Above, her photo of "The Monkey Trainer's Daughter," 1981 shows a trio in India trapped in poverty. The first photo depicts the artist herself, known late in her career for throwing and photographing parties for dogs, with Cooper the Whippet.
Some past industry work for Billboard and Hollywood Reporter, circa 1999 through 2002. Tight crops here of what were double-truk layout spreads in these venerable trade publications. In there somewhere: film directors Clint Eastwood, Steven Seagal and Robert Rodriguez; hip hop artists Pink, Kelis, KRS-One; producer/director choreographer Julie Taymor. My own byline underscored in shocking pink for the credulous and/or myopic...
This just in, May 21st marks the nascence of Mr. Twister, my beloved better half with whom I've shared 45 thrill-packed years (although I spent the first five scraping the groupies off.) In celebration, I diverge headfirst into sheer subjectivity to bring you these photographs of Mr. Twister throughout the years: scuba-licensed child, performer in Christopher Milk and Chainsaw (history here LINK,) Lotus Elite racer, photographer, globe trekker, marksman, educator of our nation's youth, survivor. Birthday valentine cavalcade of photos follows by yours truly unless indicated otherwise, many heretofore unseen much less published, since he doesn't 'reprazent' online. Above, 2003 reunion tour of Italy with his punk band Chainsaw; Mr. Twister, 2015.
Below left, photographer
unknown, live with Christopher Milk at UCLA with a full page featured in UCLA yearbook; right: lead
singer of Sunset Blvd. in the film "Garage Sale"
Below left, the ill-fated (self-immolated) Lotus Elite, photo by Kirk Henry; right, with models Crickette Lum and Linda Daddy for Chainsaw promotion, 1976
Below, his own bad self in the late 1970s; right, Mr. Twister handles Vienna, and seen in East Africa at Karen Blixen's (Isak Dinesen's) house near Nairobi, Kenya
↓ and → Socializing the neighbors' puppies; swimming with Crystal Scarborough, our Golden Retriever named after his childhood swim instructor, the first to teach babies how to swim
The early 1990s, in our photo studio↓
Below, Chainsaw reunion tour of Italy, 2003, Napoli
← 2013; 2014 →
↓ Flight simulator jet fight pilot, 2011 and beyond (at the Stanley Kubrick exhibit, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2012)
Lastly: together at 1980 Behemoth Festival, photographer unknown; at Brad Elterman photo exhibit, photographer unknown; with our friend Evita Corby (right) getting ready to see our friend Marijke Koger-Dunham's work at Museum of Contemporary Art, L.A., 2013, photo by Earl Reinhalter.
Above left, Pamela Goodchild; right, Lisa Rae Black
Singer
Pamela Goodchild (who has provided vocals for Dusty Springfield amongst
others) and guitarist Lisa Rae Black (The Pandoras and metal maidens
Hardly Dangerous reside in her c.v.) performed a sparkling cover of The
Supremes' "Come See About Me" plus original fare with the assist of
guitarist Paul Forrester (since Pamela had just broken her arm*) at last
night's benefit for Teen Line hotline ( LINK ) at Genghis Cohen, West Hollywood CA.
Also on hand with Pamela, Lisa and Paul (left) were comic Dana Goldberg, right,
below left, singer Magnolia Memoir, and below center and right, comic Ted Margas.
*modern arm breaks are set in a soft cast for a week so that the swelling can decrease before setting the limb in a hard cast. I know. ↓ (selfie)
They say one never is supposed to admit any failings whatsover in the endless parade of self-promotion in our entertainment world, so be as suspect as you wish. To me it's another anecdote in what Inspector Clouseau termed "life's rich pageant," spouted while his character fell off a mansion's balcony into a fountain below, which strangely enough suits my metaphor here. (And yes, R.E.M. got the joke too, naming an album same.)
Three days ago I gave a scoop from a colleague in film media to a friend who edits two online music magazines that the Rolling Stones were going to play a secret warmup club gig for their impending 2015 tour on May 20, 2015 at the Fonda Theatre, Hollywood CA. The Stones' precedent was a similar warmup gig at the smallish Echoplex here two years ago. She rightly corroborated this info with another source unknown to me, and printed the tip at once. Her magazine sites immediately got one million hits. Grateful, she graciously arranged for me to be the photographer of this gig for a major music trade.
The previous Echoplex gig had launched a lottery for inordinately lucky fans to see the Stones in a uniquely small setting for all of twenty bucks, 2013 dollars, and had welcomed select press and press photographers. This time around, speculation pegged the gig mainly for celebrity guests, and it was announced that they would allow only a single pool photographer to supply all press visuals, and it would be the person described online as "the world's preeminent entertainment photographer," Kevin Mazur. So no go for this photojournalist: I won the battle but lost the crown.
Trying not to sound like a hopping mad Yosemite Sam, thus I vent. They say karma is a bitch, but who knew it considered me to be one!
The job of taking down our three drought-killed, 60ft. redwood trees took half as long as projected. They truly were dead and therefore quite lightweight according to the arborist's service. The ex-mimosa tree practically broke every branch off in their hands. Below, the redwood mulch. No firewood because redwood is terrible firewood, practically explodes pooof! into dust instead of burning. Based on our experience with the ex-walnut tree that also died in the drought, no purveyors of old, fine hardwoods want to transport same from Southern California, so we didn't even look for takers this time.
Left, Gia attempts woodworking of her own; right, Sarahbelle in front of log that shows deadness of outermost tree rings.
Below, some new flora life after our brief and badly needed rain the day before. At bottom, a void.
In answer to FAQ, we're
relying on the advice of an experienced arborist who checked these
trees two years ago for comparison. He has since attended seminars about
the effects of the drought on SoCal trees and told us exactly how the
trees died. (You can't tell from
the photos, but they are bending over at the top as dead trees do.) We
have had a new average of 3" per annum rainfall, and that matches the
Sahara Desert. Our Valley savannah previously had between 12"-28" inches
rain with droughts only lasting 3 years at most this last century
(since the house and its landscaping are a century old.) We have lost
LOTS of trees at this point, the 80' Walnut being the biggest, and these
60' Redwoods being second biggest. We are confirmed tree planters and
hate doing this, but as previous trees have fallen on top of our cars
and 30' branches are dropping off routinely, we don't want anyone hurt.
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