Anita Sarko: A remembrance by Richard Boch

Richard Boch & Anita Sarko, 2010

Remembering Anita Sarko:

1979 and 1980, Mudd Club, 77 White. Lou Reed’s “Sweet Jane” (live version, Rock ’n Roll Animal), “Public Image” PiL, “The Lost Sheep” Adrian Munsey—baaaa baaaaaaa baaaaaaaa—clearing the dance floor at 4AM. Anita Sarko’s spinning records and I’m working the door; that’s when and where we became friends. Early mornings, her place on Jones Street, more music and whatever else was lying around. A sharp wit, Anita’s sweet and not too scary, still beautiful at 9AM. The daybreak hours gone, I walk out into the sunshine morning: dark glasses, a cigarette, brain cells still burning. I’m heading home, having a laugh, knowing we’d both be back for another round, another night on White Street. 

Anita left her job at Mudd before I did. Thirty-six years came and went fast. I missed her then. I miss her now.

Richard Boch

Below, Anita discusses the early days of her career with videographer Merrill Aldighieri in 2013 - they worked together at Hurrah.

Obituaries of Note: Anita Sarko, Joe Moss, Mark Murphy

Anita Sarko - RIP

Joe Moss - RIP

Mark Murphy - RIP

Trash & Vaudeville Leaving St Marks Place After 40 Years!

Trash & Vaudeville circa 1980. By Michael Sean Edwards.

BIG news out of the East Village this morning via EV Grieve! After 40 years, Trash and Vaudeville will be moving around the corner and down the street. They'll be leaving St. Marks Place for a new spot on East 7th between First Ave and Ave A. Get the full story over at EV Grieve.

Trash in front of Trash. By Tim Broun.

The Velvet Underground Map of New York

 The Velvet Underground Map of New York

#savenyc

savenyc.nyc

#saveNYC

No stranger to these pages, Jeremiah of Jeremiah's Vanishing New York, has started an undertaking of large proportions - a socially driven website to help restore some sanity to the collective culture of what New York City is these days. This is a cause that is most definitely close to my heart, and possibly yours as well. And its EASY to support!

The website can be found at saveNYC.nyc.

There's a Facebook group.

And any related tweets can be tagged with what else? #savenyc.

All contributions are welcome!

Need further convincing? Check out Jeremiah's recent op-ed piece as run in the New York Daily News!

"Apparently, New York’s been waiting for you Starbucks, Olive Garden and Applebee’s. And for you Ralph Lauren, Marc Jacobs and Michael Kors.

Small businesses in New York City have no rights. You’ve been here 50 years and provide an important service? Tough luck — your space now belongs to Dunkin’ Donuts. You own a beloved, fourth-generation, century-old business? Get out — your landlord’s putting in a combination Chuck E. Cheese and Juicy Couture."

John "Hoppy" Hopkins RIP

John "Hoppy" Hopkins - RIP

Hoppy's website

Paul Gorman on Hopkins' photography

The 59 Club, 1964, by John "Hoppy Hopkins

 

Books of Note: Cookie Mueller and Billy Name

Cookie Mueller by Tobi Seftel

Edgewise: A Picture of Cookie Mueller

By Chloé Griffin, with contributions from John Waters, Mink Stole, Gary Indiana, and many more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Billy Name by Michael Polito

  

Billy Name: The Silver Age

By Dagon James & Billy Name, with contributions from John Cale, Glenn O'Brien, and Gerard Malanga.

 

Eighties Youth Culture Books of Note - Derek Ridgers: 78-87 London Youth, and A Scene In Between: Tripping Through the Fashions of UK Indie Music 1980-1988

 

Derek Ridgers: 78-87 London Youth

Derek Ridgers official website

 ----------------------------------------------------------------

A Scene In Between: Tripping Through the Fashions of UK Indie Music 1980-1988

Strawberry Switchblade with the Pastels

The Jesus & Mary Chain

My Bloody Valentine

The Shop Assistants

New film alert: Teenage - In US theaters now in limited release

It just opened this past weekend in NYC, and will be opening in the following cities over the next couple of months:

• March 21: Los Angeles
• March 28: Austin & Irvine
• April 4: San Diego
• April 11: Atlanta
• April 18: Denver & Philadelphia
• April 25: Berkeley & San Francisco
• May 2: Dallas
• May 9: Seattle
• May 23: Boston, Minneapolis & Washington, D.C.

Official website

Facebook

Twitter

The Diggers on To Tell the Truth: Emmett Grogan tells it like it is (1972)

A first edition copy of an astounding book, copyright 1972, with art by Larry Rivers

Leave it to Paul Gorman to dig this up. Ringolevio, A Life Played For Keeps has long been one of my favorite counterculture memoirs. Its author, Emmett Grogan, has often been under-credited, or just plain written out of the history of "the movement" when it comes to the story of San Francisco, and bridging the gap between the beats and the hippies. Read this book, however, and you'll understand that Emmett was the man. He really had it sussed.

Anyway, not only does Paul have some great things to say about the book & its author, he also dug up the incredible clip below of a guest appearance by Grogan on that 70's game show staple, To Tell the Truth. Man, the internet has everything, doesn't it? It even includes Joe Garagiola. This is golden.

SHOWStudio to celebrate William Burroughs centenary with Kate Simon exhibit

SHOWStudio Gallery in London will be celebrating the 100th birthday of William Burroughs with an exhibit of 11 photos of the man by our pal, Kate Simon! The show will open March 13, and will run through May 19. Wish I could be there...The gallery is open from 11:00-6:00, Monday through Friday, and is located at 19 Motcomb St, London, United Kingdom.

From SHOWStudio.com: SHOWstudio Shop will host a solo exhibition of portraits of William S. Burroughs by Kate Simon to celebrate the occasion of his centenary. The exhibition will mark the debut release of Simon’s Cibachrome Edition portfolio, which is comprised of 11 iconic shots of the literary master printed in the now extinct cibachrome medium. These rare photographs will be displayed alongside a selection of black and white limited edition prints. Taken over a 20 year period, Simon has amassed a critical body of work that is widely unseen and captures the many faces of one of the most important American writers of the twentieth century. Continued here.

Movie of the Week: Trench Town, The Forgotten Land (2007)

The Origins of Saturday Night Fever: Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night by Nik Cohn

The story that changed a whole lot things, I've been meaning to post this for quite some time. Written by Nik Cohn, and published by New York Magazine on June 7, 1976, it would eventually lead to the making of Saturday Night Fever, and the disco-fication of the States and beyond. Not to mention a serious career revival for the Bee Gees. Art by James McMullan.

Over the past few months, much of my time has been spent in watching this new generation. Moving from neighborhood to neighborhood, from disco to disco, an explorer out of my depth, I have tried to learn the patterns, the old/new tribal rites. In the present article, I have focused on one club and one tight-knit group which seem to sum up the experience as a whole. Artist James McMullan also spent many hours observing this development, but his paintings, reproduced here, are less specific; although they deal with the same locations and group, they are generalized images of these Saturday night rituals.

Everything described in this article is factual and was either witnessed by me or told to me directly by the people involved. Only the names of the main characters have been changed. Continued here.

New documentary: Jamel Shabazz, Street Photographer

It seems you can't shake a stick these days without coming across a really cool music-based documentary. Charlie Ahearn, best known for being the filmmaker responsible for Wild Style, as they say, back in the day, has a new one making the rounds at the moment - Jamel Shabazz: Street Photographer. Covering Shabazz's influential shots from the early days of the New York hip hop scene, it gives life to the several excellent book collections that include his work like Back In the Days, A Time Before Crack, and others.

Jamel Shabazz: Street Photographer will be screening, starting today, through August 8 at Lincoln Center. For times & tickets click here.

Movie of the Week: Riot On Sunset Strip (1967)

The amazing soundtrack for this classic 1967 exploitation movie includes some hits from the Standells, and the Chocolate Watch Band.

Movie of the Week: The Diggers of San Francisco

The Diggers movement began in San Francisco in the mid 60's. Post-beat, running parallel to the hippies but not really of them, leaderless & anarchic, somewhat formless & unorganized, its perhaps because of this they've never really gotten the attention they deserve. 

For more on the Diggers, check out The Digger Archives, and read Emmett Grogan's amazing memoir, Ringolevio: A Life Played for Keeps (I've read it twice).

Hat tip to the mighty Joe Nolan.

Shot by: Gerard Malanga - a happy 80th birthday to Mickey Ruskin!

Max's Kansas City founder, Mickey Ruskin, by Gerard Malanga. 

As those in the know tell me, things would not have been the same without Mickey.
And I believe them.

Documentaries of note: Ain't In It For My Health & Portrait of Jason

Here are a couple of recent films I plan on seeing soon:

Shot over the last couple of years of his life in and around his home in Woodstock, NY, Ain't In It For My Health tells the story of The Band's Levon Helm.

Official website here.
Official Facebook here.

Shirley Clarke's Portrait of Jason tells the story of a one time, real life NYC character, Jason Holliday. The restored 1967 film was shot entirely in one night in Jason's room at the Chelsea Hotel. Read a terrific write up about the movie in the New Yorker here.

Official website here.
Official Facebook page here.

Movie of the Week: All Dressed Up & Going Nowhere (1971)

Buddle Road back lane, Newcastle, UK ©Newcastle City Council Planning Archive, source

A documentary filmed in Newcastle Upon Tyne in 1971, All Dressed Up & Going Nowhere looks at the skinheads, and their rivals, known as "the hairies". Thanks to Anorak Thing for pointing to it.