PAPERMAG: WORD UP!

Five Questions for Sacha Jenkins About Rare Graffiti Drawings 1985-2005

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:59:02 -0500

Piecebook Reloaded: Rare Graffiti Drawings 1985-2005 by Sacha Jenkins and David Villorente is a true page-turner, compelling the reader to keep looking and looking, diving deeper into the treasure trove before them. A follow-up to Piecebook: The Secret Drawings of Graffiti Writers, which documented the early years beginning in 1973, it shares a sense of purpose in its drive to showcase the colorful bouquet that is graffiti as practiced by "writers" who sketched ideas and full-blown pieces in notebooks they carried with them and passed around. As a one-time editor of the much-missed Ego Trip magazine, Jenkins knows this scene as well as anyone. So we asked him five questions:

David Hershkovits: I notice you call them "writers" not "artists." Is there a reason and significance to that?
SJ: "Writers" is the term that started it all; "writers" is what the kids who started this culture way back in the late '60s called themselves. Because that's what they did -- they wrote. All of this colorful, fantastic "art" that we see all over the world all evolved from the writing of very stylized signatures. Many of the founding mothers and fathers of the culture take issue with the term "graffiti'; some consider it a slur on par with the word "nigger." The fact that "writer" is a term fashioned by the creators themselves means a lot to me. Years before I'd ever written for a magazine or a television show, I was calling myself a writer. I think that self-affirmation is mad powerful. Being a c-list writer as a kid has done a lot for me and scores of other folk.

DH: The first Piecebook covered the years 1973-1987. Piecebook Reloaded: Rare Graffiti Drawings 1985-2005 basically covers the years after the heyday of subway-centric graffiti. Do you think moving the work away from the subways has helped or hurt the movement.
SJ: I think both books prove that writing is a living organism, a beast that will continue to manifest its own destiny. This beast has the ability jump from a drawing in a book to a subway car to canvas to clothing to video games...The possibilities are endless. Now, there are purists who will argue that true graffiti died when the subways went clean in May of 1989, and they'll argue and they'll have some great points. These days, you can spend a week to paint a wall, which is all the time in the world when you consider that, back then, you were painting in dark tunnels with the threat of rats, a whole lotta electricity via the Third Rail, rival writers, and rogue cops who weren't afraid to spray your face black. On the flip side though, the penalties that go along writing today can radically alter your life. Folks are getting serious time. Kids today would favor getting sprayed in the face over having to troop a jail bid. And to the older peeps, I will say that there is a very active writing culture on America's freight trains that deserves their respect. So now, the piece you painted in Delaware might end up in California a month after you painted it. Writing culture--the illegal end of it--will always take a beating. But the beast can take the pain and convert it into a golden blues song. Again and again.

Lady Gaga's Product Placement

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:59:45 -0500

Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" music video had some 10 million plus viewings in a weeks time which has to be a good sign for the reigning popstress. But did you notice the blatant product placement in the video. We spotted Parrot Starck-iPod speaker, Lex Nemiroff vodka and Carrera sunglasses. Tell us if we missed any. Not including the Alexander McQueen outfit or the Burberry coat that's ripped off her bodice. She's already raking in the money, one wonders why she has to whore out her video as well.

Five Questions About "Grunge" for Michael Lavine

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:59:56 -0500

Photographer Michael Lavine is doubly blessed. First, he had the good fortune to be in Seattle during its heyday in the early '90s when, for a brief moment, that city became the center of the universe, setting trends for the hipster lifestyle of art, music, fashion and film that reverberate to this day and look to be with us well into the future. And second, because he is a damn good photographer with the social skill set to get up close and personal with his subjects that ranged from the kids on the street to the bands they worshiped like Nirvana, Mudhoney, Pussy Galore, Urge Overkill et al. The photographs have finally been collected in Grunge (Abrams Image), one of the coolest books I've seen in some time. Or as Thurston Moore writes in his foreword: "The kids were so uncool, they were beyond cool." Just like Michael Lavine himself. I recently asked him five questions and our conversation is included below. For more check out his blog My Aim Is True.

David Hershkovits: Does grunge have a legacy or was it purely a moment in time that you captured?
Michael Lavine: For better or worse, grunge has been awarded a place at the table of history. Everybody has a different take on the reference but the movement carries the clear, basic imagery of loud, fuzzy guitars and scruffy looking rockers screaming about rebellion. You know, the kind of classic anti-rock star ideals that powered the whole punk movement. The great thing about the punk kids from the book is that they really personify the authentic nature of the birth of grunge. When you wore a mohawk in 1983 it was a huge 'fuck you' to society and projecting that kind of message was risky and dangerous. Today these symbols are incorporated into our corporate culture and they've lost all of their impact and value. My bank teller has purple hair and a nose ring, it doesn't mean anything, no one even notices, it's just another fashion accessory. Grunge is dead! Long Live grunge!

DH: Thurston Moore has said that of the Seattle bands he didn't expect that it would be Nirvana that broke out. Do you agree?
ML: I think there was the perception at the time that Mudhoney was the band that would achieve the most success, but I always thought Nirvana was a great band and I loved their music. I just was really not prepared for the huge mainstream explosion that hit our comfortable little underground indie rock scene like an H-bomb. I remember playing a bunch of different bands for Iggy Pop during a photo shoot in 1991 and he definitely picked Nirvana out of a whole slew of noisy grunge/punk sounds. Iggy knew! [Bruce] Pavitt [of Subpop] knew! He called me once and said I have this new band "Nirvana." He said, "They are going to be HUGE!" I said, "But you say that about all of your bands."

Augusten Burroughs Says "You Better Not Cry"

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 15:14:29 -0500

You might not be surprised to discover that Augusten Burroughs has problems with Christmas. The good news for us is that he can take his traumas and travails and turn them into stories that both shock and delight. In his latest book, You Better Not Cry: Stories for Christmas, he does just that leaving one with a distinctly Burroughsian feeling where dread and joy join hands in bittersweet harmony. I asked him a few questions about the holiday season we all love to hate.

David Hershkovits: Do you think Christmas -- or family holidays in general -- are more difficult for gays.
Augusten Burroughs: Life in general -- not merely Christmas -- is more difficult for the gays. Gays have less calcium in their bones and slightly higher amounts of mercury, a soft metal. As a result their bones are softer which makes the weight of oppression that much more difficult to shoulder.

DH: What are you planning to do on Christmas this year?
AB: This Christmas, I plan to replicate -- in exact detail -- my birthday: I will sit on the bed all day and night fucking around with Linux and retouching pictures of ladies.

DH: Who would be your ideal family to spend Christmas with and why?
AB: The Addams Family. Because they would not ask me to cheer up and smile.

Spike Jonze Punches Out Kanye West

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 10:51:21 -0500

You may have heard of We Were Once a Fairy Tale, a short film Spike Jonze made starring Kanye West as a self-obsessed obnoxious pop star who drinks too much. An alien-like creature has inhabited his body and Kanye must expel it so he can die peacefully -- or something like that. It's certainly open to interpretation. Adding to the confusion -- or fun -- is a video posted on Jonze's inspiring blog We Love You So where the director takes Kanye to task for being... Kanye. Fed up with the texting Kanye, Jonze gets a chance to act out his fantasy.

Will Bloomberg Go to Pot?

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:31:56 -0500

President Barack Obama's directive telling the Feds to back off of medical marijuana users is one of his most progressive moves since being elected. The announcement reversing a Bush era policy of pursuing cases against pot smokers was met with general approval in the press. I was particularly happy to see that Bloomberg.com ran a story with this sympathetic opening:

Oct. 20 (Bloomberg) -- Madeline Martinez is in constant pain from a disease that is destroying her joints and the discs in her back. Marijuana relieves her discomfort, she said, and the Obama administration has ended her worries that she may someday be jailed for using the drug. Martinez, 58, of Portland, Oregon, had previously been given Abbott Laboratories’ Vicodin and codeine for her pain. Use of those drugs led to stomach problems, and now she takes marijuana prescribed for her by a doctor. Medicinal marijuana is legal in Oregon, one of 14 states to allow so-called compassionate-care use.

Shepard Fairey Admits to "Submitting False Images"

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 23:15:28 -0500

As many of you may know, Shepard Fairey has been involved in a law suit with the Associated Press over the photo he used as the basis for his now iconic "Obama Hope" poster. In a recent interview, we spoke briefly about his ongoing court battles which I assumed would be resolved in due course. Now in a bombshell press release Fairey states:

On October 9, 2009, my lawyers sent a letter to the AP and to the photographer Mannie Garcia, through their lawyers, notifying them that I intend to amend my court pleadings. Throughout the case, there has been a question as to which Mannie Garciaphoto I used as a reference to design the HOPE image. The AP claimed it was one photo, and I claimed it was another. The new filings state for the record that the AP is correct about which photo I used as a reference and that I was mistaken. While I initially believed that the photo I referenced was a different one, I discovered early on in the case that I was wrong. In an attempt to conceal my mistake I submitted false images and deleted other images. I sincerely apologize for my lapse in judgment and I take full responsibility for my actions which were mine alone. I am taking every step to correct the information and I regret I did not come forward sooner.

I have to say I did not see this coming. Right wing pundits are going to have a ball with this.

TMZ Thinks Brandon Flowers Looks Like Michael Alig.

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 14:29:05 -0500

Not sure how TMZ came up with this -- could our friends at World of Wonder Productions have had something to do with it? -- but it is mind boggling. Not that they would do something so brazenly disconnected, but that they would even think that Brandon Flowers and Michael Alig have anything in common in the first place. Yes, one is in the band The Killers and the other is a convicted killer. On second thought, maybe there is a resemblance... Nah!

The Simpsons' Mr. Burns Takes on Bloomberg

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 13:14:43 -0500

Somebody doesn't like the fact that Mike Bloomberg had the rules changed so he could run for a third term as Mayor of New York City. These posters -- designed à la Shepard Fairey's Obama poster -- have been popping up around town. Snapped this one on 14th Street near Union Square.

Abel Ferrara's Chelsea on the Rocks

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 09:14:09 -0500

Chelsea on the Rocks is Abel Ferrara's latest film, an excursion into the mad, mad world of New York's Chelsea Hotel as it was before the inevitable tide of gentrification took it over and drove all the poet maudits out into the streets. To say this is a sloppy effort at story-telling would belie the creative force that is Abel Ferrara who appears in the movie goading the residents into tales of -- surprise! -- sex, rock n' roll and yes... DRUGS! A wild assemblage of old footage -- some amazing like the clip with Rick Danko, Janis Joplin and Jerry Garcia jamming away in a haze of drink and smoke and god knows what else -- interviews and reenactments of notorious Chelsea moments like the Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen murder mystery which comes and goes in no apparent sequence. The movie is full of good stories that you'll want to repeat to your friends. And if you're a supporter of indie filmmaking, take your hat off to Abel for getting this done at all. The true star of the film, however, is Stanley Bard, the one-time owner/manager who loved creative people, flaws and all, and let them slide on their rent whenever they couldn't afford to pay. Far from a conventional documentary -- more like four movies in one -- Chelsea on the Rocks will rock your world. How you'll feel afterward is another matter. P.S. Ferrara claims to know who killed Nancy. I wish he'd let us know. It's one of the unanswered mysteries of pop culture. P.P.S. Beloved iconic downtowners Arthur Weinstein and Rockets Redglare make memorable appearances.

PAPER TV: Patrick McMullan on PAPER's 25th Anniversary

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 16:06:32 -0500

Patrick McMullan, the dean of nightlife photography, pauses on the steps of the New York Public Library to ponder the meaning of PAPER Magazine's 25th Anniversary Party.

Penelope Cruz's Good Hair Day

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 15:53:32 -0500

When it comes to stylish melodrama, no one does it better or more intelligently than Pedro Almodovar. Broken Embraces, his latest passion play, stars Penelope Cruz as the mistress of a mogul who she manipulates into backing a movie so she can fulfill her dream to become an actress. As the film winds its way to its inevitable yet spellbinding conclusion, we watch her trying on an assortment of wigs, including a platinum blonde one very reminiscent of the one she wore on a recent cover of Paper magazine. A little bird told me that Pedro based the look on the cover which was conceived by genius hairstylist Oribe and shot by the singularly talented Cass Bird. Pictured above: Penelope on the cover of Paper in 2007; Penelope in Broken Embraces.

Reburbia or Bust

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 15:41:23 -0500

I never found much good to say about suburbia so I welcome any effort to improve upon its hellishness. So when the estimable Dwell Magazine and Inhabitat.com teamed up to host Reburbia, a design competition dedicated to re-envisioning the suburbs I perked up. Citing the economy, the housing crisis, the sub-prime mortgage meltdown, and rising energy costs, the organizers seemed to be thinking of me when they wrote: "Urbanites who loathe the freeways, big box stores and bland aesthetics stereotypical of suburbia may secretly root for the end of sprawl, but demographic trends indicate that exurban growth is still on the rise." With their eco-design mandates as their barometer, they asked: "How can we redirect these existing spaces to promote sustainability, walkability, and community? It’s a problem that demands a visionary design solution and we want you to create the vision! Well, the answer is to hold a contest and see what future-forward architects, urban designers, renegade planners and imaginative engineers can come up with. Now the top 20 finalists have been announced and you can vote for your favorite until Aug. 18. PURE: Transforming Swimming Pools into Water Treatment Plants Designed By: Craig England

Pynchon Speaks

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 12:16:09 -0500

It took the combined investigative ability of Galley Cat and the WSJ to determine that the voice narrating the promotional clip above for the new Thomas Pynchon novel Inherent Vice is indeed the reclusive author himself. At first the publisher at Penguin books refused to confirm it, but when the WSJ contacted a voice identification expert to match the sound with audio known to be Pynchon, the publisher fessed up and confirmed the story. Having just finished reading the delirious stoner noir detective thriller set in 1970 Los Angeles, I can't tell you the chills I felt hearing the raspy voice of Doc, the private investigator protagonist, narrating a bit of travelogue across the terrain covered in the novel. Though the book has been critiqued as being slight compared to his more serious classics like Gravity's Rainbow, I found it laugh-out-loud funny in spots and a perfect antidote for the times we live in. Too well-written to be a mindless beach read, Inherent Vice is the book you take outside along with a cool drink and as suggested in the above clip: "Take a hit or two off your favorite brand of cigarette."

Josh Harris Breaks It Down

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 12:40:21 -0500

Long before Big Brother or any of the plethora of reality shows that have flooded the airwaves, there was Josh Harris. Harris came upon the scene with the first dotcom boom of the 90s, setting up his company Pseudo in the heart of downtown on the corner of Broadway and Houston. Rolling in money that he wasn't hesitant to spend, Harris was a founding partner of Jupiter Communications which he sold for some $80 million that he then blew building a studio for online broadcast (before broadband) and advancing his status as the new Warhol with wild parties.