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Wednesday, May 27, 2015

R.I.P. MARY ELLEN MARK

photos © 2013,1981 Mary Ellen Mark, fair usage. Rest in peace photographer Mary Ellen Mark, known for portraying real emotion in her documentation of the world. Survived by her husband filmmaker Martin Bell, Mark was aged 75 and passed away of natural causes in her native NYC.  Mark was featured in 18 books of her own work, periodicals such as Time, Life, Rolling Stone, and Vanity Fair with still photography on set for the film Apocalypse Now, Carnal Knowledge, Big Fish, Ragtime and dozens of others of note.

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.

Saturday, May 23, 2015

SOME INDUSTRY WORK


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...



 








Thursday, May 21, 2015

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MR. TWISTER ! A PHOTO EXTRAVAGANZA


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, as the onetime Guinness Book of Records world's youngest licensed Scuba diver, photo by Sidney Ward Ingham; right, as seen when I met him, his 1970 selfie,
© 1970 Kurt Ingham.  Be still my !
 

















 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.




Wednesday, May 20, 2015

PAMELA GOODCHILD, LISA RAE BLACK PLAY BENEFIT FOR TEEN LINE HOTLINE 5.19.15

 

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)

Tuesday, May 19, 2015

UP AND DOWN WITH THE ROLLING STONES AND THEIR "SECRET" CLUB WARMUP GIG IN HOLLYWOOD 5.20.15

Above, deliberately low-res pic by guest photographer © 1972 Kurt Ingham. All Rights Reserved. The Rolling Stones in all their 1972 majesty and glory. He also photographed their live show in 1970, and considered this shot a second cut but shown here of necessity, since the first cut was incinerated when his Lotus Elite self-combusted (as fiberglas cars were wont to do) while he was driving it back from Santa Barbara CA.

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!

Saturday, May 16, 2015

DOOM CONCLUDED

 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.


Thursday, May 14, 2015

A PICTURE OF EMINENT DOOM...

Guest photographer © 2015 Kurt Ingham. A picture of eminent doom: these three 103-year-old redwoods died in the Southern California drought and will be removed starting Saturday. Salts in the soil from lack of rain-cleansing killed them: we could have watered until Gov. Brown personally asked us to stop and it would have made no difference. Climate change and urban heat effect has doomed our landscaping from 103 years ago... 

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.
 
Above, almost dead Mimosa tree