That Girl - That IT GIRL, Pleasant!

pleasant bedroom

Pleasant Gehman, just before her 18th birthday. She was already the talk of the town...what you call and "It Girl." She was already writing and getting published and had founded Lobotomy, the Brainless Magazine with Randy Kaye.

CU plz randy
Randy and Pleasant in San Francisco

Everyone knew Pleasant and everyone felt as though she was their best friend. People confided in her, invited her to exclusive shindigs and didn't mind that sometimes those private escapades ended up in the gossip column of Lobotomy, or later in the gossip column she started at the LA Weekly, LA Di Da. In fact, I remember people asking her why she wasn't gossiping about them in her column!

whos who at joans house small

Pleasant had already developed the innate sense of an expert entrepreneur. Lobotomy was part legitimate zine, a stepping stone in her non-stop editorial career (and for which she's being honored by her hometown!), and partly a deft write-your-own-backstage-pass slam/dunk for not just getting into the shows we wanted to see for free, but for making our own quality time with people one or more of us was truly interested in.

pleasant loves billy

Who else could get the entire city of Los Angeles and all of punk rock to acknowledge and support her in any endeavor? This is something only an It Girl can do!

billy plz goodbye-SMALL

This party for Billy Idol at Joan Jett's apartment launched a dozen careers, including my own. Brad Dunning, who you can barely see in the photo above, but you can see below, from the same party...

DUNNING-72

Brad may be the most successful of the party goers (Joan and Billy nothwithstanding...they were already known commodities when the party happened). Today he is a well respected and in-demand interior designer and writer. His byline has soared from Lobotomy to the New York Times.

plz kid
With Kid Congo, also a contributor to Lobotomy

Pleasant and Kid Congo share one specific aspect of their public lives. Jeffrey Lee Pierce convinced each of them to take up performing! Sure both of them were pretty scared to first get up on a stage, but look where the path has led...and that attitude, together with the sense of determination is what makes Pleasant tick.

It Girl, hard-working hedonist, the princess of LA punk rock... that's Pleasant Gehman. Click on the title of this post to visit Pleasant's website and see just how much more beautiful she has grown over the years!

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