August seems a slow news month but WEIRD historically happens in August (Manson murders; Amy Fisher shoots her older lover’s wife; Hiroshima & Nagasaki nuked; MTV launched; NORAD created; Son of Sam apprehended; Watts Riots in LA; Ferguson riots; real Cortez the Killer) BUT

In all of weird 2020, August sees the release of two rock documentaries “my people” look forward to: The GoGos (Showtime) and Creem. Already told everyone how GREAT the GoGos is. Haven’t seen Creem, but these two documentaries feature my late teens/early 20s - a paradigm shift

in pop culture that made it safe for young people to be the snarky tattooed Day-Glo haired iconoclasts they think they are . We found community, learned about new music & shared teenage angst through Creem - the most irreverent magazine (like MAD, except focused soley on )

and we had journalist anti-heroes like Lester Bangs. For some people exactly my age group (+/- a year- looking at Cameron Crowe & @PleasantGehman1 ) who had the fire to have their work published, we straddled the divide between no holds barred snark (Creem) and a modicum of uh

“General audience” ness with newspapers and ... gulp, sometimes, the perceived “formerly counter-culture” behemoth of Rolling Stone. Mr Crowe made that movie - ALMOST FAMOUS, and its intersectionality is a beautiful thinf BUT - I am excited to see and hear horse’s mouth stories

about the formative chaotic years of Creem. As a 20 year-old photographer, I took a trip to Detroit to visit Mecca - the suburban Birmingham, MI offices of Creem. It was a side-trip I snuck in while I was traveling with Stiv Bators and the Creem folks were friendly - they let me

visit, after all. I was too starry-eyed to remember very much... except that I flew into Detroit, rented a car and drove all the way to Birmingham on Woodward Ave! (I still do not take freeways OR drive fast) I met everyone, got some Boy Howdy stickers and that was that.

I kept sending them photos, and they kept publishing them. This photo put me on the map.

A year later, this photo became the anchor of the Sid Vicious obituary and the photo editor - Charlie Auringer - complimented me on capturing a great fleeting moment of rock and roll.

Creem’s penchant for goofy captions got me in trouble with Cyrinda Foxe when they identified me as David Johansen’s Mrs. in a photo of us on their back page. I wish I had a scan of it! It’s a late summer/early fall cover date in 1978... collectors, if you have it - message me!

So, my besties @PleasantGehman1 @kidcongopowers and other (not on Twitter) pals did a zine - and Creem and MAD set the bar for us in terms of tone. You can read Pleasant’s history of it here: http://lobotomy-magazine.blogspot.com/2018/01/a-brief-history-of-lobotomy-brainless.html

I am looking forward to seeing how the Creem folks and the musicians tell the story of the era. It’s fascinating to see how all the cultural flashpoints loom differently among the group that lived them.

One of my heroes, Brother @waynekramer is in the film - his own memoir is a powerful telling of the times, and I’m especially looking forward to his interview.

For me in Nashville, my opportunity to start screening it starts on Friday and I can’t wait! To fill the time before you can see it, check out my friend @rubinbooty ‘s NYT review (check his feed for the link). I will leave this thread w another of my pix published in CREEEM