I won't last a day without you

You Know You're Gonna Hurt Yourself

Take me out tonight where there's music and there's people and they're young and alive

Morrissey is playing tonight at Carnegie Hall - I have been waiting for this moment for my entire life. Tonight will be my first time seeing him perform.

Oscillate Wildly is my favorite Smiths song - there is something about the melody that instantly brings me back to a certain spring and summer. This instrumental track says so much, without any words. This lack of obvious meaning or lyrical context make it about whatever I want it to be about.

My friend Evelyn introduced me to The Smiths music. I don't have any older brothers or sisters, and my local "Alternative" radio station WDRE 92.7 rarely played The Smiths or Morrissey. The most peaceful place for me was walking , listening to my Smiths tape in my walkman. The Smiths are literally are the soundtrack to my teen years.

I for one couldnt be happier that Morrissey's music has lately been embraced by a wider demographic. My experience with the music has always been solitary, so I am elated to be in a hall full of people who all have their own personal relationship with Morrissey.

The Smiths used a still photograph of Joe Dallesandro, from the film Flesh as the cover of their eponymous debut album:

Your Skin Against My Skin, starring Michael Pitt, directed by Inez Van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin

In celebration of Creative Director Stefano Pilati’s AW 09-10 Homme collection for Yves Saint Laurent, the iconic French fashion house has released a short film created by photographers Inez can Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin.

The film stars actor and musician Michael Pitt who is best known for his roles in films such as Last Days, Bully and Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

The film, shot in black and white, pays homage to the Yves Saint Laurent AW collection in a tender exchange between Pitt and an unseen woman. The frame is filled with Pitt’s face, and focuses on his reactions to the softly spoken words of the invisible woman. She speaks lovingly about clothing as Pitt looks on in silent reverence at a spectacle that is entirely hidden from the audience. The physical absence of this enigmatic woman causes the imagination to run wild, as it is easy to imagine her behind the lens, slowly undressing herself to the speechless wonder of Pitt.

The cameraman for Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin's film, Your Skin Against My Skin, was Harris Savides, who usually works with Gus Van Sant.



Your Skin Against My Skin reminds me of a short film directed by Andy Warhol. Filmed in January 1964, the 35-minute film was shot with a 16-millimetre Bolex silent camera on black-and-white film. It depicts the face of an anonymous young man (DeVeren Bookwalter) as he receives relations from an off-screen partner, widely reported to be avant-garde filmmaker Willard Maas.

While shot at 24 fps, Warhol specified that it should be projected at 16 fps, slowing it down by a third.

Despite the explicit subject matter, the camera shows only the expression on the young man's face. The act itself is not seen. It is unknown whether it is a male or a female performing the act, and it is unseen, therefore the viewer must simply take it at face value that relations are indeed occurring.

Lou Reed

Lou Reed was in 1942 and grew up in Freeport, New York. He developed an early interest in rock and roll and rhythm and blues, and during high school played in a number of bands. His first recording was as a member of a doo wop-style group called The Shades.

Reed received electroconvulsive therapy in his teen years in response to his homosexual behavior; in his dark 1974 song, "Kill Your Sons", he revisited the experience. In an interview, Reed said of the experience:

“They put the thing down your throat so you don't swallow your tongue, and they put electrodes on your head. That's what was recommended in Rockland County to discourage homosexual feelings. The effect is that you lose your memory and become a vegetable. You can't read a book because you get to page seventeen and have to go right back to page one again."

"Walk on the Wild Side" is a Lou Reed song from his 1972 second solo album Transformer. It was produced by David Bowie. The song received wide radio coverage, despite its touching on topics such as transsexuality, drugs, male prostitutes and oral sex and the term "colored" to refer to African Americans.

The lyrics tell of a series of individuals and their journeys to New York City, and is a thinly-veiled biography of several of the regular "superstars" at Andy Warhol's New York studio, The Factory, namely Holly Woodlawn, Candy Darling, Joe Dallesandro, Jackie Curtis and Joe Campbell (referred to in the song by his nickname Sugar Plum Fairy). Candy Darling was also the subject of Reed's song "Candy Says".

"Walk on the Wild Side":

It is usually regarded as Reed's best-known solo work. The song reached #16 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, and #10 in the UK.

The mellifluous saxophone solo played over the fadeout of the song was performed by Ronnie Ross, who had previously taught David Bowie to play the saxophone during Bowie's childhood.
The song is also noted for its twin interlocking bass lines played by Herbie Flowers on double-bass and overdubbed bass guitar, featuring the extensive use of a major tenth interval, which was unusual in pop music until then.

Vanessa Paradis covered the song in her album Variations sur le même t'aime.

Beth Gibbons performing Lou Reeds song about Candy Darling, "Candy Says":

Every day my train passes thru Freeport. On my way to work in the early morning I can see the laborers assembled outside of 7-11, looking to be picked up for work.

Candy Darling

Over the weekend, Undercover noticed that the cover of The Smiths 1995 compilation album, Singles, featuring a design made earlier by Morrissey but previously unused, and stars singer and actress Diana Dors in a still from the 1956 film Yield to the Night has a similar context to the way that "Candy Darling on Her Deathbed" was used by the group Antony and the Johnsons as cover for their album I Am a Bird Now.

Candy Darling was born James Lawrence Slattery in Forest Hills, New York, son of Theresa Phelan, a bookkeeper at Manhattan's Jockey Club, and James (Jim) Slattery, who was described as a violent alcoholic. There is some conjecture around Candy's year of birth. According to former Warhol associate, Bob Colacello, Candy was born in 1946, her friend, roommate, and posthumous editor, Jeremiah Newton, states that she was born on November 24, 1944.

Early years - as a male - were spent in Massapequa Park, Long Island, New York where she and her mother had moved after her parents divorced. Her half-brother Warren, a product of Theresa Slattery's first marriage, left home for the U.S. military, leaving Jimmy as the only child; Warren later denied his connection to Jimmy.

Jimmy spent much of her childhood absorbing the influences of US television and old Hollywood movies, from which she learned to impersonate her favorite actresses, such as Joan Bennett and Kim Novak. She claimed to have "learned about the mysteries of sex from a salesman in a local children's shoe store" and finally revealed an inclination towards dressing as a female when her mother confronted her about local rumours which described her dressed as a girl frequenting a local gay bar called The Hayloft. In response Jimmy left the room and reappeared in full feminine attire. Her mother later said that, "I knew then... that I couldn't stop Jimmy. Candy was just too beautiful and talented."

Late at night Candy would often take a cab (thereby avoiding the attention of neighbors she would receive if she walked) a short distance to the Long Island Rail Road station for the train to Manhattan, frequently sitting across from Long Island starlet Joey Heatherton. Once there, she referred to her modest Cape-Cod style home at 79 First Avenue in Massepequa Park as her "country house" and hung out in Greenwich Village, meeting people through the circle of Seymour Levy on Bleecker Street.

Before they actually met in 1967, Candy saw Andy Warhol at the after-hours club called The Tenth of Always. It wasn't long before Warhol invited Candy to appear in one of his movies. She was given a short comedic scene in Flesh (1968) with Jackie Curtis and Joe Dallesandro. After Flesh, Candy was cast in a central role in Women In Revolt (1971). She played a Long Island socialite drawn into a woman's liberation group called PIGS (Politically Involved Girls) by a character played by Jackie Curtis. Interrupted by cast disputes encouraged by Warhol, Women in Revolt took longer to film than its predecessor and went through several title changes before a consensus was reached. Candy wanted it called Blonde on a Bum Trip since she was the blonde, while Jackie and Holly told her it was more like Bum on a Blonde Trip - titles which were both used in the film during Candy's interview scene. Women in Revolt was first shown at the first Los Angeles Filmex as Sex. Later it was shown as Andy Warhol's Women, an homage to George Cukor.

Candy succumbed to leukemia and pneumonia on March 21, 1974, aged about 29; she died at the Columbus Hospital division of the Cabrini Health Center.

Like Candy, I too grew up in Massapequa Park. Also, like Candy, I have brother who joined the military. My brother Joseph is a Marine and a veteran of the Iraq War. Unlike Candy, I still live with my brother in Massapequa Park. He is my best friend. Every day I ride the Long Island Rail Road to work at Women. Every night, on my walk home from the train I pass by Candy's childhood home.

As of the census of 2000, there were 17,499 people living in Massapequa Park and the the racial makeup of the village was 97.37% White. As of 2004, they still ban books in Massapequa High School. "The Perks of Being a Wallflower", which has sold 300,000 copies, and is recommended for adolescents by the American Library Association, was banned from Massapequa High School in 2004.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is an epistolary novel written in the 1990's by American novelist Stephen Chbosky. It was published on February 1, 1999. The story takes place over a series of letters to a friend written by the narrator, a teenager named Charlie. The story explores topics such as introversion, teenage sexuality, abuse, and the awkward times of adolescence. The book also touches strongly on drug use and Charlie's experiences with this.

One student felt the book was innapropriate and her parents complained to MHS. The response was quick. School officials declared that Perks hadn’t been approved as required reading, and told the teacher, Jennifer Pesato, to use a sociology textbook instead. A school letter went out to parents, offering refunds to anyone who had purchased the novel.

“I was a little disappointed the teacher took a little detour,” said Susan Woodbury, the Massapequa district’s executive curriculum director. “I think she did this in very good faith, in trying to get the kids hooked on an issue. But I’m not sure it was relevant for a sociology class.”

Elsewhere, Perks also has been pulled from classrooms and library shelves, in response to parent complaints. It’s happened in Massachusetts, Ohio and Virginia. Stephen Chbosky, a Brooklyn resident who wrote Perks as his first novel, thinks the book’s opponents miss the point.Perks, he said, is about teens who ultimately find their way in life. Chbosky gets lots of appreciative e-mail messages from adolescent readers, two of whom said the book saved them from suicide. “If that doesn’t send a positive message, I don’t know what does,” he said.

To do this weekend

1. Radiance from the Rain Forest: Featherwork in Ancient Peru at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.In the Andean regions of ancient South America, the brilliantly colored feathers of Amazonian birds were a luxury that was much treasured and long used. From the third millennium B.C. onward, feathers served various ceremonial and secular purposes throughout pre-conquest Peruvian history. Radiant blues, yellows, reds, and greens embellished high-status apparel and accessories such as ear ornaments, pectorals, fans, headdresses, miniature ritual offerings, and large-scale hangings.
   Met hours:Saturday 9:30 a.m.–9:00 p.m., Sunday 9:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m. The Met is located at 1000 Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street, ph: 212-535-7710.
2. Dargerism: Contemporary Artists and Henry Darger at the American Folk Art Museum. The American Folk Art Museum is home to the single largest repository of works by one of the most significant artists of the twentieth century, Henry Darger (1892 - 1973), who created nearly three hundred watercolor and collage paintings to illustrate his epic masterpiece, The Story of the Vivian Girls, in what is Known as the Realms of the Unreal, of the Glandeco-Angelinnian War Storm, Caused by the Child Slave Rebellion, which encompasses more than fifteen thousand pages. The American Folk Art Museum is located at 45 West 53rd Street (5th ave x 6th ave), ph: 212. 265. 2350,
   Museum Hours: Tuesday - Sunday 10:30am - 5:30pm, Friday 10:30am - 7:30pm , Closed Mondays.
3. The Butterfly Conservatory at the American Museum of Natural History. Timed entrance to The Butterfly Conservatory is available every fifteen minutes from 10:15 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. daily. The last timed-entry to the exhibition is at 5:00 p.m. The Museum is open daily, 10:00 a.m.—5:45 p.m. The American Museum of Natural History is located at Central Park West and 79th Street, ph: (212) 769-5100.
4. The Arnhold Collection of Meissen Porcelain at the The Frick Collection. The Arnhold Collection, one of the greatest private holdings of early Meissen porcelain assembled in the twentieth century, was established in Dresden between 1926 and 1935 by Lisa (1890–1972) and Heinrich (1885–1935) Arnhold with a focus on tablewares and vases and on objects of royal or noteworthy provenance. The Frick is located at 1 East 70th Street, at 5th Avenue, ph: 212-288-0700. Hours: 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.Tuesday through Saturday; 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Sundays; Closed Mondays.
5. Warhol's Jews: Ten Portraits Reconsidered at the The Jewish Museum. Andy Warhol's Ten Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century (1980) depict renowned luminaries of Jewish culture: Sarah Bernhardt, Louis Brandeis, Martin Buber, Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, George Gershwin, Franz Kafka, the Marx Brothers, Golda Meir, and Gertrude Stein. Warhol referred to this pantheon of great thinkers, politicians, performers, and writers as his "Jewish geniuses." Warhol's iconic portraits attest to the lasting achievements and fame of these singular figures. Originally published as a portfolio of silkscreen prints on paper, Warhol was so pleased with the commercial success of his Ten Portraits that he decided to create additional versions of the series as silkscreen paintings on canvas. The Museum is located at 1109 Fifth Avenue (northeast corner of 92nd Street). Museum Hours: Saturday - Wednesday 11:00 am - 5:45 pm, Thursday 11:00 am - 8:00 pm, Closed Friday.

Ron Galella

Ron Galella's new show, "That's Great!", opens Thursday May 1st (reception 6:00pm to 8:00 pm) at the Staley Wise Gallery . The show focuses on Andy Warhol and the beautiful people who were the celebrity, fashion, art, and social world of New York in the 1970’s and 80’s. Staley Wise is at 560 Broadway (Prince Street x Spring Street), open Tuesday through Saturday 11:00 am to 5:00 pm.

Ron Galella is a legendary fashion photographer. What makes his work transcend the photos published in tabloids is that he captured the clothes and the lifestyles of the people wearing them. He caught the subtle details of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis - the wind tousled hair done by Mr. Kenneth, the silk knit top from Henri Bendel private label, and suede trousers from Paraphernalia. He also caught the way that Jackie carried her Hermes Trim bag under her arm, with her hand in the pocket of her loose Burberry trench. She was probably on her way to have her hair done at Mr. Kenneth's and didn't want her hair to be seen, so she covered with a silk scarf, knotted at the nape of her kneck.

Ron's photos of celebrities like Jackie O inspired Tom Ford's designs - his version of the Hermes Trim bag was named the Jackie bag. The Jackie bag (in turquoise) completely sold out when it luanched in the spring of 1999.