Showing posts sorted by relevance for query arthur russell. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query arthur russell. Sort by date Show all posts

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Tom Lee talks about life in the East Village and his late partner, Arthur Russell


I've been a champion of Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell, the debut feature from Brooklyn-based filmmaker Matt Wolf. Russell, who died of AIDS in 1992 at age 40, was an East Village resident who "bridged the gap between the artistic vanguard and dancefloor hits, The Kitchen and Studio 54." The film plays at MoMa on Dec. 19.

On Friday, Gothamist published a Q-and-A with Russell's partner, Tom Lee. Here's an excerpt:

How have you seen the city change, both personally and through the music/social scene, from the era that was shown in the film? Of course there were many parts of the East Village that were not safe in the early ‘80’s, and you were always looking over your shoulder or had a heightened sense of awareness that I feel isn’t as necessary now. But it was also our ‘neighborhood’, and if we didn’t know where the other one was we would know to stop in at The Bar on Second Avenue, or at the St. Mark’s Bookstore. In that time before cell phones we would leave each other quick notes on the kitchen counter, such as: “I’ll be right back,” “I went for a run,” “Be back at 9:00, put the rice on.”

Given the opportunity, how would you change New York? As many people might hope for I wish that New York was an affordable place for people to live…not just artists and musicians and dancers, who enrich our lives with their work, but for anyone who might want to live here and take advantage of life in the city.

Previously on EV Grieve:
Friday, September 26, 2008
Starting tonight at the IFC -- Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell

Celebrating Arthur Russell

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Celebrating Arthur Russell


Happy to see so much press this week for something worthy of the attention — Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell, the debut feature from Brooklyn-based filmmaker Matt Wolf. I had a chance to see a screening of this captivating documentary. I was only vaguely familiar with Russell, a talented player on the fringes of the downtown New York scene in the 1970s and 1980s. As many writers have noted in discussing this film, it's difficult to characterize what Russell was all about. (Part of what makes him so intriguing, of course.) He had a passion for all things related to music. He was a native of Oskaloosa, Iowa, who wore trucker caps long before they were, you know, ironic. He later became a Buddhist. He was an avant-garde composer and cellist. He liked the Modern Lovers and the Ramones. And he loved disco.

Upon arriving to New York CIty from San Francisco in the early 1970s, he collaborated with everyone from Allen Ginsberg to Philip Glass. Russell and his longtime partner, Tom Lee, lived on East 12th Street next door to Ginsberg. Richard Hell lived in the same building. (Lee, who first met Russell at Gem Spa on St. Mark's, still resides in the same building.) Going by Dinosaur (one of several monikers that he used), Russell wrote and produced “Kiss Me Again,” the first disco single released by Sire Records. Russell was later a co-founder of Sleeping Bag Records, which released hip-hop and oceanic dance music in the early 1980s. He wasn't afraid to admit that he wanted to be famous.

Russell died of AIDS in 1992. He was 40. He left behind thousands of partially finished songs that spanned every genre. His catalog was overlooked until recent years, when a series of reissues and tributes garnered the attention of a new generation. I hope the movie creates even more Russell fans. There are screenings of the movie tomorrow night at the Kitchen. It's sold out, but there are a few tickets available at the door, I'm told. The Kitchen is also hosting a celebration of Russell's music this weekend.

The Wild Combination blog has all the links to the recent articles as well as information on other screenings this summer.

Here's a trailer for the film:

Friday, September 26, 2008

Starting tonight at the IFC -- Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell



In May, I wrote a post about Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell, the debut feature from Brooklyn-based filmmaker Matt Wolf. Russell, who died of AIDS in 1992 at age 40, was an East Village resident who "bridged the gap between the artistic vanguard and dancefloor hits, The Kitchen and Studio 54." The film starts tonight at the IFC.

Gothamist recently interviewed Matt Wolf. An excerpt:

What do you think of the New York music scene now, as compared to back then?

I think New York is more of a hub these days then a laboratory and breeding ground for experimentation. Musicians and artists seem to pass through to perform and to hang out briefly, but they work and go into hibernation elsewhere. That’s probably because New York has become such an economically straining and competitive environment. It’s hard to be free to experiment and play in this city.

Friday, June 5, 2015

EV Grieve Etc.: A rise in serious crime; an homage to Arthur Russell


[Photo on East 7th Street by Derek Berg]

A rise in serious crime in most NYPD precincts, including the 9th (DNAinfo)

Some 100,000 rent-stabilized apartments may go market-rate (The Real Deal)

June is Gay Pride Month (Off the Grid)

East Village-based photographer Sally Davies has an exhibit at the Bernarducci Meisel Gallery (Bernarducci Meisel Gallery)

The story behind the mural "Nepal 2015" on the Avalon Chemists building at Second Avenue and Houston (Bedford + Bowery}


[EVG photo of "My Nepal" from Saturday]

An homage to Arthur Russell (The Independent)

Egg Rolls, Egg Creams & Empanadas Festival returns to Eldridge Street this Sunday (The Lo-Down)

A bike/coffee shop opens on Canal Street (BoweryBoogie)

The Super 8 films of Stephanie Gray playing at the Anthology Film Archives (The Villager)

One resident's unchain challenge (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Midtown's vanishing historic architecture (The New York Times)

...and won't someone please help Santa in Tompkins Square Park?

Friday, June 11, 2021

Capitol gains

 
Putting this up in honor of the new exhibit that opened today at the Museum of the City of New York.

"New York, New Music: 1980-1986" features groups-musicians including DNA, Arthur Russell, the Cramps, 3 Teens Kill 4, Bush Tetras and the band seen here — Bad Brains, with a live clip for "Banned in D.C." from CBGB in 1982...

Friday, August 2, 2019

RIP Tim Schellenbaum



Tim Schellenbaum, an award-winning sound designer at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club, died on July 25 at the Mary Manning Walsh Home. He was 60.

LaMama posted a tribute to him on their website:

He was a musician, composer, sound engineer, and sound designer. He has been described as a quiet ambassador of Americana in its purest sense.

While attending The University of New Mexico he became known for his experimental work on WKNM radio and recording and promoting punk music. He stayed true to his roots and wrote music that honored his craft and his Hispanic heritage with his bands Zozobra, Me Wee Beastie and EIEIO.

He helped place his beloved Lower East Side on the world's cultural map. As an avant-garde musician, he worked with Arthur Russell, Robert Ashley, Rhys Chatham, Glenn Branca, Karole Armitage and The Nedd Sublette Band.

He worked at numerous downtown venues including The Kitchen, The New Federal Theatre, Theatre for The New City, and PS 122, and was the sound engineer for the Brookfield/Winter Garden space at the World Financial Center.

Proudly he served as the resident sound designer at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club for 25 years. As a resident artist at La MaMa, Tim generously shared his skills as a composer, sound designer and musician with hundreds of artists. His imprint on the downtown theatre scene is immeasurable.

Tim was the recipient of 1998 and 2000 Obie Awards and a 2007 IT Award for collaborative design.

Schellenbaum lived in the East Village with his wife, EiLeen Doster, and three children.

LaMama will be hosting a celebration of his life and work at a future date.

Friday, June 11, 2021

New music now (1980-1986 edition) at the Museum of the City of New York

An EVG reader shares this about a new exhibit opening today up at the Museum of the City of New York titled "New York, New Music:1980-1986" ...
The exhibit features rare videos of several bands and musical groups including KONK and Bellhead at the Tompkins Square Park band shell, DNA, Arthur Russell, the Cramps, Tish & Snooky, Kid Creole, Richard Hell, the Del-Byzanteens, Bad Brains, 3 Teens Kill 4, Bush Tetras, James White, John Zorn ... and tons of ephemera and photographs. 
Yes! Road trip to Fifth Avenue and 103rd Street! Read more about it at this link.

The museum is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday through Monday (though today the doors open at noon).

H/T Mr. Baggs! Image via Museum of the City of New York

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Allen Ginsberg's former 12th Street apartment now on the market

The Allen Ginsberg Project recently had the chance to see Ginsberg's longtime home at 437 E. 12th St. — up on the fourth floor. As Jill reported at Blah Blog Blah back in June, Ginsberg's apartment — where he lived from 1975 to 1996 — is being renovated. (He had three apartments in the building: this one in which he lived; one in which he worked; and one that he sublet to friends and students. As NYC Songlines notes, he lived here longer than any other home in New York.)

Jill's friend, whose apartment looked into Ginsberg's kitchen, shared some memories in June about her neighbor here between First Avenue and Avenue A. "We didn't bother with each other much, but he'd take photos of my shirtless carpenter boyfriend when he'd use the fire escape for an impromptu workshop. You never knew who'd be gathered around his kitchen table: a PBS film crew, a minion of men with black garb and payis chanting Sabbath prayers, etc. I never took photos of him, but Allen with his robe open illuminated by refrigerator light is burned into my retina, for better or worse! After he left, I found myself missing him."

Peter Orlovsky, the poet and longtime partner of Ginsberg, stayed in the apartment up until about a year ago, I was told. (Orlovsky died this past May of lung cancer at a respite care center in Williston, Vermont.) The apartment sat empty for nearly a year before the renovations started late in the spring.

Here's a photo that The Allen Ginsberg Project took a few weeks ago... along with one of Ginsberg's own shots...




The Ginsberg caption reads: "View out my kitchen window August 18 1984, familiar Manhattan back-yard, wet brick-walled Atlantis sea garden's Alianthus (stinkweed Tree of Heaven) boughs waiving in rainy breeze, Stuyvesant Town's roof two blocks north on 14th Street - I focused on the raindrops on the clothesline." [Allen Ginsberg Estate]

I figured this apartment was probably ready to hit the market. I contacted Dmitry (Daniel) Kramp, Kramp Residential Team, City Connection Realty Inc., who has been renting some of the other renovated apartments in the building.

I asked him when the apartment might be available for rent and if the listing will include a mention of its former occupant. Kramp responded, saying he wasn't sure if Ginsberg's name would be referenced since he already had a suitor lined up for the apartment.

Later, though, Kramp sent along the listing, which includes a line about Ginsberg, as well as photos of the renovated space. The apartment is going for $1,750.







Harry Smith stayed here for nine months in 1985 while he recovered from an accident. The small spare room he used (dubbed "Harry's Room") has been converted into a bathroom.



Through the years, this building has been host to an array of poets, musicians and artists.... some of whom are in the photo below...



Via: Edith Ginsberg, Cliff Fyman, Bob Rosenthal, Allen Ginsberg, John Godfey, Steven Taylor, Peter Orlovsky, Greg Masters, Michael Scholnick, in front of 437 E. 12th St., where all except Edith lived. Nov. 14, 1982. photo: c. Stephen Shames.

Among the many other notables.... Arthur Russell lived here for many years... ditto for Richard Hell.

Despite all this history, I'm not sure what kind of spirit, if any, can still exist in such an extensively renovated apartment, a place where Ginsberg, Orlovsky and assorted guests such as Herbert Huncke and William Burroughs held forth around a crowded kitchen table.

As Jill's neighbor wrote back in June: "Soon I'll look out at yet another set of white mini-blinds behind cheap replacement windows, illuminated by halogen floor lamp, with soundtrack by yet another long-past-teenage idiot amping-up to "Baba O'Reilly" as irony sails over his head and out into the beer-soaked night."

For further reading:
Howl (Blah Blog Blah)

The Allen Ginsberg Project



Via: Allen Ginsberg, Peter Orlovsky, Louis Cartwright, Herbert Huncke, William Burroughs, Allen & Peter's new apartment, 437 E. 12th St., New York City, December 1975. Photographer unknown.

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

EV Grieve Etc.: Mourning Edition


[Photo by Derek Berg]

The East Village photography of Ann Sanfedele (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Turmoil at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum? (BoweryBoogie)

Bialystoker Building landmarked (The Lo-Down)

Revisiting "The Warriors" (Flaming Pablum)

More great photos from the Dance Parade (Gog in NYC)

"Psycho Killer" with Arthur Russell on cello (Dangerous Minds)

Some history of 17th Street and Irving Place (Ephemeral New York)

Time's Up has put together this video highlight the drama that unfolded last week at the Children's Magical Garden on Stanton and Norfolk ...



And tonight at 7, Mike Malone reads from his recently published novel, "No Never No More," which is set at the Village View apartments in 1999. "The main character, Declan Coulter, bristles when his neighborhood is called the East Village. Growing up in the Village View, it will always be the Lower East Side to him." The reading is at Dorian Gray Tap & Grill, 205 E. Fourth St. between Avenue A and Avenue B.

Saturday, February 25, 2017

EV Grieve Etc.: Carlina Rivera's run for City Council; Jake Dell's plans for Katz's


[Photo yesterday in Tompkins Square Park by Derek Berg]

A feature on Carlina Rivera, former legislative director for Councilmember Rosie Mendez, who is running to fill the seat in District 2 that Mendez will vacate this year due to term limits (Town & Village)

Opinion: The Mayor must avoid past mistakes with the former P.S. 64 (The Lo-Down ... previously)

Looking at de Blasio's “Vision Zero Year Three Report” (Streetsblog)

A Veselka then and now (Off the Grid)

Protest outside the Stonewall Inn over President Trump's rollback of transgender protections (ABC-7)

Katz's owner Jake Dell, 29, keeps traditions alive while expanding the brand (Crain's)

Trapizzino, purveyors of meat-and-sauce-stuffed bread pockets, now open on Orchard (Gothamist)

NYC dive bar listicle includes Milano's, Sophie's, Coal Yard and Blue & Gold (Eater)

This series on Canadian “tax shelter” movies includes "Atlantic City," "Heavy Metal" and "The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane." (Anthology Film Archives)

Arthur Russell exhibit set for BAM from March 1 – May 14 (Brooklyn Vegan)

Stick collecting in Tompkins Square Park (Laura Goggin Photography)

Some EV streetscapes seen in this 1984 video for Japanese rock band Go Ohgami (Flaming Pablum)

About Iggy Pop's leopard head jacket from the back cover of Raw Power (Dangerous Minds)

Beth B’s "Voyeur" now through March 16 at Howl! Happening on 1st Street (Official website)

Condos designed by Lenny Kravitz on Kenmare Street are on the market (Curbed)

The rooftop wooden water tanks of NYC (Ephemeral New York)

Enjoy this warm weather now (The Atlantic)

... and vintage boutique Dusty Buttons, 324 E. Ninth St. between First Avenue and Second Avenue, is closing at the end of the month...

Last weekend at Dusty Buttons! Come find a treasure to remember us by! Lots of great deals! #deals#vintage #antiques #eastvillage

A post shared by Dusty Buttons Vintage & New (@dustybuttons) on

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

EV Grieve Etc: Mourning Edition

[Bobby Williams]

Remembering the Kiev (Jeremiah's Vanishing New York)

Johnny Bizarre's tongue in a mousetrap (Neither More Nor Less)

264 Bowery won't be a bar after all (BoweryBoogie)

The Best Coffee in the East Village and Lower East Side (Serious Eats)

Lunching at Peels and feeling like a tourist (Flaming Pablum)

Bloomberg's taxi choice is as suburban as expected (Lost City)

At the wedding of Reverend Jen Jr and Taco (Slum Goddess)

Good lord: Vin Diesel rapping with Arthur Russell in 1986 (NYPress)

And while in town, Chico is busy touching up some of his previous murals...


...such as this one on Avenue C and 10th Street...

[Bobby Williams]

Thursday, June 23, 2016

1 more in-store concert for Other Music



As you might expect, the selection at Other Music is starting to thin out a bit leading up to its last call on Saturday after 20 years in business.

However, there are still a lot of new releases available. (I like the new Psychic Ills ... I also picked up Thee Oh Sees: Singles Collection Volume Three.)

Despite the impending closure, there's still a relatively upbeat feel to the store, that it still has a purpose... unlike, say, Kim's Video & Music on First Avenue, which plodded along on a death march in the summer of 2014. A fixed closing date would have helped. (Add St. Mark's Bookshop to the slow, painful death march list.)

Meanwhile, there's one more just-announced, in-store performance on Tuesday, ahead of its farewell show at the Bowery Ballroom.

Here are details via the EVG inbox:

The final Other Music in-store performance will be with our good friends 75 Dollar Bill, at 5:30 on the 28th. One of our very favorite NYC bands, with a beautiful new album just out, we can't think of any better artist to bring to a close our 20-year in-store series.

And then we take our music to the streets! After the in-store, 75 Dollar Bill and the incredible Matana Roberts will lead us on a march from Other Music, across 4th Street, down the Bowery, to the Bowery Ballroom on Delancey. We want to celebrate 20 years of New York City music and arts culture with all of you, and we hope that whether or not you have tickets to the Bowery show, you will join us for this free event — let’s show NYC that music still matters! We will start gathering at Other Music at 5:30, and the parade will begin moving at 6:30, with Matana’s crew taking the lead, and 75 Dollar Bill bringing up the rear guard after their in-store performance.

The owners of the store at 15 E. Fourth St. between Lafayette and Broadway have cited rising rents and the changing face of the music industry as reasons behind the closure.

MSNBC has a report from Tuesday on Other Music here.

And at The New Yorker, Amanda Petrusich files an appreciation titled Why Record Stores Mattered.

An excerpt!

The store’s stock has always tended toward the abstruse. For many years, it was the only place in the city (and maybe on the East Coast) where you could find copies of great but commercially unpopular records: free jazz, certain strains of world music, Krautrock, long forgotten folk balladry. I bought my first albums by otherwise-unclassifiable artists like Arthur Russell and John Fahey at Other Music. I later read from my book about obscure 78 r.p.m. records there. Uncommon but extraordinary records were offered prominent shelf space, and serendipity was always in the air. Station yourself before the bins labelled “Out”—“Out” in the context of Other Music implied either intrepid or foolhardy experimentation, or maybe both—and see what calls to you.

Finally, some former OM staffers are also filming a documentary of the place... if you have anything to share...

Thursday, September 8, 2011

[EVG flashback] Allen Ginsberg's former 12th Street apartment now on the market

The item yesterday about Larry Fagin, who lives down the hall from Allen Ginsberg's former apartment, prompted me to revisit the following post. This entry first appeared on Aug. 25, 2010, and became one of the most visited EVG posts in our nearly four-year history.

The Allen Ginsberg Project recently had the chance to see Ginsberg's longtime home at 437 E. 12th St. — up on the fourth floor. As Jill reported at Blah Blog Blah back in June, Ginsberg's apartment — where he lived from 1975 to 1996 — is being renovated. (He had three apartments in the building: this one in which he lived; one in which he worked; and one that he sublet to friends and students. As NYC Songlines notes, he lived here longer than any other home in New York.)

Jill's friend, whose apartment looked into Ginsberg's kitchen, shared some memories in June about her neighbor here between First Avenue and Avenue A. "We didn't bother with each other much, but he'd take photos of my shirtless carpenter boyfriend when he'd use the fire escape for an impromptu workshop. You never knew who'd be gathered around his kitchen table: a PBS film crew, a minion of men with black garb and payis chanting Sabbath prayers, etc. I never took photos of him, but Allen with his robe open illuminated by refrigerator light is burned into my retina, for better or worse! After he left, I found myself missing him."

Peter Orlovsky, the poet and longtime partner of Ginsberg, stayed in the apartment up until about a year ago, I was told. (Orlovsky died this past May of lung cancer at a respite care center in Williston, Vermont.) The apartment sat empty for nearly a year before the renovations started late in the spring.

Here's a photo that The Allen Ginsberg Project took a few weeks ago... along with one of Ginsberg's own shots...




The Ginsberg caption reads: "View out my kitchen window August 18 1984, familiar Manhattan back-yard, wet brick-walled Atlantis sea garden's Alianthus (stinkweed Tree of Heaven) boughs waiving in rainy breeze, Stuyvesant Town's roof two blocks north on 14th Street - I focused on the raindrops on the clothesline." [Allen Ginsberg Estate]

I figured this apartment was probably ready to hit the market. I contacted Dmitry (Daniel) Kramp, Kramp Residential Team, City Connection Realty Inc., who has been renting some of the other renovated apartments in the building.

I asked him when the apartment might be available for rent and if the listing will include a mention of its former occupant. Kramp responded, saying he wasn't sure if Ginsberg's name would be referenced since he already had a suitor lined up for the apartment.

Later, though, Kramp sent along the listing, which includes a line about Ginsberg, as well as photos of the renovated space. The apartment is going for $1,750.







Harry Smith stayed here for nine months in 1985 while he recovered from an accident. The small spare room he used (dubbed "Harry's Room") has been converted into a bathroom.



Through the years, this building has been host to an array of poets, musicians and artists.... some of whom are in the photo below...



Via: Edith Ginsberg, Cliff Fyman, Bob Rosenthal, Allen Ginsberg, John Godfey, Steven Taylor, Peter Orlovsky, Greg Masters, Michael Scholnick, in front of 437 E. 12th St., where all except Edith lived. Nov. 14, 1982. photo: c. Stephen Shames.

Among the many other notables.... Arthur Russell lived here for many years... ditto for Richard Hell.

Despite all this history, I'm not sure what kind of spirit, if any, can still exist in such an extensively renovated apartment, a place where Ginsberg, Orlovsky and assorted guests such as Herbert Huncke and William Burroughs held forth around a crowded kitchen table.

As Jill's neighbor wrote back in June: "Soon I'll look out at yet another set of white mini-blinds behind cheap replacement windows, illuminated by halogen floor lamp, with soundtrack by yet another long-past-teenage idiot amping-up to "Baba O'Reilly" as irony sails over his head and out into the beer-soaked night."

For further reading:
Howl (Blah Blog Blah)

The Allen Ginsberg Project



Via: Allen Ginsberg, Peter Orlovsky, Louis Cartwright, Herbert Huncke, William Burroughs, Allen & Peter's new apartment, 437 E. 12th St., New York City, December 1975. Photographer unknown.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

East Village on Russell Brand alert



The 'Arthur' remake (a travesty that I won't even go into) is filming around Second Avenue and 11th Street tomorrow... The remake stars Russell Brand in the Dudley Moore role... co-starring Jennifer Garner and Nick Nolte....and maybe the old Batmobile.