Club Kids

I recently watched Party Monster, about the rise and fall of the 1990s Club Kids in New York City. I’ve said it before, but unless you were there you have no idea what it was like to go out in the early 1990s, the kids today have no idea how boring and sterile even the best dance clubs are compared to what they were. It’s too bad.

I had forgotten that the club scene was responsible for creating so many people who are still pop culture icons: RuPaul; Amanda Lepore; designer Richie Rich; performance artist Leigh Bowery, who’s work you can still see in major museums, even though he died in 1994; and several DJs who still work today (Lady Miss Kier, DJ Keoki, David Guetta, to name a few).

Amanda Lepore

Kabuki

Angel Melendez (drug dealer murdered by Michael Alig)

James St. James

Keoki (who’s still a DJ)

RuPaul (I had forgotten that she got her start as a Club Kid)

Lady Miss Keir

Richie Rich and Travor Rains

Jenny Talia and Richie Rich

James St. James and Michael Alig (who’s originally from South Bend, Indiana, and who is credited with starting the Club Kid phase)

Leigh Bowery

Michael Alig and the Fabulous Wonder Twins

Get Some

Lykke Li is one of my favorite musicians right now. People have asked me in the past why I don’t ever shoot video, and I have to be honest — it has just never appealed to me like photography does. But every once in a while, I see a music video (like this one) that makes me wish I did have video skills and equipment.

Florence Welch

Here’s one of the best portraits I have seen in a while. Add this to the pile of photos that I wish I had taken! I think Florence is stunning. [Click to enlarge.]

Scott Recommends: Django Django

This is one of my favorite new bands of the minute. And this is, by far, my favorite song they’ve done.

Medusa’s

Back in the late 1980s, Medusa’s was the first real night club I ever set foot in. It was in Chicago on the corner of Sheffield and School streets, just around the corner from Berlin (another favorite night club, which is still there) and just outside of Chicago’s Boystown neighborhood (which was nothing like it is now — I think Little Jim’s, Sidetrack, and Roscoe’s might have been the only gay bars on Halsted Street).

Sadly, Medusa’s is long gone (the building is still there, but it’s lofts now I think). This club along with the Chicago industrial music of the 1980s were huge inspirations to me in my college years and early 20s. They’re the reasons why I still love music and dance clubs (although now, you’re more likely to see me watching the dance floor rather than on a platform in the middle of it, and I’m more inclined to leave at 1am as opposed to 4am).

Last week, a DJ friend of mine from Chicago showed me this video that was taken from inside the club. Although the video quality is terrible (it was the 1980s, after all), it still makes me miss Medusa’s. There is no place today that’s recreating the vibe and feel of it. Medusa’s makes the dance clubs of the 2000s feel soulless and hollow.

Kids today don’t know what they’re missing.

Christmas Spells

I’m a huge fan of Justin Vivian Bond. Merry Christmas/Happy holidays!

Hallelujah, as Done by The Voice, for the Sandy Hook Victims

Combining all seasons, I’ve never watched more than 30 minutes of American Idol, but I do watch The Voice regularly. Last night’s tribute to the Connecticut school shooting victims with Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” was so beautiful; it had my crying like a baby.

And I’m wondering if it was so brief because the performers couldn’t have gotten through any more of it. If it were me, I couldn’t have even done this much.

Azealia

I’ve always been very sexual. Growing up I was so curious about boys. I just loved them. Like, loved them. I’d always get my recesses taken away for letting boys touch my butt in the lunch line.

Here’s a great article in Dazed Digital about one of my favorite musicians of the minute, Azealia Banks.

Scott’s Dream Photo Shoots 6

Björk

My desire to photograph Björk goes beyond the fact that she’s one of my favorite singers. Have a good look at the first photo above. Anyone who’s never realized that Björk is beautiful need look no farther. She’s gorgeous. And she’s fun, and weird, and artistic, all of this is evident in her music, her photos and her fashion sense. I think Björk would be amazing for some very unique photography with a serious high fashion bend.

And by the way, most people mispronounce her name, it’s not be-york, it’s byerk (rhymes with jerk).

Chris Pine

Jay was so excited to see the new Star Trek movie and I have to be honest, I didn’t give two shits. But he convinced me that I’d like it and so I went to see it with him, and developed an immediate crush on Chris Pine. Those eyes, that smile, his voice, his body . . . It’s all just perfect. I’d love to shoot him.

Michelle Obama

A lot of Republicans say things about the First Family that are so horrible and disrespectful that their Republican ancestors, who believed that you respect the people even if you disagree with the politics, would roll over in their graves. But that’s not the point, for me, the Obama family gives me some idea of what it was like in the early 1960s, when the Kennedy family lived in the White House and the world turned to Jackie Kennedy for her style and fashion sense. I think Michelle Obama is the classiest First Lady of my lifetime. And for that reason alone, I’d love to take her portrait.

All photos in this post copyright, someone else.

The Starbucks Rant

Apparently this barista, performing in just his Starbucks apron and underwear, lost his job because of his song . . . which sucks.

Via Towleroad (via the Boston Herald), said barista describes himself as a people person who just needed a healthy way to break the tension of working in a high stress environment, and he said the song is not 100% autobiographical. I’m not sure whether I agree with Starbucks’ decision to let him go; in a way, I would have preferred to see them brush this under the rug, but on the flipside I understand that a successful business can’t have its employees ridiculing customers in a public forum. I’m not sure what I would have done, if the decision were mine.

The song is now available on iTunes, so I do hope something good comes for him from this.