A friend recommended The Mayor Of Sunset Strip, a documentary about DJ and famed groupie Rodney Bingenheimer. I had a vague knowledge of him as a DJ that broke a lot of cool new music in LA (X, The Ramones, Blondie, Iggy Pop, The Smiths, The Sex Pistols, Elvis Costello, Blur, Oasis, and Cold Play among others)“Rodney On The Roq”-is his show, which seems to have been pushed into the 12am-3 am spot after having a more prominent position. It is an unusual documentary; it reminded me a bit of Crumb-the principle characters are quirky and strange. Kim Fowley, another groupie from the era, is a very strange and creepy man who has several great sound bites throughout the film. It is also a sad film about a man obsessed with celebrity and full of regrets. The heady days of hanging out with famous people and sex with young girls has come to a pass and he lives on alone, in obscurity. He’s a gentle soul a bit like Andy Warhol, one of the countless famous people that he has hung out with. In the end what does friendship with Brooke Shields really mean? What does it do for you? Has it redeemed your life? I don’t think so.
How's the punk scene in Japan??
Posted by: AzianBrewer | July 15, 2005 at 10:49 PM
Pat, Have you done a piece on Simon Bartz's "Fuzzy Logic" punk scene column? It looks like he's still at it.
It may be one way to answer Azian Brewer's question. http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/JTsearch4.pl5?term1=fuzzy+logic
Posted by: Arie | July 16, 2005 at 02:22 AM
I haven't doen apost on Fuzzy Logic, but have linked to it before, I think the last time when Simon Bartz mentioned The Libertines being his favorite record of 2004, which inspired me to get it and get into them as well.
As for the punk scene, if you check out the music archives I went tto a punk show last year--I haven't been going for a while and it was well-attended by the kids(I felt very old). There is a significant portion of the college student population that is into punk . In general, Japan is the second largest consmuer of music in the world, so you know there's going to be a healthy scene. In my opinion, Japan also has the cutest punk rock girls in the world as well.
Posted by: MC | July 16, 2005 at 12:34 PM