R.I.P. SAM SHEPARD

This time he didn't walk away. Rest in peace Sam Shepard, playwright, actor, seen above as Chuck Yeager defying death in a test jet crash in the film The Right Stuff. He passed away July 31 2017 of ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) which even bravery cannot conquer...

CHEETAH CHROME LIVE July 15 2017

Cheetah Chrome and band, which included his colleague Johnny Blitz on drums from their original Dead Boys sojourn together played a sold-out Viper Room 7.15.17 jam-packed with appreciative fans. Singer Jake Hout, formerly of the Undead Boys tribute band performed shenanigans galore with the microphone and in the crowd while warbling assorted Dead Boys' classics. Note crowds in club mirrors below...
 

"You don’t 'replace' Stiv Bators. He was a trailblazer. An inventor. His music, aesthetic, life and gorgeous mug helped to define our subculture with reverberations still ringing today. An icon irreplaceable. We lost the living man himself a long time ago but we never lost the music. Cheetah and Blitz are still here and they’ve still got it! That’s what this is all about. You don’t 'replace' the past. You honor it. You hold it up in revere so the spirit lives on."- Jake Hout

  "It was so much fun being out there with you and everyone. To me it is something holy." 

- Ames Flames, Cheetah Chrome tech, singer for "Sonic Reducer" in latest Cheetah gigs.

 Opening act Junkyard (1980s and beyond popular L.A. hard rockers, just returned from Europe tour with Little Caesar) insured a memorable evening. Above, singer David Roach.

PHOTO OPS:

↑ After the show-- Lisa Lee, rock couturier Evita Corby, Cheetah Chrome and Ames Flames who also sang in Cheetah's set; just the threesome ↓

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EVIE SANDS!

On a far happier note, today is the birthday of great singer/instrumental/songwriter Evie Sands, once a 1960s American dollybird with real talent who happily is still performing. Her interpretations of non-originals frequently become the touchstone for all afterwards, like her "Take Me For A Little While" which springboarded so many others. 

But instead I'm posting a performance I wish I'd attended. She brings out all the fresh grandeur endemic to the start of the career of a now oversaturated popular figure, back when his talent was new and extraordinary, we were young and the world was open and waiting... 

(Everyone talented is entitled to pursue a successful career, but the losses in this process are more noticeable in the truly talented: one might point to Elton and Rod Stewart as foremost...but it was thrilling, wasn't it, when it was new...)

Evie Sands has graced our music world for over 50 years with nary a dip in quality. Her new EP "Shine for Me" was released last April 22, 2017 on R-Spot Records.

R.I.P. NELSAN ELLIS

(photographer unknown.)

Rest in peace actor Nelsan Ellis, gone way too soon at age 39 of heart complications. (An M.D. fan opined that they must not have been able to find him a transplant in time.) Known for his warm and frequently hilarious portrayal of Lafayette Reynolds on True Blood, he also appeared in Secretariat, The Help, television's Elementary series and the James Brown bioflick Get On Up.

Ellis recalled that it took four auditions for him to win the role of Lafayette.

  “Once I started to act like my Mama, my fourth audition, I got the part,” he said. His Lafayette character, a flamboyantly gay cook into voodoo, with many humorous quips and an unforgettable introductory scene seducing a heavyset man, ("You can be my Santa Claus") perhaps belied the serious actor. A Juilliard graduate, he was also a playwright and family man with a son Breon Ellis.

A day after his demise, his family offered the following details regarding his death in hopes that it serves as a caution to others: LINK.*  



*http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/true-blood-actor-nelsan-ellis-died-due-alcohol-withdrawal-complications-family-says-1019634 

GIA AT PASADENA DOG SHOW 2017

 Gia wonders, "Who, me?"

Guest photographer © Sherry O'Connor. 

Yours truly and Bereton Tanager Gia 

at 6.4.17 classes for Scottish Deerhounds 

at the Kennel Club of Pasadena show.

DR. BOOGIE BACK IN TOWN, DOUBLING DOWN 6.2.17 and 6.10.17

 












Dr. Boogie
ignite Alex's Bar in Long Beach, 6.2.17, back from their East Cast tour. They indeed substantiate my contention that the great bands always get better and better, with new material always adding something major to the mix. And they do. Anyone who's had opportunity yet hasn't seen this band live is sabotaging their own cultural well-being. Yeah, they're that good.

Meanwhile..."Brian Eno" circa 1972 Roxy Music ignites the dance floor at Alex's Bar. He  was dancing all night to his own personal velocity, and that's all I can tactfully say since I enjoyed the spectacle and don't want to get him into trouble, whoever he is...

And the next week, Dr. Boogie returned with a teerrific set as always to grace the stage
 at Cobraside Records' warehouse for a BBQ and jam for clients and friends. Other acts included Barrio Tiger, The Singles, Fatal Jamz and Jon Wahl.  

Dr. Boogie are Chris P., lead vocals, guitar; Dustin James, guitar, vocals; Luis Herrera, drums, vocals; Pat Salway, bass vocals.

PHOTO OPS:

Backstage (the Cobraside warehouse) found The Blessings' singer Jeremy White with denim overalls-clad Lisa Lee, rock and roll couturier Evita Corby, redheaded writer Terry Moreland Henderson, and your humble photojournalist.

R.I.P. ANITA PALLENBERG

fair usage © 1971 Dominique Tarlè. All Rights Reserved.
 L-R: Anita Pallenberg, Dominique Tarlè (in mirror,) Keith Richards, Gram Parsons, Gretchen Parsons.

The end of an era in ultimate rock and roll consorts: word from the newswires that Anita Pallenberg passed away at the age of 73. I never met her, but my better half Mr. Twister cavorted with her, and with Mick Marianne and James and Andee the summer that Mick and James starred together in their film Performance. 

My non-degree of separation is that I fought HARD to get the above photograph for Sid Griffin's book, Gram Parsons: A Music Biography for which I did the Art Direction. Tarlè's photographs of the Rolling Stones' louche summer, 1971, in Nellcote, France to record Exile On Main Street weren't all that well known at the time of the book's writing, but Sid indeed found and paid the photographer for these shots I thought essential to explaining the country-rock connection between Keith and Gram. My reward came when a reviewer of this book claimed that this one photo spoke volumes about decadence that no words ever could approach. 

I'm also saddened at what her passing represents. This actress/model/muse/hellraiser frequently was deemed 'the woman who out-Keithed Keith.' As I noted in my review of Miss Pamela Des Barres' film about groupies (LINK)* "...What a shame that, as the decades rolled forth, the requirements for the position of rock star consort shifted away from diverse, vibrant, creative extroverts like these women into the current stasis that only 6'1" anorexics with multiple plastic surgeries i.e. international supermodels need apply."


 *http://fastfilm1.blogspot.com/2010/12/lets-spend-night-together-with-groupies.html

BRITWEEK RECEPTION at the GETTY MUSEUM 5.5.17

 We attended a 5.5.17 reception at the Getty Museum, West Los Angeles held by BritWeek, the organization that promotes British talent in all the arts in California, film, fine art, fashion, music, what have you. There's a plethora here from which to choose. This occasion promoted the Getty's new photography exhibits of Thomas Annan, Scottish photographer of the late 1880s and the more modern Chris Killip's The Making of En Flagrante photo essays.

Above, what was actually a night shot  of Mr. Twister attending the BritWeek reception.

 Above, guest photographer © 2017 Kurt Ingham. Yours truly in a more nocturnal looking night shot. Below, another "night shot" variant of Mr. Twister.

I do not have the sharklike impulse to intrude papparazzo-esquely into the lives of the celebrated, particularly in confined spaces, but if I did the resultant photo would resemble my drawing herein: British fashion designer extraordinaire Zandra Rhodes all in fuschia inclusive of her coiffure, against the stark white, square elevator interior of the Getty Museum...

 My typical 'not bothering people' shot of some of reception invitees inside the Getty...

BritWeek's statement:

HEATHER HARRIS PHOTO EXHIBIT AT POP OBSCURE GALLERY with THE BLESSINGS live, opening night reception 5.6.17

↑ Guest photographer © 2017 Kurt Ingham.

Pop Obscure Records & Gallery (LINK) of downtown Los Angeles threw a well-attended reception for their exhibition of my 50 years of music photography on May 6, 2017. Above, Sherry Lee, co-owner (with Dustin Lane) of Pop Obscure Records & Gallery, Jeremy White of The Blessings who performed, and yours truly. The exhibition runs through June 18th.

Downstairs gallery↓

              ↑ Upstairs gallery with Mr. Twister in front of photos of himself,                           and Jonathan Lea, guitarist of amazing band the Jigsaw Seen. ↓

 
Downstairs record store with celebrated guitarist Whitey Kirst posing with Inger Lorre of The Nymphs, whose original lineup included Whitey's brother Alex. (Whitey and Alex then backed Iggy Pop as The Trolls until a hit and run driver killed Alex.)

On a far cheerier note, Inger said she had been influenced by Mr. Twister and his nasty lyrics in his band Chainsaw's first single, "Polaroid Pictures," and happily posed with him (with half of Dennis Davison of Jigsaw Seen in the background.)

↑ Jeremy White, Inger Lorre and Whitey Kirst

↑ Michelle Melody Fair, all of Dennis Davison of the Jigsaw Seen, Inger Lorre, Mr. Twister

Lead singer of Little Caesar Ron Young and wife Renee, Mr. Twister ↓

 ↑ Above, phenomenal singer/songwriter Ruby Friedman with Mr. Twister.

Guest photographer © Donna Balancia.

One of my favorite shots of the evening, Mr. Twister and me as on the job  photojournalists. Guest photographer © Donna Balancia ↓

The Blessings (see LINK,) my band of choice, performed a characteristic great set in the latter half of the reception.

↓ The Peanut Gallery; i.e. the mezzanine, with enraptured audience. 

 In fact, a very full Pop Obscure Records event, both upstairs and down.

                                          ↓  Guest photographer © Carolyn Carradine

                Guest photographer © Leslie Knauer ↓

 

Guest photographer© Kurt Ingham ↓                                                            

The Blessings are Jeremy White, vocals, guitar, harmonica; Mike Gavigan, guitar; Lavonne Seetal, vocals, Jason Upright, drums; Jeffrey Howell, keyboards; Lights Out Levine, bass.

↑ Colleague Ellen Berman, self, Loren Molinare of The Dogs and Little Caesar. 

Guest photographer © Kurt Ingham

Below left, photographers Harrold Sherrick, Michael Eivaz, Shelley Mitchell and Ellen Berman. Right, Ruby Friedman's French Bulldog- "Get the lens, Clovis, get the lens!"

Whitey Kirst emerges from the shadows...

↓ Below left, Casey Niccoli with my shot of her with Perry Farrell and their dog Annie at a recording session for 1990 Hollyword spoken word compilation produced by Harvey Kubernik. Guest photographer © Ricky Biscuits;  Right, Paula Tiberius, Julie Scher Molinare,

 Guest photographer © Donna Balancia

Alex Stiletto of Modern Kicks and Leslie Knauer of Precious Metal.

 Guest photographer © Donna Balancia

Self with Marijke Koger-Dunham, (fine artist, designer, The Fool) 

Guest photographer © Donna Balancia

Guest photographer © Alyson Camus

Chris Carradine (architect, Disney Imagineer,) Marijke Koger-Dunham, Mr. Twister, self

Guest photographer © Donna Balancia

Chris Carradine found an album by his brother! Shhhh...don't spoil the future gift surprise!

↓ Left, I do not stand on top of subjects as a matter or course: it's a skillful composite.

Guest photographer © Vicki Whicker ;  

Right, self, Katrina Melendez, Leslie Morrison. Guest photographer © Ellen Berman ↓

                

 Ian O'Connor and Sherry O'Connor, 

Special Effects folks extraordinaire for films and television

 

↑ Ian, Sherry and an always dashing Mr. Twister

Guest photographer © Alyson Camus

↑ Sherry, Ian, self, Katrina Melendez, Crickette Oswald. Guest photographer © Alyson Camus

Lady and Lord Hailer, April Carson and Robert Mills of The Hailers.

Guest photographer © Donna Balancia.

↑ Emily Butler and Jeremy White

↓ Mr. Twister, self, Loren Molinaire

Guest photographer © Michael Eivaz

Photo ops of Whitey Kirst and Inger Lorre, Donna Balancia and Chris Carradine in background.

Guest photographer © Alyson Camus

  ↑ Holga Camera and her retinue; below, bits of exhibit ↓

 

Sherry Lee and Dustin Lane, co-owners of Pop Obscure Records & Gallery

Thank you for a swell reception, Pop Obscure Records & Gallery and everyone!

↑ One of my other fave pics of the evenings. Guest photographer © Leslie Morrison

 May 6th Prequel: Theatre date with Chris and Carolyn Carradine for Much Ado About Nothing performed by The Hobart Shakespeareans then dinner at Cole's, a vintage 1908 restaurant in downtown L.A. Vintage anything remains quite the rarity in L.A.  Selfies ensued.  Under the evening apparel I am sporting my naughty Klimt leggings with "the Hostile Powers" from his Beethoven Frieze.

Return to Forever Post Script: rock couturier Evita Corby, author Terry Moreland Henderson, musician/longtime friend Tripp Smythe and my mother were unable to attend the reception, so I gave them all a personal guided tour through the exhibit within the week afterwords.  Below, Evita stands nonchalantly next to my portrait of her with Rodney Bingenheimer taken at a 2011 art exhibit in the exact same building of the 1970s Rodney Bingenheimer's English Disco, a favorite haunt of both subjects. (Seeing this shot, Mr. Twister remarked that Evita has mastered nonchalant...)

 

 ↑ My mother and Tripp share the same familial name of "Smythe"

guest photographer Terry Moreland Henderson ↓

Additional coverage of the opening night reception event via more objective P.O.V.s: 

California Rocker coverage: LINK*      

Rock NYC coverage: LINK*

Link to Pop Obscure Records & Gallery website: http://www.popobscurerecords.com/
Link to THE BLESSINGS:  http://fastfilm1.blogspot.com/search/label/The%20Blessings

 *http://californiarocker.com/2017/05/08/blessings-heather-harris-balancia/

 **http://rocknycliveandrecorded.com/fast-film-50-years-of-music-photography-by-heather-harris-at-pop-obscure-records-saturday-may-6th-2017html.