Joan Jett - Bad Reputation? Happy Birthday Anyway!

San Vicente's most popular party girl has a birthday today. Happy Birthday Joan Jett. She loves rock n roll, and rock n rollers love her. Goodwill ambassador for LA punk rock... Joan united the UK and NYC punks with Los Angeles via Cleveland through her personal and professional friendships with musicians like Sid Vicious, Billy Idol, Stiv Bators and the Dead Boys, the Ramones and each and every member of Blondie, past and present.

Joan Jett - what's not to love?
Hey Joan from San Vicente - many happy returns!

Joan's life has been celebrated extra large these past couple years, decades after she founded The Runaways. There was that movie The Runaways, that beautiful coffee table book with Todd Oldham, Joan Jett, and this month, Bad Reputation by Dave Thompson.

She don't give a damn about her bad reputation. You shouldn't either.

In a couple weeks, I will be extending the shelf life on Joan's birthday celebration by featuring big beautiful prints of her from the various books they've been in -- the books about her and the books about punk.

Yes - the Unguarded Moments tour continues! Our show at Maryville, TN's Southland Books includes a celebration of the publication of Bad Reputation, so come join us if you're in the area. More info here.


With Billy Idol and Pleasant




In bed with Stiv and Cynthia... you saw this in Creem
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Happy Birthday Dee Dee Ramone!

Douglas Colvin, you know him as Dee Dee Ramone - the poet laureate of punk rock brevity... yeah - Verlaine's a poet, Hell's a poet - but Dee Dee cut to the chase and with a few precisely chosen words defined what it meant to be a punk rocker ONE TWO THREE FOUR... and flurry of furious, glorious noise.

If he were alive, Dee Dee would have turned 60 today. At least he entertained us one last time by his ever-punk acceptance into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame.



Each of the Ramones did so much for the Dead Boys - but Dee Dee and Joey will always have a place in my heart for all the good times, and importantly for the advice they gave me and Stiv on the road... and those hotel hijinx too! Best pranks EVER



Happy Birthday Dee Dee... long may you reign.

Notes From A Punk Crashpad

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Its not Dostoevsky (Notes From the Underground), its better!



Because its live, its now, its history YOU remember! Taking nothing away from the Russian great, but at the same time putting Pleasant Gehman and Iris Berry into a pantheon of memoirists... I urge any and all of my Los Angeles area readers to check out this most fabulous punk rock literary event on Saturday, September 17 at Stories Books & Cafe, 1716 Sunset Blvd., Echo Park; 7:30-10:30 p.m.; its free. (213) 413-3733.

Its the memories of living at Disgraceland, THEE ultimate punk rock crash pad. In retrospect, it seems like the petri dish that changed pop culture, but back then, it was just friends relying on each other for camaraderie, crash pads, rides, meals, and creating bands, art and that which now looks like what it was (but we didn't call it that) - the infrastructure of an amazing counter-culture.



There are so many pictures of Pleasant and Kid and Pleasant and Belinda together because they personify exactly what I mean by "just friends relying on each other." Every epoch has a group of friends that inadvertently make a lasting mark. For LA in the 70s, its these punk rockers.


Belinda and Pleasant - LA's It Girls


Some of Disgraceland's residents and visitors over the years...


Jeffrey Lee Pierce, before he imagined The Gun Club


Kid Congo Powers and Pleasant


Pleasant, Belinda Carlisle, Dave Alvin, Connie Clarksville


Dave Alvin

I close with saying IRIS BERRY - IF YOU'RE READING THIS, WE NEED TO DO PHOTOS!!!

911 - Where Were You?

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In the UK, one dials "999" for Emergency - here in the USA, we dial "911."

If you are a regular reader of this blog, then you know I lived in NYC for about 20 years. Even though the events of September 11, 2001 have international ramifications, and even though there were planes that crashed in Pennsylvania and in D.C., NYC suffered the greatest loss, in sheer numbers, of lives and property lost, damaged, forever changed.

With each anniversary of the event, media coverage never fails to ask "Where were you?" This year marks the tenth anniversary. A decade. The first decade of a new century, a new millennium. What conspiracy theory do you subscribe to?

I was late for a client visit, so I decided to stop into Tower Records and pick up Bob Dylan's "Love and Theft," which was released that day. I still have the receipt, tucked inside the CD... it's somewhere in LA with the rest of my physical copies of the Dylan oeuvre.



Tower opened at 9 AM, and I was there a couple minutes early, having walked from my sublet on East 4th/2nd Ave to East 4th/Broadway to the store.

I had a CD walkman, and after spending a good half hour in Tower, from 9 AM til about 9:30, watching the second crash and the aftermath, I left the store and listened to "Love and Theft" all day long until I joined a friend and watched the replay of the morning's attacks over and over again.

A lot has changed since 9/11, and far be it from me to speak for anyone but myself. One thing I can say as a truism, you can't take photos in airports anymore, the way you could back in the 70s...



Pleasant, Billy Idol, Brendan Bourke and Leslie at LAX

The past few days, every newspaper, periodical, blog, website, etc. I've seen carries some kind of story asking the same question: 9/11 - Where Were You? Everyone has a memory of this... do you really want to re-live it?

When I think of 9/11, I hear this.

Happy Birthday to Chrissie Hynde, Buddy Holly and....

Chrissie Hynde was born on this date in Akron, Ohio



Buddy Holly was born on this date in 1936 and Elizabeth I, Queen of England, contemporary of Shakespeare, daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn was born on this date in 1533... OK, Elizabeth I was probably not musical, but the island nation and its greater commonwealth have given us centuries of great music, so she's worth mentioning... at least to me.

Bangles Releasing New Record in September 2011

Prior to forming the group that would become The Bangles with Susanna Hoffs and Annette Zilinskas, Vicki and Debbi Peterson were part of a band called Those Girls aka Hollywood Girls (Vicki and Debbi on the left) - I feel a little brain-dead that I don't remember the guitarist or bass player in this group, Those Girls... for it was the guitarist with whom I was in contact to do this photo session. I also can't remember if it was a journalist or if it was Kim Fowley who put me and the guitarist in touch with each other... anyway - this photo was taking in 1979 or 1980... we did a shoot in and around Century City - including the escalator that Mary Tyler Moore rode up in the opening sequence of her popular 70s sitcom... no - not ALL the scenes were filmed in Minneapolis! This shot, above, is in a parking garage below LA's Twin Towers - 2029 and 2049 Century Park East. I knew my way around that complex, as I had a part time job in one of the towers.

A couple years later, my friend, Gary Stewart, who worked at the Rhino Records store in Westwood put me in touch with Annette Zilinskas when I was booking an early show of up and coming local bands at the Whisky A Go Go for an otherwise empty Monday night on their stage. It was a Paisley Underground extravaganza with appearances by The Three O'Clock and The Last, and introducing The Bangs. (Read more about it here)

The Bangles were the one band associated with the Paisley Underground that made it into the mainstream pop charts, and garnered all the media attention, although the scene was rich with talent that continues to make music today.

At the end of this month, (September 27, to be exact) The Bangles will release Sweetheart of the Sun, a 12-song album recorded by pop meister, Matthew Sweet. Read more about it at thebangles.com