In early 1979 I first experienced Andy Warhol’s cinematic oeuvre when a campus film society screened the Paul Morrissey-directed Trash. Originally released in 1970, this plotless wallow in depravity accompanies a junkie hustler (Joe Dallesandro) and his trans roommate (Holly Woodlawn) on their daily rounds. To say Trash transported my Midwestern sensibility to an unexplored continent would be obvious, and besideContinue reading “The Prospector”
Tag Archives: 1980s
AGAINST NOSTALGIA: Gary Indiana’s Unsentimental Journey
Reading reviews by the late author Gary Indiana during the second half of the 1980s, I figured the guy was a lunatic, to be honest. Vituperation and vendetta marked his tenure as art critic of The Village Voice, from 1985 to 1989 — alongside viperish wit and deadly-stiletto targeted prose. That’s why I never missed reading his column.Continue reading “AGAINST NOSTALGIA: Gary Indiana’s Unsentimental Journey”
Book Review: Radiant: The Life and Line of Keith Haring by Brad Gooch
Leaving my office job one evening in early 1982, I descended the stairway into the Lexington Avenue E train station and spotted a young man furiously chalking up the blank black surface that (temporarily) covered an empty billboard. I immediately recognized Keith Haring; his graffiti-inspired subway drawings were attracting attention all around Manhattan, and heContinue reading “Book Review: Radiant: The Life and Line of Keith Haring by Brad Gooch”
A Party On Every Page: The Star Hits Saga Part 2 (1984-85)
Since Star Hits readers were predominantly teenage girls, it makes sense that two dynamic young women helped to refine and redefine the magazine’s vision during the months following its successful launch. From the moment Alicia Keshishian followed Phoebe Creswell-Evans as art director in mid 1984, the already-spectacular pages erupted in a blinding, vivacious wash of full-spectrum colorsContinue reading “A Party On Every Page: The Star Hits Saga Part 2 (1984-85)”
Pull Up To The Bumper
Summer in the City 1981 My love affair with an idealized vision of The City began sometime in 1970. My friend Richard and I rode the bus from the suburbs to downtown Cincinnati on a Saturday afternoon. In the chili parlor off Fountain Square, all the other kids were right in our age range, 12–14,Continue reading “Pull Up To The Bumper”
So Far West It’s Nearly In New Jersey
My second NYC apartment sat on the edge of a then-obscure Manhattan neighborhood known as the Meatpacking District Pressure to move kicked in a day after those heroic firefighters pulled me out of the flaming building. I needed to find a new home in NYC ASAP. My third-floor room was, more or less, as habitableContinue reading “So Far West It’s Nearly In New Jersey”
Career Opportunities
My professional life began with a surprise lie-detector test, and a belated start date that went down in history — as the day Ronald Reagan was shot Incipient panic inspired me to answer a catchall help-wanted ad — Calling All College Grads — during my initial job search in New York City. The role wasContinue reading “Career Opportunities”
“I used to get by on $5 a day but New York City has gotten so expensive”
So said my first mentor in Manhattan — without irony — in 1981 Moving into 78 Washington Place in mid-March 1981 didn’t take long. All I brought: two suitcases stuffed with clothes, briefcase, clock radio, electric typewriter. Luckily Apartment 3C came furnished. More or less. Fitted with a painfully thin mattress and itchy blanket, theContinue reading ““I used to get by on $5 a day but New York City has gotten so expensive””
Entry Level NYC 1981
Retracing my first steps and recalling a few stumbles Upon arriving in Manhattan, I checked in at The Chemists Club in Midtown. Basically a hostel for businessmen and scientists, The Chemists Club’s members included my father. When I left Cincinnati for New York in February 1981, with a headful of writerly dreams, he generously frontedContinue reading “Entry Level NYC 1981”
Onboarding NYC: 1981
A New Introduction To An Old Story Returning from work on a humid July evening in 1981, my first season in New York City, I wandered through the palpitating heart of Greenwich Village and paused on Carmine Street. I was in no hurry to return home to my humble-ain’t-the-word abode. After browsing esoteric disco recordsContinue reading “Onboarding NYC: 1981”
Mark Coleman 