Wall of Stiv

On this day in 1559, The Elizabethan Era began... as Elizabeth I was crowned Queen of England in Westminster Abbey. The Elizabethan period is my favorite period of literature - the one that yielded the works that would go on to inspire so much great writing in the future. It was the period of Shakespeare and Marlowe. Elizabeth ruled for 45 years and lay the foundation of the England we know today... from the punk rock to the pomp and circumstance and another Monarch called Elizabeth. The Sex Pistols sang about her in God Save the Queen.

When Stiv Bators, Michael Monroe and I were roommates, they used to try to promulgate a rumor that Princess Diana, who liked her pop music (a fan of Duran Duran, she was), and Michael Monroe were something to talk about... funny, but that rumor never ever took off. Still...



...we had a ritual - we'd have our taxi always but always pass Buckingham Palace en route to where ever we were going. London taxis are required to take their passengers along the most direct route, so Stiv and I relied upon our very American accents (his Midwestern, mine Californian - BEACH NOT Valley!) to have the drivers, "please drive us by Buckingham Palace!" which they would even though it wasn't always along the way.

Stiv and his antics are celebrated extra large in New York right now in my traveling photo exhibit. There's a Wall of Stiv at Magnetic Field in the Unguarded Moments: Backstage and Beyond collection installed there. And this coming Saturday at Pass Out Record Shop in Williamsburg, there's rock n roll party to celebrate the opening of a Punk Rock Dead of Winter collection on display in the store... and yes, there will be another Wall of Stiv... and several of his departed friends.



Johnny Thunders who is featured in the Punk Rock Dead of Winter exhibit was also hanging around in London at the same time Stiv, Michael and I were roommates. The end result of their hanging out can be heard on Johnny's album Que Sera Sera. The one time I joined them in the studio, they ran so late, I fell asleep on the couch...

Last night I had a dream in which the late Ian Copeland (who was Stiv's booking agent) was talking to me at length and in depth about many things that I was talking about today with other friends. It was just like the vision that many of Stiv's friends had just after Stiv died in 1990... where he would call and talk with us, and tell us he could do anything. He is immortal... that's for certain.


take him home! click the picture!



Don't miss the Punk Rock Dead Of Winter party at Pass Out Record Shop this coming Saturday!