I Hang With Rock Stars
One of the most intense concert experiences I ever had was seeing Sonic Youth play in a sweaty, dark ballroom in Montreal. I was right in the front with Emo Goes Postal, letting ourselves get mauled and slammed around and loving every moment. The music is raw and so are the concerts. And the fans. We all get to be raw together. They never sold out, Sonic Youth. You like our music or go fuck yourself, which I love.
So when I knew I was going to meet Lee Ranaldo, it kinda blew my mind.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Ranaldo
Lee M. Ranaldo (born February 3, 1956) is an American singer, guitarist, writer, record producer, and visual artist, best known as a co-founder of the rock band Sonic Youth. In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked Ranaldo and Thurston Moore, of Sonic Youth, the 33rd and 34th Greatest Guitarists of All Time, respectively.
I got to go to his new art exhibition in Williamsburg:
note the record print in the window. more to follow on that!
The show was at The Hogar Collection, which is a very cool gallery. Check it out: http://www.hogarcollection.com/Information.htm
My friend helped set up the show, which is why I got to go (more on Tom later, ‘cause he is a trip.) Because, let’s be honest – I am in no way cool enough to be invited to a gallery opening unless I have an in. But somehow, they let me inside, and let me drink free beer too!
my friend Tom, who helped set up the show; Lee (yeah, I'm on a first name basis with him); brilliant and hot Danish artist Thomas Warming
And the thing is – Lee was so fucking nice. I mean, the dude could be or do anything he wants…he’s a legend. He could be a total ass, or have a crew of groupies in tow, or trash the place and get away with it. People would go: Well, he’s Lee Renaldo after all.
But instead, he hung out with everyone drinking beer…he was warm and sweet and funny. And talked literature with me! And, true, we have completely different taste in writers (shocking, I know), but the guy knows his stuff. He writes poetry too.
And his art was great. He projects images on a wall and paints them…a lot are newspaper clippings with the articles cut at awkward angles…one had a lot of q’s and c’s, and g’s…now, as I’ve said, I know very little about art…but maybe it was the beer that gave me the guts to point it out….and instead of ignoring me or deciding I was a freak, he said. “Yeah. I wanted them to be like poetry. Little poems or haikus.”
What I loved about his art was this: I’ve never seen anything like it before. But what would you expect? His music is the same way. And in the world of art and literature – which is often redundant (sometimes I get really sick of ‘highly regarded, well-crafted novels with vividly drawn characters’…sometimes I want a big, messy suckily crafted novel with weird characters that makes me feel something, anything at all…) But Lee reminded me that if someone has a new perspective or fresh way of looking at the world, if there stuff is totally unique – well, damn. I appreciate that. Not to mention, he uses actual words in his art, and they mean something.
Anyway, I loved the stuff because it was disturbing and dark and funny all at the same time. And I’m not just saying that because he promised to read my book and I want him to like it…though I WOULD be THRILLED if he LIKED IT.
PS Since I wrote this, Lee was invited to the housewarming…”I know you’re a famous rockstar and all, but if you could come….” And they guy actually wrote back and said he’d have been there if he didn’t have to go to Sudance…how crazy is that? What a cool guy.
