MEMORY UNLOCKED: Pop Shots Card (1985)
I had one of these when I was a kid and I remember buying it on a snowy night when I went for a long Christmastime walk in the city at age 12. My grandparents, aunt and uncle and I had taken the ferry from Staten Island to meet my parents at their offices in Lower Manhattan and we spent the evening taking in the very quiet (almost empty) wintry streets. With the city filtered through a gauze of snowfall we watched New York become a mystical snow globe from atop the World Trade Center and trekked over to South Street Seaport for dinner, where I bought one of these pop up cards. It was displayed on my dresser throughout middle school and high school. Somehow it got lost in the shuffle of adolescence but recently I was lucky to score a couple of them fully intact. I have them stored in my postcard albums: one stretched flat and one still folded within its cellophane packaging and square envelope. Only now do I see how instrumental this chaotic arrangement of urban elements was on my adult aesthetic. Time is indeed a flat circle, or if you’re someone like me, a pop up diorama card which mirrors my younger self from decades ago.
40 Years of Pretty In Pink...
And we STILL need to talk about that prom dress.
Albums That Turn 40 This Year • Notorious by Duran Duran is one of them. 1986 was a stellar year for music. I was 13 years old and an avid reader of Star Hits as well as its UK companion magazine Smash Hits (and yes, I have many issues archived). DD was all over those monthly publications and had just come off a run of three successful LPs, a catalog of impressively cinematic videos and a Bond theme for the film View To A Kill (which still ranks as one of the greatest). With original members Andy Taylor and Roger Taylor absent for the completion of this album, they enlisted Warren Cuccurullo on guitar and Steve Ferrone on drums as well as genius and all around musical mastermind Nile Rodgers as producer. The results were stylish, funky and sophisticated. The vibration of their unique brand of pop music had been elevated for the fans that were growing up with them, signaling their own growth as artists. I will always have a special place in my heart for Duran Duran Mark 2 (as I call it) and the Notorious era. Those of you that only know the title track and singles Skin Trade and Meet El Presidente (both of which should have been bigger hits but Capitol Records flubbed the promotion during a change in leadership) should give this LP a listen. Some deeper cuts from Notorious that deserve more attention are American Science, Vertigo, So Misled, Hold Me and the emotionally stirring and timeless Winter Marches On. In addition, many live performances from the 1987-88 Strange Behaviour Tour are available on YouTube to feast upon including the concert film Working For The Skin Trade which boasts a KILLER rendition of the Rio-era gem New Religion. PS: Duran Duran STILL kills it live and their last few albums don’t disappoint either.
Happy 80th Birthday to Liza Minnelli!
Prints are being made at all times
and in a number of colorful ways...
Okay, so we had a blizzard...
TRUE STORY: One afternoon on a bright, clear post-blizzard day I went to clear the rock salt off my windshield and my wipers malfunctioned. I dropped my car off at a dealership thinking it could be fixed by the end of today and got a ride home. This morning I got a call that not only did the motor for the wipers need to be replaced but I also need new front and rear brakes and rotors. Apparently they were very weak and I hadn’t noticed. Had the windshield issue not occurred I wouldn’t have known how weak the brakes were. Upon hearing this I immediately knew I’d been cosmically protected by what at first appeared to be a nuisance. With my car at the dealership until Friday, I arranged for a rental car this afternoon and guess what… in a lot full of basic black and white cars the one waiting for me was Prince And The Revolution Purple. Thank you Universe… YOU GET ME. It’s quite simple. The “glimmers” that The Universe gives us are always there. We just need to identify them.
And then the blizzard melted...
Day one of matting for the Spring Art Shows.
Much more is happening behind the scenes.
Evidence of that stuff may appear soon. Cheers! - CDM
