"I don't wanna be President. I wanna be a streetcar conductor" - Breezy Bisbane, "Readin' and Writin'"
Okay, here’s someone I never expected to meet and probably would have never sought out. His name is Joe Dallesandro and I would guess that most of you have never heard of him. He was, however, one of the most famous male sex symbols of American undergound films and the gay subculure of the 1960’s and 70’s. Dallesandro was one of the so-called Warhol superstars, which was a group of ‘personalities’ promoted by artist Andy Warhol. Read the rest of this entry »
Richie Scarlet is not a Big 7 member, but he plays one on stage. He had worked with former KISS member Ace Frehley in the first incarnations of his solo band and then returned to be a prominent player on this third solo studio album Trouble Walkin’. This album was cool in that it was technically as much of the original KISS as KISS themselves then were, as it also featured drummer Peter Criss as a guest performer on a few tracks. Read the rest of this entry »
The early-1990’s hair metal band Slaughter was sort-of a cousin to Big 7 band KISS. It was out of the ashes of the Vinnie Vincent Invasion (Vinnie Vincent being the last KISS member to introduce a new style of make-up before the band ‘unmasked’) that Slaughter was formed. Mark Slaughter was the lead vocalist for both. Interestingly, he didn’t appear on the first VVI album, although they had selected him from his audition tape. He had forgotten to include his contact info and they couldn’t track him down before their debut album was recorded. And in the final twist of irony, the only time that I actually saw Slaughter perform, they were opening up for KISS in June of 1990. Read the rest of this entry »
I got back to the Links condo from my excursion to Raleigh, North Carolina, on Wednesday, July 29, 2009, just in time to meet up with everyone and head out for our 5:30 pm dinner reservations at the Miyabi Japanese steakhouse. While I had been gone, two brothers named Stephen and David, who were friends of Ashleigh’s from home, drove down to meet up with her. Somehow Ashleigh had managed to get everyone’s approval for them to stay there the night before. I still hadn’t even met them and they didn’t go to dinner with us. Read the rest of this entry »
After driving all morning toward our destination on Sunday, July 12, 2009, the first thing that Bob and I did was obvious when we arrived in Las Vegas around noon: find an all-you-can eat sushi bar. We chose The Sushi Factory, the same spot we had previously enjoyed during our 2007 visit to Las Vegas. It was just as good as I remembered as we scarfed down the various delicacies. I mostly stuck to the expensive specialty rolls – which made up for the reasonable $21.95 lunch fee. Amidst the volcano, caterpillar, 310, the dynamite, and the myriad of deep fried, eel sauce doused raw fish, I was one happy camper. Still I didn’t quite stuff myself the way had during my previous visit. Read the rest of this entry »