PAPERMAG: WORD UP!

Owen V. Posner: The Battle Continues

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 12:02:51 -0500

The kerfuffle between disgraced author Gerald Posner and Frank Owen got personal at the Miami Beach Botanical Gardens last night. After being dismissed from the Daily Beast following several accusations of plagiarism, Posner is now defending himself from charges that his book Miami Babylon plagiarizes from Owen's Clubland: The Fabulous Rise and Murderous Fall of Club Culture. After the contentious encounter Owen posted this on his Facebook page:

The real sparks came after the reading when Lera asked Posner "Are we still going out for a drink to discuss this?" Posner exploded. His plastic face turned red: "Yeah, I'm a thieving cocksucker." "Yes, you are a thieving cocksucker," Lera replied. And then an elderly lady came running towards them: "This is a botanical garden. It's a peaceful place. Can you please take it some place else?"

Miami New Times, which broke the story, has more here, including another video in which Posner defends himself and bizarrely throws his wife under the bus as well, saying she is partly to blame while apologizing to her at the same time.

Plagiarist At Large: Owen v. Posner

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 14:03:45 -0500

Look for fireworks tonight at the Miami Beach Botanical Gardens. That's where accused plagiarist Gerald Posner will be confronted by Frank Owen at a reading from Posner's book Miami Babylon. Following a string of accusations of plagiarism, Posner was dismissed from the Daily Beast after Slate, the Miami Herald and other publications found passages of their stories lifted by Posner. The latest example comes from Clubland, Owen's book about mobster and Madonna crony Chris Paciello's rise and fall in New York and Miami. Owen, a noted investigative journalist, was a long-time contributor to the Village Voice and currently writes for Playboy. I contacted him about Posner and this is what he said:

"The latest news is that Posner is going to read from Miami Babylon at the Miami Beach Botanical Gardens tonight which is only a couple of blocks from my apartment. I will be there, of course. Posner says he's going to apologize for 'inadvertently' plagiarizing Clubland. I'm gonna call him on his bullshit. Eight instances of plagiarism -- several of them whole paragraphs -- plus five stolen quotes. is not 'inadvertent.' Posner first tried to blame a Miami Beach policeman he interviewed about Paciello. He claimed the policeman had read Clubland and must have repeated quotes from the book to Posner and that's how bits of my book ended up in his book. Yeah, right? Then he tried to blame his wife Trisha and his two assistants who helped him on the book. Real classy. Blame the help. Now he's blaming a new system of 'trailing footnotes' he instigated for Miami Babylon. This is bullshit beyond belief. He's delusional if he thinks anybody buys this nonsense."

Electric Literature Tells a Story in a Single Sentence Animation

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:45:57 -0500

Electric Literature is a new kind of literary quarterly of contemporary short fiction. Undaunted by the cries of "print is dead," co-editors and publishers Andy Hunter and Scott Lindenbaum embrace "every viable format: eBook, audiobook, Kindle, iPhone, paperback." Part of their "greater mission is to use new media and innovative distibutions, claiming to be the first literary magazine to publish on the iPhone and the first to launch a YouTube channel. Rick Moody's story "Some Contemporary Characters," which appears in the latest print version of the magazine, was first published on twitter "as a three day experiment in micro-serialization." True to their mission, they have also commissioned single sentence animation videos, their latest for Matt Sumell's story, "Little Things," animated by Vance Reeser, is posted above.

"Lost Rockers" Found

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:41:30 -0500

Rock journalist Steven Blush and filmmaker Paul Rachman are back, digging up more stories about the tumultuous lives of the rock 'n' roll biz. After joining forces a few years ago on American Hardcore, a documentary that chronicled the vanishing world of the underground Hardcore scene, the duo is back in production with Lost Rockers. I can still remember watching American Hardcore with a roomful of people from that scene and hearing the howls of laughter that greeted one tale after another. As they wrote on their kickstarter page where they are raising money to complete the film, "Lost Rockers reveals great musicians overlooked by pop culture. It offers insight into what it takes to 'make it,' and why so many of equal talent to famous stars fall through the cracks. The film tells the life stories of these forgotten artists -- of different eras, genres, creeds and orientations -- from their doomed paths to fame to their ultimate redemption. You'll experience amazing music you can't believe you never heard." Next week, Blush and Rachman are interviewing New York Dolls founder Rick Rivets, original Pretenders drummer Gass Wild, Evie Sands and Cherry Vanilla. They've also been invited by the late Marc Bolan's girlfriend Gloria to the "Blood Diamonds" region of Sierra Leone, for the opening of her Marc Bolan School of Music. They're hoping to have a rough cut by 2111's film fest season.

Kathryn Bigelow's Punk Roots

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:54:06 -0500

Today Kathryn Bigelow is basking in the glow of her Best Director and Best Picture Oscars for Hurt Locker, but before ascending to the heights of Hollywood celebrity she was a member in good standing of the downtown punk scene of the late '70s and early' 80s. Living on Water Street, she shared a loft with filmmaker and costume designer Karin Luner in a building that also housed artist Robert Longo and rocker Hal Ludacer. Dressed in cowboy boots and jeans, she was a regular at The Mudd Club, a hub of downtown nightlife where art, music, film, media and fashion people intersected. Her student film from Columbia University -- where she took classes with Susan Sontag and Vito Acconci -- The Set-Up (1978), portrays two men (including Gary Busey) fighting each other in split-screen as semiotic provocateur Sylvère Lotringer deconstructs the images in voice over. Luner told me that she remembers Bigelow as "totally driven. She really knew what she wanted to do. One time she was working on a script of a Bataille story and she must have rewritten it 150 times; she was so determined to get it right." Her first full-length feature was The Loveless (1982), a biker movie which she co-directed with Monty Montgomery that in addition to Willem Dafoe included downtown scenesters Robert Gordon, Danny Rosen and Tina L'Hotsky with costume design by Luner.

Five Questions for Winning Time Director Dan Klores

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 12:44:08 -0500

Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs. The New York Knicks (which airs on ESPN on March 14th at 9 p.m.) is the latest offering from Dan Klores, an award-winning director who makes sports documentaries that get to the core of his subjects as people not stars. That is to say you don't have to be a basketball fan to enjoy Winning Time (but it certainly helps). This classic New York story chronicles the epic rivalry that arose between the New York Knicks and Reggie Miller, playing for the Indiana Pacers.

Klores came to his calling late in life. After starting one of the city's premier PR companies, he decided to make a documentary about his old neighborhood, Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, set around a group of his friends who played basketball together by day and got into trouble at night. The Boys of Second Street Park (full disclosure: some of my friends are featured in the docu, but I didn't know Klores back then), already bore the markings of his signature style; archival footage cut with new interviews presented in a straight-forward cinematic style that put the story front-and-center. He's probably best-known for Crazy Love, his meditation on a destructive love affair that won a 2008 Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary, but the world of sports has been his greatest preoccupation, from boxing (Ring of Fire: The Emile Griffith Story) to baseball (Viva Baseball) to basketball (Black Magic).

Here he discusses his work, what holds it together and other insights he's had about people and sports over the years.

Is there a thread that connects the movies you have directed.
On a subconscious level, the commonality of my films centers around the outsider looking in: a bunch of lower middle class Jewish kids in Brooklyn emotionally trapped and afraid to break out of their small world thus the escape into drugs; the gay immigrant prizefighter, hiding from the outside world; the Spanish speaking ballplayer arriving in a new country unaccustomed to the language, people and skin color of his 'bosses'; the deeply disturbed and scared boy and girls from the Bronx who were too afraid to leave one another no matter how violent the relationship; and the black student, primarily from the South, finding a haven in the university and basketball court in a brutally racist society... Reggie too was relegated to a second class role by the adoration and intimidation that his older sister Cheryl represented. Vulnerability is the thread.

Alice's Warped Wonderland

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 11:44:32 -0500

Everybody's talking about Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland which opens today. No doubt Burton's warped sensibility lends itself well to a modern day interpretation of Lewis Carroll's psychedelic classic, but there's another artist of note who has been inspired by the surrealistic text as well. Camille Rose Garcia's "Disney gone wrong style" updates the tall tale in a wonderful post-punk way in a new edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Harper Collins Design). If you're lucky enough to live in the Los Angeles area, you can see the original drawings as well as others inspired by the book at the Merry Karnowsky Gallery (170 S. La Brea) opening March 6 through the 27th. In the exhibit, titled "Down The Rabbit Hole," Garcia continues to explore Wonderland with her distinctive artwork, by picking up where the book leaves off.

Fred Schneider Asks: Who Threw That Ham At Me?

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 12:14:56 -0500

"I've never seen such horrible dancing. It was wonderful." Those two sentences wonderfully sum up our sentiments after viewing a new video released by The Superions, fronted by the B-52's demented front man Fred Schneider. It warms my heart to see Schneider at the top of his whimsical, satirical game. A real crowd pleaser! Here's another video that was perhaps the inspiration for Schneider's inspired shenanigans.

Has Fever Ray Gone Gaga?

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 15:27:29 -0500

Here's a video of Fever Ray receiving an award in Sweden. Some people have claimed that this her send-up to Lady Gaga and the notorious blood-soaked costume she donned at the MTV Video Music Awards. Either way, we think it's genius.

Five Questions for Tony Fletcher On His Book All Hopped Up and Ready to Go

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 14:44:59 -0500

All Hopped Up and Ready to Go: Music From the Streets of New York 1927-1977 is a labor of love, over 400 pages of wonderful stories on the likes of Tito Puente, Bob Dylan, Lou Reed and the Ramones, as well as lesser knowns whose recollections help bring the cast of characters to life. Written by veteran rock journalist Tony Fletcher, the book not only covers those vibrant years but also looks beyond the tales to what makes New York the epicenter of musical movements that went from the streets to the national charts. I would definitely include All Hopped Up on my top 10 list this year -- if I made one. I emailed him five questions and here's what he said.

David Hershkovits: All Hopped Up and Ready to Go covers 50 years of New York music history spanning Afro-Cuban jazz, bebop, doo wop, folk rock, acid rock, disco, punk and hip hop. (Did I leave anything out?). Which has the best stories? Which is your musical favorite?
Tony Fletcher: Don't forget Rhythm and Blues, rock'n'roll, the pre-rock folk scene and the glitter scene. All these scenes have great stories and it's a little difficult choosing one over the other. The story about Chano Pozo's death in chapter two is quite something (precursors of the worst days of rap?), but then so is the story about the Almanac Singers living in a commune in Greenwich Village (precursors of hardcore political punk?). I would say that I enjoyed researching the earlier periods of the book because I learned so much about them in the process. That was true all the way up to the vocal group scene (they were known at the time as rhythm and blues or rock'n'roll groups but were subsequently renamed "doo wop" by those who should know better). There's an innocence and beauty to the way an entire city of teens aspired to sing for their supper. (Or at least to attract the opposite sex.) Still, which is my musical favorite? People would assume I'm most closely attached to the CBGBs scene, and I admit that it is the one I know best. But I came out of this experience as a real aficionado of Afro-Cuban music, a great fan of the mambo, and with a genuine love for the 1960s equivalent of the CBs punk scene: the Fugs, the Godz, David Peel and the Lower East Side, and the Holy Modal Rounders.

Blogger as Muse: Julia Frakes

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 14:59:49 -0500

Julia Frakes (aka Julia Lapin aka Bunny Bisous) is not only a frequent contributor to the PAPERMAG blogs, she is also a style icon and muse, chased down by photographers and rendered by artists captivated by her style, curiosity and range of interests that belie her tender years. She's smart in every sense of the word. The painting (and video) by Danny Roberts is for a benefit to raise awareness about animal cruelty as manifested on two fronts: barbaric factory farms (with funds proffered to Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary) and merciless puppy mills (to benefit Maddie's Fund). For more info go to Igorandandre.blogspot.com .

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.