Just Daisy! Daisy checks out the Just Chaos! opening at Bookmarc

Our pal, Daisy, who usually checks in once in a while with her Letters From London, happens to be in NYC this week. Last night she attended the opening of the Just Chaos! photo show at Bookmarc in the west village. Here's what she had to say:

Met lots of punk rockers last night - ahem… maybe I shouldn't have started with the word "MET". Did you read the reviews of the Gala at the Metropolitan Museum's annual fundraiser Costume Ball the other day?  Someone on TV actually asked Vivienne Westwood who she was wearing,  and they didn't mean her Bradley Manning jewellery.

I read about the Gala in the Costa Coffee lounge at Heathrow. They have free newspapers. The Times of London loved it: "Crowns are the new Tiara's," they wrote. The Daily Mail hated it (probably because Lady Diana is dead and couldn't be there).  

I am a bit confused about it all.  It's not like the designers were meant to re-create 1976, were they?
I thought Madonna's outfit with her signature crucifix on her bottom was trying hard, and please, someone, give Sarah Jessica Parker something to eat.

Bookmarc is a clean and bright corner bookshop owned by Marc Jacobs. Yes the fashion designer.  I am glad he has a bookshop.  He used to work for Louis Vuitton.  Now there are 200 Marc Jacob stores in 80 countries. This show was organised by Roberta Bayley who invited Punk Photographers:  Janette Beckman, Stephanie Chernikowski, Laura Levine, Julia Gorton, Eileen Polk, Marcia Resnick, Lee Black Childers, Danny Fields, Godlis, Bobby Grossman, Bob Gruen, Chris Stein and Joe Stevens, to put a few photos each in the store windows and amongst the punk rock literature inside.

Sofia Coppola tins of wine and Pelligrino were served.

Because I had been a little thrown by the torrential rain in the morning, but decided to visit the local thrift shop to see if they had anything interesting, $15 got me a pair of red tartan trousers.  Perfect!
I didn't see a pair of converse at the show but I did have a wonderful time - this included:

John Leyland & Andy Schwartz

Speaking with John Leyland (nee SPIN now NYT) about going to the punk show at the Met.  We both hoped the Gala was successful even if the punk exhibit fails. I saw Leee Black Childers (another Warhol Factory man) but we couldn't chat because he was being interviewed all evening pretty much.

Randy Haecker

I admired Laura Levine's photographic career and she told me how she organises events at her shop upstate called The Mystery Spot.

Randy Haecker told me he's working on a Clash Box Set (I forget how many discs but there are quite a lot).  He had a Marc Jacobs bag and when asked to show-and-tell he didn't produce a shirt or a tie, but a book, nicely wrapped, by photographer SHEILA ROCK.  Sheila just had a book launch in London.

I met a real-life ballgirl for the Phillies baseball team:  Ms. Ronnie Norpel.  She's even written a book called Baseball Karma & The Constitution Blues. 

Howie Pyro & Jahn Xavier

I met Howie Pyro who told me his punk rock flyer collection is still up in the Bowery Electric and will be for a few more weeks. 

I stood with Jahn Xavier who could name most of the people on the sidewalk from his youth - and I mean YOUTH.  He was 16 when he played bass for Richard Hell.. he named the CBGB's waitresses amongst others...

My Smoking Life

I met a Jewish-Norwegian man who had given up smoking three days ago.  WELL DONE.  I may have said, it's a bit of a mystery why we smoke, isn't it? And he produced a typed - on a TYPEWRITER - paper - why he liked smoking.

The Huff Post team lead by Mark Sax were on the sidewalk.

Handsome Dick Manitoba and Handsome son Jake were present. 

Handsome Jake & Handsome Dick

It was warm.  It got dark.  Godlis took a last look at the window before heading off to his neighbourhood.

Someone said, "I can't believe I'm nearly 60."

"You have such great skin."

Someone else said, "That's because we don't go out in daylight.  Rock and roll isn't a daylight thing".

I hopped the uptown train with a good friend.  We talked about Dylan, and people we knew, and how we are going to raise some funds of our own, without mentioning google, internet, like it was 1976.

See more photos of the event here.

From left: Julia Gorton, Laura Levine, Bob Gruen, Godlis, Stephanie Chernikowski, Bobby Grossman, Marcia Resnick, Roberta Bayley, and Leee Black Childers.

Low Fidelity - The Photographs of Bobby Grossman 1975-1983

 Low Fidelity - The Photographs of Bobby Grossman 1975-1983 by Bobby Grossman

Bobby Grossman

The recently published Low Fidelity - The Photographs of Bobby Grossman 1975-1983 is a hugely credible addition to the steadily growing collection of catalogs, books & films looking back at the mid-70's thru mid-80's. Bobby Grossman definitely pushes the envelope of hip. 

Starting in 1975 when he met future Talking Heads Byrne, Frantz & Weymouth at the Rhode Island School of Design, Grossman moved on to NYC and joined the in-crowd downtown. His subjects included the Talking Heads, of course, as well as folks like Andy Warhol, David Bowie, William Burroughs, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Debbie Harry, Fab 5 Freddy, and others, at places like CBGB and the Mudd Club. Special mention goes out for Bobby being the official photographer of Glenn O'Brien's TV Party cable access show!

Read the excerpt below written by Chris Frantz & Tina Weymouth (check out their excellent new Tom Tom Club album here). It's one of the many contributions from the impressive list of Bobby's subjects & friends that you'll find inside. Big thanks to Bobby for the images & text.

 Order Low Fidelity here. Visit Bobby's official website here. 

Bobby is represented by Vertu Fine Art in Boca Raton, FL.

Glenn O'Brien

On the set at TV Party

Anya Phillips

Talking Heads in the studio

Rhode Island School Of Design in the mid seventies was a real hothouse of interesting characters ready to bloom. After four increasingly ambitious years in Providence, we had explored Benefit Street from one end to the other and we were ready to make our mark in the world of art. For some of us, there was never any question that this would mean moving to New York City. In New York we hoped to rub shoulders with our heroes Andy Warhol, Lou Reed and John Cale, Robert Raushenberg and John Cage.

We knew that New York would become our city, too, and that one day we would be identified not as artists who came to New York, but as artists who came from New York. We used to say things like "When I'm rich and famous,H but what we really meant was not that we wished to become rich and famous. but that we hoped our art would be remembered by kids like us in the future.

There was a bar called CBGB on The Bowery of all places, and this is where some of us would make history. Our friend Bobby Grossman from RISD had the foresight to bring his camera to CBGB and to start shooting photos that chronicle those very intense and important early days. We are older now, but we remember that intensity very well and are so pleased to have been among his subjects. Bobby photographed the cover for a song we would become famous for, "Psycho Killer," that we had written when we were still students at RISD. It was that great art school education that set us apart from most of the other bands. We had been taught to always put something unique unto ourselves into our art. This what we did, and this is what Bobby did, too. We hope you enjoy these images as much as we do.

- Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth (Talking Heads/Tom Tom Club)

More Bande à part plus Bob Gruen speaks

As mentioned this summer, the Bande à part book is out & available now. Just as a reminder, it features photos by featuring photography by Roberta Bayley, Leee Black Childers, Stephanie Chernikowski, Danny Fields, Godlis, Bobby Grossman, Gerard Malanga, Maripol, Billy Name, Anton Perich, and Marcia Resnick

As a part of the festivities, the Clic Gallery in Soho will be hosting an exhibition to highlight the photographers featured in the book from November 10 thru January 3. There is an opening reception on November 14.

November 10, 2009 - January 3, 2010
Opening Reception: Sat., Nov 14, 6-9pm

Clic Bookstore & Gallery
424 Broome Street, New York, NY 10013
Tue-Sun 12 pm - 7 pm
212-219-9308


(J. Rotten courtesy of BobGruen.com)

Also, this Saturday, as part of the Brooklyn Museum's Who Shot Rock & Roll? exhibit, none other than Bob Gruen will be appearing & talking about his life & career in photography. Details as follows:

Saturday, November 7th at 5:30 PM
Tickets are available free at the visitor center in the museum lobby at 5 PM
200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, New York (718) 638-500
(NY Subway # 2 or 3 train to Eastern Parkway/Brooklyn Museum of Art)

Bande à part: New York Underground 60’s 70’s 80’s

Originally published overseas a couple of years ago, and touring internationally since as a gallery exhibition, the wonderful photography collection Bande à part will finally see the light of day here in the US in September thanks to Gingko Press.

A comprehensive expose of the New York Underground in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, Bande à parte is a collection of photographs taken by those who were the eyes in the darkness, the insiders among the outsiders of art.

What distinguishes this group is that they are not professionals in the sense that taking pictures wasn’t really a job, it was a compulsion, something they had to do. Billy Name was a major domo at the silver Warhol Factory, Gerard Malanga was a poet and Warhol’s painting assistant, Danny Fields was a mover and shaker in the record business, responsible for the management of such talents as Iggy and The Stooges, The Doors and The Ramones. Even those who were photographers by trade were not the kind who waited for assignments, they were self-taught anthropologists who wanted to document their time, their place. And clearly, these pictures tell their stories better than words ever could.

Features photographs by Lee Childers, Billy Name, Anton Perich, Maripol, Roberta Bayley, Godlis, Bobby Grossman, Danny Fields, Stephanie Chernikowski, Marcia Resnick, and Gerard Malanga.

It can be pre-ordered from Amazon right here.
See more photos here.

208 pages, Paperback, 9'' x 11 ¾'' (230 x 280 mm)
120 color and b/w illustrations, English
ISBN: 978-1-58423-272-8
$ 35.00