Golden Globes party coverage for New York magazine

I was a fly on the wall at Harvey Weinstein's ultra star-studded Golden Globes party at the Beverly Hilton. Congrats Harvey on the awards success of The Artist, a great film which is looking like a major Oscars contender. And thanks New York Magazine for getting me into the hottest party in town! I still have a champagne headache!

Read the story here.

Rooney Mara

Here's the beautiful cover shot of Rooney Mara for January 2012's Dazed & Confused. The magazine will be out soon, with my interview inside.

Adanowsky for LA Weekly

Not only is Adanowsky the son of one of my favorite film directors on the planet, Alejandro Jodorowsky, the dude can sing. Here's the story I wrote for the LA Weekly...

Like a latter-day Serge Gainsbourg, the singer Adanowsky emanates cosmic sensuality, leaving a trail of fluttery-eyed females in his musky, potent wake. Such was the case as he glided through Harvard and Stone last week, all furrowed brow and crumpled shirt, looking like a broken-hearted mariachi without a guitar.

Adanowsky, whose real name is Adan Jodorowsky, was in town from Mexico City to perform songs from his latest album, Amador -- Spanish for 'lover.' It's a collection of croony folk ballads designed to inspire long afternoons in bed and prolonged eye contact.

Amador is second in a series of four records, geared at exploring "the corporeal, the emotional, the sexual and the intellectual" in that order, he tells us, sitting in the cramped smoking area behind Harvard and Stone. "It's the earth, water, fire and air." Each album sees Adanovsky adopt an entirely new character and this persona, the Amador, is quite simply "obsessed with love," Jodorowsky continues.

Adanovsky wrote the record after a gnarly break-up with his girlfriend of four years. Rather than drown in his sorrows, he visited a mystic up in a mountain in Mexico, and underwent a psychedelic healing experience that could have been straight out of his father's film epic, The Holy Mountain.

Indeed, his dad is cult movie director Alejandro Jodorowsky, the Salvador Dali of 20th century cinema, and one of the leading figures in avant garde cinema. His film El Topo become the first midnight cult film, resulting in John Lennon giving him $1million to make The Holy Mountain. Jodorowsky's failed attempt to make the film Dune -- before the project was handed to David Lynch -- is considered among the greatest films never made.

"I decided to go to the mountain because the healer told me I had a closed heart," says Adan, in his honey-accented English. "He started to do magic on me--without drugs--and after five days of healing I went back to Mexico City, almost dying. I went to the shower and I was lying on the floor; I crawled to my bed and looked up at the ceiling and I felt my chest opening. And suddenly I felt alright, like I am going to start a new life."

Read the rest here

I am LA correspondent for Monocle magazine's new radio station, M24

Tyler Brulé is the brains behind Monocle magazine, a super sexy print publication. Kind of like if The Economist made a baby with that guy from The Sartorialist.

Brulé

just launched M24, Monocle's new radio station. Here's why...

“Why radio? It’s still, after almost a century of regular broadcasts, the most intimate medium in an ever expanding buffet of choice. Would you prefer to be seated at a cosy table with four dazzling hosts with the best tips and tales or in a crowded room full of shouty people? I know what our readers would prefer?”

M24 has invited me to be their "Woman in LA", and I'll be phoning in my reports on what's happening in the City of Angels twice a month...keeping it classy.

Rooney Mara for the cover of Dazed & Confused.

Rooney Mara is about to become one of the most famous women on the planet. We hung out yesterday at Fred 62 in Los Feliz, something she won't easily be able to do once David Fincher's "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" comes out, with her in the starring role...she said she was in denial...she's trying not to think about what her life will be like once the film is released.

She said her favorite thing to do is sit alone in her room and Google shit. She hates the desert. She is a vegetarian but she's not into vegetarianism. She's an Irish Catholic. She had never heard of Flannery O'Connor. I asked her if she is a weirdo. She said yes.

Selena Gomez for the cover of Cosmopolitan

Yesterday I visited Selena Gomez at her gigantic ranch-style home in LA and we talked about love, her relationship with the Beebs, and entering womanhood for the Cosmo's January cover interview.

She's half my age, and way more mature than I, that is a fact...

A GWAR IS Born: GWAR's official biography in the can

I spent two years working with the wonderful Bob Gorman of GWAR, finally putting down on paper the weird, brutal tale behind the weirdest, brutalest band in heavy metal. Last month, the completed manuscript, titled 'A GWAR Is Born' was delivered...one of my proudest moments. Now we've just got to wait for publication. Expect hundreds of amazing archival images.

Milla Jovovich for Dazed Anniversary Issue

Rankin shot some incredible photos of Milla at Siren studios in Hollywood, and then I did a video interview with her...print interview coming in the magazine soon. She's one of the most beautiful people on this earth.

Christina Ricci BULLETT magazine cover

My cover interview with Christina Ricci for BULLETT magazine is out. She looks amazing! The magazine also features Ewan McGregor, Christina Ricci, Christopher Walken, Debbie Harry, David Copperfield, Jason Schwartzman & Jonathan Ames, David Cross, Mary-Louise Parker, B.J. Novak, Parker Posey, Gus Van Sant

The Real Witches and Wizards of Los Angeles

The full moon was in Aquarius and Mercury in retrograde as members of L.A.'s cosmic mafia -- a fashionable collection of white witches, black wizards, Crowleyites, healers, shamans, alchemists, magicians, cult members, Aquarians, Santeria priestesses, bohemian artists, mystically-minded musicians, pagans and acid hipsters -- gathered at Cinefamily on Saturday for a crash course on witches, and why we love to hate on them.

The night was sold out, which was no surprise -- magic and occultism are alive and well in Los Angeles, and in the popular culture in general. Black mass images, upside-down crucifixes and pagan imagery have infiltrated fashion magazines everywhere, not to mention musicians' minds -- take witchhouse artists Salem, demon rappers Odd Future and even Lady Gaga, all of whom have been borrowing from the grand library of the occult.

Read the rest of the story here.

Udo Kier for Dazed and Confused

I'm so happy to be profiling the incredible Udo Kier for Dazed and Confused magazine. We conducted the interview at Udo's home in the desert--the converted Palm Springs library. He is a remarkable man and a gentle, hilarious soul. I stalked Udo after he hosted an evening at the Silent Movie Theatre in Los Angeles, and charmed the crowd for hours with his anecdotes about working with Gus Van Sant, Fassbinder, Warhol, Lars Von Trier, Madonna and...Pam Anderson. Story out soon!

Juno Temple for Dazed&Confused

I interviewed the delicious Juno Temple for the cover of Dazed&Confused magazine, out soon. She showed me her knickers! We fought off homeless people! Fun.

Christina Ricci for Bullett magazine

I interviewed Christina Ricci for the cover of Bullett magazine's upcoming "cosmic" issue. She was incredibly sweet, warm, gracious and witty. She likes cutting out blue hearts. She doesn't like sun or earth.

Mother of London; Batcakes; Katie Kay

I have profiled three fantastic designers for the LA Weekly's upcoming Fashion Issue, out at the end of July...

Mildred Von Hildegard from Mother of London

Satanica Batcakes of Batcakes Couture

Katie Kay of Gather LA

Juliette Lewis for Dazed, photos by Rankin

I am interviewing Ms. Juliette Lewis for Dazed&Confused magazine this weekend. Dazed co-founder Rankin will be behind the lens...so it should be a pretty special spread!

My Short Story "The Audition" In New British Fiction Anthology

I'm very proud to say my short story, "The Audition", was published in "All The King's Horses", a super cool new anthology of fiction and poetry written by established and emerging writers.
Other authors include Johnny Thunders biographer Nina Antonia, actress Sadie Frost, and singer Lucie Barat (Carl Barat's sister!)
Read it for free here (my story starts on page 16). Or buy it here if you want the real book sitting on an actual shelf in your house.

90 years old and still dancing...Anna Halprin for Dazed&confused magazine

Here's the intro to my interview with Anna...coming soon in Dazed mag!

Some time after the Second World War, legendary dancer and choreographer Anna Halprin decided that everyone is a dancer (even if they got no rhythm), that every movement is a dance (even the act of putting one's socks on). And with that, she founded what we now call “postmodern dance”, an expressive arts movement whose egalitarian, anti-authoritarian ideology had more in common with future phenomena like punk rock, street art and flash mobs than with the ballet or modern dance of her time.

Unlike her predecessors, Anna Halprin had a warts 'n all approach to dance. She and her dancers got naked during performances. They refused to be corralled onto a stage, performing their dances in the streets, in nature, or among audiences. When invited to dance at a lunch for important art patrons, they made a stage in the middle of the room, sat at a table, and forced the audience to watch them eat lunch. Often, they wandered among audiences and handed them a “score”, instructing them to get up and join the dance. This approach was seen as inclusive or insulting, depending on your viewpoint.

She especially infuriated those who believed that dance should be purely aesthetic--pretty, polite, and non-confrontational. Not that she cared what they thought. “I never think about making my choices on the basis of whether people are going to like it,” she says, speaking from her home in the coastal forests of Marin, northern California. “I have to make my choices based on whether it is good art.”

By unceasingly questioning authority and shunning homogeneity, Halprin and her postmodern peers helped lay the groundwork for the hippie counterculture, as well as for punks, for culture jammers, hipster aerobicizers and cultural iconoclasts the world over (if Banksy had been a dancer, he’d probably have danced with Anna Halprin. And did we mention her daughter married Dennis Hopper?)

Today she's still dancing (sometimes naked), and still pissing people off. Some audience members walked out of a recent Anna Halprin performance, a nightmarish piece called Intensive Care about what it might feel like to die. "Some people left, but that's OK. It's none of my business." Anna Halprin is, without doubt, one of the baddest 90-year-olds you’ll ever meet.

Cameron Diaz for Cosmopolitan

Last week I interviewed the gorgeous Cameron Diaz for the cover of Cosmopolitan magazine. The magazine hits the stands in May! I'll post links as soon as the interview is published.

Jamie Reid interview in Juxtapoz magazine

Here's the introduction to my 2000-word Q&A with Sex Pistols artist Jamie Reid. Read the full story in April's issue of Juxtapoz magazine!

Artist, punk druid, and nature-lover Jamie Reid likes to plant things; sweet peas, carrots, shallots—and dissent. In 1975, he was asked by his friend the late Malcolm McLaren to conceive the entire visual language behind The Sex Pistols, resulting in some of the most controversial and enduring pop culture imagery of the 20th Century. Like his smiling Queen of England with swastika eyes and a safety pin through her lip, which became synonymous with the punk rock movement, and the garish fluorescents and cutout block letters from the cover of “Never Mind The Bollocks”, appropriated by art students, ad men and t-shirt bootleggers the world over. Much of the Pistols imagery was based on the output from his Suburban Press, the underground publishing outfit that Reid ran between 1970 and 1974. Ordinary people would see these images wheat pasted on walls, on stickers in shops and splashed across the covers of newspapers, and they couldn’t help but react. Sometimes they’d be scared, sometimes they’d be amused, and sometimes they’d start wondering what was really going on.
Born in 1947, Liverpool-based Reid has always been inspired by two things: the anarcho-Dadaist ideas of the Situationist movement, and the magickal utopianism of his Great Uncle, George Watson MacGregor Reid, a turn-of-the-century socialist reformer and Chief Druid of the British Isles. This explains why his work has evolved from socio-political protest art to the predominantly Gaian, shamanistic work he creates today. So what’s up with all the magick? It’s just another side of the consciousness coin, as far as Reid’s concerned. “If there’s one thing I’ve always been aware of it’s that if you need political change, you also need spiritual change,” he says. Either way—whether he’s creating abstract paintings inspired by Druidic ritual, or angry collages that say “Fuck Forever”, Jamie Reid’s art urges us to look around, examine what’s really there, and open our eyes as wide as we dare.

Art show at THIS

I'm part of a three-person crayon art collaborative called Tres Leches. We are unveiling our first work, called "Eat Your Meat", at THIS gallery in Los Angeles at their "THESE FRIENDS 2" show. Other participating artists include Rony Alwin, Justin Blyth, Richard Colman, Mike Delahaut, Shepard Fairey, Aaron Farley, Piper Ferguson, Roger Gastman, Shane Jessup, Anthony Lister, Cleon Peterson, Retna, Revok and Aaron Rose.

The opening is February 4, come down and say hi!

Feb 4 2011, 7-10PM
THIS los angeles
5906 North Figueroa Street
Los Angeles
CA 90042

Poem in Debacle magazine

I wrote a poem last year called "Gas Station Coffee", illustrated by the mighty Michael Hsiung--the poem and the illustration will be published in the debut issue of Debacle magazine, early in 2011. Can't wait!

Anna Paquin for cover of Dazed

My interview with the lovely Mrs. Anna Paquin is on the shelves now. Photos by Terry Richardson.
Read the interview here!

Odd Future for Dazed&Confused mag

I wrote this:

Amid the graffiti’d freeway overpasses, lofty palm trees and downbeat liquor stores of central Los Angeles, eight of the ten members of hip hop family Odd Future are huddled together in their studio. They’re sticking close, staying alert as the countdown begins. Tick. Tock. There’s a tidal wave coming – and they’re it.

Odd Future is Tyler The Creator, Jasper Dolphin, Domo Genesis, Matt Martians of the Super 3, Left Brain, Mike G, Hodgy Beats, Taco, Syd and Earl Sweatshirt. They often go by the acronym OFWGKTA – Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All. Aged between 16 and 19 years of age, they hang out at stores on the streetwear mecca that is Fairfax Avenue, where it intersects with Melrose. There, Tyler and his buddies are faces – kids who skate around, hang out at stores like Supreme and Diamond Supply Co, and make weird beats and videos. Their sound is a stripped-down, dark and heavy synth drone, and their rhymes reflect a comedic obsession with ass-rape, Jermaine Dupri, scat, dead bodies, weed, brain tissue, swastikas, the morning chat show host Steve Harvey, bacon, and pretty much anything else that sounds funny at the time.

Odd Future was too weird for the rap underground to get its head around, and certain key blogs flat out refused to support their music. Beyond a few online “fuck you’s” the kids in Odd Future didn’t sweat the rejection too much – they carried on skating Fairfax and making beats and videos for themselves and their friends, and self-releasing solo albums, EPs, and mixtapes on their Tumblr blog… all of it available for free.

Read the whole story here.

Life of the Party

Thanks to my lovely agent Jamie Brenner of Artists and Artisans, I'm working with Lisa Baron on her political memoir "Life of the Party". It's about her time as the right hand woman to ultra-Conservative founder of the Christian Coalition, Ralph Reed. The book comes out July 2011 and is a must-read, whether or not you're interested in politics. It's saucy as all hell.

Steve Jones for the LA Weekly

I wrote this for the LA Weekly.

It was perfect weather for pirates on Sunday, a gray, shadowless and drizzly evening, as Cap'n Steve Jones barreled into the CBS Radio building in Culver City wearing a grimy sailor's cap.
Portly and formidable, he swept through the lobby like a latter-day Blackbeard, passing logos of the many radio stations housed in the same building — JACK FM, K-EARTH — and headed straight for the KROQ studio.

He sat in his chair and put on his headphones. It was October 17, his first night helming the KROQ galleon live on air, and pillaging conditions looked favorable.

His producer, First Mate Mark Sovel, aka "Mister Shovel," eyed the crow's nest — KROQ's two giant transmitters, known for beaming all manner of pop-metal treachery (Linkin Park, System of a Down) to the station's 2 million listeners. On this night, however, the skies belonged to Cap'n Jonesy, who had in mind something a little different for the landlubbers. A spot of Best Coast, Zola Jesus, 22-20s, new Klaxons or some Sufjan Stevens, perhaps?

Armed with the best of today's skinny-jean indies, Jones leaned back in his chair, arms crossed, watching the seconds count down to 7 p.m. He let out a soft burp — baaarp — and glanced at his co-conspirator. "You ready, Mister Shovel?"

Read the full story here.

Odd Future for the LA Weekly

I wrote this for the LA Weekly:

The Future Is Odd

Missing the energy and vision of early Wu-Tang? Meet L.A.'s Odd Future, your new favorite hip-hop anarcho-surrealists

The 10 teenage members of L.A. hip-hop skater "family" Odd Future are natural magicians, mini wizards in Nike dunks and Supreme hoodies who, at some point during the short, cold summer of 2010, cast a powerful spell on chin-rubbing Pitchforkers, hip-hop superheroes, Fairfax sneakerheads and U.K.-style cognoscenti alike, hypnotizing them until they were all chanting the same thing: "The future's odd."

Led by a 19-year-old visionary who goes by the name Tyler, the Creator, Odd Future (or OFWGKTA, an acronym for Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All) puts out tracks that un-self-consciously blend anarcho rap with retro post-hipster humor. Or sensitive, S.E. Hinton–style nihilism with sheer evil. Or a love of bacon with a hatred of talk-show host Steve Harvey. The Odd Future crew, all between 16 and 19 years old, is already way too cool for art school.

Read the rest here.

MOCA Graffiti/Street Art show

As well as freelance writing, I work with Roger Gastman, one of America's leading graffiti experts. One of the projects we have been working on at the office is an upcoming show at the Museum of Contemporary Art in LA. Jeffrey Deitch tapped Roger to co-curate a major street art/graffiti show at the museum, along with Aaron Rose. I've been working on some outreach and press stuff for the show, and Zio Fulcher, my colleague and LA's leading female authority on graffiti, deserves major hugs for pretty much pulling it all together.

It's going to be the first major museum study of art on the streets and all I can say right now is...it's going to be BIG. And a game-changer...Deitch is calling street art/graffiti the most important art movement since Pop Art.

Mister Cartoon's bus (in the photo) will be part of the exhibit.

Read the LA Times story about it here.

Magnetic Poetry

Sanrio 50th Anniversary book

Just saw some preview copies of the big 50th anniversary book for Sanrio. I edited the text, and the photography and image layout is amazing...thanks to Shane Jessup and Adam Wallacavage. Book comes out October 2010.

Jennifer Herrema story for the LA Times

I wrote this for the LA Times


Denim and rock 'n' roll go hand in hand, so it makes sense that indie rock goddess Jennifer Herrema would eventually come out with her own jeans collection, a series of patched-up, skinny-fit, shred-to-hell designs that blend two unlikely extremes: high-fashion and "hesher" culture (hesher being a slang term for music fans of the raggedy-haired, headbanger variety). Think Brigitte Bardot meets cult film "Heavy Metal Parking Lot," and you get the picture.

Six feet tall, with heavy blond bangs, Mick Jagger pout and more often than not a cigarette hanging out of her mouth, Herrema is a Nico for our times, an underground rock icon blessed with supermodel stats. Her look is consistent with her lifestyle — 24/7 rock 'n' roll, on and off the stage. On the L.A. music scene she's known for her distinctive style: custom deconstructed denim, which she stitches with strips of leather and fabric and whatever else catches her eye, worn with oversized Ralph Lauren plaid shirts, cowboy boots and dip-dyed foxtails that trail behind her, attached to her belt loops.

It's no surprise she's been approached in the past to affix her name to a brand. But not until self-styled "outlaw" surf skate brand Volcom came calling last year, looking for help amping up its women's division, did she take the plunge. For Volcom, the launch of Herrema's jeans this year marks the company's first time entering into a design collaboration with a musician. And the new line, released as part of Volcom's Road Tested collection, exudes the unique blend of influences that shaped Herrema, frontwoman for the band RTX.


Read the whole story here.

Lady Gaga story for Variety

I wrote a story about Lady Gaga and her impact on the music video world for Variety. It ran today. Read the full story here.

Party in a Packet

Dakota Fanning cover for Dazed and Confused

My interview with Dakota just hit the stands. And the cover photo is gorrrrgeous.

My Ariel Pink interview for Dazed&Confused

Dakota Fanning for the cover of Dazed and Confused

I spent a lovely hour or so chatting with Dakota Fanning in Hollywood this week. We talked about punk rock, platform boots, werewolves and love. Tomorrow morning I'll be talking to Cherie Currie, who Dakota played in the Runaways film, "Cherry Bomb".
This is going to be an awesome cover story!

Banksy

I wrote this for Variety

Despite a paper-thin marketing budget, a bare-bones website, and very little lag time between completion, its Sundance screening and April 16 release, "Exit Through the Gift Shop," the film by notoriously secretive street artist Banksy, has emerged as the top-grossing limited-release documentary so far this year with $2.4 million.

That's music to the ears of the handful of industry veterans brought on by "Exit's" producers to devise what was probably the most lo-fi marketing campaign of their careers.

"We didn't have the kind of advance time that one would ordinarily prefer to prepare the marketplace, to organize trailers and posters and materials and screenings -- the things one ordinarily does to create awareness," says marketing consultant Richard Abramowitz, who says that though the marketing budget was tiny, the film created substantial awareness and word of mouth beyond the limited arthouse audience.

The pic's minimalist one-screen website features a six-minute movie trailer, a list of screening dates and venues -- and that's it. There are no Facebook or Twitter widgets. No links. And unlike most indie film sites, visitors are not asked to leave their email addresses for later communication.

John Sloss, who was repping the pic at Sundance, decided to release it himself via his Producers Distribution Alliance label.

Sloss purposely relinquished control of the film's Web and social networking presence, allowing Banksy's fans to do the work for the marketers. And work they did, generating a wave of Twitter, Facebook and FourSquare activity about the movie -- data which the "Exit" team carefully monitored, and responded to, in real-time. A fan created a Foursquare badge which became a badge of honor for artsy filmgoers to unlock.

"If the film was sold out at 7 p.m. in a market, then we'd tweet, '7 p.m. is sold out -- 10 p.m. is available,'?" says Marc Schiller, founder of street art blog Wooster Collective and CEO of boutique media agency Electric Artists. Adds Sloss: "We know for a fact that the people who were coming opening weekend are not regular moviegoers. They don't read the newspapers or traditional movie advertising -- we were connecting with them online, from within their community."

Prior to release, at least two tastemaker screenings were held in every market, with "very specific" people invited from the creative community. Once the film opened, if a community said it wanted the film, the "Exit" team responded, allowing for quick shifts in the distribution pattern.

Since the April 16 opening of "Exit Through the Gift Shop" in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, which widened eventually to 46 theaters, the energy has continued, with audiences gradually skewing older and more mainstream.

"There are two basic approaches to the distribution of a specialized movie," Sloss explains, "One, that there is a finite audience that is incrementally used up by doing pre-release screenings, or two, that there is a potentially infinite audience that is accessed and expanded by doing such screenings. We chose the latter approach and it worked."

Cher's son Elijah Blue

Paz Vega

I wrote this for Hollywood Life magazine

Heather Graham

Video for Hurley.com

I produced some artist videos for Hurley.com. Here are a few. Shot and edited by Greg Roman. (If the videos don't load properly on this site, click on the link beneath each video box)

MIKE STILKEY

View this video at Hurley.com

MICHAEL HSIUNG

View this video at Hurley.com

NATALIA FABIA

View this video at Hurley.com

PIPER FERGUSON

View this video at Hurley.com

GARY BASEMAN

View this video at Hurley.com

LEVON JIHANIAN

View this video at Hurley.com

Henry Rollins

I wrote this for the LA Weekly:

"Like being licked by a cat for four hours" is how Henry Rollins describes his own show which, depending on whether you're a cat person or not, can be a fantastic or torturous way to spend an evening.

At Friday's Largo show, the first of three nights in LA, he held true to his promise of several hours of cat lickery. And at the end, relaxing the tense, war-like panther stance he had assumed for much of the show, Rollins apologized for the "endless barrage of words" he had just expelled.

We checked our iPhone clocks--dayum, yes it had indeed been three hours of non-stop verbiage, during which Rollins, possessed by the combined oratorial spirit of Hamlet, Billy Graham and Al Sharpton--on Adderal--took us on a guided tour of his super-charged mind.

Read the rest here.

Sun Araw

I wrote this for the LA Weekly:

Sun Araw is mandala-powered postmodern psychedelia, strange fruit that compels the listener to sit down, unpack his soul and just surf the gravitas. "My music is pretty committed to the true psychedelic ethos of mantric ideals, like basically, angle after angle after angle on the melodic object," explains Cameron Stallones, 26-year-old chief architect of Sun Araw, whose default mood is seemingly set to "whoa." His name is not pronounced Stal-lones, as in a herd of sweaty Rambos charging across the L.A. jungle, but Staaa-lins, as in a pluralized Russian dictator. For the record, there's nothing even remotely Stalinist about this amiable mystic, except maybe his magnificent mustache.

Read the whole story here.