#it’s such an entertaining way of talking and if you didn’t know he played warhol I recommend looking up a clip to see what I mean lol

[brookbee]

the problem with watching movies and tv shows is that I start copying whichever character has the most interesting way of speaking and long story short I’m trying not to talk like david bowie’s andy warhol impression lest I sound insane

[drowsyroger]

Cool Cat.

pairing: Roger Taylor x Fem!Reader warning: unedited mediocre writing words: 2,024  about: was inspired by this gif, decided to make a blurb about it but got carried away. @secretsweetscollectionblog made me do it.

You were excited.

It’s been months since George last asked you out on a date due to his busy schedule consisting of endless meetings and several business trips to America and other parts of the world, and you were in no place to complain because as what he always reasons out: “It’s for our future, love”.

George was not a bad man himself, in fact, he’s far from bad but far from being good. He’s got few flaws here and there and you couldn’t help but just understand the man you were about to spend the rest of your life with.

You wore your favorite black swing dress paired with a matching sling-back kitten heels, your mother looked at you in awe as she slowly took in your silhouette. You put down your rouge after it painted your lips red then looked back at her, your lips breaking into a smile. “You look so beautiful,” she smiled back as she stopped leaning on your door frame “Here! I have something for you!” your mother’s voice chimed in an exciting tone, approaching you with a little leather jewelry box in hand. You knew what’s inside it and you gasped, “Mum! You don’t really need to!” you exclaimed and she just shrugged it off, handing you the box and opening it to expose her very own diamante earrings. She helped you put it on and whispered, “He might, you know, pop the question” and you giggled, shaking your head “I doubt” was all you could say.

She was right, George might pop the question. He’s booked the both of you in a fancy restaurant located at St. James’s and you’re glad he did, you missed him and you’re kind of expecting him to actually ask you the big question.

So there you were in front of Wiltons, the hostess offered you to stay inside the restaurant but you insisted not to, arguing that you usually wait for your date outside. It was one of George’s not-so-favorite moves of yours, he would always rant about you getting so early to the place and wait for him outside that he always feels so bad for himself, but he got accustomed with it after a year of seeing each other (although he said he hates it still).

It was getting cold and all the warmth you could get is through hugging yourself and whispering profanities under your breath. 30 minutes in and there was still no signs of George showing up. You were about to give up when you saw a familiar Mercedes-Benz roadster and that made your face gleam in hopes that it’s him but instead, it showed a different man.

He looked at you with a smile plastered on his beautiful face (you swore he’s like a prince charming) as he passed by you then broke the eye contact when you decided to look the other way because it was getting awkward.

It was brief yet it made your stomach do a somersault.

The man, in many aspects, seemed to be better than George. A laid-back lad with a better sense of fashion. The guy was wearing jeans with his dress shirt and lounge jacket and no one ever looked so good in that kind of outfit. Hell, he even looks amazing with the messy hair he’s rocking.

You admit that you’re starting to have a little crush on him. Just a little won’t hurt, right?

You gave up on waiting for George outside the restaurant and decided to let the hostess usher you to the designated table he reserved. Fortunately, as soon as you get to your table, you caught a glimpse of the attractive man returning a fur coat he brought with him to an equally attractive woman. It was very clear that they were in a heated up argument, the woman aggressively grabbing the coat was a dead give-away. She stormed off with it and it caused quite a commotion as she accidentally hit a wine glass along the way.

You pursed your lips as you felt the secondhand embarrassment all while you watch him scratch his head and leave a few bills to pay for the wine glass. Your grip on the menu tightened when he started to look around then met eyes with you, grinning as soon he realized you were the woman standing outside the restaurant. You quickly averted your eyes to the menu, hoping that he won’t go to your table as you hear his chair making a noise.

Spoke too soon, you guessed.

“I apologize if it caught your attention,” you slightly peeked from the menu, seeing that it was him. “Mind if I have seat?” he asked and you nodded your head in reply, he only chuckled in return and sat on the chair opposite of you anyway. “It’s my friend’s ex if you’re wondering,” you don’t know why that made you feel a little bit eased. “I’m Roger, Roger Meddows Taylor if you needed the whole name to stop you from peeking through the menu” he playfully smiled at you and you put down the menu on the table.

Right then and there you had a full frontal of his face, you just realized what a beauty he truly was. His doll-like drowsy eyes complimented every feature of his face.

You cleared your throat and told him your name, stopping yourself from observing him way too much.

“And who are you waiting for, love?” he asked, “My boyfriend… he’s supposed to be here like an hour ago…” you replied as the waiter poured the both of you white wine on your respective glasses. “He’s an asshole then, making a beautiful woman wait for him” the first reaction you would have given was something of protecting George but Roger was right, he kept you waiting even if he knows that you do go to your date earlier than expected.

“It’s pretty boring here, isn’t it?” “Yeah…” “Let’s get your swing dress to have its purpose, yeah?” “What?”

The next thing you knew you’re both in front of the restaurant waiting for his car.

“Roger, I’m supposed to be waiting for George!” you argued, Roger scoffed as he entered his car once the valet stepped outside of his car. He looked at you as soon as he sat on the driver’s seat, “The only George you’re allowed to wait for is George Harrison only!” it made you smile a little but you cleared your throat “Fine! I’m going with you because I don’t have a choice!” then you got inside his car.

Roger was absolutely fun at parties you could tell. He’s more of an opposite of you, you’d prefer to be inside your room to rest, read or sleep for as much as you can while he’d totally go out and enjoy the rest of the night drunk with his friends.

He didn’t tell you where you’re going and just continued driving around (and it felt like you’re both driving in circles but it doesn’t really matter), you thought it was helping you cope with the thought of George ditching you back in the restaurant.

“I’m guessing you don’t like dancing?” he tried to break the silence and you hummed in denial “I actually do like dancing, do you?” you replied and he smiled “Sometimes!” he said with a smile. You have never met someone as good-looking as Roger, he gets handsome in every minute you look at him and that’s ridiculously getting out of hand.

He brought you to Ronnie Scott’s insisting that it’s better than being oh so formal back at Wiltons’. “So what do you prefer?” he asked you, referring to a drink you’d like to have “I’ll have a pink squirrel” your reply made Roger give you a wry reaction.

The middle of the club was unusually empty, accommodating the people who want to dance the night away (as the sign outside says it’s Dance Night). Looking around, people from different age groups enjoyed the performing jazz band’s music as it echoed through the four walls of the club. It made you realize how you never really had fun as you mostly spent your time in your room or boring dates with George. It all made sense right then.

“Glad that you’re liking it here,” Roger went back with your drinks “Here’s your uh… boring drink” he mocked. You rolled your eyes and scooted the glass closer to you, “It’s a preference,” you raised your eyebrow at him, “My preference” you made sure you made yourself clear. Roger grinned at you then leaned closer, “Getting comfortable now, love?” he asked and you replied with a nod as you sip on your drink.

Roger was entertaining, he didn’t focus on his interests and best believed that it’s your interests that will ignite a really good conversation going between the both of you. And you did like it. You talked about art and how you landed a job in the British Museum as part of the education department staff.

In the middle of talking about Andy Warhol, some people from the middle started to go back to their seats as soon as the band’s rendition of Peaches and Herb’s Reunited started to play. Couples swaying to the slow beat of the soulful music absent-mindedly just looked at their partners as if they were the only ones inside the club.

You felt Roger hold your hand as he stood up, you looked at him in confusion “What are you doing?” you whispered and he tugged on your hand “Let’s dance!” he replied and dragged you to the middle. You gave him a dumbfounded look as he put his hands on your hips and made you cling onto his neck.

“I just want to let them know how beautiful you are tonight,” he whispered in your ear and you felt your cheeks flushing red “And I bet that you always do” he added then smiled at you. You were glad that the lights were dimmed and that he cannot clearly see how much you’re blushing. “Stop it” was all you could say and he grinned at himself, swaying the both of you to the music.

You never thought you would enjoy the company of a stranger but you have finally decided that Roger is not that kind of stranger. He is definitely something. You wished that you should have met him earlier, earlier than meeting George.

But all things have their endings.

“Thank you,” you patted his arm as he stopped his car in front of your apartment. “I definitely had fun, how about you?” he asked and you smiled at him, nodding your head “Of course I did”. Roger felt sad as he realized that this might be the last time he’ll see you and you did as well. “So…” he trailed off, looking at you in the eyes, hoping that you would say something. “I think it’s time for me to go back now” he slightly felt down at what you said but he agreed “Yeah, it is” then he tucked in a few strands of your hair behind your ear. You were about to take off his lounge jacket when he stopped you from doing so, “Don’t, I’d be glad if you’re going to keep it as a souvenir” he insisted “But—” “Please?” he pleaded “Okay” you nodded your head and opened the car door. “Oh, I forgot something” you leaned close to him and kissed his cheek. “Again, thank you” you smiled and went out of the car.

You immediately went inside your apartment and closed the door behind your back, leaning against it. Your heart was beating fast like a teenager’s when they got their first kiss. Taking off his jacket, something fell from its inner pocket and you picked it up.

Roger Meddows Taylor Next to it was his home number.

You quickly opened the door and saw him still parked in front of your apartment, about to go when you waved the piece of paper at him.

It, fortunately, got his attention.

“You sly one,” you whispered to yourself as he grinned at you, waving back then driving away.

friends that might want to read this: @secretsweetscollectionblog , @ironqueen98 , @drowsyrog , @rogerisinlovewithhiscar , @tanya-is-dead , @duvetsandpillows, @flick-of-the-wrist

[marymccartneyphotos]

A Life Through the Lens

The Telegraph- June 6, 2011

As a collection of Linda Eastman's best photographs - as chosen by her family - goes on display in a London gallery, her daughter Mary McCartney tells Roya Nikkhah that her mother's motto was always "Keep it simple" 

In May 1968, Linda Eastman became the first female photographer to feature on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine with a portrait of Eric Clapton. Less than a year later, she married one of the most famous men in the world to become Linda McCartney, and was thereafter known primarily as a Beatle’s wife. 

“No one knew I was a photographer,” Linda once said. “When I married Paul, to [the fans] I was an American divorcee.” 

McCartney died of breast cancer in 1998 aged 56, but her family are determined to ensure that her accomplishments as a photographer live on. For the last year, McCartney and his daughters Mary, a photographer, and Stella, a fashion designer, have sifted through Linda’s archive of more than 200,000 images, to collate Linda McCartney: A Life In Photographs, a book of some of her best work, accompanied by limited-edition prints. 

The retrospective encapsulates her work as a leading music photographer, with iconic images of Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, the Rolling Stones and, of course, The Beatles. But while it covers studio sessions with the likes of Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson, it is also an intimate family album, with touching and many previously unseen pictures of the McCartneys raising their young children – Heather, Mary, Stella and James – at their farm in Scotland, on holiday in the Caribbean and at home in London. 

Mary, who talks openly of her mother’s huge influence on her own career, is wandering around the cavernous white space of the Phillips de Pury gallery in London, where a selection of the prints are being hung, among them Linda’s famous photograph of a baby Mary peeking out from inside her father’s sheepskin jacket, which later illustrated the cover of his first solo album, McCartney, in 1970. “It looks so cosy, doesn’t it?” says Mary. “That’s how they’d go riding together – zip me in there and go for a little horse ride.” 

Mary speaks movingly of her regret that her mother’s work wasn’t more widely recognised, so often overshadowed by the McCartney name. “She didn’t self promote or do lots of interviews, she never blew her own trumpet, and so she was often pigeonholed as a celebrity who dabbled in photography, which isn’t how it was at all. 

“People didn’t realise that it was through her photography career that Mum and Dad met and that she was a photographer way before she had a family with Dad. But she wasn’t that bothered about what other people thought about her, it’s more probably us, her kids, who got irritated.” 

Linda’s break came in 1967, when she was the only photographer allowed on to a boat on the Hudson River in New York where the Rolling Stones were performing. The candid photographs of the band at work and at play paved the way for commissions from Rolling Stone and other leading glossy magazines. 

“People know quite a lot about her Sixties work, but Stella, Dad and I were interested in showing a broader spectrum, as well as those iconic images,” says Mary. “When she got married, she stopped being a jobbing photographer doing all the bands in New York. When she moved to London, she carried on with a very similar style and eye, but her subject changed. She was still photographing the people around her, which were her family and friends.” 

A previously unseen photograph of Twiggy shows the young model relaxing off duty during a visit to Linda in London shortly after Mary was born in 1969. Another shows her young brother, larking around with McCartney in a bubble bath in 1983. “This one really shows her style,” says Mary. “Mum’s motto was always 'keep it simple’ which I stick to. She would never pose us all. 

“With Dad and James in the bubble bath, she would just walk by and have thought visually that was quite strong and have taken the picture. She’d always have the camera on her so these are all like pictures she’d take as she was wandering through life.” 

Mary moves towards a black-and-white picture taken at their farm in Scotland in 1982, showing Paul standing on a fence in his dressing gown, while Stella crouches on the ground and a young James, in his pyjamas, leaps off the family Land Rover. “This one is a genius, but she won’t have set it up – it will have just been everybody there. That fence was really wobbly and we used to have a competition to see who could walk the longest along it before you fell off. It wasn’t very stable. I never, ever got all the way along.” 

Mary remembers watching her mother at work; her subjects would barely register they were being captured on film. “She would have the camera with her but wouldn’t hold it up in your face for a long time, so she wouldn’t be clicking all around you – she’d chat with you, take a snap, put the camera down, so you didn’t have time to start posing and feeling self-conscious. She never intimidated people.” 

Linda herself spoke of always trying to penetrate beneath the “veneer” of celebrity subjects like Jim Morrison, lead singer with The Doors, and her friend Jimi Hendrix. “People could confide in her, because she wasn’t a gossip,” says Mary. “Hendrix in particular became a bit disenchanted [with photographers] because they always wanted him to 'perform’ – be all rock and roll – but she was friends with him because she loved his playing, so he didn’t need to be like that with her.” 

I wonder if Linda ever regretted relinquishing her successful career in New York after marrying Paul? “Talking to Mum, she had become a bit disenchanted with the music industry by that time,” says Mary. “She found that as the years went on, there were more lawyers and PRs around the record companies, who were more and obstructive. 

“She was also being asked to get much more sensationalist pictures, which she wasn’t interested in doing. She told me people would try and get her to go to Andy Warhol’s Factory and take pictures of people shooting up, which wasn’t her style. It was enough to make her feel uncomfortable. She needed to be enjoying it to stay stimulated, so I think she’d got to a point where she’d done her bit.” 

One of Mary’s favourite works in the gallery is Whisky and Milk, Scotland 1978, a black-and-white shot of an empty whisky bottle and a milk bottle side by side on the kitchen table. “I love that and it’s one of Stella’s favourites, too. It shows her quirky side and her sense of humour. She always thought that was quite entertaining, you know, the contrast of both bottles equally enjoyed by different age groups. 

“This is one of my favourites too,” she says, moving over to Paul’s Feet, where McCartney grips a glass with his feet, toe-nails varnished in rainbow colours. “It kind of says a lot about Mum and Dad.” 

Mary published From Where I Stand last year, a retrospective book accompanying an exhibition of her own work. While editing the book and show, she noted the similarity between some of her pictures and her mother’s. “I looked at some shots and thought, 'that was a picture Mum could have taken,’ but the difference between us is that she wouldn’t care about missing a shot, whereas if I see something and I haven’t got a camera, I can get quite stressed. 

“She was very chilled, she’d say: 'It’s a soul camera moment’. Now, if I get annoyed that I’ve missed a shot, I try and think, 'Don’t worry, it’s on the soul camera’. I say it and don’t really mean it, whereas Mum could really let it go. She had everything captured in her soul camera.” 

* Linda McCartney: Life in Photographs is at Phillips de Pury (Howick Place, London SW1, www.phillipsdepury.com) from June 7 to June 16. The book is published by TASCHEN and available for £44.99 at www.taschen.com

[sleemo]

Jedi master Mark Hamill geeks out with Bill Hader

— Interview Magazine Nov 9, 2017

From the time of the ancient Greeks, humanity has been fascinated by the struggle between good and evil, often led by an archetypal chosen one who blazes a path of glory by separating himself from the pack. As a young actor toiling between auditions, Mark Hamill’s moment of destiny came when he took a break from TV fare such as General Hospital to read for a role in a little sci-fi film helmed by a young director fresh off an Oscar-nominated hit called American Graffiti (1973). When Hamill was cast in the original 1977 Star Wars as Luke Skywalker, an orphaned farm boy growing up on a desert planet, no one—chief among them Hamill himself—knew that the film would become one of the most influential and profitable franchises ever made.

When the announcement came a few years back that Hamill would reprise his role as the Jedi Knight in J.J. Abrams’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015), along with his original co-stars Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher, fans went wild. But while Hamill’s screen time was relegated to a small appearance at the end of that film (Skywalker, in ascetic seclusion on a remote planet, is discovered by a young woman who exhibits strong signs of the Force), the second installment of the new trilogy, next month’s The Last Jedi, is squarely focused on Skywalker’s journey.

On a late September afternoon, the comedian, actor, and Saturday Night Live alum Bill Hader (who was a vocal consultant for the droid BB-8 in The Force Awakens) called up Hamill from the Sony lot in Los Angeles to geek out about that iconic galaxy far, far away.

MARK HAMILL: Hi, Bill!

BILL HADER: Hey, man!

HAMILL: I’m a big fan of yours. My kids tell me that you came to my house before you were on SNL.

HADER: Yes! I was a PA on Empire of Dreams, the documentary about the Star Wars movies, and I came over to pick up some pictures of you. I sat in your living room, and I believe it was your wife who brought down the pictures, and I was like, “Oh my god, Mark Hamill’s so rad.”

HAMILL: Was I not there?

HADER: You weren’t. I didn’t want to touch anything, and the whole time I kept apologizing for my existence.

HAMILL: Were any of my kids there? Nathan or Griffin or Chelsea?

HADER: No, but when I first moved to L.A. in 1999, Nathan and I ran in the same circle for a bit. I had a friend who had a massive crush on him. I remember once we had to go to this bowling thing because Nathan was going to be there. [sirens wail in the background] Sorry, I’m robbing a bank right now. Hold on.

HAMILL: [laughs] I saw your tauntaun and Jabba the Hutt impersonations on YouTube. It’s a talent of yours I had never seen. I like that you keep alive the legacy of some of the actors that I love, like Vincent Price. I’ll be talking to people your age and younger, and I’ll mention Lee Marvin [Hamill’s co-star in The Big Red One, 1980] and a lot of them will go, “Who’s Lee Marvin?”

HADER: Oh, my god.

HAMILL: It just goes to show how fleeting fame is.

HADER: I remember I was at Comic-Con once, and I looked over and there was this long line for, I don’t know, the stars of some lesbian vampire series from Mexico, and then all by himself was [stop-motion animation and special effects master] Ray Harryhausen.

HAMILL: Did you go talk to him?

HADER: Yeah! I was like, “Oh my god, you’re Ray Harryhausen.”

HAMILL: He’s always been an icon for me. I was so into that stuff as a kid. I mean, The 7th Voyage of Sin-bad [1958] and Jason and the Argonauts [1963] and First Men in the Moon [1964] and on and on and on. I lived for that stuff. I got to interview him once on the floor at Comic-Con for Comic Book: The Movie—he was the quintessential gentleman of another era.

HADER: Were you always a fan of this stuff?

HAMILL: I was a total freak for these kinds of movies. As for getting the role of Luke Skywalker, I really stumbled into it. Just last year, I saw that they included our audition tapes as a DVD extra, and I saw William Katt’s and Robby Benson’s and Kurt Russell’s tapes, and they were all great. It seems so arbitrary that I was anointed.

HADER: Was it true that they were casting for Carrie [1976] at the same time?

HAMILL: When we auditioned, it was a total cattle call, where they didn’t even tell us about the movie—we just went in and talked for a few minutes. Brian De Palma was looking for actors for Carrie and sitting next to him was George Lucas. Since Lucas didn’t speak the whole time, I thought he was De Palma’s assistant. I didn’t know what he looked like! So I did my thing, and a couple of weeks later, I went to my agent, and there were six or seven pages of audition material for me. By the time I got the part, I assumed that Harrison Ford was the lead, because he’s a traditional leading man. I thought I was going to be his sidekick, you know, like Captain America and Bucky.

HADER: Or Batman and Robin.

HAMILL: Then I opened up the script, and at the time it said: The Adventures of Luke Starkiller as Taken From the “Journal of the Whills,” Saga I: Star Wars. I just couldn’t believe my eyes. I thought, “How are they going to do all this?” Robots, the Death Star, all of it—it blew my mind.

HADER: Did you have confidence that they could do it?

HAMILL: You have to believe. But it’s always a little disconcerting—what you imagine in your head and what you see on set.

HADER: Describe a moment on set when you went, like, “Wait, these are the Sand People?”

HAMILL: The lightsabers, for a start. George referred to it as the most expensive low-budget movie ever made. At one point, Fox screened raw footage to some people, because they needed more money to finish it. Imagine it with no effects, no music, no nothing. The general consensus, because it played so horribly, was that they should just shut it down and take a tax loss. It was only [20th Century Fox executive] Alan Ladd Jr. who saw the potential and gave us his blessing. I think they gave us like a million and a half more. Do you remember seeing it when you were young? Did it scare you, or did you love it?

HADER: I remember going to see Return of the Jedi [1983] on my fifth birthday—the people tearing the tickets were dressed as stormtroopers—but the first image I can remember on a movie theater screen is that close-up from Empire [The Empire Strikes Back, 1980], of Han in carbonite. I flipped out, and my dad had to take me out of the theater. Then he told me the whole thing on the ride back; he was like, “Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker’s dad!” And that’s how he said it—not his father, his dad. [laughs] What was it like, back then, leading such a massive franchise?

HAMILL: It was kind of like The Prince and the Pauper, where one day you’re nobody and the next you’re partying with Andy Warhol. It was surreal. I came from a big enough family, so I didn’t let it get to my head too much or change my view of the world. The first time I went to the Oscars was like that, too. It wasn’t really me walking the red carpet. It was like watching a movie of a Hollywood premiere. You have to have an intellectual distance from it, because it’s so atypical from your everyday life. I’m sure you feel the same way. You can’t sit in the park and people watch anymore, that ship has sailed. Star Wars ebbed and flowed, but I never expected it to come back, certainly not with this intensity. Carrie and I were in Orlando, with fans. It’s just astonishing the passion and affection that they have for all of this stuff. It’s overwhelming. You can get emotional about it because it’s so personal, the way they relate it to their own lives.

HADER: Batman, too. [Hamill has served as the voice of the Joker in animated series, films, and video games, starting with Batman: The Animated Series in 1992.]

HAMILL: That’s a whole subgenre of comic book nerds who know that I’m a nerd, too. I’m one of them, so they love the fact that I’m not posing.

HADER: What is it like working with [Last Jedi director] Rian Johnson or J.J. Abrams, people who grew up with Star Wars? Is it ever weird to be told things about your character, when you know him better than anyone else?

HAMILL: With J.J. and with Rian, it’s the first time that the fan generation has grown into being in the position that they are. I was surprised in many ways how they saw not just my character, but the overall piece, because you get really possessive over the years. But Rian, what a blessing that guy is. He is unassuming and amiable. I’ve never seen him raise his voice. I’ve never heard him curse. I never heard him humiliate anybody else in front of the entire crew.

HADER: [laughs] When the first trilogy ended, did you feel a sense of relief? I know when I left SNL, it was a big relief.

HAMILL: It was exhilarating. It felt like senior year of high school. You know those last moments when you’re clearing out your locker? You’re going to miss all these people you know, but there’s the exhilaration of what comes next. It’s like jumping out of an airplane and hoping for the best, hoping your parachute opens. I was lucky that a lot of pressure was taken off financially; I didn’t have to do stuff that I didn’t want to do, so I indulged myself. I always wanted to do theater, so I did lots of theater. I got to do a comic mockumentary, and I wrote a comic book, and I discovered that the Joker gave me a whole new career. I didn’t expect to be the Joker, of course, but with voice acting, it liberates you to play characters you’d never do in a million years because you’re physically not right. You can show up looking like hell, you don’t have to memorize your lines because you can read them right off the page, and you get to play the most fun parts. You come in and you kick everyone’s ass and you get your own ass kicked, and then you go home.

HADER: I do animated things, too, and they’re so much fun. But do you get tired after a session?

HAMILL: Oh, yeah. It’s a real workout. But it’s so entertaining. It’s like going to a really great nightclub act and getting paid for it.

HADER: I really liked The Big Red One. What was that like?

HAMILL: I was a huge Sam Fuller fan. Within five minutes of meeting him, I went, “Holy Christ, I’ve been drafted!” He got up on his feet and he started telling me the story of that film, with the explosions and the rat-a-tat-tat, and I was mesmerized. He had such charisma, such magic. He was a firecracker, like Yosemite Sam. I was traumatized when it came out because, even though it got good reviews and takes its place among the great war films, it wasn’t what we all hoped for. They cut it down to an hour and 50 minutes, to the point where it was so incomprehensible. Now, of course, it’s been restored to its proper length. If anybody’s reading this and is thinking about watching the movie: make sure it’s the two-and-a-half-hour version! Not that truncated version. I wish Sam were alive to have seen that because that would have made him happy, and he deserved it. Like any great artist who is ahead of the time, he was not welcome in Hollywood at a certain point.

HADER: There was a great documentary about him called The Typewriter, the Rifle, & the Movie Camera. That was when I first heard about him.

HAMILL: Was I in it?

HADER: You’re not talking in it, but there’s a clip from The Big Red One in it.

HAMILL: Okay, yeah, I remember that one. I hope you and I get to work together some time.

HADER: That would be awesome.

HAMILL: I have been loyal to Saturday Night Live from the very beginning. When it first came on, I said, “We’d better enjoy this because it’s for sure going to be cancelled. This is only going to last one season.” So I started taping them all. I had no idea it would become such an institution. I guess we can both relate to getting lucky and hitting the jackpot.

BILL HADER IS A COMEDIAN, ACTOR, AND WRITER. THIS SPRING HE WILL STAR IN THE HBO SERIES BARRY, WHICH HE CO-CREATED.

— Interview Magazine

[bleederziine]

Reaching Out: An Interview w/Pool Holograph

The first time I saw Pool Holograph they were opening for The Walters at their famed (at least in my tiny Chicago/surrounding suburbs college student music scene) show at Lincoln Hall. As someone who was there specifically for The Walters, to give Luke a sweater that anyone who ever reads this tiny blog already knows about, I was surprised by what a great show they put on. It was artful, chaotic, immersive, and for a first band on a lineup of four, I thought it was quite impressive that they gave it their all, instead of phoning it in like many other openers I’ve seen who are too caught up in the construct of not being the “headliner.” Read more in the interview below and enjoy some of my favorite photos I’ve taken so far to hear about their often entertaining thoughts on art, music, and themselves.

Paul: How was the tall boy?

Zach: I chugged it down as fast as I could. It was not great.

Wyatt: I chugged mine really fast because I was really excited to come over but now I’m kinda drunk right now.

SUB/VERSE: You’ll be more honest!

Wyatt: Yeah, right…

Paul: Well Wyatt’s a compulsive liar

Wyatt: I’m more like a ridiculous liar. I accidentally tell the truth and overtly falsify everything else.

SUB/VERSE: So how did the band start?

Wyatt: We were just talking about this recently! I feel like us getting together was we had a good little start with me and Zach having a collaborative element, but now its this new band that has stemmed from this little stream that I think ended up flourishing through that kaleidoscope effect when you get more people in the room. Going from there it just elaborates on ideas. We were just saying that you can do your own thing, but you can’t possibly capture what everyone else is doing, I couldn’t manufacture what anyone else does in the band, and i think everyone else feels the same way about themselves in the band. Pool Holograph kind of started with the self titled “Pool Holograph” album I put out, in 2009-10. I just put it on the internet without any plans to perform. That as a project was the first songwriting project I did, which was something about openness and exploring. Its kind of how life goes, it comes in kind of unexpected ways that give you motivation. I like to look at it as the band started when we all decided to get in the same room. When I think about Pool Holograph now I think about all of us. I like to think about it as a state. This artist Philip Guston was asked why he made art, and he was like, I just want to stay in this state. He’s saying that state is about a moment, about getting back to that state, not thinking about all the shit you’ve been through. I don’t know if that’s too long an answer, but I just get really excited about this stuff. Music is crazy!

SUB/VERSE: What do you write most about in the band?

Zach: Thats all Wyatt really. I think the reasons we’re all interested in music, there’s sort of a movement in each release of music. We want to keep exploring different ideas and figuring out what it means to do that.

Wyatt: I think recently its been about more lucid authorship, being more tangible, more direct. I’ve seen songwriting in the past a lot like a diary, just venting and trying to get outside of your head. Being like, this is me! I totally relate! Its the same reason you make art as a kid, like a Avril Lavigne collage or something, like “yeah, sick! I totally get you and you get me!” The artists we really like are ones that are kind of reaching outside themselves, or what they know themselves to be. But more to answer you question, the kind of stuff this album is about is the outside world, and relating to the outside world, and things you don’t understand, and relating to others. With each song, its not a different struggle for each one, its not that concrete like a concept album, but Transparent World  is about being able to see through everything in a way, and being able to see into yourself and to… its really tough to describe. On a concrete level, you can be like, this one is about car rides, or a spooky dream, or an argument…

Paul: I feel like there’s a lot of anxiety in the songs, and your relationship with the outside world, and dealing with your inner self.

Wyatt: Anxiety is a word we see in a lot of reviews for the music. I hate the idea of being super cryptic. With this album, I tried to, like, pick a color, like how do you want to describe this? And make some sort of effort to be more specific so people can relate to you.

Jake: I feel like its a constant struggle to describe what  the music means to us. You think you have an idea about what it might be, but its not easy to just nail down. Playing wise I think its like an airplane, like you’re on the runway and you speed up and then you’re in the zone and you understand it or you don’t but you’re with all your friends and you know what each other’s doing.

Wyatt: You kind of have a feeling for the parameters and discussion of the song. Talking about a specific song, the first one, Codex Hammer,  the way that was written is it was supposed to be very thin and light and see through. Its kind of a precursor to the rest of the album, like here’s your debrief: you’re in this place right now where no one will be able to understand you and you can’t necessarily understand anyone else. Hammer codex, or Hammer lee caster is Leonardo da vinci’s diary. I thought by switching around the words, codex being a book, and hammer being like a forceful objector, a book as a forceful object. Thats kind of how you experience life, you’re constantly barraged. The part of the song where its like, “expecting a hand on your palace gates/ expecting physical contact on your palace gates/but you had a hammer coming” is like, the forces of the world have no regard for your intake. So what you do with it is up to you and within your faculties. Its important that as an individual, what you do is sacred.

Zach: Part of remaining active is staying malleable to whatever facets of your life are hitting you the hardest. Those are the things you have to deal with the fastest.

Wyatt: I think malleable is a good word, because we all like to have fun when we’re writing, and kind of mess with each other. I’m pointing to Jake because I mess with him a lot! I get in his face a lot and climb all over his drums. I don’t really see that as a rock n roll kind of thing anymore. I see myself as a mountain goat, just propping myself up and feeling good. I don’t know why! About two years ago, almost to the day, we played a Halloween show. We were a custoomed band, as the nihilists from the Big Lubowski, all in black, and I had a fake ferret. When I jumped on Jake’s drums, I jumped on him because my shoes were too slippery and while I was jumping I got scared and just jumped on him. Then I kicked out the drum set, and realized it wasn’t our drum set! I had to get on the mic and apologize, which is the most un- rock n roll thing ever! It was fun for other people though. I hate the idea that you have to listen back to this, I just keep rambling!

No its fine! When I called Alex from the Modern Vices the first thing he asked was whether the interview would be published as a podcast because he was nervous about how he’d sound! I was like you’re a singer but okay!

Paul: We had a really painful Chirp interview that I can’t listen back to…

Zach: We were so stressed out.

Wyatt: I started talking about Bob Dylan and i had no idea what I was saying.

SUB/VERSE: Well I hate listening back to these because I sound like a pre pubescent boy on recordings!

Wyatt: You gotta own that! I sound like Peter Pan’s dog, like the character no one wants to hear from.

Jake: I don’t hate my voice.

SUB/VERSE: So I read that some guys in the band went to Saic? When do you think music is art, what makes it not art…?

Wyatt: Thats a good question...its all in tandem, its all the same exact thing. Same process, although they have different limitations with the way society sees it. You can do really socially unacceptable things on stage, and you can do different socially unacceptable things on a page. I didn’t mean for that to rhyme, or sound like a quote or anything! (in gruff Keith Richards type voice) Whether its on a stage or a page, I rock the show! Make sure you include the stogie puff. Anyway I don’t think its dogmatic to say they have to be in the same place, because sometimes you’re in a really sweaty room and you’re coming up with something and coming up with ideas. I mean, the activities are different but their from the same well.

Paul: I think all music is art, whether its a perfectly constructed pop song or an experimental 20 minute track. It can all affect someone.

Wyatt: Thats not to say the trajectories aren’t different. Its really beautiful how music has its own place, like, I’m going to go to a record store and put it on this device and experience it. As a listener, the experiences aren’t the same, but the authorship comes from the same primal place. I think the way we as society antiqaute these things is beautiful. I think its cool that music in some ways is off limits because theres a pull to it. I think art and music have their own worlds and angular relationships, and there are crossovers. But the clarity of those crossovers isnt necessarily for enjoying them. What do you think?

SUB/VERSE: Well I definitely think music is art. I really like thinking about people who don’t write their own music but have an interesting way of performing.

Wyatt: Yeah… there are some Andy Warhol works that he never saw or touched, and I think that was a part of his art.

Zach: I think people like that can be the vehicle for the music, and I think thats an important part of the performance part of music. Music can contextualize a moment and explain how it felt, or the time period it was written. For each person you were doing very specific things when you heard certain songs. I think thats a big part of music as an art form, its community based, and a theatrical thing.   

Paul: Its crazy how some of these songs you wrote two years ago still feel weird or uncomfortable when we’re playing, or  feel new. Its great when you can get a crowd going, like that Walters show was awesome, because they got everyone going crazy. Being able to strike that emotion in people is the ultimate goal of performing.

SUB/VERSE: I think its crazy when you’re at a show and the performer is directing everything, like someone jumps off a stage at specific moments or whatever.

Wyatt: But the weird part is that the performer is also being provoked by the audience! You see performances fall apart because the crowd is dead. Its bigger than all of us. And i like that. For any performer, no one is a master of it. Its a sort of intangible, unstable…

Paul: Just reacting to everything around you, taking things as they come.

Wyatt: Yeah, I like looking at music all in that same sphere. Sometimes it strikes at the right moment, and thats really cool, but its like any chemical reaction. Like oh there’s a cloud, a group of molecules, and its in the shape of a rabbit, and thats really cool! Thats phenomenal I’m going to take a picture of it!

Paul: We just stand in the formation of a rabbit onstage.

Wyatt: Its basically just us looking like a rabbit for people on nights that it works. I like to look at it like its that surrendipitous. Like Pool Holograph is a mistaken name. Turns out a holograph is a body of text, which is a weird coincidence. But its like the top of the pool, basically, and its this sort of amorphous thing, and its this one thing to look at. And its never the same for everyone, and there’s a lot of depth underneath it that no one sees. Its striking, and its going away. Its about fleeting things and I want to keep in that zone. I never want to be like, nailed it, write it down, put it in the history books! We live in a really great time to play with other great live bands and be a part of this community, and thats all you can really ask for.

INTERVIEW AND PHOTOS BY CHLOE GRAHAM

[paultoner]

Take a Bite of Niall Candy

From dancing onstage with Charli XCX, to working almost every party you wish you were on the guestlist for, meet the London based drag queen about to push the throttle on their career.

Glitz. Glam. Galore. These are the type of words which spring to mind when you’re about to meet up with one of London’s most exciting drag queens. But it’s early Sunday evening and I find myself at a desolate pub tucked behind Granary Square in Kings Cross. The kind of place firmly left behind as London’s nightlife suffocates in gentrification. I’m surrounded by kids aimlessly trying to entertain themselves whilst their dads use the penultimate hours of the weekend to have a well-deserved catch up with good ol’ Stella Artois.

Niall Candy’s look today is rather tame, but within our unfortunately bleak surroundings, he’s as subdued as a jock-strap plastered in Swarovski crystals. His milky complexion compliments the pale pink kawaii-printed shirt he’s wrapped himself in, his eyebrows half shaven, his dark curls concealed by a beret held put by three rather large bedazzled clips. “At the moment everything has to be pink” he confesses, “the hair has to be pink, the eye makeup has to be pink. I don’t know why but if I put on anything else I don’t really want to wear it and I don’t really want to go out.” He politely turns down my offer to buy him a drink, he’s not the first boy to do so. Thankfully this time it wasn’t due to my piss-poor chat up lines, but because of a heavy night before, hosting a party at the Ned Hotel in Bank, “I basically got payed to stand around and look pretty all night, it was great.”  

Essentially Niall Candy is the Clark Kent of drag (as if Superman could get any camper?) By day he’s a final year fashion journalism student at Central Saint Martins, where he’s about to embark on his final major project, “it’s a magazine basically like the Country Life, but full of drag queens.” By night, he’s one of the most innovative faces within London’s queer nightlife sphere. “I learnt a lot of my drag make-up style from my friends in Paris. The House of Morue. I lived out there for 6 and a half months” he tells me, “that’s where my boyfriend lives. And he does drag. So I kind of had my own style, then I was very inspired by their style which is very severe. Very Mugler woman. Then I took part of their style, part of what I was already doing and I think it works.”

Candy’s look has evolved from stepping out a Harajuku day dream with gentler, dainty male-drag looks, like a school boy after a growth spurt, to larger-than-life anime eyes reminiscent of a Lady Gaga, Hello Kitty inspired, shoot back in 2010. To now, a mutant woman, subverting the clichés of feminine beauty. Endearing, with a dash of sexual confusion. Carrying the elegance of a forgotten starlet spat straight out the mouth of Andy Warhol’s Factory.

Long before we felt the true effects of the Ru-pocalypse, when drag was catapulted straight into the mainstream all thanks to a little show called RuPaul’s Drag Race, Candy was already doing drag for a hot minute. Clad in pleather skirts, New Look wedged heals and a fringed wigs straight out of the bag, a fake ID was his gateway to amercing himself in the serotonin-washed bliss of the capital’s queer nightlife spaces, from Dollar Baby in London Fields and Hoxton’s East Bloc, all at the tender age of sixteen.

Growing up in Watford, he was the only out-gay pupil in a school of 2,400 students. He needed an escape from heteronormative lifestyle of mundane village reality. So he downloaded Twitter and got in contact with Smiley Vyrus, a new kid to the London drag scene at the time, who he began spending most weekends with. “I would not go to school and not say anything to anyone, get my friends to sign me in” he admits, slightly squeamish at his once irrational behaviour, “ I would just get the train straight into London and stay at someone’s house and go out for the weekend.”

Although, his now signature mug hasn’t always had a mesmeric hold, confessing many of the queens he has recently affiliated himself with didn’t recall meeting him in his premature days of drag. Partially due to his naive skill with the paintbrush, “it was terrible, like I had that brow, that Latina bam bam” gesturing at a brow arched over half of his forehead’s surface area. But for the most part, because of a four year hiatus Candy took away from the scene.

A drastic revaluation to his life choices, Niall decided to swap spending his time dating 24 year olds from North London for the books. He had a lot of catching up to do. For all those days in his first year of sixth form spent with a lipstick or a glass of champers in his hand as opposed to a pen, dedicating all his free time toward his studies, even missing close friends’ eighteenth birthday parties in preparation for his A-Level exams.

Speaking of eighteenth birthdays, it was only shortly after his when Niall’s family decided to emigrate to Canada, “I really didn’t want to do drag when I first got out there because I needed to like find a friend” he says, before breaking into an embarrassed giggle. Thankfully, he only spent a year across the Atlantic before returning back to London in time to enrol for Central Saint Martins, and reintroduce himself to all the pretty thrills of his drag closet.

Two years into validating drag as a viable career path, it’s only been within the last few months that the cheques have begun to write themselves, “those queens who think RuPaul has made [drag] a very acceptable thing to do, they’re the ones who think they’re gonna become instantly famous and make all that money straight away. I can tell you from experience, I’ve been doing drag consistently full time for 2 years, maybe 3 years? I don’t know it all rolls into one, enough drunken nights it’s just like a blur. I’ve only in the last 6 months started to make money. Like enough that I can actually survive.”

And who better to continue your drag journey with than your boyfriend? Although Candy isn’t quick to shrug off accusations of jealousy, “we both decided to do drag stuff at the exact same time, and now sometimes it’s a jealous motivation” he admits, “If you’re gonna look good. then I’m gonna look good as well. It pushes us both to work a lot harder, its two brains instead of one, I never have a look that I don’t run past him first.” He speaks of Timothy through a particular tenderness, a genuine admiration. Throughout our discussion this evening, I’m arrested by Niall’s sincerity. He gives me hope that once you get through a drag queen’s tough outer shell, they’re surprisingly sweet on the inside.

“He’s quite genuine in a city full of fakes, I’ve always been struck by his kindness”, says Bailey Slater, a fashion journalist who first met Niall at age fourteen, waiting in line for a Charli XCX gig, “he’s always been a great person to get advice from, a real sweet soul.”

Niall speculates a supportive family network is at the route of his kindred spirit. Raised on a random stew of Cher, Gwen Stefani and Dolly Parton “In our house Dolly is held to a level of godliness”, his brother, eleven years senior of Niall, played a key role in paving his queer influences. “My brother made me watch Party Monster when I was a child child, and my parents lost their shit” he recalls, “he is very pro-gay, very pro-LGBT. The way he said it to me, as soon as he realised I was going to be gay, which it was no secret, he tried to educate himself as much as he could.” His parents are equally as supportive, as he jokes about a birthday post his mum wrote for him on Facebook were she only posted pictures of him in drag.

His passion for drag is potent. From throwing a sash around his head pretending to be Cilla Black as a child, to today, telling me plans of heading to America to escape the crippling restrains of being a queen in London, it’s unequivocal that he’s destined to make it. He has that dreamboat charm, with a twinge of awkwardness, the primal ideal of creative integrity, with common decency.

We walk to Euston station together, casually talking dreams of owning breast plates and plastic surgery wish-lists, I’m halted in query, “how do you plan to manage your double life? Balancing a full time drag career with hopes of also making it into the fashion industry. ” He ponders, “I honestly don’t know, but in the least cocky way possible, I want this so much that I will get it. I deserve everything.”

[shirohibiki]

@where-fading-princesses-live said: You make a lot of good points. But I actually enjoyed this episode all things considered, I know it’s Squidward Torture Porn but he didn’t suffer AS much and always came back in one piece. I just thought it was overall funny, not as funny as the old ones, but better than most of the new ones. How Krabs keeps restraining SB but SB always finds a way to follow Squid and bring him back? Classic Looney Tunes style humor. 

And playing up to the fact that yes, most artist’s work only became valuable after their deaths. It’s dark humor, I found it pretty witty actually. My favorite part though: SQUID: Get off of me!/ SB: I’ll never get off of you, Squidward! Idk so funny. XD I never take these episodes too seriously tho so…

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i take them very seriously. these are my lifeblood. it’s canon, so i’ll analyze the shit out of it 8) it’s fun to pick them apart and get into the nitty gritty~ but no no, don’t get me wrong, i definitely enjoyed it! and you’re right, there was considerably less suffering somehow than other eps?? even though the premise was grim? rofl, i’m just glad for that. i don’t have an “old vs new” thing, i consider everything on an even playing field, and i’ve been loving these new episodes for the most part. there are some misses for me, but overall i think they’re great and the animation is gorgeous. seriously, they’re doing such an incredible job with it?? gosh. anyway, i love that spongebob always finds a way to escape <3 but yeah i LOVE THAT PART SO MUCH O M G... i must watch it again...... i need to

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@yestinyjellyfish said: I can see why it’d make make you mad cuz Krabs literally tries to kill Squidward in the “nicest ways possible” but I don’t think the premise is terrible. They’re just making fun of the art market: “Performance art can’t put a price on it, because it lives in the moment” obvious nod to Yoko Ono and Andy Warhol, etc. All the old masters and even the more modern artists of the cultural revolution were only able to sell paintings after they died: Van Gogh, Frida Kahlo…

If you ask me it’s the most intelligent episode they’ve done in a loooong time. I’m as much of a Squidward fan as the next person but I wasn’t put off by the humor in this one. “Squid Baby” and “Are You Happy Now” on the other hand… 

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no, i know; i’m fully aware of what it’s alluding to, and i understand that -- i just still don’t like it because y’know, attempted murder and all lmao. i get that "popularity after death” a thing that happens and stuff, but... yeah. i dunno. and idk, i feel they’ve done plenty of ‘intelligent’ episodes, but hey, i’m not a very good critic xD i agree though, i too feel it was done well -- SO much better than it could’ve gone. LIGHTYEARS better. a very solid improvement from the past--

now waiT A MINUTE WHO SAID YOU COULD MENTION SQUID BABY

ILLEGAL. WE DO NOT SPEAK OF THE DEVIL’S NAME. OH GOD I’M GETTING FLASHBACKS AGAIN WHY THIS

you’re right, you’re totally right and i realized that before but i realize it even more now -sobs- GOD those were both so fucked up. god. god. i’m so glad this one didn’t go that way, because it COULD’VE. there was such dangerous potential for it to. -sniffles- they’re learning...

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@ourironpersoncollectionpost said: It could have been disturbing but I think they did a good job this time it was fun and surprising and it didn’t hurt to have hinted at SquidBob

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yeah, you’re right. they really did. i’ll need to watch it again to reassess -- it’s hard when you don’t have time to pause >.> i really did like it a lot, even if it bugged me thematically. there was so much squidbob ughHHHH <3333 i’m proud of them for taking a light and fun route rather than the fuckin’ horrifying shit they could’ve pulled. GOOD JOB, WRITERS. GOOD JOB. NOW GIVE US MORE SQUIDBOB PLEASE

i love talking to you guys about it! :D thank you for entertaining my nonsense~

[auskultu]

Andy Warhol and the Big Bird—Pop Pope Casts Mama Cass

Danny Fields, Hullabaloo, May 1967

SHE HAD ALWAYS BEEN FASCINATED WITH HIM... AND HE HAD ALWAYS WANTED TO MEET HER ...HULLABALOO SAW THEM TOGETHER, SAW HER POSING, SAW HIM FILMING HER. AND THEN... AND THEN THEY WERE INTRODUCED.

ONE OF THE nicest things about being a famous person is that it becomes more or less simple, depending upon the circles in which you move, to meet other famous people. This is the story of one such meeting, when the great Cass Elliot and the great Andy Warhol got together one day, at long last. I guess I played no specific role in bringing these two extraordinary creatures face to face; but I can, with your permission, work myself pretty boldly into the background, from whence I can supply a lot of atmosphere, subplots, pace, and truth. Eye & ear witness.

THREE BEGINNINGS To begin with: To begin with, I hope you know who Cass Elliot and Andy Warhol are.

To really begin with: The earliest events are pre-historic, if not proto-historic. Anyhow, there was a time way back in the early 60's when a fairly successful commercial artist and a fairly successful off-off-Broadway actress and singer (no kidding, that's what people did then), hung out at various coffee shops and bars on and near MacDougal Street. Who knows how many times the two of them waited together for a light to change, or sat in the same row at the Cherry Lane (Theater), or maybe even noticed each other. How could they not? But there is no record of it.

Finally, a Proper Beginning: (In honor of which, I go into the present tense). Here we can pick up the first certified occasion in this story.

IT IS April, 1966. Warhol is now an international celebrity, reigning soft and strong o'er the New York pop-art, underground movie, and uptown hippie scenes. The triple crown. Well, it would be enough for almost anyone, but it is time to add another scene. So Warhol gets himself a rock group–The Velvet Underground—which has been fired from club after club for being too far out. He puts the group in an abandoned Polish catering hall, surrounds them with (or submerges them under) moving lights and slides and strobes and films and whip-dancers; and thus he brings a new scene to the old town.

The Plastic gets booked into The Trip in Los Angeles. On opening night, April 1966, Hollywood's pop aristocracy turns out en masse to see it. The Queen, Cher, walks out, telling a reporter, "This will replace nothing, except maybe suicide." Cass Elliot, who will soon be The Empress of LA, digs the show and comes to The Trip many times while it is booked there. Andy meets the more aggressive Hollywood celebrities, like Jennifer Jones, but Cass simply leaves each night when the show is over. They do not meet.

ENTER, CASS May 1966: The Mama's and the Papa's have the #1 single and album in the country. The group is very much happening, and is in New York for a concert in Newark, which I cover for a magazine. I introduce myself to Cass backstage, and interview her. She tells me, among other things, that The Plastic at The Trip knocked her out, that she went every night. I write a short piece titled "Megamama," in which I use her quote about The Warhols. Then I tell Warhol that Cass is a great admirer of his, and he indicates that he is flattered.

August 1966: the strange events of the day it all happened. The Mama's and Papa's are in New York again for a concert at Forest Hills. Their record company gives them a reception at a chic Manhattan restaurant. The Megamama thing is now in print, and I show it to Cass who reads it aloud. MEANWHILE, ACROSS town at Warhol's studio, which is called The Factory, a very bright boy named Stephen Shore, who takes photographs and hints, gets the news that Cass is in town. Stephen suggests to Andy that Cass be invited to the Factory for a screen test.

A Warhol screen test is a silent closeup, three minutes long. It is, on one level, simply a way for Warhol to determine how a person looks on film; on another level, it is a movie portrait by the world's greatest contemporary portraitist; it is also a tribute, for Warhol will really only test people who are famous, important, rich, beautiful, or brilliant to begin with.

Back to Miss Eiliot, who is reading my story about her aloud. She comes to where she is quoted on Warhol, and re-speaks her own words with the original enthusiasm. Right at this point, a waiter begs her pardon and hands her a slip of paper: "A telephone message for Miss Elliot." Cass interrupts reading what she had said about Warhol three months earlier, and reads the communiqué. "It says Andy Warhol would like me to visit his Factory tonight to do a screen test!" she shrieks. "Wow is this fantastic! See, I knew there were vibrations between us. This is more than a coincidence; it's significant! Who knows what Warhol's sign is?" "Leo," I said. "Leo! Perfect! You don't know what this means! I don't know what it means either, but it has a meaning. I'll do it!" And up she springs, headed for the phone.

SUPERCOOL WELCOME The Mama's and Papa's arrive at the factory together, while the small crowd gathered there is looking at the first screening of a movie made by Andy earlier that week. Cass, John, Denny, and Jill (the interim Mama, remember her?) walk from the doorway to the screening area. As they move down the length of the vast tinfoil-coated room, no one rises to greet them, no one even makes a gesture to acknowledge their presence. This is not rudeness—just Factory cool in action, or non-action. The guests are from a cool scene also; they join the screening audience and look at the film.

The film ends, the lights are turned on. Some kids get up and move around, some speak, some remain seated looking ahead as if the movie were still on. The Mama's and Papa's are absorbed into the rhythm; some move, some talk, some sit. It was as if they'd always been there.

Andy is standing in a far corner, examining reels of film. His assistants begin arranging flood lights, setting up the movie camera, waving light meters around. A chair is set down in front of the movie screen.

Stephen Shore brings the word to Cass. "Pardon me, Cass. Andy would like you to sit in that chair." "Sure," she says. She walks to the chair, sits down, sits up, crosses her legs, uncrosses them, watches the preparations with curiosity and patience.

EVERYTHING IS ready, and there is really nothing to be done except to start the film rolling. Warhol, who has not yet exchanged a word with Cass, emerges from the darkness to perform the ceremony. Standing behind the camera, he looks at Cass for a moment.

"Just look at the camera," Andy tells Cass. He looks through the viewfinder and turns the switch. Three minutes later, it is done.

"Let's do another one. The same," he announces. Cass remains seated, Andy walks away, and the camera is reloaded and reset. Andy returns and shoots another three minute test.

"That's it," Andy says, and walks away again. Cass follows him with her eyes, then approaches him. "How was it?" she asks. "Oh, fantastic," Andy answers. "By the way," Stephen volunteers, "Cass, this is Andy. Andy this is Cass." "How do you do?" Andy says. "Hi," she responds. "Well, how did I do?" "Would you like to do a longer film tomorrow?" Andy replies, by way of answer. "Oh yes, yes," Cass says with exuberance. "I'd really like to do something in films. It's not enough for me, what I'm doing now. I want to get to more people and do more things, especially movies. Yours are so beautiful, Andy. I wanted to tell you that in Los Angeles, but I never had a chance." "We have to put you in a longer movie," Andy says. "She'll be a super-star," Stephen says. "She already is. She'll be Girl of the Year," I say. "You're Leo and I'm Virgo, and I knew something had to happen," she tells Andy. "I'm very mystical about these things."

FIRST IMPRESSIONS RECALLED "How was it?" I asked Cass as she waited for the elevator. "Danny, I can't begin to tell you what's in my head now; I can't even think about it. You have no idea how this whole thing turns me on. It's too much. I'll talk to you tomorrow." She has been thrilled. It has gotten to her, Andy's scene, his style, his perception.

No less than she has gotten to him. He is entranced by her presence, her style, her power, her magic. He knows what the film will look like; he knows how great she will be, how she will occupy the screen with her charismatic force, how the film will be Cass and Cass will be the film. "Did she really mean it?" he asks me. "Does she want to do another film? She's so fantastic. She's a star, wow. I hope she means it. Cass Elliot. Wow," Andy goes on, sounding like the world's biggest fan, which he is, and which is one of the sources of his genius. The very famous do not do things like everybody else, but then again, they do.

EPILOGUE I: That time in New York, Cass and Andy didn't get together again after that night. Two weeks later I was leaving for LA, and I asked Andy for prints of the screen test to bring to Cass.

I brought them to her one night. In the dining room of her legendary mountain-top A-frame house, she was entertaining Mr. and Mrs. John Sebastian when I arrived; an artist seated downtable was doing a pastel portrait of the hostess, while she looked through a portfolio of his work for paintings to give her friends. I asked her, now that she had presumably calmed down a bit, what her thoughts were about Warhol and his films.

"I only knew about his movies from seeing them at The Trip," she began. "I was fascinated by the totality of it. I became totally involved in them, completely and totally involved.

"Like just that movie of a guy eating a Hershey bar and drinking a coke. I don't think there has to be much action in films. It's internal. It's a study. Just watching someone staring is very groovy.

"Well, you saw how I flipped when I was asked to make a film for him in New York. I was pretty nervous and excited when I got to the Factory. I thought Andy was very shy. He didn't talk to me until it was over, then he said 'That's it.' Oh wait, before he started he told me to look at the camera. That was the only other thing he'd said.

"But I knew he was there all the time, and it made me feel better. I felt he was communicating with me by just looking at me through the camera. I was so involved with it. What was I doing? I was doing what was happening.

"All his female stars have been so beautiful. I'm so off-beat looking, but I felt that my combination of off-beatness and sensitivity would appeal to him because I knew he had tremendous sensitivity himself. I wanted very much to get to him. I think he should use more people like me in his movies. What did he say about me, by the way?"

"He said you were a fantastic person, external and internal, all around fantastic," I said. "Yeah," Cass said. "I think there are some things there."

EPILOGUE II: this is sort of a sad epilogue about the time last November when Andy and I went to visit Cass in her hotel suite thirty floors above Central Park. What makes it sad is that things didn't go down too well between them that night. There were hang-ups and pressures and intrusions. It doesn't matter what the hang-ups were, but they were mainly things concerning fame and public images and responsibilities, and they had a negative effect on communication.

What really counts, though, was that night at the Factory, for it was then that everything was harmonic, and felt, and unspoken; and it was then that Andy Warhol filmed Cass Elliot. He saw her that night, and while he was seeing her, she was understanding what it meant to be seen by him. It's all there in a portrait which lasts six minutes.

A very sharp girl who is a close friend of Cass said of her: "Cass has lots of hang-ups, but you know, they are not the hang-ups of a fat girl; they are the hang-ups of a beautiful woman."

And when, just after the screen test, I asked Andy what title he would give the long film he wanted to do with Cass, he looked at the chair in which she had sat, and said, "Oh, I think we'll call it The New Beauty."

[percentmagazine]

La Biennale di Venezia.

Art is Life.

Lets start with the fact that I love Venice. I love everything about it… except its bridges. There is nothing wrong with bridges themselves, but they all have steps, and I loath steps. So once we are done with my personal negativity, lets go for something much more inspiring and entertaining about that wonderful little city. Here is all about Venice Biennale — an international contemporary art exhibition.

Countries chose their best artists to represent their art and culture on the festival. In many ways Biennale is like a Eurovision, but much more global and with art. And when I say art, I mean all art: paintings, sculpture, music, performances, motion pictures — everything!.. even the most absurd stupidity that is regarded as "art" only because its mentally ill creators named it as such.

And here I should ask a question — what is art and why does it has such an important historic value?

Century ago art wasn't global and it wasn't for everyone. A commoner could never pick up a quill and write a poem. 90% of humanity worldwide couldn't even read their own name. They were uneducated, thus art was never a job for a commoner. And even if they wanted to write music, they had no idea about musical grammar, and if they wanted to draw, they could have never afforded paint or any other materials.

Yes, the native art always existed — and it is a pride of every nation — however in most cases it was primitive and simple. Yet the high art was also present! I'm talking about those fundamental master pieces that we see in museums. What is it? Why were they made? By whom? And most importantly, for whom?

Although art schools existed long ago, they were very limited, and in most cases artists could never find the job… there is even a Russian saying "Artists are hungry", because commoners had no need, nor interest in art… decor, clothes and music where the only exception. All other art forms were an intellectual thing, thus only intelligent and well educated high class society could appreciate it. Only 10% of world population that represents the so called "elite" could afford art. They were the church and the nobility. And when they were commissioning artistic pieces, they wanted it to reflect all the best that their society and culture had to offer, and by doing so they were underlining their own high class status. Supreme works of art for the superior individuals. There was no other way. Beethoven, Da Vinci, Dante and all the other geniuses of the past worked only by order of the church and the nobility, otherwise their masterpieces would have never been seen or heard by the masses and would have never survived to this day. All those stories about "self-made artists from lower class" are for the most part nothing but post-factum marketing schemes to raise value of their works. In reality all those biographies have very little to do with the truth. Art was made only for the elite and only by those who was close to the elite. Period.

But in nineteenth-twentieth centuries everything has changed. Schools have become available for everyone… and even mandatory. And now every single individual has become his own artist and critic… simply because they know how to read and because tools for creativity became much more affordable. Nowadays with the YouTube and Instagram culture everyone has become an art creator.

According to dictionaries, art is everything that exists due to human imagination and skills. Thus everything what is manmade can and should be considered "art". This text is an art, so is this web-site, so is your toothpaste and an asphalt outside the window. Even the garbage in the ocean that endangers hundreds of rare species and causes the environmental catastrophes can be referred to as an art form. Yeah, the global warming is definitely art.

Do you see the problem? No? If not, then Biennale is definitely for you to enjoy.

The purpose of this art exhibition is not to enlighten people and enrich culture with the beauty created by the skill and imagination of geniuses from around the world, like classic museums do, but to exhibit "art"… yes, all "art"… and word "exhibit" is chosen here not by accident, but to be associated with the idea of '"exhibitionism", since in most cases seeing the art on Biennale I experience the same emotions as seeing some of the most out of place acts of exhibitionism. I feel shame, disgust, a little curiosity (I guess) and an enormous wonder, asking myself "What were they thinking?" or "Did they even think?" and "If they didn't put a single thought into it, then why should I?"

You should be a total libertine pervert in order to enjoy the contemporary art presented on Biennale. And I'm not saying that it is a bad thing. It is simply a matter of taste.

What can Biennale offer?

I figured out that all art exhibited on the festival can be divided on four categories. There are always some exceptions, but like an old Hungarian proverb says "All exceptions straighten the rule".

The first category of art is what I call a "classic art". It doesn't mean necessarily that it has something to do with the historic classical art, but it tries to follow the tradition of a classical meaning of art. Creators really use their imagination and skill in order to make something nice and unique… something that you want to buy (whatever the cost may be) and put it into your personal art collection to admire. This category of art is quite rare, but it can be found on Biennale… and it is the only reason why I'm still visiting it.

The second category of art on Biennale is an atmospheric art. Installations. Countries, presented on the festival, turn their pavilions into an abstract space with certain decorations, ambient music and sound effects, lighting and even odours. This is hard to describe, since this art is not an art piece in a traditional way, it is not an object, nor a film, nor a play, nor a performance, but an atmosphere. Yes, the atmosphere is created with the help of objects and other tools, but they make no sense once they are removed from the context. For example there was a pavilion full of shells made of leather (Saudi Arabia’s Pavilion 2019). There were thousands, if not millions of such small shells. Every single shell was a form in itself, since it is man made — artificial, therefore art, but separately they doesn't mean much. Just a tiny object. However when you see them all in certain patterns in dark space with bleak lighting, those million of tiny shells take you into a different reality. Some of such atmospheric art transport you into pleasant realities, some take you straight to hell and some try hard to take you anywhere, but fail flat. However for the most part atmospheric art hits its mark with its installations.

Then there is the third category of Biennale art. Performances. Pavilions are turned into improvised theatre stages… some with decorations, some without. And mostly these acts become the most notable by art critics and audiences, because people have to wait hours in line to get in to see the show. Such action provides expectations, excitement, curiosity and hype. And when you see real people act in front of you, it gives much more authority and authenticity to the art. Unlike other pavilions, where artists provide their finished product — a product they worked hard on in their studios, that you never see, just like you don't see how they make their art pieces — performances are held live, and you see people act and work right in front of you. And realtime work always provides much more credibly and value, not to mention the quantity of actors. So many people can't do something pointless and stupid — you keep telling yourself, watching their acts. Or can they? Now that's the true Shakespearian question.

And then there is a forth category of art on Biennale… an art that I personally can't name as such by any means, since it has nothing to do with human skills and imagination. People just take pre-existing objects they find peculiar and put them on a stand. Those objects are not necessarily man made. For example a piece of stone, a tree brunch, a rotting leaf, fish bones and etc. Those objects are not artificial, therefore not art, however artist thinks that by putting a piece of nature in an artificial manmade environment it automatically becomes an art form, and you — as an audience — have to respect and appreciate the artistic individualism and genius behind such "creators". And sometimes these "artists" take the pre-existing manmade objects, like a bag, or shoes, or glass jars and put them in their stands as their personal art. Well, it isn't. It is the art of the original shoemaker, or that shopping mall that produced the bag, or that tomato jam company that creates the glass jars for their product. But since it was the "artist" who discovered the "artistic value" of these everyday objects and it was he who put them on the exhibition, then it becomes "his" work of art and he sells it for thousands of dollars. Genius! Andy Warhol would be proud!

And people look at this trash and desperately try to justify it, telling themselves that there has to be some deeper meaning in this, because they have already payed for the expensive entry ticket and don't want to admit that they are being conned.

Text: Jurii Kirnev

Omnifinery Editorial: Article 004

[kadobeclothing]

2020 Preview: 11 Things We’re Stupidly Excited About In 2020

Another year over. Finito, done, never to be seen again. But there’s no time to mourn its passing because – quite frankly – we’re just too amped-up with excitement and hoopla for everything that’s coming up in the next 12 months.It’s goodbye 2019 and hello 2020, you absolute, spanking new beauty. And if you’re not up to speed yet with all the buzz, here are 12 things to get seriously excited about in 2020 – and year-defining cultural and social happenings about to change your world.Little Tony SopranoBig franchises might continue to dominate the multiplexes in 2020 – Marvel, DC, Fast & Furious – but the follow-up film to be excited about in 2020 is The Sopranos prequel The Many Saints of Newark.Going back to the late 1960s, it will tell the story of Sopranos-verse OG Dickie Moltisanti, much talked about father of Sopranos wild-child Christopher and mentor to Tony Soprano himself. Series creator David Chase is behind this, so there’s no need to worry about it not living up to the standards of what is still (no arguments, please) the greatest TV show of all time.There’s a stellar cast lined up, including Vera Farmiga, Jon Bernthal, and – most excitingly – Tony Soprano actor James Gandolfini’s real-life son, Michael Gandolfini, playing the young Tony. In a word: fuggetaboutit.The Return of BondIt’s been a strange few years for 007. After the huge success (but critical meh) of 2015’s Spectre, it sounded like Daniel Craig’s tenure as James Bond was finished. “I’d rather slit my wrists,” were his words, though he was probably joking, about returning to the role.Then Trainspotting director Danny Boyle dropped out of the problem, the first of several production problems. So many, in fact, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Bond’s arch nemesis Blofeld had a cat-stroking hand in it.But after five long, Bond-less years, Her Majesty’s finest is back for No Time To Die – now confirmed as Craig’s final outing as 007. The trailer has got us excited already – stunts, suits (yes, we haven’t even seen the film, and already Bond is looking fine), the sexy cars, and deadly woman. Ana De Armas in eveningwear shooting the place up? Take our money. Take it now.Football Coming Home (For Real This Time)Remember when football sort of came home for the World Cup in 2018, but then also sort of didn’t at the last minute? Well, this year it comes home for real when the Euro 2020 stages games in both London and Glasgow, plus 10 other European cities for the tournament’s first ever multi-nation event.Expect the football fever that gripped this country during the World Cup to be booted all the way up to 11 because a) England are actually good again, for the first time in a quarter century and b) games on home turf always make it more special.But also expect football style to be at the forefront of menswear this summer. Retro football shirts will be out in force, a callback to the terrace fashion, while contemporary labels are also game for football these days.Exploring A ‘What If?’ WorldWhile alternate history novels usually explore what might have happened if the baddies had won (such as in Robert Harris’ Fatherland about a Nazi-controlled future), the real world feels a bit like an actual dystopia these days.Science-fiction maestro William Gibson is putting a spin on the concept with Agency – both a sequel and prequel to his time-travel novel The Peripheral – about a future in which Trump didn’t win the 2016 election, Brexit never happened, and – presumably – the world isn’t burning and on the verge of war. It could be the anti-nightmare escapism we need in 2020.Getting Up To Speed With 5GAfter a staggered (and sometimes controversial) soft launch last year, 2020 is the year that 5G will become the new, super-fast standard in data networks. But it’s not just about facilitating our mobile phone addictions at increased speeds; the capacity of 5G will change our devices, technology, how business operate, and how we communicate with each other.In short, in a world ruled by technology and connected by digital communications, 5G is going to have a major impact.Samsung already has a 5G phone available here in the UK and an Apple phone is set to follow sometime in 2020. In the UK, 5G is slower than many other parts of the world but it’s just getting started – already in the US, 5G is capable of speeds almost 100 times faster than 4G smartphones.Manly ArtWe’re now 20 years into the century, during which time the state, consequences, and future of masculinity has been fiercely debated, and the parameters of what it means to be a man redrawn. It’s quite right that in 2020, a number of exhibitions are set to offer interesting perspectives on this undefinable thing we call masculinity.Between February and May, the Barbican will host Masculinities, a collection of film and photography exploring how masculinity has been coded, performed, and socially constructed from the 1960s to now. Exhibitions at the Tate on David Hockney and Andy Warhol show will social and cultural perspectives from two of art’s great male personalities.But most exciting is an exhibition at the Tate (Feb-May) celebrating 25 years of the Turner Prize and Oscar-winning artist Steve McQueen’s work, one of the most crucial, diverse, and relevant masculine voices in 21st Century British culture.An Upgrade For GamersAfter years of being promised that VR is the future of gaming, that looks set to actually happen with the arrival Half-Life: Alyx, the much-anticipated VR game(-changer). Couple that with the Oculus Quest, and we’ll be glad to spend 2020 escaping the real world for virtual alternatives.Regular gaming is also due an upgrade with next generation consoles due towards the end of the year. The Xbox Series X is rumoured to be four times more powerful that its predecessor, and will see the return of Master Chief with the all-new Halo. If you think 4K looks sharp, its 8K resolution will poke your eyes right out.Never one to be outdone by a rival machine, Sony will also launch the PS5, rumoured to include next-gen VR and visual techniques used in Hollywood blockbuster SFX. Rainbow Six Quarantine, Godfall, and a mysterious new title from the designers behind Shadow of the Colossus are all confirmed.50 Years of GlastonburyThe greatest music festival in the history of mankind will be throwing a whopper party for its 50th anniversary this year. Sorry, Burning Man, you’re good, but your sunbaked pretentiousness can never top some music-in-a-field debauchery.Paul McCartney and Taylor Swift have been confirmed to headline Glasto, with Kenrick Lamar tipped to headline the Friday night.If you haven’t got a ticket, don’t worry – tickets go on resale in April, but even if you’re not there, Glastonbury is more than a party in Somerset – it’s a cultural happening that will rock the entire country. Even from the comfort of your living room, expect to discover new bands, experience amazing sets, and make promises to yourself that you’ll never miss getting a ticket ever again.Eco-TravellingInspired perhaps by the shame of getting a thundering, disapproving look from Greta Thunberg, there’s been a surge in people seeking out environmentally friendly travel options – and 2020 could be the year we all think about saving the planet as well as travelling it.Both Rolls Royce and Airbus will put electric aeroplanes to the test this year, while zero-waste travel accessories and eco travel apps such as Green Globe and Olio are becoming hot (but not too hot, they’re keeping the emissions low) trends. Train travel has also seen a rise in popularity.And it’s not just the means of getting there, but destinations themselves, with eco-friendly resorts across the world. Usually for a less-than-modest price, of course, but less extortionate options are out there – nature-based travel, or hiking, climbing, and rambling hols. And if you can hang on until 2022, the world’s first energy positive hotel – Svart in Norway – is due to open.Streaming Wars = Massive BingeIf you’re old enough to remember the lukewarm battle between VHS and DVD, you’ll know what this is all about. It’s happening all over again, but this time nuclear, as top streaming platforms will lock and load to compete for your eyeballs’ attention.Apple TV has already launched and WarnerMedia’s HBO Max is set to launch in May. But the real fight will be between Netflix and Disney+. Netflix will aim to continue its dominance with After Life Season 2, The Haunting of Hill House follow-up series Bly Manor, and – probably – Stranger Things 4. Not to mention it’s never-ending supply of soul-troubling true crime docs.On the other channel, Disney – whose stronghold on all other areas of entertainment is reaching Galactic Empire levels – will fire back with Star Wars series The Mandalorian, Marvel series The Falcon & The Winter Solider, and 90 years’ worth of back catalogue blockbuster hits.While 2020 is the year these entertainment titans battle it out, for the rest of us it’ll be a year of pure relaxation and binging.Getting Your Body BiohackedYou may have heard of the biohacking – a tech-based, systems-thinking approach to reaching optimum fitness and health. The term is associated with the kind of eccentric, Silicon Valley bros and entrepreneurial lifestyle gurus who claim they’ll live to the grand old age of 160, like some sort of super-healthy Bond villain.But biohacking isn’t all that bonkers. In fact, it’s going mainstream, with leading biohacker Dave Asprey’s dedicated body-hacking gym in Los Angeles and the opening of BelleCell, London’s first biohacking clinic, which offers sports performance optimisation (using 3D body scanners), “body potential treatments”, genetic testing, and tech-based beauty treatments. Source link

source https://www.kadobeclothing.store/2020-preview-11-things-were-stupidly-excited-about-in-2020/

[prideguynews]

by Michael Musto 2h ago

With a new documentary upon us about the legendary 1970s disco Studio 54, it’s time to remove the cobwebs from the corners of my mind and relay some misty, water-colored memories about the whole dizzying experience.   First of all, the place was everything it was cracked up to be. At a time when the country was disillusioned with our shady government and New York City was in shambles, it rose up like a miracle, a glitzy hedonism haven for escapism and glamour, filled with people of all races and sexualities. Here are some things you might not know about the TV studio turned dance palace, which attracted a conga line of glitterati starting in 1977:

*It consisted of three levels (plus a bathroom landing slash lounge). The main dance floor was a thrilling wonderland, with blinking panels descending and rising, and a quarter moon with a faux coke spoon coming down at key moments. Downstairs was where the celebrities did real coke. A lot. And the balcony was where…well, let’s just say I once sat there to relax for a minute, only to have some man reach from the row behind me to grab for my business. Why, I never!

*To get in, you had to be famous, beautiful, a media person, or know someone. I was press, so frisky co-owner Steve Rubell would always pull me in, but when he didn’t happen to be at the door, the regular door guy, Marc Benecke, would shoot me withering looks and refuse me entry, correctly sensing that I was not Bianca Jagger. The longer you stood there hoping for admission, the smaller your chances got, so I had to cook up some better schemes. I became pals with an Oscar nominated actress, and she always got us in free, but then came the problem of how to ditch her inside the club and have some fun with my gay male friends! Ah, the problems of the ‘70s.

Zeitgeist Films

*Gays were not only welcomed, they were worshiped. This was after Stonewall and before AIDS, so it was a time of liberation, pride, and tons of fun, when nocturnal NYC gays romped freely and straights wanted to be near them at any cost.

*The array of celebs was extraordinary, and right up in your face. Liza Minnelli, Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Andy Warhol, Halston…everyone. And there wasn’t the kind of security celebs have now, so they were mixing with the rest of the crowd and even photographers were roaming free, with grins on their faces. One night, Rubell snuggled up to me and cooed, “Elton John and Rod Stewart are coming together later. Don’t tell anyone.” I told everyone—and that’s what he wanted! And sure enough, Elton and Rod came in and electrified the place. Another night, I was dancing with a friend, but noticed that your dancing partner could change as the crowd swirled round, and no one minded, since everyone was equal under the great glitter ball. (We’d all gotten in, after all.) So I found myself eventually dancing with world-famous model-actor-scion Margaux Hemingway, who didn’t mind! I was verklempt.

*The place also created its own celebrities, like Rollerena, a drag queen on roller skates, with a magic wand in tow, and Disco Sally, a 70-something retired lawyer and widow who loved to boogie, especially with younger guys (one of whom she married in a much publicized ceremony).

*The music pumped all night, with great songs that were heavy on the black female vocals, plus wonderful orchestrations. The yin and yang of disco hits were Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” (a thump-thump anthem celebrating a defiant refusal to care about the schmo that got away) and Thelma Houston’s “Don’t Leave Me This Way” (the flip side of that, about desperately trying to hold onto your man at any cost). Both were incredibly fun to act out on the dance floor, with lots of arm gestures and facial expressions (some of which people could even see through the strobe effects). Speaking of “leaving this way,” when you heard disco queen Donna Summer’s “The Last Dance” emerge from the DJ booth, you knew it was—duh—the last dance of the night, and you had to pull yourself together and try to sneak into a cab (or, in my case, subway) home. Depressing! But there was always tomorrow night.

Zeitgeist Films

*I once went to Halloween at Studio 54 and it was kind of bad! The crowd always dressed so remarkably that being forced to do so on this night of rituals simply didn’t inspire them, and the dance floor was mostly filled with bridge and tunnel types in lame ensembles. Every night was Halloween for the core 54 crowd.

*The party ended when Rubell and partner Ian Schrager went to jail for tax evasion, and in 1980, the new owner, Mark Fleischman, took over. We all tried to pretend that nothing had changed, but eventually we had to face the fact that the magic was gone. In 1998, the main space became a Broadway theater and then the basement was repurposed as the cabaret room Feinstein’s/54 Below. I’ve occasionally spotted customers there trying to sniff the floor.

    Googoo for Gaga

Moving on to a retread of Liza’s mother’s greatest triumph: Lady Gaga can act! She and Bradley Cooper (who directed and costars) have cooked up a fab A Star Is Born, full of great offhand moments, wonderful singing and acting, and fancy drag queens. (In an early scene, Cooper autographs Willam Belli’s fake tits, and you’ll never forget it.)

What I liked about this version of the oft-told tale is that Jackson Maine, Cooper’s superstar singer character, isn’t really jealous of his wife’s rising success, but of the fact that she’s sold out and gone cheesy. I also appreciated the realistic way Ally (Gaga’s character) approaches Jackson’s alcohol problem, first with dismay and tough love (threatening him to shape up) and then with a more compassionate take, realizing that he’s suffering from a disease and it needs to be treated. Early on, there are some jokes about Ally’s nose getting in the way of her success, and it makes sense that at that point she wouldn’t go for surgery, wanting to just be herself (until she becomes a sort of glorified Britney Spears).

Just two complaints: They should have gone for broke and had her say “I’m Mrs. Ally Maine” in the big finale scene (shades of the Judy Garland version). Putting in the “Mrs.” would have resonated in light of a previous scene where she irritably calls Jackson her boyfriend. Secondly, Cooper should have directed Gaga to cry harder during a certain pivotal dramatic moment; it would have clinched her an Oscar. Otherwise, this Star is both raw and dazzling—and though Gaga sings the intro to Judy’s “Over The Rainbow,” it’s closer to the Barbra Streisand version, but way better.

In Other Movie News…

Leave No Trace is Debra Granik’s thoughtful film about a troubled veteran (Ben Foster) and his daughter (Thomasin McKenzie) trying to find solace in a Portland nature reserve. After a special screening, Cooper urged the crowd to take a walk and touch a tree to restore communication with nature. (When he said this, I quickly turned off my phone! I won’t be owned by technology anymore.)

At a luncheon afterwards, Foster told me he’s tempted to undo certain news apps on his phone because the news is so disheartening these days. I agreed, saying I can’t bear reading Trump’s horrifying tweets, though I feel I need to stay in touch with what’s happening just to be plugged in. In another life-changing development, Foster told me that he’s moving to Brooklyn with his wife (Laura Prepon) and their kid because the East Village has changed and there’s a Target there now, for starters. I told him I’m from Brooklyn and didn’t really want to go back there that much, alas. I also confessed that The Village Voice and Theater Talk had both recently folded, but I was handling it okay, knowing that life brings more than one bad thing—or good thing—at a time. “I wish you ease,” he replied, sincerely. Nice!   At a screening of The Great Buster, Peter Bogdanovich’s doc about the slapstick comedy legend, Bogdanovich extolled the glories of black and white silent films. He said Hitchcock told him that movies had become just people talking, while Orson Welles advised him that “black and white is an actor’s best friend.” Still, Bogdanovich decided to have people talk in his doc, including Spider-Man: Homecoming director Jon Watts, who says that since Spidey has an expressionless (i.e., covered) face, Watts researched how to do blank-faced comedy by looking at Keaton’s work!

  Eliciting a bevy of emotions, Tamara Jenkins’ Private Life is a seriocomic look at a married couple’s repeated attempts to have a baby, from in vitro to adoption and beyond. After the movie, Paul Giamatti was asked how he researched playing a guy with one testicle. He joked that in real life, he has three of them, so he had to scale it down, then he added, “I feel like a lot of the characters I play have one testicle.” That’s one more than our President. I wish him unease.

Michael Musto is the long running, award-winning entertainment journalist and TV commentator.

@mikeymusto

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