Thank you "Cousin" George Sanders

Forgive us. This is the "news" page... Stuff that may be of interest, tainted with a little gossip, current events and/or embellished history. Shamelessly self-referential and biased toward the promotion of those things... theoretical.

Names currently being dropped:

Sonic Youth

Courtney Love

Marnie Weber

Belissa Cohen

Lisa Derrick

AntiClub... good ridance

item: Belissa Cohen (theoretical's all time favorite Door Doll and a really good art/music scene journalist) filed suit (May 27) against Courtney Love for assaulting her after taking her picture at a recent public fashion show in L.A. Belissa is the kindest and most polite person, always concerned about others' feelings. So why the Wicked Witch of Seattle went off on our lovely Belissa probably indicates what a pathetic mess Curt's ex still is...

item: Sonic Youth's new CD/l.p. "A Thousand Leaves" features the art of Marnie Weber on the cover!

Buy the CD right NOW (below).

Visit Marnie's new online preview gallery with featueing some of what's been shown and currently available in actual (non-virtual) galleries on both coasts.

item: The CD: it's just off the press (Geffen) and screams with the raw power of the group's unique sound. By the way, they did two theoreticals way back in their infancy in the '80's before they became major label material. This release in particular indicates that they haven't compromised anything. And, indeed, it explores some brave new territories. AND they're really Nice People.

Marnie's art is at once charming and haunting. Not afraid of "cute" and passionate about the world of animals, she is also assaulting erotic female pornography by turning the genre back upon itself.

[P.S. Marnie was the bass player in PARTY BOYS and continues doing music, performance art and art installations/exhibitions. She's just as popular in Europe as here these days and has just returned home from teaching in Copenhagen.]

(This is a little review posted with the "CDnow" website/service, You can hear a little of it, too) "...Sonic Youth has returned to its youth and found ways to explore the spellbinding discord of its early records without losing the focus that maturity and longevity endows....A THOUSAND LEAVES maintains that rough-hewn, trippy dynamic without sacrificing coherence..."

If you want to help support this site (we get a big fat 7% commission) AND get this awesome CD at discount rates... DO IT NOW:

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item: And finally, that Dive of Dives, Hell-N's "AntiClub" finally closed as it fizzled and fumbled toward it's overdue fade-to-black. Lisa Derrick, in The New Times (May 27, 1998, page 64) fairly reports in some detail.

However, your webmaster (one of the 3 original promoters with Jim Van Tyne and Russell Jessum who was evicted and sued for creating a successful scene at the otherwise empty saloon) has a difference of opinion on at least one point...

Having stolen the name in '86 (by shrewd legal manuevers) that was invented ('78), developed and promoted at that dump and other locations by theoretical guy Russell Jessum, "they" (Hell-N and understudy/daughter: the saloon owners) "acquired" a venue with a reputation of supporting new experimental artists and turned it into one of exploiting new artists with the introduction of pay-to-play nights and bad booking policies based upon record industry trend categories, audience draw and tickets "pre-sold" (a.k.a. "Blackmail") to the unsuspecting new bands who had no idea that this was no longer "business-as-usual" at the Underground's once welcoming living room. Some claim the scene coincidentally changed around '86, too.

Baloney. A fragile experimental under-world of non-commercially oriented art and music still lives if you open your eyes and treat people fairly! The overt greed and cold selfishness of that place's management (as it became) is what changed the scene (and it rapidly spread through many of the small clubs in L.A.). They simply stole a serious cultural community resource (not even realizing what it meant to anyone but their hopeful cash register) and naively assumed they could do it all themselves, keeping it all in the family, as a cheap knock-off. It stank so bad as it dragged into the '90's that audiences and artists actively boycotted the place as it attempted to coast on a legacy created by others. Farewell Hell-N: you are a cheap greedy tasteless ignorant fool. You have done immeasurable harm to L.A.'s creative community and will not be missed.

Am I bitter? Baloney! -jm



P.O.Box 412128, Los Angeles, CA 90041

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