The Rebirth Of All Things

Spring colors, spring things, spring art show prep...

My colleague Steve Coleman and I dropped off 32 works of art at

The Blackwell Street art exhibit and got voted Teachers 

Most Likely To Have A Side Gig As A Stand-Up Comedian

by students and staff within the same week!

Black Celebration by 

Depcehe Mode was released in March 1986. 

Happy 40th Birthday to an absolute masterpiece.

Duran Duran - Nite Romantics EP (1981) 
Every time I hear remixes, alternate takes, B-sides and demos from Duran Duran’s first two album eras I’m mesmerized by how fresh and modern they sound 45 years later. I’ve followed them since Rio in 1982 and while I continue to enjoy their work (the last three albums in particular) I’m awestruck by the very unique place they claimed for themselves with their first bold sonic statements. Having said that, they have yet to be given credit for their influence on contemporary pop of all subgenres. DD FOREVER.

I’ve got some great reads ahead of me. Many thanks to my friend Steve for preordering these two long awaited memoirs for me, the Christina Applegate one signed on one of the opening pages and the Liza Minnelli one with a signed bookplate. Steve had the rare privilege of being seated next to Liza in a bar one evening long ago as she and a companion had some cocktails. Steve and I both met Christina after a performance of Sweet Charity in NYC. I asked her to autograph my DVD of the film Wonderland (which I enjoyed her in) and she signed it across Val Kilmer’s crotch. What a very cool and nice lady she is. I’m looking forward to reading about the life journeys of both of these talented humans.

31 March 1986 • 40 Years Ago…

Prince And The Revolution’s Parade LP was released.

My first dose of Prince’s Parade era came in January 1986 when a Z-100 New York DJ announced that he would be playing an exclusive track from Prince’s upcoming album. The song was a sparse, altogether baffling mixture of electronic drums, synth, playful guitar licks and falsetto vocals called “Kiss”. It sounded like it had been recorded fast and furious… altogether unlike the ornate arrangements of “Purple Rain” and “Raspberry Beret”. It was wildly different, a bit edgy and I LOVED IT. When the Parade album was released and I got to experience it in full, everything that puzzled me about “Kiss” made sense in context with the rest of the album. “Mountains”, “AnotherLoverHoleInYoHead” and “Girls & Boys” (which contains what is to this day one of my favorite Prince lyrics: “Meet me in another world, space and joy / Vous êtes très belle, mama, girls and boys”) sounded like next level adult sophistication to my 13 year old ears. It felt classic, yet modern. Hip, yet elegant. 40 years on I’m still moved by “Sometimes It Snows In April” in ways that my younger self was only coming to understand when it stopped me in my tracks for the first time. This wasn’t merely R&B, pop or funk. It was Grown Up Music. Many thanks as always to Prince And The Revolution for being a huge part of my musical education.

And I am back in the park again... 

Happy Easter from The Montone Family and

my adopted brother Steve who is STILL my parents'

favorite child. I ain't even fighting it anymore. 

Deviled eggs and Peeps cake are only two of the 4,856

reasons why my parents prefer Steve to me and frankly,

I get it. I totally get it. Yup... They're right.

So much work happening behind the scenes.

I'm still very much engaged in new artwork.

It may not look like I'm doing more than the usual

but trust me, I am doing MUCH more than the usual. 

More about that later.

Happy Spring Rebirth and remember... 

MAGIC IS REAL

XO - CDM

I've Been Busy...

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