needlepoint recreations of hilarious tabloid front pages. They (the Post) might also be a bit miffed that the coolest one- pictured above- is sporting the masthead of their rival the Daily News.

Papermag’s lovely Kim Hastreiter wrote a nice pithy review you can read here (and see pix of some of the other pillows- the Anna Nicole one is my 2nd favorite).

The pillows are being shown at the Glenn Horowitz Bookstore and Art Gallery at 50 1/2 E. 64th St in Manhattan starting Oct 21. Afterwards you can go to Serendipity3 on 60th Street, splurge on Frozen Hot Chocolate and make snarky glamorous wishes. I’ll see you there.

*Chuffed is Brit-slang for pleased. In case you didn’t know.

So I should have written about this ages and ages ago, but now will just have to do.

It’s So You is 35 interesting, articulate women talking about their relationships and experiences with personal style, beauty and fashion. One of them is Jennifer Blowdryer, writer and underground style icon, who wears TuraLura and was kind enough to mention the fact in her essay.

Among the contributors: Salon.com’s Cintra Wilson, Warhol superstar and actress Mary Woronov, No-Wave badass Adele Bertei, SF club diva Chelsea Starr, the list goes on and on. Pick this book up, it’s too much fun to miss out on.