The prospects of Factory Girl being a major turkey seem greater every day. We read that the Edie's Screen Test scene is to be reshot.
In some senses, I want this movie to succeed so that my signed and numbered by Billy Name still of Edie being screen tested [pictured] appreciates to reflect it's real significance.
Sunday, July 16, 2006 in Chelsea Crimewatch, Chelsea Girls, Dead Punks, Film, Glamour, Heroes & Icons, Hotel Chelsea, Manhattanophilia, Trash Celebrities, Warholia | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Sienna Sickbag
From The New York Daily News, it's hard to guess what depths of bad taste this film could yet plummet. At least Sienna isn't rolling around on the grave a la Esther.
Sienna Miller and Jude Law were recently in Santa Barbara, so the on-again couple paid a visit to the nearby grave of Edie Sedgwick, the Warhol muse Miller plays in "Factory Girl." Law filmed his beloved tearfully placing flowers on the tombstone of the It-girl. "The footage was so beautiful, I may run it during the credits," "Factory Girl" director George Hickenlooper tells us …
Tuesday, July 04, 2006 in Chelsea Girls, Cultural History, Dead Punks, Dumb People, Film, Glamour, Heroes & Icons, Hotel Chelsea, Trash Celebrities, Warholia | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Cohen on PBS
Leonard Cohen was on PBS Newshour today Australian time. Yes, we see it slightly delayed here and I'll watch it if it's on. The timelag means that I watched the US episode screened 'yesterday' with a few hours delay, late 'today'. [If you're confused you just sampled what it's like to live in my head]
Aside from keeping me conversant in American politics, it often rewards with the cultural pieces and occasional Gore Vidal essay.
The interview can be found in MP3 format at the Newshour Leonard Cohen Page.
The following URL might be helpful?
http://www-tc.pbs.org/newshour/rss/media/2006/06/28/20060628_cohen28.mp3 for downloading the interview.
No mention is made of unmade beds or waiting limos.
from the PBS site:
Out of the thousands
who are known or want to be known as poets,
maybe one or two are genuine
and the rest are fakes,
hanging around the sacred precincts,
trying to look like the real thing.
Needless to say,
I am one of the fakes
and this is my story.
Thursday, June 29, 2006 in Chelsea Girls, Cultural History, Dead Punks, Heroes & Icons, Hotel Chelsea, Literature, Manhattanophilia, Performing Arts | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Hotel Chelsea in the News- Mallman
What is Mallman? This overly long article starts to answer the question and reveals that they had the poor taste to ask Stanley to show them Room 100. I don't think that I could survive the glare I imagine that such a request might attract.
The author then closed his potentially depressing - but somehow still uplifting - book and offered to sign copies over by the bar. But, first, he had to let his one-time-only partner bring the proceedings to a close with that old chestnut "My Way" - the Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley AND Sid Vicious versions, to be exact. Mallman began the tune with a slow piano intro and Rat Pack warble that would have made the Chairman of the Board raise his shot glass in a toast. He then got up from the piano and bounded into a pelvic shaking strut that would have scared - or delighted - Ed Sullivan. He and his band then concluded the piece with an assault on the senses that would have shaken the walls of Klosterman's most infamous tour spot, the Chelsea Hotel (whose management was less than enthusiastic about showing the author the room where Vicious [allegedly- ed] killed his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen). Mallman and company then sauntered off the stage, leaving the crowd to cheer, clap and demand that other old standby, the encore. Being his own man and a virulent anti-traditionalist - and perhaps saving his strength for his next installment of "Marathon" - Mallman did not give in to their demands. Instead, the lights slowly came on, and Klosterman slid behind the bar to begin signing editions.
Wednesday, June 28, 2006 in Chelsea Girls, Dead Punks, Heroes & Icons, Hotel Chelsea, Manhattanophilia, Who killed Nancy Spungen? | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
All the Good Reading
All the good reaading is over at Legends today.
They have a feature profile of our own, cherished Randi Marx and a bit of yaddah from your never humble editor.
Sunday, June 18, 2006 in Carrie's World, Chelsea Girls, Dead Punks, Dee Dee, Heroes & Icons, Hotel Chelsea, In the Blogosphere, nobody can hear you scream., Manhattanophilia, The Staff, Visual Arts, Warholia, Who killed Nancy Spungen? | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Download Free Superstars
We're discovering the fabless world of dowmloadable public domain cinema. There's some remarkable stuff to be had, now to work out the technology!
If the little bits and bobs on my screen are to be believed, I've nearly finished downloading the early slasher Silent Night, Bloody Night.
Amongst the cast are boldface name Chelsea Girls: Candy Darling, Mary 'my mommy sued Andy Warhol' Woronov and Ondine. I think there are probably more Chelsea names in there, many ring familiar.
I like that most of the Superstars are playing 'asylum inmates'. Another early venture into reality television?
head this way to download Silent Night, Bloody Night
Friday, May 26, 2006 in Chelsea Girls, Dead Punks, Film, Grindhouse, Heroes & Icons, Hotel Chelsea, Warholia | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Death brings Go-Betweens to sad end
Very, very, sad. Another bit of my youth is gone forever.
"THE Go-Betweens have made their final album. They have played their final show. We let it rest at that, being very proud of what we have done." So said singer and songwriter Robert Forster yesterday as he mourned his friend, band-mate and fellow songwriter Grant McLennan, who was found dead in his Brisbane home on Saturday.
McLennan, 48, died in his sleep after becoming ill at his home in the city's Highgate Hill. The musician had been preparing his house for a party that evening. Visiting friends discovered him dead.
McLennan, who with Forster formed the Go-Betweens almost 30 years ago, was one of Australia's most respected songwriters and performers, both with the band and as a solo artist.
Forster was full of praise yesterday for the man with whom he had shared most of his professional career. "The last six months was the happiest I had ever known him," Forster said.
"He was in top form. He was very happy in his private life and had just written an amazing bunch of songs. He was especially pleased with how well the last album had done. That had put a real spring in his step."
The Go-Betweens began while Forster and McLennan were students at the University of Queensland in the late 1970s. They went on to enjoy international success with albums such as 16 Lovers Lane and Spring Hill Fair in the 1980s.
During that time, McLennan wrote some of their most critically acclaimed songs, including their most famous title, Cattle and Cane, which was later named in the Australasian Performing Right Association's top 10 greatest Australian songs.
The Go-Betweens broke up in the late 1980s. But Forster and McLennan reunited with a new band for the album The Friends of Rachel Worth in 2000 and enjoyed a remarkable renaissance, touring internationally with two more albums -- Bright Yellow, Bright Orange and last year's ARIA award-winning Oceans Apart, considered by some critics to be their best work.
Former band member Lindy Morrison said it had been playing McLennan's songs "that made me shine as a drummer."
The early line-up of the band that included Morrison, Forster, McLennan and his then partner Amanda Brown fragmented amid acrimony, but the four were reunited in Sydney several weeks ago where, said Morrison, they were able to resolve some of their differences.
Brown said that as a musician and songwriter McLennan was "articulate, thoughtful, emotional and poetic".
Download 05_cattle_cane.m4a Listen to the Go Betweens classic Cattle & Cane
Monday, May 08, 2006 in Australian Stuff, Carrie's World, Dead Punks, Heroes & Icons | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Dee Dee at the Chelsea
Animal boy (Seattle Weekly).
We found this old picture of Dee Dee Ramone on the Hotel Chelsea balconies and an ancient write-up from when things were better and Dee Dee still lived at the Chelsea.
Animal boy
In the wake of his former bandmate's death, Dee Dee Ramone embarks on a difficult tour.
By Chris Nelson May 16, 2001
FRIENDS, WE'VE COME to that part of the paper where I offer you, verbatim, a slice of conversation I had last month with one Dee Dee Ramone—ex-Ramones bassist, author of the new novel Chelsea Horror Hotel, and Saturday's rock 'n' roll entertainment at the Ballard Firehouse.
Dee Dee: "So what date is this date in Seattle?"
Me: "I think it's May 19."
Dee Dee: "Oh nooo. And today's like the 26th [of April]."
Me: "I think your tour starts on the 16th of May."
Dee Dee: "Oh my god. Where?"
Such is the haphazard life of the former Douglas Colvin, a 48-year-old New Yorker living in Santa Monica, Calif., a man whose craggy voices warbles slowly with the dips and peaks of a warped record. He was also a key songwriter in one of the most important bands in rock 'n' roll history.
The Ramones—who in 1974 invented themselves a new surname, a tough guy look, and then invented (yeah, invented) punk rock—last month lost their adored public face when singer Joey died at 49 from lymphatic cancer.
"I don't even know if it's in good taste that I'm playing now," Dee Dee says just over a week after Joey's passing. "It's just like I can't get out of it. . . . [I] just feel like hiding. But when I play, I don't expect it to be like a memorial concert or anything. I'm just gonna go ahead and play the way I play, but I won't really say anything. I'm kinda like drawing a blank—I got the energy, but my mind is like, I regret it, you know? It feels like the Ramones are really over."
Although the Ramones did the Cretin Hop all the way up until 1996, Dee Dee quit hollering "One-two-three-four!" back in '89. He tried for awhile to rock the mike as rapper Dee Dee King, then played with backing bands the Chinese Dragons and the ICLC, and finally released some punk-rock solo discs that were mined for last year's Greatest and Latest album. All the while, Dee Dee—who wrote such Ramones favorites as "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue," "Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World," "Chinese Rock," and "Pet Sematary"—continued to pen tracks for the brudders through their final days as a band.
Of course, the Ramones haven't been brudderly with one another in years, and Dee Dee says he hadn't spoken to Joey in quite some time before his death.
NOT TOO LONG AGO, Dee Dee went back into the studio to record the rave-up "Bad Little Go-Go Girl" with MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer, which was released as a download through Musicblitz.com. At the Firehouse—where fans can expect a mix of solo cuts, Ramones tunes, and maybe even an oldie or two—his band will include Chase Manhattan on drums and Chris the Creep on bass (or on guitar if Dee Dee's wife, Barbara Zampini, a.k.a. Barbara Ramone, joins the tour on bass).
But Dee Dee's chief creative outlet of late has been literary work. In 1997 he wrote Poison Heart: Surviving the Ramones with Veronica Kofman, republished as Lobotomy last year, and he's now working on a new novel called Legend of a Rock Star.
Chelsea Horror Hotel stirs real life and fantasy into a clumsy tale about Dee Dee's stress-filled days at the midtown Manhattan lodge that's famed as the building where late Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious allegedly killed his girlfriend Nancy Spungen in 1978.
Fact: Dee Dee lived at the hotel from 1974 to 1978, and then again from 1990 to 1997. Fiction: A Satanic cult named the S.K.U.L.L.S. used piranhas in the basement to help cook up a cannibal stew.
Fact: Dee Dee owns a dog named Banfield. Fiction: The dog speaks to him telepathically.
Fact or Fiction?: Dee Dee spent the bulk of his days in the mid-'90s trying to cop dope to make the world-weary life of an ex-Ramone a little more livable.
"I just have to deny everything and then say yes also," Dee Dee says. "If I say yes, I'll incriminate myself, and if I say no, I'll incriminate myself, so I can't give you an answer. I just leave it up to everyone's discrepancies. No one really has a very good opinion of me anyway. No matter how nice I've been. I don't expect to worry about it—but I don't wanna make it worse."
Unquestionably fiction is the book's climactic basement jam with Vicious, departed Dead Boy Stiv Bators, and late Heartbreakers Johnny Thunders and Jerry Nolan. Basements have long been a fixation for Dee Dee, whose songwriting credits include "I Don't Wanna Go Down to the Basement" on The Ramones (1976) and "I Don't Wanna Die in the Basement" from the solo Hop Around (2000). He traces the allure to his childhood in post-War Berlin.
"My friends and I used to play in basements in bombed-out buildings and bunkers," he says. "Go there and look for junk, old war relics, just goofing around, exploring. 'Cause it's scary and insane when you're, like, 7 years old to be crawling around in those old buildings. It was still some of the most pleasant memories I have. I enjoyed those days—it was like my pre-drug-taking days, but I was totally lost in an escape fantasy, running wild and not going to school. I was having a good time then, before I had the weight of the world on my shoulders."
Wednesday, May 03, 2006 in Chelsea Girls, Dead Punks, Dee Dee, Glamour, Heroes & Icons, Hotel Chelsea, Who killed Nancy Spungen? | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)