Last week after some last minute good fortune we all ended up going to see Lady Gaga. I go back and forth on her so much I was not sure what I would think of the show, but I really enjoyed it. As is the case with many people who are Madonna fans we have high expectations. After the second Gaga number I realized that I was wanting a show that was on par with Madonna’s Confessions or Reinvention Tour -- an unrealisitc expectation for a brand new artist on her first major tour LOL.
I loved her stage performance and interaction with the audience, she was genuinely having a good time and happy to be there with her fans and she was pretty funny -- like when she proclaimed she was Tinkerbell, laid down on the stage and demanded we clap to keep her alive. The stand out numbers for me were Bad Romance and Monster -- when the choreography, voice sna sets came together to make magic -- these were the ones that felt really slick and well put together.
There were of course places were she had borrowed from Madonna - her videos screens sought to be as arty as Madonna’s but as Matt so aptly suggested they came of looking a bit like a cheap version of Steven Klein. The show had no real theme -- even withing segments, but in time she’ll find her voice and more direction rather than trying to do everything at once.
The other week I logged into Facebook to find out – much to my disgust – that I’d missed an intimate performance by Blondie at the Brooklyn Museum. Once I got my past my 10 minutes of “Nooooooo, argghhhhh I can’t have missed this” I discovered that they had played the opening of the “Who Shot Rock n Roll” which examines rock n roll photography from 1955 to present day.
Even though I missed Blondie it sounded like an exhibition right up my alley, so a day late and a dollar short I headed down to Brooklyn to check it out. The exhibition was a wonderful mix of well known shots of famous musicians and never seen before shots, often taken at the beginning of the artists career when no-one knew who they were and perhaps they did not even know themselves.
The shots from the early days were the ones I loved best. I really enjoying seeing artists in their early days before they have perfected their musician/celebrity persona’s. One of my favorite shots from the early days was the classic picture of Madonna parading down a New York sidewalk in a coat that surely must have once belonged to an obese man – ten times her size. The other thing that stopped me in my tracks was the original Polaroid of Madonna pre-fame sipping a glass of wine and smoking at Danceteria taken by Maripol.
Another highlight for me was the room devoted to Grace Jones that included photographs showing mocks ups of the Island Life album cover and the actual cover, one of my favorite album covers of all time incidentally. There was also a special extended version of Grace Jones’ incredible live performance “One Man Show” put together by Jean -Paul Goude which I sat engrossed in for the full 8 minutes, while others came and went. (separate post of discussion of that masterpiece!)
Last week I finally got myself to the MET to see the Model as Muse exhibition, making good use of my Friday off work for Independence Day. The exhibition took you through the history of models and the photographers that shoot them starting in the late forties with images like this classic shot, ‘Domiva and Elephants’ by Richard Avedon. It truly is an amazing shot she looks right at home there with those elephants!
One of my favorite parts of the exhibition was that classic scene from the movie Funny Face’ where Fred Astaire shoots Audrey Hepburn in all the different scenes around Paris. Audrey is so mesmerizing…
I loved seeing the early images and models that I was not familiar with and then moving on to the 80’s onwards where I knew the models like Christy Turlington, Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell. I liked the exhibition so much that I even bought the book and i’m excited to learn more about some of the photographers whose work I liked.
Last weekend I went to see Whatever Works, the new Woody Allen movie. I have never really seen much of Woody Allen’s work besides catching ‘Melinda and Melinda’ on tv and seeking out Everybody Says I love You because Julia Roberts was in it… needless to say i was not particularly impressed. Anyhow this movie really amused me. I loved the dark humor, and they fact that Woody Allen’s point of view was so evident though the character that Larry David played. He gave some awesome monologues that while hysterical also made valid points.
The idea behind the movie was quite simply ‘Whatever Works.’ It confronted a whole range of issues that people find weird such as an older man with a young girl, a woman living with and fucking two guys LOL. It basically made the point that when you strip away the surface of who you are ‘meant’ to be you and stop caring what others think you can find true happiness. Now I just need to sign up to Netflix to rent some of his older works…
Well it was time for the ‘I moved to New York’ post! I finally bit the bullet and moved after three years of talking about it. I love this city, the randomness here is unlike anywhere else I’ve ever been, just getting on the train is an event! Its good to be back in town!
So I finally got the chance to watch the new Keith Haring documentary this week and it was not bad, glad I got the chance to see it but I felt it could have been done better. It was cool to see him in action in the subways, chalking his drawings, talking to people and even getting hauled away by the cops for his efforts! He looks like he was someone who really enjoyed life, and made the most of it, its a shame he was not around to enjoy it longer.
Some of the coolest parts of the documentary were seeing him painting Grace Jones for a show and seeing Madonna perform Dress You Up at his birthday party at Paradise Garage (We need a full clip tks!) The fact that archive footage of him was used really saved this movie, it was cool to see him wearing a t-shirt with his own design and his trademark glasses making his art 
In an early Blondie mood today, and after YouTubing several fabulous clips of the early days I came across this brilliant live video of ‘Rip Her To Shreds’ from a concert in LA in 1977. I just love it, it is the embodiment of everything Blondie was to begin with – a rag tag downtown punk band. Just look at the energy, what I would give to have been one of those people up in the front! Looks like one guy is almost pulled on stage by Debbie!
Miami Film Festival is currently on here in Miami, and today I went to see ‘Face Addict’ a film by Edo Bertogolio. As I was sitting waiting for the film to start I was thinking the name Edo sounded so familiar, and then I remembered he was associated with Maripol. Much to my delight Maripol featured in the movie sharing her memories of her friends while looking through photos. Her sadness touched me as she exclaimed ‘my god its like a graveyard’ as she realized many of the people once so alive in front of her camera were now gone. The film showed them speaking at Maripol’s loft in New York City, her walls were plastered with her Polaroids taken over the years, some of which feature in Maripolarama, a collection of them that I love. I now feel like I need some Polaroids to put up on my walls!
The film takes Edo back to New York where he converses with several of his friend from the New York downtown scene about life back then and their memories of it. He spoke with Glenn O’Brien, Debbie Harry and various others, but the protagonist was a curious man called Walter, who unlike the others neither died or stopped doing drugs, he continued living hand to mouth painting not only to satisfy his creative spirit but to feed his addiction. I enjoyed all the different interviews, I did not know Glenn O’Brien was such a character, such a funny guy I loved his remark when coming across the Sex Book – ‘That almost ended my career’ LOL. Of course I also loved Debbie, who we saw bouncing around on a pogo stick on TV Party in the 70’s, then 30 something years later talking about how she would be in awe of the back room at the Mudd club where Warhol and his friends would hang out.
I really enjoyed the movie, the downtown scene of the 70’s and 80′ fascinates me and I love many of the artists to emerge from it, this movie gave me somewhat of a new perspective on it. I became more aware of the tragedy of the situation how a wonderful creative period lead to so many deaths from aids and drugs and everything fell apart. The personal stories made this all the more real for me as an outsider looking in. Walter was someone who embodied the emptiness of the end of the era, stuck as the last one among his friends to be suffering from addiction long after the party ended. The fact that the film ended on his successful recovery was an ending was a situation I was not expecting, but pleased me greatly.
Much to my surprise at the end of the movie I discovered that Edo and Maripol and others involved with the film had been sitting there watching the movie with me the whole time. They did a great question and answer session, and i was so happy to be in the presence of two people whose work who I greatly admire
I guess I was in a somewhat nostalgic mood this weekend, looking at old movies. I’m not sure if you can be nostalgic for a time you were never around for in person, but hey ho it felt like nostalgic! I finally watched the movie ‘Charade’ which I bought years ago and never watched, it wasn’t bad certainly not one of my favorite Audrey movies but fun all the same. Cary Grant had a kind of ‘James Bond’ air about him, with his one liners, he reminded me of Sean Connery, but enough about him let talk about the real star.. the one and only Audrey Hepburn.
I just love everything about her. I love her curious accent, which I think I finally worked out…she sounds like someone who learned English as a second language and takes care to pronounce every word with care. Of course I also love her classic style but that is such an integral part of who she was, I need not even mention it. Her poise and grace are what makes her style so memorable, it is the way she personally made the clothes come alive. Last but not least, her genuine and kind nature. The person we saw on screen was who she really was, someone who truly cared for others, as shown by her work with UNICEF a cause she was so passionate about.
Moon River from Breakfast at Tiffany’s ♥ (i just couldn’t get through the post without mentioning my favorite movie ever!)
This weekend was turned into a ‘Edie and Andy’ weekend. For the longest while I’ve been curious about s Andy Warhol’s films, but for some reason I didn’t think to look on YouTube for them. Over the weekend I did some YouTube surfing and came across lots of them. I started watching some of the ones Edie Sedgwick was in, such as ‘Beauty #2′ and ‘Poor Little Rich Girl.’ I find them fascinating for some reason, who would h have thought someone just sitting around doing various fairly mundane tasks around their apartment could be so entertaining?
There is something about Edie that draws me in, maybe its the tragedy of her story. She was someone who appeared to have everything, the first ‘It’ Girl, but ended up losing herself in drugs and being taken advantage of. The dynamics of her relationship with Andy Warhol interest me, I wonder if there was a true friendship there or if they were simply using each other?
