THE PICS IN RICHARD RINALDI'S "MANHATTAN SUNDAY" HAPPENED AFTER THE PARTY WAS OVER

Photographer Richard Rinaldi‘s new book, Manhattan Sunday (Aperture) chronicles six years, starting in 2010, where he visited NYC nightclubs. He didn’t shoot the patrons in the act of nightclub fun but rather after the party was over, between midnight and 10AM on Sunday mornings, on their way back home.

Night-life personalities like Honey Dijon and Ladyfag can be spotted, but most of the portraits are of nameless club-goers with no identifying captions, other than the time of the photograph.

In 1986, while visiting colleges in New York, his father took him to Danceteria, the now legendary downtown nightclub, although he and a friend were underage at the time.

“He had the savoir faire to give the doorman a $20 bill.”

He ended up enrolling in NYU, studying photography by day and dancing at night, becoming a regular at places like the World, Mars and Palladium. He kept clubbing through the 1990s at hot spots like the Roxy, SqueezeBox and the Sound Factory.

“Sound Factory for me was my golden era. It was so New York, with kids from all over the city.”

Photographer, Richard Rinaldi, Photo, Seth Boyd

In 1996, he learned he was H.I.V.-positive and pulled back from the scene, going out less and less. A couple of years later, he met his long-term partner Seth Boyd, an architectural photographer, and began taking his photography seriously. Encouraged and accompanied by Mr. Boyd, he went back into the club scene and several years later, he combined his two passions. He set up his Wisner 8 X 10 view camera outside of clubs like Roseland, Pacha and the Eagle, as club-goers stumbled out at dawn.

“The other people you saw beside the clubbers were the street cleaners. There was this nice dichotomy between the mess makers and the ones cleaning up after them.”

In 2015, after receiving a Guggenheim Fellowship, he took his project inside clubs as well, shooting at gay-friendly parties like Brut at Santos House and Holy Mountain at Slake. 

“A couple times I partied and then in the morning when things were winding down, I took out the camera and started to shoot; that was a little wacky. A couple times I photographed first and then put the camera away and had fun afterward. That was the smarter way of doing it.”

You can get Richard’s book here.

(Photos, Richard Rinaldi; via NY Times)

DRAG HERSTORY: "WHEN JACKIE (CURTIS) MET ETHYL" (EICHELBERGER)

The late Warhol Superstar Jackie Curtis is well-known, but this new exhibition in New York the cultural and historical impact of both Curtis (1947-1985) and the lesser-know, but phenomenally talented, Ethyl Eichelberger (1945-1990) are reconsidered. They were two of the most influential figures from the 70s and 80s in the East Village’s heyday. Oddly, even thought the title suggests otherwise, the press release says “they are not believed to have known each other.” So odd. I knew them both from my Pyramid days. A little background first. From the press release,

Jackie by Jack Mitchell

Jackie Curtis was born John Curtis Holder, Jr. on the Lower East Side, and mostly raised by his maternal grandmother, known as Slugger Ann, whose eponymous bar on 2nd Avenue was a well-known refuge for social misfits. A member of Andy Warhol’s original network of Superstars –along with Candy Darling and Holly Woodlawn –, Curtis’ stage debut was at age 17 in Tom Eyen’s Miss Nefertiti Regrets, followed by roles in the Paul Morrissey films Flesh (1968) and Women in Revolt (1971). Aside from possessing a mesmerizing screen presence, Curtis’ greatest artistic influence was as playwright and songwriter for the productions Glamour, Glory and Gold; Vain Victory; and Heaven Grand in Amber Orbit, all of which featured transsexual characters. The Jackie Curtis signature ‘look’ –glitter and lipstick combined with ripped stockings and/or housedresses – was widely adopted in the 1970s and 1980s, and in 2004 the documentary Superstar in a Housedress brought the Curtis legend to a new generation.

Ethyl by Peter Hujar

Ethyl Eichelberger was born James Roy Eichelberger in rural Illinois, and spent much of his first thirty years studying acting and working in regional repertory theater, eventually becoming an expert wigmaker and member of Charles Ludlam’s Ridiculous Theatrical Company. In 1975 he legally changed his first name to Ethyl and introduced a flamboyant stage presence, singing while playing piano and accordion, and radically re-conceiving classic characters like King Lear and Medea as drag cabaret. Although Eichelberger appeared in films, Broadway theater productions, and an HBO series for kid, and was a successful commercial actor, his main impact was as a performer in intimate East Village venues like P.S. 122, Pyramid Lounge, 8BC, and s.n.a.f.u.. In the course of more than thirty original and adapted plays, his was nearly always the title role, often with multiple male and female characters switching parts, and occasional acrobatic or circus stunts thrown in for equal measure.

Ethyl onstage with contestants for STH's cover boy contest. Photos, Trey Speegle

Ethyl featured on posters designed by Trey Speegle, along with Cookie Mueller, Keith Haring and Quentin Crisp

Ethyl was a wonderful person and an amazing performer. (Watch the clip below) I was lucky enough to share the stage with a couple of times, MCing with her for my show, Straight to Hell, at the Pyramid. Our schtick was that neither knew what we were supposed to be doing and without any script or rehearsal, it wan’t a stretch. Ethyl was quick on her feet and judged a contest to be on the cover of STH magazine, left. Later for the STH reboot, Bad Boy at Danceteria, my DJs for the monthly party were none other than WOW’s Fenton Bailey & Randy Barbato, which featured strippers from the infamous Gaiety Male Burlesque, plus various side shows, like the Porno Swap Meet and Wet Underwear Contest. The photo below is of Ethyl flat onstage with the judges one night, all old pals of mine, Keith Haring, Cookie Mueller and John Sex. Years later when I saw this photo it summed up the fun and also the sadness of that era. Keith, Cookie and John all died from AIDS-related causes and Ethyl was HIV-positive and committed suicide in 1990.

Jackie backstage holding an issue of STH with Trey on the cover. Photo, Trey Speegle

Jackie I knew less, but we shared one memorable night when she spoke at a Straight To Hell night at the Pyramid. (That’s me on the cover of the magazine at just 19.) I recently donated a print of the picture, left, which I took in ’85, for auctioned to benefit the AIDS charity, Friends In Deed, which is sadly now defunct. Happily, the photo is now in mega-collector Beth Rudin DeWoody‘s hand. Jackie died just a few months later in ’85, so that was one of her last appearances.

Keith Haring, Cookie Mueller, John Sex and Ethyl Eichelberger at Trey Speegle’s Bad Boy night at Danceteria, circa ’86

This new exhibit will feature videos by the late, great Nelson Sullivan and others, and images of Eichelberger and Curtis by photographers Peter Hujar, Dona McAdams, Jack Mitchell, Billy Sullivan, Ande Whyland, and Kirila Faeh and many more. When Jackie Met Ethyl, curated by Dan Cameron is at Howl Arts. It opens, Thursday, May 5 and runs through June 1, 2016. For more info you can go here.

"SECRETS OF THE GREAT PYRAMID" AT HOWL! BRINGS BACK NYC IN THE 80S

The Lower East Side (LES) and East Village (like the rest of New York City) are packed with history, cool stories and drama. I’m doing a mini-salute to the area with three posts about proposed new Lowline Park, the new show Sister’s Follies at Abrons Arts and the legendary 80s club, The Pyramid. 

Secrets of the Great Pyramid: The Pyramid Cocktail Lounge as Cultural Laboratory is curated by Brian Butterick(aka Hattie Hathaway) at Howl! Happening Gallery. Secrets of the Great Pyramid is an exhibit that pays tribute to the legacy of the famed 80s nightclub, named for the stepped pyramid motif above the entrance of the bar, the Pyramid really was an epicenter of the EV & LES artistic communities. Along with other clubs that came before and after, like the Mudd Club, CBGB, Danceteria, Area and others, it sparked a cultural revolution in music, dance, theater, drag, video, fine art, performance art, activism, feminism and LBGT politics. The opening last night ast night was, as it advertised, was… 

“…more than a reunion, a retrospective, or a forced march through niche history, Secrets Of the Great Pyramid shows how a simple cultural laboratory continues to resonate in Post-Millennial America.”

On December 10, 1981, Ronald Reagan had been president for less than a year when a group of New York art-school flunkies threw a party at a Polish/Ukrainian dive bar on Avenue A in New York’s East Village. Ed Koch was mayor, the East Village was nearly in flames, the street drug trade was rampant, but rents were cheap! (I was working at Vogue at the time, when I moved to Avenue B in ’82 and First Avenue was viewed as the farthest east any sane person would dare go. When I told an editor at the magazine I was moving there, they grabbed my arm to say, “No! You CAN’T! You’ll be murdered!”) 

Featured in this three-week only exhibit is a recreation of the legendary Pyramid with artwork and visuals from deceased trailblazers and working artists embraced by the club along with ephemera and ancient artifacts. (To my shock an issue of Straight To Hellmagazine with me on the cover, was in a glass case below the piece I contributed as a tongue-in-cheek remembrance of our long-gone pals, Forget Me. Also included in the exhibition is work by Stephen Tashjian, Greer Lankton, David Wojnarowicz, Laura Levine, Tanya Ransom, Alice O’Malley, Jayne County, Connie Fleming, Chris Tanner, Keiko Bonk, Frederick Nunley, Lynn Grabowski, Antony/Blacklips, Andé Whyland, Aleta Joy Wolfe, Billy Beyond, Nelson Sullivan, Richard Oszust, Jack Pierson, John Kelly, Flloyd, Dug Wah and more…

Last night was also a revisiting of first Sunday night party at the club, called Cafe Iguana. Part Weimar-era Cabaret, part cracked Broadway last night was held together by host Heather Litteer, who was channeling the late Ann Craig, Iguana’s original MC. Alternative Theatre founder Kestutis Nakas flew in from Chicago to regale us with what we were like and the “non gender-specific” Seattle burlesque icon, Paula Now killed the crowd with her strip tease to And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going from Dreamgirls when she tossed her wig and it landed PERFECTLY on the crystal chandelier. John Kelly closed the performance with amazing rendition of “What makes a Man” and said to me after the show, that when Paula’s wig landed on the chandelier.

“… the night was MADE.”

Artist Chris Tanner was in beautiful voice contrasting a raucous and very interactive performance by Jack Waters & Peter Cramer who had us all doing keigels to warm up before dancing on the bar which everyone who had anything to with the Pyramid has done, including your's truly in my pajamas. 

I saw SO many old friends (and frankly, I successfully avoided several!) and some flew in just for the night; Downtown PR legend, Susan Martin, artist Izar Patkin, performer Nora Burns, Pyramid regular Frederick Nunely, photographer Janette Beckman, the legendary Connie Girl, Perfidia, Debra Ortega, Carlo McCormick, Maripol, Mark Phred (Hapi Phace) and the list goes on and on…

Today, Sunday October 18th at 3 PM is a panel discussion moderated by Hattie Hathaway with Victor Mendolia (Anonymous? Productions), Kevin Malony (TWEED TheaterWorks), Hapi Phace, Kesutis Nakas, Paula Now, John Jeserun, Iris Rose and more. I'm going to miss it, but come next Friday to Whispers, where there will be a surprise performance, not on the calendar. Scroll down for the rest....

WHISPERS TRIBUTE– Hosted by Hapi Phace: Saturday October 24th, 8 PM
Conceived as a response to the gentrification and pasteurization of New York in 1984, Whispers was billed as “The Complete Suburban Gay Experience” and as a party for “hairdressers, display queens, theatre folk, fashionistas, florists, and sensitive straight people,” Whispers was distinctly tongue-in- cheek, featuring everything from the hanky code, to roller disco, Sixties kitsch, drag queens and kings and the fine art of the lipsynch. Performers include Pioneering Experimental Theater performer Agosto Machado, Poet Kennon B. Raines, from Montreal, chanteuse quebecoise Marleen Menard, Hapi Phace and Hattie Hathaway, and, in a tribute to International Chrysis, Bobbie. PLUS: Bar dancing turns by Butch Icon Dee Finley and “The Painted Man”, David Caskie!

FILM/VIDEO PROGRAMME– Thursday October 29 7 PM
Including works by: Disturbed Form Theater, Tennevision, Tom Rubnitz, Mark Oates, Nelson Sullivan, Tabboo!, Blacklips, Flloyd, Marjan Moghaddam, TWEED TheaterWorks & more.

LIVE PAINTING SHOW: SCOT WRIGHT– Day Of the Dead, Monday November 2nd 6 PM
Former Pyramid door person and frontman for the legendary 1980s Synth-Metal Band “Dem Vackra,” Scot Wright has turned his talents to creating angular, near-Rorschach water-colors of epic proportions. Tonight we transform HOWL! Happening Gallery into the artist’s studio, with Scot, his models (in various stages of undress,) and gallery-goers alike, invoking the spirits of those dear and departed.

CHANNEL 69 SALUTE– Wednesday November 4th 7:30 PM

LINDA SIMPSON’S DRAG EXPLOSION –Despite a demanding career in publishing, Minnesota native Les Simpson found time to create the iconic Wednesday night bacchanal Channel 69 which featured DJ Dany Johnson and lasted into the 1990’s, while concurrently releasing My Comrade/Sister, a high-end Lesbian and Gay ’zine. Author of several plays, one time Time Out NY editor, and currently touring round the globe with a slick audio-visual presentation as Gay “herstorian” Linda Simpson. 

CLOSING RECEPTION/BLACKLIPS PERFORMANCE– Saturday November 7th 8 PM
Performers include Beaut (featuring Marti and Twinkle,) Flloyd, Kembra Pfahler (The Voluptuous Horror Of Karen Black), Throbbing Gristle and Psychic TV legend Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, Poison Eve and Craig Curiousity, Video Art by Antony and more. Plus the return of Aloe Vera!

The exhibition runs through November 7, 2015 at Howl! Happening, 6 East lst Street, New York. For further information go here. All events are FREE.

WONDER IF MADONNA WILL SHOW UP TO THE DANCETERIA REUNION?

Kids, here’s another 80s club history lesson. It’s Danceteria.

The first Danceteria was opened on West 37th Street and closed not long after by the NYPD and fire departments in 1980 as it was an illegal unlicensed facility. In 1982 a new six-floor facility became THE noted 21st Street Danceteria that everyone talk about. The club became known as one of the country’s centers of new art (Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring) performance, fashion and music and many musicians played there like; Madonna, RuPaul, New Order, Duran Duran, Billy Idol, Sade, The Smiths, Squeeze, Cyndi Lauper, Run-DMC, Depeche Mode, The B-52’s, Bauhaus, Sonic Youth, Swans, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Soft Cell, The Jesus and Mary Chain and the Beastie Boys. The third incarnation of Danceteria operated from 1990 to 1993 in the run-down Martha Washington Hotel at 30 East 30th Street and the 21st Street location was eventually sold and converted to luxury condos.

In two weeks there’s a NYC reunion for Danceteria hosted by Joe Stanich, for all of the nightclub dinosaurs that haven’t left us yet, like the recent unexpected departure from the planet of club legend, Edwige. Here’s the Facebook pitch to make the scene…

D A N C E T E R I A …
Don’t call it a come back, we’ve been here before.

As we turn the corner racing towards the end of this year, it seems only proper and certainly fitting, that the ALUMNI and friends gather to remember.

It has been a tumultuous year for us all. Respect for All the family that has gone before us, to set up the greatest event in the sky ever !

The list of names is growing far too fast. Who have I missed, all of them ! Give me the names…
Haoui, Elizabeth, Martha, Mark, Alice, Sally Be, Savoia, Edwige

We’ll laugh and cry, sing and dance, hug and pose.

And we will remember and share all those FABULOUS stories that must never be forgotten.

Please,… pass the word, near and far…
DANCETERIA will revive this night. 

DJ’s: Bill Bahlman, Nancy Rapchak, Freddy Bastone (and Johnny Dynell?)

Below is my ex-bf, the legendary doorman, Haoui Montaug, introducing Madonna first performance of Everybody. On the far right is the late Martin Burgoyne, Madonna’s BFF and her first manager… art director and dancer. He wore a lot of hats. There's also an episode of New York Dance Stand from 1983 with loads of folks. Look for Dianne Brill as well as Eva Byron performing at about 23 minutes in. Watch.

The party is October 23, 7PM at the Rumpus Room, 249 Eldridge St, NYC. For more info, go here. (Share this post and spread the word. See you there!?)

This benefit was for Michael Stewart who was a graffiti artist that died after being beaten by police over 30 years ago.

Madonna by Maripol

Madonna’s getting ready for her first-ever performance at Danceteria, in 1982. Photo, Josh Cheuse

Madonna with brother Christopher (left) on the roof at Danceteria in ’83. Photo, Bob Gruen

DJ “Jellybean” Benitez, left, produced some of Madonna’s biggest hits in the ’80s. Photo, Corbis

30 YEAR-OLD LOST DANCETERIA COMMERCIAL IS AS WEIRD AS EVER

Here’s a little New York club history, kids. 

The first Danceteria opened on West 37th Street by Rudolf Piper and talent booker Jim Fouratt as an after-hours club. I first met Keith Haring there where he was working as a bus boy and everyone from Devo to the B-52s played there late. It was closed by the NYPD & NYFD in 1980 as it was an illegal, unlicensed facility. 

In 1982, John Argento hired Fouratt and Piper to promote and book the talent at a new six-floor facility, which became the 21st Street Danceteria. It opened to massive crowds and critical acclaim. The regular DJs on the main floor were Jody Kurilla and the late Mark Kamins (who first played Madonna‘s single there and where Desperately Seeking Susanwas shot too) Former Mudd Club DJ Anita Sarko spun on the first floor, where the bands performed, as well Congo Bill. I hosted a monthly party up there called Bad Boy and World of Wonder head-honchos, Fenton Bailey & Randy Barbato DJ’d for it. Argento posted this video on Facebook recently. He said; 

“What can I say? Low budget, public access TV… Rudolf does the voice over, reiterating long standing door policies such as

‘Latin American Dictators get in for free’…’Walloons only if they’re dressed fabulously.’ 

I remember him doing the voice over in the fourth floor DJ booth… I believe the soundtrack was from the movie La Dolce Vita. A difference of opinion then, the choice of music looks like the right thing to have done now.”

Over 30 years later it’s still weird. Watch.

(Video edited by Danny Cornyetz (Dee Cortex); hand-coloring by Jessica Jason)

#FLASHBACK82: BABY MADONNA SINGING "EVERYBODY" FOR THE FIRST TIME AT DANCETERIA

Before Everybody, Madonna Ciccone struggled in NYC. She landed her big break with Sire Records through a series of lucky (or well-planned) romances. One was with the late Mark Kamins who DJ’d at Danceteria, the four-story center of the NY nightlife and music scene in 1982. This was the club’s second incarnation, at the first, I met (and hooked up with) artist Keith Haring who was a bus boy there –but not for long. One night, Madonna convinced Kamins to play Everybody and in his own words; 

“It worked.” 

Kamins knew people at Sire, and soon Madonna had signed a $15,000 two-single deal. Everybody really took off after Sire executives saw Madonna performing this song at Danceteria at Haoui Montaug‘s cabaret No Entiendes. (Btw, Haoui was my boyfriend at the time but I missed this show…) In this first-ever performance at Danceteria, you get to see Madge’s dance moves and supreme confidence. It might seem a bit amateurish, compared to today, but this was a slick show for the time. No singers or bands had real choreography in a nightclub. Watch. The rest is herstory.

KEITH HARING: THE POLITICAL LINE OPENS IN SAN FRANCISCO

When you get to the point in life when your friends start having museum shows, you have a mixed bag of feelings, not the least of which is your own mortality. I remember the first time I saw an exhibit in a museum (I can’t remember where?) with Keith Haring’s work in it…. there were club invitations to parties I had attended and work I remember seeing in the subway or the studio, etc. I was proud of him, but it was a weird sensation. (I’ve shown my own work and memorabilia from the same period and it didn’t feel that strange.) Keith and I met in 1980, the first summer I arrived in NYC. He had just done one of his first murals over the stairs at Danceteria, a club where he was still a busboy at the time. In ten years, he was unknown, a New York art star, world famous and dead. Shocking, he made so much work and had such an impact in the space of one decade.

A new show, Keith Haring: The Political Line just opened at the de Young Fine Arts Museum in San Francisco. It features 130+ pieces — including big tarp paintings, sculptures and subway drawings. It’s the first time a major exhibit has focused on his political messages. Curator Dieter Buchhart talks about the activist nature of the work; 

“It is amazing that the question of social justice and change that Keith Haring devoted himself to has not been addressed before in a major exhibition,” says Buchhart. “Haring understood that art was for everybody — he fought for the individual and against dictatorship, racism and capitalism. He was no utopian, but he had a dream that ‘nothing is an end, because it always can be the basis for something new and different.’”

Many of have not been published or on public view ever. Keith fought –I would say tirelessly but he did get tired– but he FOUGHT to end the AIDS epidemic in his work and life. He established The Keith Haring Foundation in his last years to speak about his own illness and generate activism and awareness about AIDS. He died of it in 1990, at age 31, but his influence on our generation and those who’ve followed is a testament to his vision and intention. 

Untitled from 1982, the cover of the catalogue (above), is a figure outlined on a large vinyl tarp in yellow and red paint, breaking a stick. Julia Gruen, a friend of Haring’s and executive director of the Keith Haring Foundation says;

“We felt that that image really in the simplest possible way spoke to a kind of political activism,” said “The image itself does not refer to a specific cause. It’s really about fighting against oppression. It’s about bucking the system. It’s about questioning authority.”

Yes, he’d have SO much to say about this last election, Ebola, the GOP, climate change, marriage equality – you name it. Look at the work and you can tell, he’d be fired up today. Btw, the online store has some great things of his so you CAN own a Keith Haring, if you like. Go here. I have a show across the bay in San Francisco in a month, so, I have an afternoon planned already… The Political Line runs through February 16th, 2015.

The crowds file in at the opening. Photo by Julia Gruen

This exhibit, organized by Dieter Buchhart, was first seen at the Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville in Paris

A pile of crowns for Jean Michel Basquiat. His street tag was SAMO, with a crown “logo”

he pink triangle was sewn on to homosexual Jews concentration camp uniforms

Keith doing a subway drawing, circa ’81. Photo by Tseng Kwong Chi

An early collage. Keith would xerox these to hand out at clubs, like the Pyramid and Club 57

Black light room at the de Young. Photo by Julia Gruen

A poster at the museum shop

A young fan at the de Young. Photo by Julia Gruen