Etherea update

Straight from the horses mouth, here is the latest from Etherea. Etherea is closed for business now as we wait & hope for Etherea employee Brion to get the lease on the space and open his own store. Stay tuned for further developments.

"Many of you have been bewildered by the blogging that has been going on about the closing of Etherea (specifically the Brooklyn Vegan post about Etherea being "saved"). Well, here's the real story. My lease here on Avenue A is ending and I intend to move on from 13.5 years of the music retail biz to pursue a new career. That is still happening, and Etherea is now officially closed, but one of my employees, namely DJ Brion, decided he wanted to buy out my store when I told him I was closing and start his own record shop in same location with a new partner. They have been hard at work trying to hammer out a new lease with the landlord. They plan to re-brand the store, and will have a different slant on music tailored to their tastes and aesthetics. I have been supportive of their efforts, and I hope to report good news very soon..."

Friday ephemera - No Wave gigs

Randy Bewley RIP

Randy Bewley RIP. Bewley was the guitarist for Pylon.

Remembering Candy

Hat tip to EV Grieve for pointing out this article from the NY Times on New York cultural icon, Candy Darling, and the efforts to preserve her memory.

"She was baptized James Lawrence Slattery in 1944 but reinvented herself as Candy Darling in the late 1960s after leaving suburban Long Island for the streets of the West Village, a place in the back room at Max’s Kansas City and a role as muse.

She hung out with artists like Andy Warhol and crossed paths with musicians like David Bowie. The filmmaker Paul Morrissey put her in two of his movies. Lou Reed wrote the Velvet Underground song “Candy Says” with her in mind and included a verse about her in his “Walk on the Wild Side.” Continued here.

Please finish the movie already!

Etherea update

I figured I should post something here just in case anyone comes across it regarding the closing of Etherea, and a possible replacement in that space. I just read the Brooklyn Vegan post on Etherea Records "being saved." However, if you read the updates from Etherea employee, Brion, here's the deal:

1. Etherea IS closing this week.
2. Its starting to look like longtime employee, and salesman extroadinaire, Brion, most likely will be taking the space over, changing the name & feel of the store, and make it his own thing. This has been quite touch & go for a while now which is why I haven't mentioned it here on Stupefaction. I'm happy for Brion - he's an incredible sales guy, and really knows his stuff.

Thats it on the Etherea front for now. In the meantime, stock is still 30% off and they may shut the doors (as Etherea) as soon as today or tomorrow so Rich, the owner, can get his stuff together before the lease runs out on him on Saturday.

Over & out.

Now Strider Records to close?

After tipping us off to Manny's closing earlier this past week, Lost City is now reporting that longtime West Village oldies vinyl store, Strider Records, will be closing. Fuck!

Not the sort of place you'd go to for the latest releases but the sort of place you'd go to for that rare, out of print 45 you heard on some radio station. A museum of vinyl. And a hell of a nice guy too. If you have any interest at all in these types of places and have been putting off visits, you better get your ass in gear.

"A concerned reader wrote in recently to say that Strider Records, the small Village store devoted to vinyl, could close any day now. The man got the word from owner Bob Noguera himself, whom the reader described as "being at peace" with the reality." Continued here.

Visit the Strider Records website here.

Dead Boys Photos to Show

Put it on your calendar. Rare shots of the Dead Boys in their prime by Hubert Kretzschmar will be shown during the SCOPE Art Fair at Lincoln Center from March 4-8. For more information visit Scope-Art.

Manny's to close, rest of music row next?

Lost City has the scoop and is reporting a May closure for legendary West 48th Street music store Mannys.

"Manny's Musical Instruments, a Midtown landmark since 1935, will close its doors forever at the end of May, and the remainder of the Music Row—as the block of W. 48th Street between Seventh and Sixth Avenues is affectionately known—may soon fall like a row of dominoes." Continued here.

Friday ephemera - Konk

Step back in time to 1981. Downtown mixed bag, post punk, funk band Konk self-release their first single, and its distributed by 99 Records. Below is the record itself, a clipping from Sounds by then NYU student, WNYU DJ, and music writer, Tim Sommer, and a press release. Click on the images for larger versions.

Your Heart Out #4

Just in for the weekend, issue #4 of Your Heart Out is here. This one features Jorge Ben, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Y Records, Alice Clark, Mo-Dettes, Samia Farah, Catherine Ribeiro, Fay Hallam, Chicca & Intrigo, Ahu/Dolly, Bullion, Paul White and more.

Read it on screen. Print it off. Read it on the move. Download it here.

I Am Waiting

Inspired by EV Grieve's amazing photo posted earlier today, I present a favorite poem of mine by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, author of the classic A Coney Island of the Mind: Poems (New Directions Paperback No. 74)



I Am Waiting
By Lawrence Ferlinghetti

I am waiting for my case to come up
and I am waiting
for a rebirth of wonder
and I am waiting for someone
to really discover America
and wail
and I am waiting
for the discovery
Of a new symbolic western frontier
and I am waiting
for the American Eagle
to really spread its wings
and straighten up and fly right
and I am waiting for the Age of Anxiety
to drop dead
and I am waiting
for the war to be fought
which will make the world safe
for anarchy
and I am waiting for the final withering away
of all governments
and I am perpetually awaiting
a rebirth of wonder


I am waiting for the second coming
And I am waiting
For a religious revival
To sweep thru the state of Arizona
And I am waiting
For the grapes of wrath to stored
And I am waiting
For them to prove
That God is really American
And I am waiting
To see God on television
Piped into church altars
If they can find
The right channel
To tune it in on
And I am waiting
for the last supper to be served again
and a strange new appetizer
and I am perpetually awaiting
a rebirth of wonder


I am waiting for my number to be called
and I am waiting
for the Salvation Army to take over
and I am waiting
for the meek to be blessed
and inherit the earth
without taxes
and I am waiting
for forests and animals
to reclaim the earth as theirs
and I am waiting
for a way to be devised
to destroy all nationalisms
without killing anybody
and I am waiting
for linnets and planets to fall like rain
and I am waiting for lovers and weepers
to lie down together again
in a new rebirth of wonder


I am waiting for the great divide to be crossed
and I anxiously waiting
For the secret of eternal life to be discovered
By an obscure practitioner
and I am waiting
for the storms of life
to be over
and I am waiting to set sail for happiness
and I am waiting
for a reconstructed Mayflower
to reach America
with its picture story and TV rights
sold in advance to the natives
and I am waiting
for the lost music to sound again
in the Lost Continent
in a new rebirth of wonder


I am waiting for the day
that maketh all things clear
and I am waiting for retribution
for what America did to Tom Sawyer
and I am waiting
for the American Boy
to take off Beauty's clothes
and get on top of her
and I am waiting
for Alice in Wonderland
to retransmit to me
her total dream of innocence
and I am waiting
for Childe Roland to come
to the final darkest tower
and I am waiting for Aphrodite
to grow live arms
at a final disarmament conference
in a new rebirth of wonder


I am waiting
to get some intimations
of immortality
by recollecting my early childhood
and I am waiting
for the green mornings to come again
for some strains of unpremeditated art
to shake my typewriter
and I am waiting to write
the great indelible poem
and I am waiting
for the last long rapture
and I am perpetually waiting
for the fleeting lovers on the Grecian Urn
to catch each other at last
and embrace
and I am awaiting
perpetually and forever
a renaissance of wonder

Last chance weekend at Etherea

This weekend will be the final full weekend of shopping at Etherea. As they say on their site:

This will be the final weekend of Etherea, so please stop in, say hello and take advantage of our closing sale. Everything will be on sale at 30% off. This includes new releases, new and used cds and vinyl, accessories, and magazines. There is a fixture list for those interested in purchasing cabinets, listening stations, lighting and more. During the last week of February, we will be closed to pack and clear out the space, so now is the time to do your last-minute shopping!

Next Jim Jarmusch movie

EV Grieve has the scoop on the next Jim Jarmusch movie "The Limits of Control"...read about here.

It was 37 years ago today...

That jazz trumpeter Lee Morgan was slain at East Village jazzsters hangout, Slug's, at East 3rd and Avenue C. I have always heard Slug's was a bit of a dodgy place...read all about the event at This Ain't the Summer of Love.

Paul McDonough Photography

Visit the Sasha Wolfe Gallery website for a cool selection of photos by Paul McDonough of New Yorkers between 1968 and 1972. This show ran at the Sasha Wolfe Gallery from Sept. 20, 2007-Nov. 10, 2007.



Paul McDonough arrived in New York City in 1967 with a 35mm camera and an entrée, through childhood friend Tod Papageorge, into the photography workshops and social networks of street photographer Garry Winogrand. Emerging from an early career as a studio easel painter, McDonough found photographing on the streets of New York liberating: "it satisfied my sketching impulses... I learned to carry a camera everywhere, all the time, loaded with 400-speed film."

In the late 1960s the city had a feeling of `improv' theater. The social climate had changed dramatically, people were acting and dressing more outrageously, and in the streets there were frequent anti-war and anti-establishment demonstrations. For the artist, subject matter was everywhere. But, according to McDonough "...the event itself, I came to learn, didn't have to be dramatic; the drama could consist of something as simple as two people making eye contact. Whatever sense or suggestion of narrative that follows is provided, for the most part, by the viewer. The resulting photograph is a much more complex thing, more complex than what is simply observed. Continued here.

Joe Cuba RIP

Joe Cuba - RIP

Don't drink & drive

Who says nothing interesting happens in the East Village anymore? This past Saturday I was walking south on Avenue A on my way to open up Etherea for the day. As I got closer to the store, I noticed a crowd in front of it which I thought was weird. When I reached the store, I saw this in front of the magazine shop just next door:



It was a two car accident (the second car didn't look nearly as bad), and this one ended up jumping the curb & hitting the muni-parking meter. You can see the flatbed truck in the background - it actually took them a few attempts to pull the car off of the curb & meter. It was really hooked on there. I don't think anyone was hurt. Here's what was left of the meter and the car once all was said and done:



The following morning I was walking my dog on West 54th Street and saw this across from the police precinct:



Speaking to some cops later that day I found out it was an accident on the westside highway Saturday night or Sunday morning. One of the cops showed me some blood on the windshield. Needless to say, the driver did not survive.

I'm amazed that I don't see more car accidents in NYC. One spends their day walking around & seeing so much traffic, you think it would be a regular occurence, but it's actually quite rare.

Daily travels

Perfection on St. Marks Place between First Ave & Ave A:


Manhattan bound N-train:

Coleman Mellot RIP

Boy, there is a lot of weird shit happening recently. The latest was this morning when I saw the latest post from Flea Market Funk:

"Today I’d like to pay tribute to a guy, who a lot of you probably don’t even know. I was saddened to hear that Coleman Mellot, guitarist for the Sugarman 3 was killed on Flight 3407 that crashed while en route from Newark, NJ to Buffalo, NY. Originally from Washington, DC, Mellot attended Duquesne University and William Paterson University, and eventually earned a Masters Degree from Manhattan School of Music. A staple on the New York music scene, Mellot also was playing with Chuck Mangione, and a trio that included organist Adam Scone and drum legend Ben Dixon among others. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Mellot’s family, as well as his extended music family. Go out and play some Sugarman 3 this week DJ’s, one more for Coleman Mellot. Keep Diggin’!"

Louie Bellson RIP

Louie Bellson RIP

The Roxy London WC2: A Punk History

The Roxy London WC2: A Punk History by Paul Marko

My review

- rating: 3 of 5 stars

More power to Paul Marko, author of this book & webmaster over at the amazing Punk77 website. He decided to write & publish a book, so he did! Roxy London WC2 peels back a layer or two of the generally accepted history of the short lived but famed London punk club. That being that it was only open for 3 months when in reality it was actually more like 14 or 15 months.

Its not a perfect book, but Marko admits as much up front. After reading the aforementioned accepted history for so many years, its refreshing to get a deeper look in to what was an incredible hot bed of creativity in such a short amount of time. View all my reviews.

I miss the old New York

Via

The Hotel Diplomat

Read an epic & fascinating history on New York's Hotel Diplomat over at This Ain't the Summer of Love. For a time, back in the late 60's through the early 80's or so, the Hotel Diplomat played host to some very cool music history at 108-116 West 43rd Street. It's no longer there.

Meet the family

My sister and I, mid 1980's:


My mother, late 1950's or early 1960's:


My father, mid to late 1960's:


My father as a boy, early 1930's:

Daily travels

Uptown F-train:


Brooklyn bound B-train:

Stuff collected along the way

As I go through the stuff from my photo albums, here's some more stuff from the journey:

For reasons forgotten now, I wrote a letter to Roger Craig, manager of the San Diego Padres at the time. This is what he sent back to me:



Munson, Kingman, Seaver, Kranepool, Roy White, and 3 NY Giants - autographs from various appearances these guys made at car dealerships, store openings, etc:













A Tommy Lasorda business card...this is pretty cool but I can't remember who gave it to me:



A business card from Mario Andretti's personal manager. It folds open to reveal the contact information:



I haven't seen one in many years, but deaf & retarded people in need used to wander the subway systems of NYC and hand these out to folks in hopes of getting a hand out. I always thought sign language was beautiful, not to mention nice & quiet, but I'm glad I never had to use it:

And the hits just keep on coming

One of these days I'll post MP3's and talk about my very first band, Chappaquiddick +5, until then...here are some more photos. The first one is quite special.

Chappaquiddick +5 at the Office, Nyack, NY, 1983. Guitarist Danny, on the left, wore a Hess gas station attendant shirt that night. Me, on the right, wore a Hertz Rental Car shirt. I really got out a kick out that:


Chappaquiddick +5 in the Borscht basement, 1983. This was Steve's basement in Pearl River, NY. You'll notice Mike, front right, is holding a Schaeffer beer along with his cigarette. That was the beer of choice in the Borscht basement. Tall boys:


Borscht at CBGB, 1983. This must have been just prior to Connie leaving Borscht and joining Chappaquiddick, which is when Adam Nodelman came into the picture with Borscht:


Proof sheet of action at the Office, Nyack, NY, 1983 - click for a closer view:


Proof sheet of action at the Office, Nyack, NY, 1983 - click for a closer view:


Me at a loft party my band, the Gibson Girls, were playing in Boston in 1989 or 1990. I had bought the coat that day at a used clothing joint called "Dollar A Pound." I gave it away that same night: