This is a very historical moment in NYC club life, Houi Montag who had been one of my door people at each club I had had, now was given his own cabaret night at the 21st Danceteria Wed night: No Entiende (#2) , Madonna was young , unknown and very much a regular at my clubs once she arrived in town. A dance student in pursuit of a music career. Mark Kamins was the main club dj and she and he became firends and he produced a 12 inch demo of EVERYBODY. I remember being in lenox hill hospital in traction for disc hell when Mark and Madonna came to visit . They were on their way to see Seymour Stein who was also a patient in the hospital . I remember telling them not to sign anything but a one off 12 inch single deal with Sire.. TElling them both if the single took off ( we all thought it would given Mark;s stature among dj and her raw ambition) they would be in a much better position to negotiate wit Seymour.... you all know the rest of the story . thanks Trey for digging it up.
What do you think when you see a veiled woman on the street. Be honest. Well hear how women who wear the veil think .. and women who do not think .. and the men who are incharge ... opens Dec 11 at Cinema VIllage and ... is under consideration for for selection as a nomination for the Documentary Academy Award
What do you think when you see a veiled woman on the street. Be honest. Well hear how women who wear the veil think .. and women who do not think .. and the men who are incharge ... opens Dec 11 at Cinema VIllage and ... is under consideration for for selection as a nomination for the Documentary Academy Award
Today is World Aids Day.. a time to remember those lost, celebrate those living with Aids and HIV+ , endorse all methods of healing that brings hope to any individual, support the fight to heal the body and psychic and end AIDS, raise questions about interventions to keep people alive including the promotion of an intervention that undermines 50 years of women fighting for men to wear condoms and 30 years of ACT UP and Michael Callen founded People With AIDS Coalition generated safe sex education, A commitment to younger people to reveal in a personal way what the dark years of the AIDS pandemic did to the imagination, creativity and life choices of all of us alive who lived through it and in the fight to live today whether diagnosed or disease free, For me after 33 years of AIDS activism starting with the founding of Wipe Out AIDS/HEAL (1981) with my friend Gene Fedorko to today, I have finally gotten in touch with the repressed feelings of loss and powerlessness to save people I loved and others, it has been a year of becoming spontaneously weepy, coming out of nowhere and becoming conscious of individuals gone. Today I am conscious of not only commitment but also allowing grief to be felt. Doing so refreshes finding a path to finding hope and bringing continued commitment to truth telling and healthy life sustaining personal practice. Theory can always be debated but it should never prevent cooperation among activist in a commitment to saving life my own and others,
Throughout the day I will be posting WORLD AIDS DAY memorabilia starting with Hunter Reynolds, and artist and long term survival of AIDS iconic art piece Patina Du Prey's Memorial Dress that meshes activism and beauty and makes impossible not to see how each supports the other. Click on the image and go to his art piece .. In your face tragic and a beautiful expression of gay spirit, a queer manifestation of an artist's resistance and a personal commitment to life.
I swear if Diamanda Galas birthed a child it would be M Lamar. Extremely talented, extremely brilliant , extremely angry . M.Lamar chooses art as a vehicle of catharsis dealing with the toxic, infectious, insidiousness of racism and sexism. He is notafraid to journey into the darkest of the sub-conscious and pile drive the demons, Amazingly M.Lamar does this with a major beaucoup of dangeous style and bodacious humanity on the wire. B;ack Lives Matter ...and this is one artist to experience. I have never heard M Lamar speak on black rage in art but I trust the talk after the performance will be a reality check in the white halls of academia
PERSONAL THOUGHTS : I first met Anita Sarko when she was packing up to leave Atlanta.The divorce wa final and she finally felt she was financially secure enough fron the divorce to move to the big city and do what she actually wanted to do. She was a very assertive woman, but Southern style .. and style was her middle name . We both had a keen interest in contemporary art and many a week day we would do the galleries. She told me she wanted to dj at the most au courant club in town,I told her to work her blond Southern wiles on Steve Mass. She did. She became a dj at the Mudd Club. And was the first celebrity female DJ that was not spinning at a gay disco, The fashion people always loved her and she was well known and respected as a music consultant by many famous and to be famous designers, She never worked for me but did help Houi Montag developed his "No Entendre: night at Danceteria 2 , She prefered Brazilian to Thai hands for her makeovers. And always dazzled us with her beauty. In life we all make choices and she choose Rudolf over our friendship . I knew that the kind of person I would hired would be like Anita, a fabulous present and skilled at what they did be it door or dj or art. .. and usually unemployable in the real world . So there were no high feelings , just distance on my part . I knew that people in this City no matter how glamorous still have to pay the rent etc,, .. others were able to negotiate that delicate balance with me, but not Anita. She said we fell out over politics .. she shouted at me calling me a maoist . It made me smile ... she cared about the world in the way I did and I was happy to be able to spar with her over politics . That said I am saddened today to think that I will not see her around Sheridan Square, I am very aware of how disposable talent and experience is in this town obsessed with youth. Many of us are reaching an age where life becomes all about survival and dignity, Thank god for GOFUNDME ,, no shame if it means the difference between life and death, I want to close by saying this about Anita: you could not imagine a more fabulous, glamorous, intelligent, opinionated DJ or member of the Downtown crew that reinvented night life 1978-2000 than Anita Sarko.. Please share you memories as her spiritleaves the planet on a BARDO journey and may she return as the presence she would want to be, "Hey Anita: It's closing time ..so play the last song for tonight please, I don't have to tell you to make it special"
Well Well Well let's take a look at gender as performance and art insight the old words were : gender illusion, gender expression now we use words i am less comfortable with : gender identity (nothing theoretical about that!) fluid ( messy) etc... but anything that has the imprimatur of Lois Weaver and Peggy Shaw on it gets my support and endorsement . Highlight (for me) : Paul Soileau talks about his theatrical creations Christeene Vale and Rebecca Havemeyer.. and how he navigates between reality and fantasy.. every actor's journey oh my WHAT A LINE UP : Lois Weaver, Peggy Shaw, Narcissister, CHRISTEENE, George Chakravarthi, The Girls, Dickie Beau, Nando Messias, Lucy Hutson, Kris Grey, Laura Bridgeman The Drakes, Harold Offeh, The Famous Lauren Barri Holstein, Krishna Istha, and more.
Warhol Superstar is down on v luck and health, Holly has been diagnoised with brain cancer and is finally out of the hospital and in assisted living . Holly wants to go back to her home in Hollywood ...but needs constant care . Penny Arcade organized a GoFundMe site for Holly and the response has been great.. not fully there yet , Holly's friend Jayne County dug into v history pocket book and found the song BOYS that v and Holly recorded ,, Church of Betty's Chris Rael put together this video of the song .. so please give a listen and share and give a little something.... here is the whole story : BRING HOLLY HOME
TPP nightmare: "Michael Wessel was one of the advisers who was asked by the US government to review what he said were woefully inadequate portions of the document. Wessel said the thrust of the TPP does nothing for Americans. “This is about increasing the ability of global corporations to source wherever they can at the lowest cost,” he said.
“It is not about enhancing or promoting production in the United States,” Wessel said. “We aren't enforcing today’s trade agreements adequately. Look at China and Korea. Now we’re not only expanding trade to a far larger set of countries under a new set of rules that have yet to be tested but we're preparing to expand that to many more countries. It would be easier to accept if we were enforcing today’s rules.” read on .. and put your State's Senators up agaunst the wall,, and asked then directly if they will reject this trade treaty. Ask for a confirmation of receipt and an answer in writing
'Sorry Mr. Grassi, but your personal relationship with the Pope I think has blinded you to his political actions His public actions are how I judge him. I do know that his meeting with Kim Davis will only encourage more "acts of conscience" as well as violence on the part of intolerant people more committed to religious belief than to their responsibility as citizens to respect our Constitution and the rulings of the Supreme Court . It was no accident that the Pope met formally with this four times married and three times divorcee whose defied federal law by refusing to issue license to same sex couples. His action here, are like his actions in Cuba, where he said his purpose was to get people to return to Church. An institution that continues to demonize loving homosexual relationships and shame women who seek to control their own bodies. No, what the Pope does behind closed doors may be of interest to you, but not to me. I suggest Mr. Grass, you wake up and realize what he did . No amount of clever spin can make me see different. I have said it before and I repeated now. Until Pope Francis is willing to get down on his knees, admit error and apologize for the rejection of homosexuals from burning at the stake in the past to the institutions current fight by preaching and financing anti -equality attacks on basic civil rights legislation and referendum all over the world The Pope needs to do the same to all women for his Church's lethal misogyny and continued rejection of equal opportunity for women including the priesthood. Please stop making excuses for PaPa. Far too much State and Federal funds were use to pay for this Papal visit. We are still a national whose Constitution calls for separation of Church and State
This is the documentary that Ondi Tremor premiered at SXSW . Made with Russell Brand co-operation, He walked away when completed because he had another doc in the works he controlled . See it .. and thank you Ondi for staying true to the documentary filmmakers intent. Me I was fascinated
If you saw ANITA, the documentary about Anita Hill, I hope you were like me shocked at the manner in which Joe Biden treated Anita Hill. As far as I know he has never apologized this is an except click and paste http://www.c-span.org/video/…
NYFF must see: Wow! Bergman refused to be trapped in her work in Hollywood, in her nuclear family role. took lovers Loved her children and they her. Be4 feminism there was Bergman and oh my those cheekbones must see NYFF @filminc
M Lamar is the singular most transgressive artist of merit living in NYC today .his critique of the world we live in and were brought up is a caldron od BLACK LIVES MATTERS .. Like Diamanda Galas, M Lamar is guerrilla artist waging a war of ideas and creativity to wake up the zombies that live next door to you and are desperate to invade body. Issues is temple og art guerrilla tactics and a perfect place to see an artist .. go ..tonight ...go
Bernie does what a good leader will do .. go talk to the people on their own turf. Liberty University is a Christian -based College founded by noted right wing preacher and ideologue Jerry Falwell. Saunders states you have to be ABLE TO TALK TO PEOPLE WHO MAY NOT AGREE WITH YOU ... Sanders is looking sooooo Presidential .. give a listen and then check how the media covered this Sanders event. Which means ....Ok its a people's campaign ..so it means we do the grass roots approach ..so I am tagging you to watch .. you do the same
I NEED A BREAK FROM THE NON-STOP CAITLYN JENNER-KARDASIAN MEDIA MACHINE. C-J-K is a life-long cross-dresser with full knowledge of his fetish for women's clothing by each of v three wives... C-J-K , like a small group of heterosexual married men whose wives share and participate in their husband's fetish (good for them even if it is none of my business) C-J-K modified v gender expression by having an extreme body make over to have C-J-K look like v fantasy of vself does little to actually educate the public of the suffering of falling outside the acceptable gender expression of what is named appropriate male and female behavior .. and heavily policed by public perception and society's institutions including but not limited to schools and churches. C-J-K is still pandering to old form and discriminatory definitions of male and female behavior, Sorry but dress, accessories and self-name-age does not a woman make . Rather than expanding the definition of the arch of gender expression C-J-K and a legion of entrepreneurs are supported by many activists who should know better.
Change is not adjustment! ; Change is Change. For
I suggest time is better spent watching the web series TRANSPARENT(amazon), films like ForGirls It Is Different educating yourself to the meaning and freedom of gender queer identity (truly radical response to repressive gender rules ) and detox your-self from tabloid sensationalism rather than compassionate support of a wider expression of gender behavior. Fighting for the right to be different in gender expression including early childhood anti-bullying training is to me the right path to supporting each individuals right to control their own body and behavior.
I am attaching a talk by CeCe MacDonald who story of harassment and fight back is eeing attacked .xample=ry...and how CeCE sees v role in society ...And the role artists have with a gender illusion, full frontal attack seen in the truly transgressive work of artists like Joey Arias, Christeene Vale (Paul Soileau),Flotilla DeBrrge, J.Jack Halbertstam, Dark Matter, Dandy Darkly, as well as many other artists whose names I ask you to list please l. Watch you own language (I try to do so .. i use the vocabulary suggested by my friend Justin Vivian Bond re pronouns use in my writing: v for his/her, Mix for Mister, Miss, Mrs etc : start here: … and look beneath the language that may trigger you ..or me ..to what is essentially important .. LANGUAGE IS FLUID AND SOMETIMES TOXIC .... and please remember I put this up as a discussion point to encourage speaking aloud the thoughts that we repress because of fear of being wrong or being attacked. When we speak respectfully together and enter a discussion with mutual respect if not agreement that is the ground rule for hearing and engagement. Both speakers talk of intersectionality ..the new word for multiple issues politics ..and I welcome the inclusion as it harks back to the basic political organizing points of the original GAY LIBERATION FRONT and Third World Gay Liberation in 1969/70 which I would suggest also moved forward the radical ideas leaned from the early feminist movement and the equality struggle in the Black Power movement that proceeded the STONEWALL REBELLION
