Here in Shanti Shanti Shanti Town, uh oh seven at oceands eleven played a ring around the poesy party at the Bowery, the Bowery, the lay Bowery Poetry Club last Sunday night (yrs truly "topping from the bottom" as the very amusing John Waters put it at the Alliance Francaise Tuesday night screening of mother trucker Marguerite Duras' "Le Camion"--:lights, camera, no action!), partnering with my pal the Bob Holman who was there with his lovely wife the artist Elizabeth Murray, dem rude boys got out probation and ran the voodoo down with my steeled guitar improv underpinning Bob's fire/water breathing (and who knows what else he'd been breathing) vocables...

Wednesday I escorted my pal the artist Marilyn Lerner to the Whitney Biennal opening, the dear old Whitney masquerading as the late unlamented Studio 54 these days apparently as one was forced to endure (in sub-frigid temperatures) an endless queue that snaked round the block before one could gain purchase to the sacred vaults of Art deemed esteemed (imperious door guy proved a softie though)...once inside one could but goggle at the multi-tiered assemblages of this year's artbiz models-- wasn't really knocked out by too much of anything truth to tell although I liked Mariyln Minter's work, also the faux-updated movie trailer for Gore Vidal's Caligula (which might yet spawn a resurgence of Vidalmania in these parts), hmmmm, also some erotic color slides that showed off the female model's sumptuous poitrine ala Eva Green (art with a capital T), ran into Neke Carson whose work should have been in this show if there was any justice (Neke's light sculptures are amazing), also downtown geetar guy Alan Licht with whom I played with at Tonic recently and also avant-gitfiddler Lee Ranaldo and his wife the artist Leah Singer who were both at the Giorno event described recently herein, mingled in the spider-pit/open-bar area downstairs where they refused to pour after 10pm (!), espied my friends the artists John Bowman and Ann Shostrom from afar as I was going up topside (dude ascending a staircase) right before me and Marilyn skated (her work shoulda been in there too)...as should my sister Bonnie's work, a painterly example of which--"Girl With Big Shoes"-- adorns the cover of my "Operators are Standing By" compilation (the Drawing Center's George Negroponte--yup, that Negroponte-- although he and his brother John are not joined at the head, if you know what I mean--George N. took a shine to Bonnie's work last year thanks to a friendly entreaty from yrs truly, and put her paintings in some choice shows last year--where they sold!). For the blood is the life, Mr. Renfield...

Also rehearsed my band on Wednesday at Big Mike's (recently refurbished rehearsal space in Chelsea I first encountered playing with Lou Reed at their Xmas Party in '92) for a midnight gig tonight at Mo Pitkin's, new club on Ave. A run by Two Boots/Howl Festival maven Phil Hartman, was filmed rehearsing there and was interviewed afterwards for a culturecatch.com podcast, it's up there now at http://www.culturecatch.com hint hint courtesy of my man Dusty Wright ...

and oh yes, you should also check the recreated lost spider-pit sequence from the original King Kong, which I obsessed about here recently, at http://media.putfile.com/King-Kong-1933-Spider-Pit-Sequence...my good friend Glenn Kenny of Premiere Magazine described this footage as "hardcore"--as me and Bill Moseley used to ssay re Things That Go Bump in the Night:

Don't say we didn't warn you!

xxLove

Gary

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Posted by Gary Lucas to Gary Lucas at 3/02/2006 06:13:00 PM