June 2014

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Features 26 42 46 57 98

Up and coming DJ Luke Shay by Alexxis Steele Interview with Vinny Martel-part 2 - Alexxis Steele Actor Vincent Pastore - Bullets in Broadway by Victor Colicchio Saliva Rocks Reading PA by DarkOneBzR Entrepreneur - Impresario Jerry Brandt by Marlowe B. West Takez Manhattan

Articles 16 28 52 68 70 72 82 95 108

Marlowe B. West talkz glamour with Lois Broderick - by Marlowe B. West Jessica Graves - A Pictorial photos by Gothic Veronica Marlowe B. West Prezentz Excerpts from Go West - The Rock and Roll Memoir It’s Now, It’s WOW! - by Amanda Kasinecz Come along for The Ride - by Waylon Bacon International Beauty Show - pictorial by Gary Pries Positively Energized - with Bobby Vinton by Scott Brandon Tesla - a Concert Pictorial by Sheri Bayne 7th Annua Zombie Crawl - by Stormy Boz

Columns 3 6 8 15 49 50 61 66 86 101 102

Letter From The Editor - Alexxis Steele Rockin’ Facts by Thomas Richmond Extraordinary - B.B. Strange & H.Q. Deceit Under the Radar by Lori Kapes Brodian’s Banter - Negativity Poetry Corner - by Puma Pearl In The Spotlight - Jenniferex by Alexxis Steele Roman’s Rant - The Dichotomy Of My Life Lonely Hearts and hot rods - by Guido Colacci Barbell Buzz by Tim Caso Guido Says - by Guido Colacci

Reviews 24 92 112 104

Music Review of VNVNATION by Gothic Veronica Music Review - Volbeat - by Sheri Bayne Mindmaze Review - by Sheri Bayne Music Review - Guns & Roses - by Lisa Koza, photos by Sheri Bayne

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© Copyright Steel Notes Magazine 2014

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Letter From The Editor

One Masterful DJ in Luke Shay Bullets fly over Broadway with Vincent Pastore - that would be Big Pussy- of the Sopranoes Covering PA with SALIVA JERRY BRAND - The Legend - interviewed by OUR Legend who also covers the glamorous Big Hair Punk Rock Days with Lois Broderick Wouldn’t you like to have a piece of Rock History?

Marlowe B. West owns an original Jimi Hendrix Jacket.

Amanda Kasinicz prepares us for BEACH TIME Waylon Bacon takes us for a ride with his new FILM PROJECT As positive as you can get... Bobby Vinton Rock out with TESLA in pictures and it’s ZOMBIE SEASON.. for a good reason!

Happy Reading!

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Staff Writers

Michael Hendrick Stormy Boz Thomas Richmond Lori Kape Tom Martini Gallo Locknez Stewart Brodian HQDeceit BBStrange Tony Angelo A. Jude Tim Caso Marlowe B. West Rayvin Stites Roman

Photographers Gary Preis Larry Dell Sheri Bayne Bob Klein

On the Cover

Cover design by: Keith Boisvert Vero Concepts

Layout & Composition Magazine Design by: Leland Maurello Lelanda.com

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Steel Notes Magazine is a monthly magazine featuring what is happening in the art, music, entertainment, and fashion industry.

Copyright is reserved.

Re posting is whole or in part on other sites and publication without permission is prohibited.

All right to photos belong to their respective owners. ♍

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This Issue’s Contributors

Stormy Boz

Alexxis Steele

Lori Kapes

Liza Koza

Puma Pearl

HQ Deceipt BB Strange

Tim Caso

SkipBizR

Guido Colacci

Amanda Kasinecz

Sheri Bayne

Drama D

Victor Colicchio

Thomas Richmond

Marlowe B. West

Gothic Veronica

Scott Brandon

Stewart Brodian Steel Notes Magazine | 5

Rockin’ Facts

by Thomas Richmond

1

. 1987, Starship started a four-week run at No.1 on the UK singles chart with a song co-written by Albert Hammond and Diane Warren, ‘Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now.’ At 48, it made lead singer Grace Slick the oldest female to reach No.1 on the UK chart, (later broken by Cher’s ‘Believe’ in 1999).

2

.1970, Guess Who started a three-week run at No.1 on the US singles chart with ‘American Woman’, it was the group’s sixth Top 30 hit and only chart topper.

3

. 1981, Adam and the Ants were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with ‘Stand And Deliver.’ The song enjoyed five-week run at No.1.

a

4

. 1969, The Moody Blues started a two-week run at No.1 on the UK album chart with ‘On The Threshold Of A Dream’ (their first No.1 album).

5

. 1969, Led Zeppelin made their first appearance on the UK album chart when the band’s debut album charted at No. 6, going on to spend 71 weeks on the UK chart. It entered the US chart the following week at No. 10. Recorded in around 36 hours.

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Extr a o r d in a r y By, B.B Strange & H.Q Deceit

Extraordinary is a column designed to seek out the best of the best, the extraordinary if you will.

Examining that talent under a microscope to find out which acts, bands and performers make the cut to earn the title of Extraordinary. Each act, band or performer will be rated on the star scale ranging, 1 star earns them the rank of ordinary, 5 stars earns them the title of Extraordinary.

For this month’s article we decided to go in a different direction and take a look at vendors and the extraordinary products they produce. H.Q Deceit and B.B Strange, Recently had the opportunity to work for one of the most renowned vendors of the Horror Convention world, Horror Show Jacks Fangs. Owned and operated by non-other than the very talented Horror Show Jack, not to leave out the lovely Horror Show Lizzie.

Over the weekend we spent with them we learned the process of fang making and all the talent that is required, in order to produce fangs of the highest quality, seizing the opportunity set before us H.Q and B.B Decided to interview this extraordinary man.

Horror Show Jack To start off the interview with Horror Show Jack, we asked a question that everyone is dying to know: Do you like vampires? Jack answered back with his playful, kookey manner, “Not at all I think they are silly and factitious creatures and sparkle and I think… oh wait you asked about Vampires…. I thought you MEANT Twilight…. LOL yes, I find all folklore about vampires fascinating … from the very first to where there were NO fangs. Just zombie like beings that needed blood to regenerate. To the classic Nosferatu, Bram Stokers Dracula, Bella Lugosi, The Lost Boys, Under World to 30 Days of Night! To name just a few!” After a few laughs, we got down to the real questions at hand. Jack decided to become a fang smith due to getting fangs made by other fang smith and they would break on him constantly or it would take forever to get the fangs. This sparked an interest, so Jack showed these fangs to his dentist, who told him he could easily make fangs himself. After this visit Jack started making fangs out of dental acrylic, just for fun. This fun turned into friends asking him to make them sets of fangs. 15 years later people tell Jack he is one of the best fang smith in the business.

We got to experience the process of making fangs, with Jack and his partner and girlfriend Liz at Wicked, a convention that is held in New Jersey. The process Jack uses to make fangs is one of the safest and sanitary way to do so. He takes an impression of your teeth and make a mold from the impression. With that mold He then makes the fangs to custom fit your teeth. Keep in mind Horror Show Jack does not mold the fangs in your mouth, there are other ways of making fangs in which the product they put in your mouth isn’t healthy or safe. Jacks fangs fit to perfection and are easy to put on and to take off.

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We asked Jack what was the first event you ever made fangs at? He replied as if it was yesterday, “The very first event was Wicked Faire 2007. I was in this Dark room where no one knew where I was; and at this point NO ONE knew who I was. (He said with a laugh) I had no sign or banner, all I had was a little spiral note book for orders. It was a mess and very much unorganized. Since then there has been so many changes and I have come a long way!” Jack took a moment to tell us about the many people he has met along the way and made fangs for. These people include some very well know celebrities such as Michael Rooker from such movies such as Slither, Henry, Cliffhanger and the TV show The Walking Dead, Eddie Munster himself Butch Patrick, Kane Hodder “Jason” from Friday the 13th (7-10), Victoria Price (The daughter of Vincent Price), the one and only Verne Troyer (Mini Me from Austin Powers), David Prowse (Darth Vader), Jeremy Bullick (Boba Fett from Star Wars Empire Strikes Back), Most Of the Cast From Return of the Living Dead (which in Jacks eyes is a true horror because it is one of his favorite zombie movie next to Night of the Steel Notes Magazine | 9

Living Dead. Horror Show Jack has also made fangs for 25 actors and actresses from The Walking Dead hit TV show. All of these people which are our friends had us make their fangs for fun, by no means am I saying any one them endorse my product. I have heard that they all speak highly of me or well that’s what I have been told.

You can find Horror Show Jack and his AWESOME crew at horror conventions such as; Wicked Faire, Macbere Fair, Monster Mania, Horror Hound, Blood at the Beach, Bizarre AC, Scares that Care, Grind House Days, some of the Comicons, Terror Convention and many more. This is where you will find Horror Show Jack making fangs or you can also set up an appointment to get your fangs made at Jacks home based office. When at one of these event that Jack is at you will be sure to find him and not just because of a sign or banner!

Horror Show Jack and his crew are some of the most entertaining people you will ever meet! FUN, LAUGHS, GOOD MUSIC, AND THE BEST PEOPLE AT THE SHOW TO HANG OUT WITH are just a few of the extra perks to seeing Jack and his crew!! There are many people at shows who have ordered fangs that just seek us out to either get more fangs just say hello or come to hang out!!!

What are some of the up and coming events you will be attending? Steampunk Worlds Faire, which is May 16th through the 18th in Piscataway, New Jersey, Terror Con. in Rhode Island, June 7th through the 8th, Bizarre A.C. June 13th through the 15th held in Atlantic City, New Jersey and Scares that Care June 27th through the 29th in Williamsburg, Virginia to name a few, for more information on where he will be and to contact him please go to Horror Show Jack’s Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/HorrorShowJack

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Horror Show Jack left us with these final words, “This has been the GREATEST job I have ever had. Yeah it has its hard part and stressful moments but, the friends I have made are priceless. How many jobs do you hear the word THANK YOU on a regular bases? I mean people send me Christmas cards, thank you cards, and some have even made gifts to give me. I mean WOW when I started this I NEVER thought I would have anything much more than a little extra cash. Now I make a living with it. People know me and treat me with respect, and I have the GREATEST Group of Friends any one could Hope for!

On the Extraordinary Talent Scale. Horror Show Jack Ranks 5 out of 5 Stars giving him the ranking of EXTRAORDINARY!!!!! H.Q and BB agree that it was truly a wonderful weekend spent working and learning from the extraordinary Jack and Liz. We recommend that everyone contact Horror Show Jacks to have your costume fangs made!!! And don’t forget to get your Horror Bears TODAY!! ♫ Steel Notes Magazine | 11

“This has been the GREATEST job I have ever had. Yeah it has its hard part and stressful moments, but the friends I have made are priceless. How many jobs do you hear the word THANK YOU on a regular bases?�

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Under The Radar: Summer Music Festivals

by Lori Kapes

Summer music festivals have a long and storied history dating all the way back to the first Woodstock in the fields of New York in the summer of 1969. Since then hundreds of music and art festivals have popped up all over the country bringing together various genres of music. Most recently summer festivals that span several days or even weekends have gained notoriety and attracted a myriad of performers.

One of the most popular festivals is Coachella, which is held every April in California and attracts 75,000 people per day during its two weekend romp. Initially Coachella , launched in 2001, showcased rock and folk artists and bands, but hip-hop and r&b acts have been featured primarily on the bill. Bonnaroo, held every summer in Tennesee, has had a similar history to Coachella.

The 4-day festival has attracted a variety of notable acts such as TOOL, Phish, Jay Z, Stevie Wonder, and The Black Keys. Jay Z most recently started his own annual music festival that takes place in Philadelphia. The Made in America festival started in 2013 and while the other festivals require a ticket, this one is free. Made in America attracts a lot of well-known acts across the musical spectrum. While this and the other festivals have established histories and/or established musical acts there are other festivals around the country that aren’t as well-known but do boast eclectic line-ups.

The Peach Music Festival, held annually in Scranton, Pa., is backed by the Allman Brother’s Band. Taking inspiration from the band Phish and their jamband concerts in the 1990’s, the Peach Music Festival’s acts include the Trey Anastasio Band, Gov’t Mule, and Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. Exclusively made up of indie, folk, and rock music, The Peach Music Festival has a more specific musical focus than other festivals. However, like most of the other festivals, fans can camp out and enjoy the music whenever they’d like.

Obviously there are a plethora of music festivals that happen every summer, and even in the fall and spring, across the country. While some may not attract widely-known acts they do shine a light on lesser-known and local acts.

Avid concert goers should attend at least one festival and experience new music genres they wouldn’t normally listen to. There is even a website called “MusicFestivalJunkies” that highlights festivals that are happening this year all over America. ♫

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Marlowe B. West Okay now, Lois Broderick ... Well Alright !!! ... You are in for it, Lady ... I just read your biography and I am floored by your credentials ... I first met you at the best Natasha Adonzio NYC fashion show I’ve seen ... and I have seen quite a few ... Natasha was showcasing for the Illusion Magazine Launch Party held at Club 39 in Manhattan ... It is a beautiful club and Natasha’s catwalk was very professionally organized and presented with much deserved style and class ... Her latest and most outrageously sizzling ensembles were presented on some mighty voluptuous and sexy models, like Miz Katastrophe ... to the punk rock music of our own Blondie ... which was being covered by a blonde singer in the spotlight ... also wearing one of Natasha’s sexiest awesome dresses ... and there you sat ... demure ... with Natasha ... the punk goddess herself ... Such a pleasure to have met such a remarkable girl in the midst of all this hot punk rock chaos and mayhem ... which is just my type.

So ... Some of the things that immediately caught my eye and attention in your bio were the photographs of Michael Hutchence ... I have been an avid fan from day one ... I am quite sure there is a wide audience out there that, along with myself, would enjoy your stories about him and his sensational band, INXS. Lois Broderic : I was asked to do hair and make up the day “of” the shoot for INXS. My old friend Debi Mazar who was Madonna’s makeup artist at the time, could not make it. Deb said just go over and gave me the address of The Bath House down in the EV. When I arrived Annie Liebowitz was stunned it was not Debi and as I explained she agreed I had the credentials. We spent 18 hours shooting that tour book, Michael was running around constantly with his girlfriend while the other band members were very focused and sweet as can be. Engaging and friendly Laura Dern was part of the shoot as well, She was the prettiest girl in the background, and I only got pics of the band. She was really up and coming at the time,and honestly I did not know who she was, other than she must be important. I was only 24 yrs old, and did not know all the stars yet. I had a great time, the hair was easy but make up was challenging as . INXS went on to be one of the Best bands in the world, and I got to listen to them for Gina Davis. hours! I am very lucky!

Photo by Andre Givotovsky

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MBW: Tell me, and our Steel Notes Magazine readers, some exciting stories about some other fab people you’ve been associated with , and what exactly was your association.

Lois: I asked Billy Idol to sing at my 25 Birthday party, I threw a huge fashion show with all Green eyelids, lol. They had to close the Valentine Room down, because of so many people, and his manager would not let him but he came anyway, so I had a great 25th! I went on tour when I turned 29, which is when I got the call from Debi Mazar, because she was working with Madonna, who vouched for me and I got the job immediately, so no one else was interviewed, Wham! Debbie Peterson’s boyfriend was the tour manager, so we quickly became good friends. I also colored the Bangles hair too. Deb is the drummer, and, I also went to their engagement party too...Ahh so many stories!!!

MBW: When you were only sixteen you were being trained by the Mods from London at La Coupe ... I would love to hear how you were so fortunate to have started with them , and ... how you escalated so rapidly to Vidal Sassoon on Madison Avenue in Manhattan.

Lois: I graduated HS and Beauty School early by doubling up my classes, because I could not wait to do hair. I even called jobs in The Post I remember, so I could do shampoos. I was so young I did not even know you needed a Cosmetology license to even do shampoo’s, that was a shocker to me. Guess I was fifteen when I called. That was funny thinking back. So then I was on a mission to hurry up so I can work. I really felt motivated and compelled to get out of High School and finish Bronx Beauty School, which I did after school and all day Saturdays .I needed 1000 hours!

Right after graduating High School and Bronx Beauty School, I was reading (ha) The NY Post, and saw a spread on a new style/ cut. The photographs were beautiful, and so were the models, and everything about the photos I just loved! I decided to call them right then and there! I softly said I just graduated beauty school and was wondering if I can work there because I like the photos in today’s paper. They said can you be here at six PM? We do classes for assistants, and tonight is class , so I went and I was hired! It was La Coupe, the hottest salon in NYC which remained the TOP salon all the years I was there! The owner was

INXS Steel Notes Magazine | 17

Charles Booth, who was Vidal Sassoon’s assistant back in London. It was the Mary Quant days, who was the coolest Mod. Charles was so charming, and his accent tickled me, being I was so NYC and from The Bronx, he called me his Liza Doolittle, as if he would train me to speak properly. I moved through all the stylists, as you train under each one, and quickly got to the top assistant position and was Charles Booths right hand. He took me wherever he went, we flew to Montreal and Toronto Salons, did shows and photo shoots. I loved it so much and I really was in awe at his work, I was his protégé, as he put it. Not bad for a kid from the Bronx I thought. He inspired me to be the best. Helen Oppenheim @ www.HelenOppenheim.com was our PR person, she also was Art

The Bangles

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Director and worked closely with La Coupes Art Directors for all photo shoots. I was a part of many of them. To this day I am still friends with Helen who is still in the biz (Helens Biz Bizz) on Facebook. Helen and I found on Facebook after many years, and she is my mentor today and helping with inspirations and seeing the future in fashion/hair.

After Helen left LaCoupe she went onto Vidal on 5th Ave. I missed her and I figured even though I made it onto the floor cutting hair at La Coupe, I am young enough to learn more and decided to try out for Sassoon. Helen directed me , and said do a model’s clothes, and make up to create a story. So I took it to the next level and did five models! That was never done before in the history of Sassoon to get in ! I wanted to be a stylist , and you cannot get in, even though I had formal training. I got the job as assistant to Graham Webb the Art Director! Then the drama began, nobody gets hired and goes to the head of the class likes that!

MBW: It must have been marvelous witnessing models striking poses in Vogue Magazine after you worked your Lois Broderick magic on them ... Can you bring us all into that spotlight and share the thrill of it all.

MBW: I have always been wild over fashion ... Our Manhattan has its own signature look and feel .. We reek New York ... You and Natasha Adonzio go way back to the roots ... to the streets that gave birth to the punk movement that forever put a curve on style ..

How did you and Natasha bump heads together with another downtown fashion pioneer, Patricia Fields ???

Lois: I ran into Natasha after many years right after I hosted Tommy Gunn’s Reunion 25 years later. We had five bands and a fashion show by Stella Zoitis, who just came off the TV Show Top Designer (I think that’s the name Marlowe, where they compete with their designs) It was at the Bowery Electric and I did hair for Stella and Hosted with Tommy! It was such a success, crowds were down the block trying to get in! It was great to see everyone again, and that they came out!

Natasha was doing fashion shows downtown at the time, and she asked me if I would host and do hair. We have been friends again since reconnecting.

INXS

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Lois - Photo by Eddie Maplplethorpe

MBW: You are an artiste of unlimited capabilities ... Paint me a mental picture ... One of your most memorable days ... as a stylist ... in the incredibly fun and fashionable worlds of Oscar de la Renta, Perry Ellis, Betsy Johnson etc.

Lois: To paint you a picture of the most memorable time or show, that’s hard to answer because everyone was so special in my heart. I guess the best was being in Mapplethorpe’s studio while dating his younger brother Edward Mapplethorpe. I got to see all the great photos on a regular basis, and Eddie photographed me, It definitely looks just like his brothers lighting , and we used

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LaChapelle

his studio. Another favorite time was being asked to do Bryan Ferry’s hair for a shoot for Much Music while he was in town. I never get nervous working with all these famous people at all. I just fit in, but Bryan Ferry was really my FAVORITE artist and I was nervous. It turns out he was so kind a genuine gentleman who always looked so handsome in his suits. He was playing The Ritz that same night and he asked if I would like to be his personal guest. I was ecstatic, and I went and stood on stage next to the band the whole show! It was the best concert I have ever been to! I still love him.

Betsy Johnson was fun, because we could be creative and she is super cool. Heading uptown doing Oscar De La Renta was fast paced backstage, and just gorgeous clothes. He was very strong on how he wanted the girls to look, I did work many shows at Danceteria with up and coming designers, one being Anna Sui and many more.

MBW: Many people are still unfamiliar with the metamorphoses of Manhattan ... such as the hidden/camouflaged wonders of Soho ...

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Fashion Show with Natasha. White curl extensions by Manic Panic.

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Soho used to be the lowest ... Now a community where the elite flourishes along with the vagrants ... Where there are no distinct boundaries ... The way life ought to be ... Home to an inspiring, underground, bee hive of creativity ... What was it like working at Girl Loves Boy ???

Lois: Working at Girl Loves Boy was a blast, we created many colors and cuts that nobody did, So the club kids came in as well as Madonna, Linda Ronstadt, U2, the Bangles,of whom I colored Debbie Peterson the drummer. I was close friends with her and Steve Botting, and even went to the engagement party. Tony Bon Jovi’s dad was an Italian jeweler and Steve got the ring from Mr Bon Jovi.

Romeo DaSilva and Adrianne Trimarchi were the owners, and they attracted the coolest people ,so we had a great staff, all so creative. Debi Mazar was my friend at the time, and she was starting out, so I got her a job as my assistant back then . I’m still close friends with all of the people who worked there,so aww great memories! We even were invited by Bono to their show and after party at a diner!

I sat next to Larry Mulner, could you just die? I was a great night with amazing artists.

MBW: Now you call Southampton your home ... Tell me how it was possible for you to make such a drastic transition from the frantic pace of Soho to the socially illustrious and comparatively tranquil Southampton ... while maintaining such a busy and exciting status in your career ?

Lois: Ahh living in Southampton is the best of both worlds I feel. The city comes to me, I really feel it is an extension of NYC. Many artists live here because they can create, I feel I fit in here. We have a cool music scene and I am friends with the local artists, all from NYC. We found each other after some years, and It takes time to find your own people and vibe but I have it.

I enjoy working in Sag Harbor at Salon Xavier, It reminds me of a Soho loft.

Great space and lighting. I do my clients plus I do shows in NYC, and continue to storyboard looks and doing photo shoots. I’m getting back into doing editorial styling, now my children are older and I have some free time to do what I love, being a session stylist.

MBW: You are very active and focused ... What are your aspirations at this point in your life ???

Lois: My focus in life now is to do Editorial Styling and continue to learn. My inspiration comes from Helen Oppenheim, who has put together a wonderful website through the years. I was just an assistant back then and worked on so many fab shoots, but I watched and learned, and that is what I still do. I work with Viv McKinder from time to time, helping her on her styling, she is the International Art Director for Intercouffure, Helen is the best in the biz for PR for hair stylist, my mentor, I plan on doing some great shoots to be published in the coming year, right here from The Hamptons, while I raise my two children.

Lois is currently taking appointments in Sag Harbor NY at Salon Xavier www.HairbyLoisBroderick.com STAY TUNED for a regular column by Lois talking rock n roll hair from the 50’s to present!

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Music Review

by Gothic Veronica

On

May 10th 2014, I Gothic Veronica had gone to see the greatest show I have seen in many years. It has made my life be open to new and fulfilling possibilities; it has made me have a new outlook on my life. New to looking at how the world works, new to how I see things; all the beauty and grace that this world has to offer. That was the first time seeing them, and I must say they didn’t disappoint me at all. Being a fan of theirs for many years and never going to see at how much amazing energy that there was in the room, was a great spiritual experience.

VNV Nation originally comes from Dublin and Essex, now based in Hamburg Germany and has an electronic sound all of their own. They are considered to have sounds that are electro-industrial, electro body music and synthpop. This happens to be great for the gothic industrial crowds you may see at their shows. They have since then released nine albums starting in 1995. Then in 1999 when their second album Empires released, it put them on the map for a great outcome worldwide. Then with their third

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debut album on the rise; Futureperfect in 2002 they had changed their sound from synthpop to trance, the general public had better ideas of what they were all about and loved it. In 2005 when Matter and Form had been released they then again changed their sound to be a little bit more hard rock sounding. The singer had changed his outlook on how the band would be perceived, with that album being rough around the edges, but a little soft as well. Then in 2007 they released Judgment which was said to be a very short album of only ten tracks. The public thought it was over for them until they released Reformation which was a box set of some of their tracks. Then in 2011 with their eighth studio released album titled Automatic, that album included tracks of the gothic industrial nature. In 2013 with the newest addition to their collection came Transnational which was compared to Blutengel. That album was also played by an orchestra on the 2013 Gothic Cruise out of NYC.

Being Gothic myself, VNV Nation is a great band for me, with all of the different styles out there I felt like I was home at the show. Such great people, such great atmosphere, such beauty, and I must say people are way more calm than any other place.

Rock shows are crazy, but by going to a Gothic VNV Nation show you come out of there a different person and feeling great.

Something about that night was just magical; seeing VNV Nation has put me on to see what I can accomplish. Being a great artist and trying to make others happy is what will always be my lifetime goal. Through a nightmare there is art, through beauty there is art, and through everything else you must make your life be as great as possible to yourself and not to the world. ♍ Steel Notes Magazine | 25

DJ Review

by Alexxis Steele

THE ART OF THE MASTERFUL DJ This Virginia Beach native who is now residing in LA, has a rich history of musical inspiration. The twenty three year old’s foundation in electronic dance music remains his prowess for live mixing and the true art of DJ’ing. It wasn’t until after a couple years of mixing under his belt, that he began channeling his classical influences into producing his own music. A student of the piano, Shay has taken aim at creating a style unique to his own.

He has performed with Flosstradamus, Krewella, Brillz, CandyLand, Figure, Sound Remedy, Dj Sliink, Alex Yonug, 12th Planet, Torro Torro, Cory Enemy, Luminox, HugLife to name a few. For this very reason, Shay spends countless hours learning the art of production with the hopes of leaving a dent in the music scene.

Shay recently became the winner of a song remix contest by Adventure Club, with his remix of their song , “Wonder” and was signed to their management as a result of it. This up and comer is creating a buzz on the scene is a force to be reckoned with!

To find out more about Luke Shay and hear Q: How old were you when you seriously got interested in music? his music, you can find him at: My whole life, it just took me until I was older to seriously persuit it and start twitter.com/Luke_Shay making it. I have always been interested in music soundcloud.com/lukeshay Q: Who were your influences, and why? facebook.com/LukeShayMusic I was influenced by calvin harris, zedd, deadmau5 and some other artists.

I was really impressed by how great their writing was and how cool the productions were Q: What is your favorite genre/style of music?

Classical music has always been one of my favorites and now also electronic.

Q: What influenced you to become a DJ? I started DJing to have a way to express my self through music because at this point I wasn’t making music at the time that came after.

Q: How does it feel to have won the Adventure Club remix contest, and to be signed by their management team? it is a really great feeling to work and have won and to know my music is being heard and my hard work is paying off.

Q: What are your future goals, and where would you like to see yourself in the next five years?

In the next 5 years I hope to be a bigger artist, to have traveled alot and played alot of shows and to have had a lot of successful releases. Also maybe do some writing and producing for pop artists as well ♫

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Jessica Graves - A pictorial Feature by Gothic Veronica

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MODEL: Jessica Graves MUA: Jessica Graves Photography by: Gothic Veronica Photography was done in Queens NY

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Model of the Month Feature by Alexxis Steele

Lauren BabrĂŠe

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Lauren Babrée (pronounced Baw-bray) is a professional singer, actress, and model. She grew up in a small town in New Hampshire, which is also home to Adam Sandler, Sarah Silverman, and Seth Meyers.

Lauren started out as a dancer as her mother enrolled her in ballet, tap, and jazz at the early age of 3. As she got such a young start in the arts, she also grew up being influenced by music at a young age as her father taught her basic notes on the piano. She also used to watch MTV and VH1 in the living room and be inspired by the sounds of specifically Mariah Carey. Her teachers took a notice to her strong energy and cast her as Rudolph in her first grade Christmas play, “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer”. It was from then that she started noticing being able to act out a character and not be reprimanded for acting out and being loud was so much fun on stage. Keeping the love for singing as well, she immediately signed up to be in the elementary school choir, and continued through middle school, even being selected for the “select” chorus, which was by audition only and few were selected.

In the 5th grade, she and one of her best friends at the time saw a local performing arts school in the town was holding auditions for a new musical. She immediately was thrilled to audition, and became a part of the cast.

When Lauren was 13 years old in the 8th grade, she knew this is what she wanted to become more serious about. Getting older and becoming a teenager, she started becoming interested in modeling as well. She heard an announcement on the radio for an open model call in Boston, and immediately told her mother about it.

Being a supportive mom, her mother drove an hour down to Boston to try for the open call. Lauren made the cut. She was then asked to come back in the fall and walk the runway for their show.

As high school was approaching, she started looking into schools and deciding what she wanted to do with the rest of her life, but all she had a love for was the arts and entertainment. She was thrilled to find out colleges actually had arts and theatre programs she could major in. From then on out, Lauren made it a priority to make all her high school years devoted to this business to prepare for a future possible career.

Throughout her middle and high school years, she continued to dance, sing in the choir, started taking vocal lessons, and kept doing the musicals every year. She had the opportunity to audition for Boston’s hip hop radio station’s Jam’n 94.5 singing contest, and won 3rd place out of many contestants.

Starting to do more research on what was needed to further her career in music and acting, she noticed it was a requirement with music to have a demo tape.

She looked through the yellow pages to find some local recording studios to record some cover songs as a start. She also saw headshots were a requirement with acting, so she asked her mom to take her to New York City on a February school vacation so she Steel Notes Magazine | 33

photo credit: Matt Farrara - MJF Portraiture Hair and Makeup By: Jason Monico

could get the publication “Backstage”, a weekly publication at the time to do some more research. So that February, that’s exactly what they did. Lauren says, “I remember the first time driving into New York City, and getting that butterfly feeling when you first start seeing the skyline, and then driving through Times Square and seeing all the lights. You could just feel the energy. I was passing Virgin Megastore (which was a record store around at the time), and MTV’s “TRL” which was also around at that time, and seeing artists such as Puff Daddy, Eminem, and Mariah Carey in the window and freaking out. I knew this was where I needed to be.

I remember walking up to a news stand and asking for the publication “Backstage”, and saying ‘you have it??!!’ when they said ‘here you go’. All these were my first dreams come true it seemed, and just the beginning of my dream.”

Lauren left her New York City trip with more ambition than ever. She found a headshot photographer there, and 2 months later, they were back to get her headshots done. Lauren kept on looking through Backstage and would submit her demo tape to castings looking for singers. She then caught the interest of a music producer who was putting a multi ethnic group together. The group consisted of an African American girl, a Hispanic girl, an Asian girl, and Lauren was to fill the Caucasian girl. Shortly after she spoke with the producer, she traveled down to New York City again, still a minor at the time in high school with her mother, and got to meet the producer and sing in the studio. This gave Lauren even bigger hopes that this could become a reality. Sadly, the group never came together, but that didn’t stop her. She then got another call from a music manager who was interested in her voice. Her and her mother traveled down to New York City again and met with him, and he insisted he was still interested in taking her under his wing. With only 2 months left until high school graduation, and the chance to move to New York City, she became very serious about this.

That past winter, before meeting with the manager, she had auditioned for a school in New York City she was very serious about attending, called The New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts. Not all who auditioned got to go to the school, and not only did Lauren get accepted, but was also granted a small scholarship, which only a selected few were lucky enough to be granted, based

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on of their audition.

In the fall of 2004, Lauren moved to New York City to study film and television performance at that school, and was also still heavily involved with music. Things didn’t work out between the music manager and Lauren because of opinions over songs, and was dropped off from the management deal. That didn’t stop her though. She started going to open mic nights singing cover songs to get more exposure.

One day she got a call from another music producer who had found her listing on a musician website she had advertised for herself.

Interestingly enough, he was as well looking to put together a multi ethnic girl group to submit to his colleague at J Records. After trying to fit in with the girls, the producer saw it was better for Lauren to go solo, and worked on a few songs for her solo album.

After Lauren graduated from The New York Conservatory for Dramatic Arts, she felt like she was now in the real world. With having the support of her parents throughout her whole life and through school, it was starting to become a scary time without the prior help. With so many things happening, but nothing actually solid, she got her first taste of what it meant to be a “starving artist”. Lauren didn’t let that get to her though. She started submitting to independent films, and was cast as her first film role ever, called “Daughters of America”, where she played a troubled teen who had a rough life of drugs and incarceration.

The thrill of becoming another character so unlike herself and watching it back on screen was exciting to her. After endlessly submitting for more roles, and facing the tough rejection of the business of acting, she turned to work behind the scenes for the first time. Her friend told her about an Applebee’s commercial that needed production assistants, so she joined on to do that, and being on her first real film set was even more exciting. So much exciting, she worked another gig behind the scenes, but this time was helping a casting director with organization of actors and all materials for another commercial audition. Being able to see the process of what it’s like to audition for a commercial in front of a reputable casting director was just as interesting to her. But she knew in front of the camera is where she wanted to be for now.

With finances getting hard being on her own and a true starving artist submitting to castings and not hearing back, she started looking into modeling again. She started seeing castings for models and how much money they were making, so started becoming interested in that again.

Lauren immediately started receiving many calls to model, and that took over for many years while acting and music took a backseat. She started working with photographers who were hiring her to update their portfolio, which one led to a publication in an art book that came out in Germany. Lauren had so much success in the modeling world, that it completely took over her career then for the next 4-5 years before she started getting back into music and acting again.

photo credits: Matt Farrara - MJF Portraiture,

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At IBS Fashion Show

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At IBS Fashion Show

Once Lauren put her mind to start easing back into music and acting again, she started having great success, more than she ever had in the past. She went on to do 3 more independent films, as well as her first small part in a feature film to appear in movie theaters in the fall of 2014. She also appeared in 3 music videos as the leading lady, and completed 3 music videos of her own to her songs as well. Keeping the modeling still, she got back to the runway and was in Lisa Yamasaki’s hair show 2 years in a row, and has been recently published in Steel Notes Magazine for her part in that, as well as American Salon Digital Magazine. She also appeared in her first fashion catalog, modeling for Wilda Leather’s jackets. Recently she also completed her first commercial for The Body Dryer, which has had international recognition, and she was featured in news articles for that all over the world such as Steel Notes Magazine | 37

photo credits: Matt Farrara - MJF Portraiture, Hair and Makeup By: Jason Monico

USA, Mexico, Brazil, Portugal, Spain, Poland, Turkey, Australia, and was even in an ABC channel 7 news segment about it.

Some people would look at Lauren and think from the outside she has all the luck in the world, but only herself and those who really know her story know that this journey has not been an easy one. She has made many sacrifices to make this career such a possibility, and will continue to keep her faith in the journey until the end.

Further information on Lauren can be found on her Facebook fan page at www.facebook.com/LaurenBabree as well as her You Tube page to hear all music and see all videos at http://www.youtube.com/LaurenBabree ♍

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photo credits: Matt Farrara - MJF Portraiture, Hair and Makeup By: Jason Monico

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At America’s Got Talent

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cneuradio.com

Big Paw Graphics

Playboy Energy Drinks

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Interview with Vinny Martel - Alexxis Steele

Interview with Vinny Martell

by Alexxis Steele INTERVIEW WITH VANILLA FUDGE LEAD GUITARIST VINNY MARTELL, PART 2 of 4 A: Vinny How do you feel about the comment that Ray Manzarek from The Doors made about being a more soulful shredder that may not exist in all of classic rock? Now that’s an accolade there!

V: Boy I tell you that was a nice comment! We were doing a gig, he was doing a single or something up in Detroit at an outdoor amphitheater. We saw him and had toured with them in the old days and we got up and did our gig, and I guess he heard us play and came out after.

He’s a cool cat, a real nice guy! In 05’ we did a Strange Days tour, it was The Doors, Steppenwolf, The Yardbirds, and us. We did like ten cities and states, we did ten up in Canada and we ended up in Atlantic City at Trump’s Taj Mahal, and we did a live recording for “Decades Of Rock”. It was VH1 Classics on one of their fist recordings ,so it was great it was for us, and I’m sorry he’s not here at the moment, but it was a beautiful, beautiful comment that he made. Evidentally I was hitting all of the right notes that particular night, and he was catching it, so It was pretty cool. And I’m in touch with the lead guitarist, in fact I did something with him up in New York City at The Cutting Room about six months ago. They had a thing but he was playing up there and I was invited up so I came up you know we said hello and everything and we jammed, and signed some guitars so we try to keep all the old rockers like Jerry Miller from Moby Grape, I talk to him sometimes we try to keep it all together if at all possible.

A: okay awesome! now in 2006 you were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame with a lot of artists like Joan Jett, Twisted Sister, Billy Joel, and many other artists right?

V: Oh Yea, The Long Island Music Hall Of Fame with Billy Joel, Joan Jett, Harry Chapin, George Gershwin, Twisted Sister, Peter Criss. It’s all people that grew up in Long Island The guys that put the tour to some degree .I didn’t grow up in Long Island but, our management was based in together knew about the guy Oceanside, Long Island, and Island Park, Long Island. If you had some kind of strong that had escaped from behind affiliation with Long Island, you’re inducted, and there were a lot of other people, but yes the iron curtain ... Over there it was a great evening , and a great event. these people, if a girl had long

hair down her back, a cop could come up with a scissor and could just cut it off.

A: Great! You were saying before that the Fudge had reunited again, and you were touring the US and recently came back from a big European tour, tell me about that .

V: What happened was we got a call from an agent in Germany that they wanted us to come back because we had played there in 68’ 69. We are also very big in Europe as you said before, so either way we were in demand for quite a few number of years to play there again. What we ended up doing was run down all of these countries.

We called it the Rock Legends On Tour, it’s myself, Carmine Appice on drums, Mark Stein on organ and unfortunately, Timmy Bogert our great bass player, one of the best in the world doesn’t like to tour anymore. He doesn’t need the money, and got in a motorcycle accident, so we have a great fill in guy named Pete Bremy, who was my bass player with the Vince Martell Band.

We did Zurich , The Netherlands, Paris France, Dresden Germany, Frankford Germany, Nuremberg Germany, Belgium, Hanover Germany, we did this one night after another, Vienna Austria, Tyrone Italy, and we beat the heck out of ourselves. We caught a cold over there from beating ourselves, but it was just great that so many fans and people from the 60’s and some with tears in their eyes came because they never thought they would see The Vanilla Fudge. We sold so many albums that the record company had released, and so many albums that we signed things that we have never seen before , and it was just special, just

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wonderful. We also got some pictures on the internet of the Eifel Tower that we took, and some pictures under there we did some recording there they recorded us live. We did French and German TV, and we did some big deal interviews with a lot of pictures, and it was really something! I want to mention before I forget we did a PBS special a while back called Rock In The World For Radio Free Europe, and we had a bunch of musician’s on there. We had Mark Stein, myself , Robby Krieger from The Doors, Rudy Sarzo from Quiet Riot, Toto, and it had to do with how radio free Europe helped knock down the Berlin Wall in 1989. The guys that put the tour together knew about the guy that had escaped from behind the iron curtain and it gives you cause to realize we take freedom for granted sometimes in the USA. Over there these people, if a girl had long hair down her back, a cop could come up with a scissor and could just cut it off. If a guy had dungarees on, and they don’t want you to have dungarees on they could pull them off, even in public, because dungarees stood for the free world and the west In these countries they don’t have freedom people, so you have to keep it special because it’s precious. We played behind the iron curtain, but thank God that’s what Radio Free Europe did, broadcasting, and if people get a chance they should check it out. It’s rockingthewall.com and pbs.org. Check it out because it’s actually was a drummer, and historian who put this thing together, and it’s a tear jerker when you see in depth what people had to go through behind the iron curtain. Another example, if kids were in the school the teachers who were involved with the government, the teachers would ask the kids about a How many kids enjoyed the Beatles concert that they weren’t supposed to listen to and a couple of kids raised their hands, a couple of the kids parents “disappeared” and that’s what happened to their parents. Secret police came over they had a map and they would take the people that would disappear, changed the map they rerouted the river and made it disappear. There are people in the free world that don’t know what’s going on.

A: Don’t take your freedom for granted !

V: Don’t ever take it for granted, and thank God for the vets and everybody that stands for freedom. I’m part of a charity, copsforvets.org. It’s an organization that helps homeless vets that came home with PTSD that can’t get it together, and helps them get jobs and find a home. JD Simpson started a home, and we went down and played music for them every year and now he has nine homes for these guys. There’s a lot of good that a lot of people that are unheralded that you don’t hear about.

A: Vinny you also host two weekly radio shows out of Philadelphia?

V: I did. I don’t do it right now I got too busy again rockin and rolling .We had two shows rock and roll that was on every Tuesday Steel Notes Magazine | 43

, on WNJC 1360 AM it was a rock and roll Tuesday night show then we branched to a second show that which was a total 180 . It was life after death issues people that have NDE , near death experiences. People that died from accidents, or operations or drugs or something like that, and musicians , other artists that came back to life ,and what they had to tell about the hereafter, and what they had to say about it. It was very interesting and wonderful, but , I am kinda on hiatus for the moment.

A: Tell me about your solo project the Vince Martell group V: Well, that’s something I’ve been doing for a long time. in the band is Pete Bremly, the guy that is playing bass for the Fudge now, Russ T Blades on drums, Peg Pearl who also played sang live with me on that particular song , who is a Denver Colorado recording artist. I do different gigs myself we have gone down to Birmingham Alabama with that band ,we did BB Kings in NYC, we did a project with Spanky from Spanky And Our Gang, band, remember her ?“Sunday Will Never Be The Same “, We got to be good friends with her because we did some gigs with her in the old days .We also did some with The Vagrants-very close friends with us from the NY area. Leslie West came out of that band from Mountain. The Nazz, Todd Rundgren’s band, I did something with those 2 bands and the Vince Martell Band down at BB Kings, and we were bouncing around. We also did that Love-In Musical Celebration. That was the one that we did with Ben Vereen, Jesse Colin Young, Strawberry Alarm Clock, Peter and Gordon, and the late great Buddy Miles. We did an Anthony Adams production out of San Diego, and It’s something that myself, and Peg Pearl went out to, and we bounce and do a lot of different things.

A: So now with your current lineup of your band ,do you have a new cd or any original music?

V: yea we do, we have a bunch of different cds, and we have some originals on there.

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A: what do you think about the state of the music industry right now today, compared to when you first got your start?

V: well I’ts changed quite a bit because when we first got our start, if you had good management and you were a good sounding band and you were tight you got some people behind you and they pushed you. You had a chance to make noise! Today it’s all dollars and cents, it’s all business people running it, and now lawyers and people aren’t looking for the talent, but they are looking for who is paying. I’m sure anything and everything could be going on, so it’s much harder, and it’s very very difficult If you try to make it the way we did now. You are at the advantage of the computer age, and Facebook and internet , and all that stuff you can get your music to be heard by the public. That’s the way that you have to go, you do have to be tight, you should do a video because it’s a visual world with VH1, and it’s not really about the radio now, it’s more about if you can get yourself all over the media.

A: The internet has changed the whole ball game!

V: You gotta make it work for you, it’s different than the old days, not that it can’t be done, it can happen if you have good management, and people that believe in you. You have to be seen, but you should take advantage of all the modern help that we didn’t have in the old days. The other thing is, we didn’t do hardly any over dubs when we recorded. Our first PA system was a Bogen was a 75-70 watt power head with no reverb in it just bass treble and volume, we didn’t have speakers we had 2 horns so it was such a dry system, compared to all the enhancements that you have today that make you sound good. We had to perfect our harmonies and everything was a live raw dry mix, and if you can do that by learning to play guitar, start off on an acoustic where it’s harder, it’s not easy, but hope for the proper technique. It’s like playing a piano first, then going to an organ and then a synthesizer, that’s a great way to start out, and the older bands had to do that. That’s why now when we perform , we get a little echo and a little reverb over the system, and it sounds beautiful! When we first started out it was much harder because we didn’t have any of that, we didn’t even have tuners for guitar, we had to tune by ear. If you wanted to get fuzz tones you had to have an amp that was broken or distorted, now it’s a whole other animal, but it’s all great its music it’s creative its artistic, and it’s beautiful! ♫

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Bullets Over Broadway Colicchio’s Corner by Victor Colicchio

Victor Colicchio is a new York based actor, screenwriter, and musician. As a screenwriter Mr. Colicchio is best known for his screenplay SUMMER OF SAM directed by Spike Lee. His acting credit include, Bullets Over Broadway, Goodfella’s, Inside Man, Brave One, Soprano’s, numerous television appearances on Law & Order, and NY Undercover

Greetings readers, It’s springtime in New York, and Manhat-

tan is jumping, and jiving. Winter coats are off, tourists are in, children are out in the playgrounds, musicians are on the streets, and outdoor cafés are flowing over. I love Manhattan in springtime. I live in a typical small cramped New York apartment, but I have a whole island as my backyard.

Here’s what I saw in my backyard this month James Franco

As an actor, director, author and screenwriter, James Franco’s has proven himself over, and over again. His scholarly achievements are admirable to say the least. His friends describe him as a down to earth person, who is friendly and approachable to his fans.

I dropped into the Pace Gallery on West 25th Street to checkout Mr. Franco’s photography exhibit titled “ New Film Still’s”, and I have some advice for him.

“Jimmy, don’t quit your day job”. (James Franco is currently making his Broadway debut John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men” At the Longacre Theatre). Rave reviews. Bravo Franco!

Vincent (Big Pussy) Pastore

While we’re on the subject of Broadway, I saw “Bullets Over Broadway” at the Saint James Theatre. I wasn’t sure what to expect. I played a gangster in the original movie written and directed by Woody Allen. I just couldn’t see how this film could be turned into a Broadway Musical. I have only one thing to say. “Go see this play” I ran into my good friend Vincent Pastore who portrays Nick Valenti in this musical.

Vinny who is known best for his portrayal of Sal (Big Pussy) Bonpensiero on HBO’S hit series “The Sporano’s”. Vinny is my buddy from my home town “Da Bronx”. We both drove for the same cab company. We worked on a few movies together, “West New York” and two John A. Gallagher films, “Street Hunter & The Deli”. I sang on occasion with Vinny’s band “Da Badda Bing Boys” last summer and I appeared in Vinny’s original play “Wild Children” based on his days as the owner of the rock club “Crazy Horse’ in new Rochelle.

As I just mentioned, Vinny and I appeared in two John A Gallagher films. John just cast me in his up-coming feature film.. ”Act Naturally “ I portray the character Vito Cannoli (a washed up Rapper known as Italian Ice.) The title song is available on iTunes under Vito Cannoli (Italian Ice). Ron Rogers produced the song.;)

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Photo Credit: Victor Colicchio

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Ron Rogers

Is a New York based songwriter, recording artist, and record producer. Best known for writing the Billboard #1 worldwide hit “Deputy of Love”. Ron also served as a songwriter and producer for Island Records artist Kid Creole and the Coconuts. More than 40 of Rogers’ recordings have been released through out the world on major labels including Ariola, Buddah, CBS Records, EMI America, RCA, Sony Music, Island, Phonogram, Atlantic, and Virgin Records. Current projects include producing Kid Creole, and Coati Mundi’s new albums.

For those of you who might be interested…I will be take part in a panel discussion at the Hunter College writer’s conference on June 7th…

That’s all folks…see you next month. ♫

Victor Colicchio with Chaz Palmenteri in “Bullets Over Broadway”

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Brodian’s Banter Negativity here was a recent post going around facebook. The post showed the difference in song

T

lyrics comparing something beautiful from a Led Zeppelin song, to something more modern where the girl is calling herself a “stupid b*tch”.

Funny,... back in the day, people were accusing Zeppelin’s lyrics of being immoral, comparing it to songs from the 50’s or, 1940’s.

Times change, people don’t.

The older set, when in a negative frame of mind, will always try to find the worst of present day songs and compare it to something more beautiful from their youth.

“Leader Of The Pack” didn’t have the nicest ending.

It would fit in with some of today’s rap lyrics.

“Run For Your Life” by The Beatles wouldn’t fit in with today’s political correctness.

“Well I’d rather see you dead little girl than to be with another man - you better keep your head little girl or, I won’t know where I am - you better run for your life if you can little girl - hide your head in the sand little girl - catch you another man that’s the end,.. little girl”.

I’m still a little surprised by some of the scenes in rap videos that were still shown on MTV AFTER the election of Barack Obama.

Images of hands reaching into the air while money falls from above, funeral scenes, death scenes, jail scenes were all too common.

Whatever became of political correctness?

Some would say that there is a difference in black culture and white culture in this country and this is all an artistic reflection.

I agree and disagree.

Back around 1990, I remember seeing two music videos; one from the black vocal group New Edition and one from the white rock band Journey. Both videos had the exact same script: The video would open with the band members reading in either a library or bookstore.

All throughout the video, a girl would try to spend time with one of the band members but the guys would keep pulling him back to hang out with the band.

At the end of the video, when all seems lost for the girl, there she goes walking off hand in hand with the band member.

True, there are some differences in the majority of the cultures but, there’s nothing preventing both races as being seen as just human beings. Saying all blacks live in ‘da hood’ would be almost the same as saying all whites live in trailer parks.

There’s too much negativity out there.

On my cable TV show “Brodian’s Basement”, for example, I’ve played a music video by Troi Zee called “Brooklyn Girl” and there were no references to guns, drugs, gangs, graves, funerals or any of the negative images we see, even in non rap videos, by African American artists.

I’m not turning my eye away from reality.

I’m just letting people realize that there is an alternative! ♫ Steel Notes Magazine | 49

Poetry Corner with Puma Pearl Puma Perl is a widely published poet and writer. She is the author of two chapbooks, the

award-winning Belinda and Her Friends and Ruby True, and two full-length collections knuckle tattoos and the newly published Retrograde (great weather for MEDIA press). She was the co-creator, co-producer, and main curator of DDAY Productions, which mounted shows in various NYC venues. Her newest venture is Puma Perl’s Pandemonium, which launched at the Bowery Electric in 2012 and brings poetry together with rock and roll.

There will be a book launch party celebrating the release of Retrograde on Tuesday, June 3, 8-10 PM at the Parkside Lounge, 317 East Houston Street @ Attorney, NY, NY. Admission is free. Book signing and poetry and rock n roll from Puma Perl and Friends, The Bowery Boys, and more.

For more information about Puma Perl’s work and performance schedule: http://www.amazon.com/Puma-Perl/e/B003VODDBK http://pumaperl.blogspot.com/

Gravity The night the birds fell I dreamt of two women.

They perched on platforms above the clouds, bodies coiled like snakes wild hair, long necks, one blonde, one dark.

Unwinding their bodies, they stepped out, arms raised, tumbling gracefully downward, free falls to planet earth, a globe forever in rotation, where time is measured in darkness and rain and the short, hard lives of caterpillars.

The next morning I step over broken wings, feathers, and high heeled shoes.

Birds and beautiful women have fallen from the sky, magnetized by planetary forces.

Balls have stopped bouncing.

Clocks do not wind, high tide drifts out to sea, oak trees sway, waiting patiently.

Birds and women have fallen.

The earth has lost its force.

Only the stars still matter.

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IIn January, Don’t the Full Wolf Moon howled

on a smokestack, running off just as I raised my camera It’s a cold February night, I wait patiently for the moon’s return, but it’s transformed into a Full Hunger Moon, illuminating sky over water, avoiding bridges and my bedroom window. Some tribes call it the Full Snow Moon, but not in New York, not even a flurry. I take bad photographs and write another dozen poems to the moon, and several more to black eyeliner. I sit on the bus writing poems about poems I don’t write and remember a Bronx workshop and Fish Vargas, who hated poems about poems, and my delight when Thomas read another poem about poems and Fish fumed and tapped his pencil. I don’t go to workshops any more. I don’t go to twelve step meetings any more either.

The difference is that nobody yells at me for not going to workshops.

I can write poems anywhere. I could even write poems about spiritual principles anywhere, but they would be bad poems, worse than poems about poems, would never mention black eyeliner or the moon.

Next month, the ground will begin to thaw and the Full Worm Moon will slither into the sky. At some point, I’ll sit on a bus with a bag full of black liner and batteries. In the case of a power outage, I can apply make-up by flashlight and write poems about poems, new poems about moons and darkness and long flights of stairs that carry me closer to the sky, I will wear red lipstick at the window, wondering how long it will last this time, how long I will last next time.

A Full Pink Moon arrives in April, do I change the palette of my face, maybe this time I’ll get that photo, the one where I stop and nod my head, the got it! shot that marks the moment forever, like a poem.

I don’t understand black eyeliner.

I don’t understand the moon. ♫ steelnotesmagazine.com | June 2014

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L

adies and Gentlemen and Children of all ages, I am your ring leader. My name is Marlowe B. West. I declined a Parson’s scholarship, yet I design and make my own articles of clothing. I studied tap and ballet, taught tango, hustle and ballroom.

I always wanted to be a movie star. I worked in a movie theater when I was sixteen years old. I used it as an actor’s studio, studying every aspect of the craft. I acted in local workshops and have done a few movies and documentaries. I was a choirboy and lead singer in New York City rock bands, Time Bomb and Skintight NYC. Next to performing I have a passion for recording. Nothing could compare to Electric Ladyland Studio on 8th Street in NYC with Eddie Kramer on the board. I toured the USA, first class all the way, as back-up singer and dancer, appeared on Midnight Special on TV and was in Andy Warhol’s Interview Magazine. I have kept a journal since my teens. My early poetic endeavors developed into affluent songwriting skills. My early journalistic tendencies have procured my position as a book writer. My first book is a musical screenplay entitled Hollywood Revival, which seems to have taken eons to complete. Although it has been no simple task, it is written entirely in verse, inspired by John Milton, Paradise Lost, of the 16th century. Hollywood Revival consists of twelve original musical numbers inspired by Hollywood directors Florenz Ziegfeld and Busby Berkeley. It can be found on Amazon, Barnes and Noble and other sites, but I am an unknown ... still buried alive.

Go West - The Rock and Roll Memoir (1967 - 1970) is my second book. It’s just about to crack the surface. My third book is impatiently lurking inside of me, but first I’m waiting for Go West to take off. There is also a fourth book that is strongly taking form on the back burners in my mind. I treasure this beautiful experience called life. What a trip!

Some of you might find this interesting. I have a purple suede and leather fringed jacket that belongs to Jimi Hendrix. There are only a handful of people still living who know it was his. The relic is from a by-gone era. The constant question “How did you get your hands on this beautiful jacket that belonged to Jimi Hendrix?” lends itself to a string of very exciting tales taken from my journals as a New York teenager who runs away to be a hippy/flower child in Hollywood, California, in the psychedelic, golden days of rock and roll.

As soon as I got to Hollywood I was immediately cast in a movie called “Psych Out” starring a very young Jack Nicholson. As a vagabond I made my home in a cave on what turned out to be Houdini’s dilapidated estate. Little did I know, Frank Zappa resided in the huge log cabin right across Laurel Canyon Boulevard, until one morning I was befriended by Miss Lucy Offerall (the original GTO), Bernardo Saldana and Carlos Lozano. These beautiful gypsy freaks took me in and we became a fixture in the Hollywood Hills of Laurel Canyon.

In Rolling Stone Magazine we were referred to as “The Immediate Family” which consisted of Frank, Gail and Moon Unit Zappa, the GTO’s (Girls Together Outrageously) ... including Miss Lucy, Miss Sparkie, Miss Mercy, Miss Pamela, Miss Christine, Miss Sandra and Miss Cynderella ... and the BTO’s (Big Time Operators) ... including Bernardo, Carlos and myself. There were significant others. Some came and went. Mr. Z produced a Bizarre record with the GTO’s featuring the likes of pop stars such as Jeff Beck and Rod Stewart. Whereas the BTO’s were more of a fictitious commodity never amounting to anything musically but status-wise we were the original Hollywood glamour boys wearing sequins and make-up. Mick Jagger got inspired. He brought our look back to London. He was considerably chummy with the beautiful girls in the GTO’s. steelnotesmagazine.com | June 2014 52 | Steel Notes Magazine

I then later became a Whisky a go go dancer (a member of a contracted select group of kids that danced on the Whisky dance floor during a period when it had lost it’s permit due to selling alcohol to a minor). This of course led to non-stop partying in the Whisky dressing rooms upstairs and in the homes of some of the world’s biggest rock personalities and stars - Phil Spector, the Rolling Stones, Led Zepplin etc.

My Hollywood high-profile lifestyle brought many more opportunities. I was approached by the concert promoter to dance forty feet above an endless crowd at the Newport Pop Festival at Devonshire Downs. It was completely unbelievable to find myself backstage with Janis Joplin. Actually, the mind boggling mob of spaced-out, super-loaded hippies that sprawled out into the horizon before me, along with the roster of super stars, for this three day outdoor rock concert, appeared as though the entire rock population showed up that weekend.

My gorgeous redheaded cousin, Marquise, soon followed me from New York City, where she worked as a disc jockey at Ungano’s uptown Manhattan. She sent ahead a bundle of cash for me to get a house. I found a place on Franklin and La Brea, in the heart of

We were in the midddle of living La Vida Loca (Rock and Roll style) in Hollywood, California, USA, late in September 1970, when Devon Wilson showed up at our house. She was Jimi Hendrix’s girlfriend. She stayed a few days and gave the Marquis de la Lillibridge this jacket in return. It belongs to Jimi. The story is very colorful and entertaining, evidently. The characters and events are factual, as they have all been derived from my own personal journal.

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Hollywood. She brought Scottie Niles with her, who later joined The Knack and found great success with “My Sharona”.

One night Mercy came to our door with a shopping bag filled with her belongings.

She gave us some sob story and asked if she could spend the night. Marquise said it was alright. Well, we let her in and she stayed and stayed and stayed. Jimi’s girlfriend, Devon Wilson (she was the inspiration and subject of Jimi’s mega hits “Foxy Lady” and “Dolly Dagger”) came to our Hollywood house. Keith Richard’s had given Devon my phone number because that was the number Mercy gave out as hers. Marquise and I had gone to work at Thee Club and when we came home we had Devon and Eric Burdon’s lovely ex-wife, Angela, as house guests.

Devon had every kind of drug imaginable in her suitcase.

Mercy helped herself to Devon’s drug stash and disappeared into the bathroom, immediately putting herself completely out of commission. Meanwhile the distraught Devon told Marquise and I that she was at a party in London the night before and that she had put a dose of drugs in Jimi’s coffee. She said, “The only time he was lovey dovey was when we were on the drug.”

She was dismayed when he suddenly left the party, so she went home alone. It is also very sad that he had already spent the day drinking wine and getting stoned. When he drank down the coffee, he was more than likely thinking it would wake him up.

When Devon got the phone call from Eric Burdon that Jimi had OD’d she immediately fled from London with Angela. Devon feared she would be implicated in Jimi’s death and ended up all the way on the other side of the world in our house.

Devon never slept. Marquise and I were with her when the first mention of Jimi’s death came over the radio. They took forever trying to determine the cause of death before they released the news. “He apparently drowned on his own vomit!” That was what they said. The inside story was somewhat more romantic in a crazy rock and roll kind of way.

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Two days later, Devon Wilson gave Marquise Jimi’s jacket as “Thanx!” when she left with Arthur Lee of Love.

Three months after that Devon fell to her own death from a window at the Chelsea Hotel in New York City. Foul play was suspected. “C’mon Devon ...

Gimme a little piece of that Heaven.” Prophetic lyrics in Dolly Dagger.

Jimi Hendrix died much too young on September 18th, 1970. On October 10.

2012 I finally received confirmation of his jacket’s authenticity in the form of this letter from Bill Morgan, owner of North Beach Leather: HI MARLOWE--GREAT STORY-WE MADE JIMI SEVERAL PIECES--IT WAS IN OUR

HOLLYWOOD STORE ON SUNSET BLVD. AT A TIME WHEN WE WERE REALLY COOKING-MAKING STAGE PIECES FOR THE LA SOUND GROUPS-BYRDS, BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD, IRON BUTTERFLY, JOHNNY RIVERS, SONNY AND CHER, RICKY NELSON, ET AL--I FORGET THE DETAILS OF THE PURPLE OUTFIT E/C THE COLOR AND SEEING IT WAS OUTRAGEOUS--I BELIEVE IT WAS MADE IN SF WORKSHOP BECAUSE THAT WAS BEFORE WE ESTABLISHED OUR

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SONORA MEXICO FACTORY I REMEMBER THE AFTERNOON JIMI AND HIS BEST BUDDY--FRANKY FROM HEAD EAST (COOL BOUTIQUE ACROSS FROM US ON SUNSET)---- CAME IN TO PICK IT UP--HE PUT IT ON AND WE ALL SMOKE A JOINT OF PANAMA RED AND THEN JIMI STARTED STRUMMING A GUITAR--AND WE ALL KIND OF JOINED IN--HE DIED NOT TOO LONG AFTER THIS --PROBABLY WHY NO PHOTOS OF HIM WEARING IT--WHAT HAPPEN TO THE JACKET AND PANTS AFTER HIS DEATH I DON’T HAVE A CLUE I WOULD LOVE TO GET SOME PHOTOS OF JACKET--INCLUDING LABEL--IF POSSIBLE--OR AT LEAST A COMPREHENSIVE DESCRIBTION OF IT--IT IS A CLASSIC ♫

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Lisa Koza Productions

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CD Review

by DarkOneBzR

NEW RELEASE REVIEW SALIVA - RISE UP This Hard Rock/ Metal band formed in Memphis, Tennessee in September1996.

They released their debut album in 1997 with their follow up album, “Every six seconds” coming next. “Saliva”, just dropped their ninth studio release, second installment under Rum Bum Records. Some of the hits they have had over the years are: “Click Click Boom”, “Your Disease”, “Always”, “Rest in Pieces”, “Raise Up”, “Survival of the Sickest”, “In It to Win It”, “1000 Eyes”, just to name a few . “RISE - UP” and “SHE CAN SURE HIDE CRAZY” Kick off the new release by SALIVA. Again the hooks are spot on and Bobby Amaru on Vocals again shows us all that they still have what it takes. Bobby offering up some great lyrics and vocals.

Very reminiscent to most of the SALIVA we all loved but a twist like the last release, “In It To Win It” (released 9/13/2013) was a chart-topping success. Giving you the feel of that with another techno vibe ,that can be refreshing at times. I feel the have grown with both of these new releases. “Choke” is a bit different offering again a heavy twist that shows they are still far from a one trick pony . All in all the 12 tracks were impressive, and this manic gives the new release 4 out of 5 stars. Definitely a great new fresh release. These changes in the direction of more great stuff from the band. Look for the new video out now for title track “RISE UP” sure to get your attention . “CHOKE “ RISE UP” “REDNECK FREAKSHOW” Sure to be just three hits and crowd pleasers in the future from “RISE UP” on sale now . ♫

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In The Spotlight Jenniferx

by Alexxis Steele

There is more than meets the eye with this very talented artist, and makeup artist! It only takes one simple idea to turn your dream into a reality, and that is what Jennifer has done with her creations- “Dead Buddies”

In Jennifer’s own words, this is how she describes what she does: Some people like fine art....

I like FUN ART !!!

I am ALWAYS making things... so... one day I found an old tennis ball, and I decided to give it a new life....

By making it into a zombie !!!

WEIRD, I know ... because I don’t even play tennis !

Anyway, I started to paint a tennis ball. i added eyes... some teeth, and then hair... and BOOM ! i fell in love with my little creation.

So...

I decided to make some phone calls, looking for more tennis balls, and I ended up talking to a few tennis players.

That’s when I discovered, that most tennis balls are disposed of, Steel Notes Magazine | 61

or thrown away after one use!

That’s right... just ONE use !!!

I was a bit shocked.

See... from what i heard, tennis players call them “dead balls”, they lose their bounce. okay.

So I did some more research, and also found out each year, approximately, 300 MILLION balls are produced.

Which roughly contributes 20,000 metric TONS of WASTE in the form of rubber.

Rubber that is not easily biodegradeable.

I was really shocked.

So i came up with my designs, dead buddies were born... and here we are !!!!

I personally design, cut, drill, prime, and then paint the tennis ball inside and out.

Plus add all the details, such as, hair, horns, or wings.. whatever i need for the personality i want to create.

I use felt, feathers, or paper mache’ mostly.

I then clear coat each one.

Add a little hanger and voila !!!

ALL BY HAND !!!!!!

Each one is original.

No two are ever exactly alike! ***PLEASE NOTE*** All dead buddies are handmade items, and some might come with small pieces attached that are not meant for very small children or pets.

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There’s a lot of things a dead buddie can do !!!!

All YOU have to do is squeeze the sides of his mouth... and he can... hold a pen or your keys, while hanging in your office... or hold a letter or a ticket if he’s hanging in your car... you can hang them up on the holiday tree... or feed him some cash, maybe a gift card and give him to a friend... need a unique prize for a contest or a gift basket... christmas stocking stuffer ??? you can get one for yourself... to sing along with you to the radio... or hide that last piece of chocolate you’re saving... !!!! birthdays, holidays, special events... dead buddies go year round for any occasion !!!

You can “LIKE” us on our Facebook Page... where we have give aways and contests... or just come along for the ride.

Go ahead...click it !!! https://www.facebook.com/deadbuddies If you need a face painter for a special event, a birthday party, or a makeup artist for a zombie walk...

I can to do both !!!

(I do makeup for a local haunted attraction ... but i can do fun and pretty too, so don’t be scared !!! :) Just send a message by using our contact button above.... prices are more reasonable than you might think...!!!! *** please note some images contain fake blood !!!

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A Little Q & A with Jennifer: Q: HOW OLD WERE YOU WHEN YOU GOT INTERESTED IN ART? I have been doing art stuff since I was a kid...

Not sure of my age at the time...

I do remember holding art classes for the neighborhood kids on the back porch in the summer though...

Like making pet rocks and things Q: WHO WERE YOUR ARTISTIC INFLUENCES? I would say my first art teacher Mrs. Defray.

Q: WHAT INSPIRES YOU? I’m not sure..

I like horror, and I like cute fun stuff..... I tend to mix the two together for the dead buddies Q: HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN DOING MAKEUP ARTISTRY? I’ve been dabbling in makeup for the last 5 years...

Just starting seriously face painting a few months ago.

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Q: WHERE HAVE YOU WORKED AS A MAKEUP ARTIST? I have and I still am working for Dorney Park, doing makeup and scene work for the Halloween attractions there.

Q:TELL ME ABOUT YOUR LOVE OF ZOMBIES AND YOUR ZOMBIE BOOTH Honestly.. I’m not a hardcore zombie lover...

I’m more into skeletons and corpses... cemetery scenes... lol I have gone to many events dressed like a zombie...

I think it was the blue colored contacts that made my zombie looks a success...

I occasionally do run a vendor booth to do makeup...But I can do anything from animals to zombies...And a lot in between... Kids or adults.

Q: DO YOU ALSO PERFORM? No...I do not perform...

I have on occasion...

Just not my thing.

Q: WHAT DO YOU ENJOY MORE, CREATING ART OR BEING A MAKEUP ARTIST? What I enjoy the most is having the freedom to create what I want...

Whether it be makeup, art, or the buddies...

Q: IS THERE SOMETHING YOU WOULD LIKE TO DO THAT YOU HAVE NOT DONE YET? There are a lot of things I would like to do...

Nothing other than going to the beach comes to mind...

Opportunity always knocks and I always answer yes...

I go where it takes me...

Q: WHERE WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE YOURSELF IN THE NEXT 5 YEARS, AND WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR THE FUTURE Hopefully painting...

Faces or walls or whatever...

As long as I can do that...

Life will be good. ♫ Steel Notes Magazine | 65

Roman’s Rant

“

The Dichotomy Of My Life

Dichotomy [dahy-kot-uh-mee] The division or contrast between two things that are or are represented as being opposed or entirely different.

I’m still making what I did 30 years ago so I’m broke. Plus I’m relatively older now. I’ve got medical conditions. I’m in debt with a bleak future and have no kind of financial security. My hair’s getting gray. Waaa. Bad!!

I play and teach guitar for a living. Plus, I just grabbed an easy part-time job. I’m mature, experienced, and therefore wiser. And I’m at the beach celebrating my wedding anniversary with my wonderful wife. And I still have my hair. Ha! Good!

Two frames of mind. The bottles is half full or half empty. The game of life for me now is which of these worlds can I keep my head in the longest. I think what makes the decision easier for me is remembering some of the hardest times of my life. I’ve seen jail, institutions, and death. But that’s not the issue...everyone has a tale of hardship.

And no matter what it is, it’s probably what’s most responsible for shaping the life you have now. What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger. Look at the hard times in your life, and the times that you learned the most, and you’ll often find they are the same times.

So I’m trying to give you a positive spin here, because it’s easy to feel defeated and want to give up. Some personal examples for me were, of course, prison, where I saw people try to give up by trying to commit suicide (not very easy in the joint, but where there’s a will there’s a way) and of course the music industry, which is as frustrating as anything else.

But if you don’t have the will to be strong, fight, hang in there, you’re gonna drown. Sink, not swim. It’s our nature to fight to survive.

I’ve had some bad people experiences in NYC, with some real? rough trade as they politely describe pathetic, criminal scum, but when the Twin Towers went down you saw the strength of everyone helping each other to cope with disaster.

We’ve all seen the bad, overzealous individual in the work place ready to do anything to get ahead of the next guy. We all know someone from work that Oh My God They Suck because they will hurt you to high heaven, physically or emotionally, to get to that next step ahead of you.

Even as far back as school I learned of people like that, the bully who will hurt you to take what he wants, the back stabbers whole will steal, lie, or do whatever it takes to get ahead. And then there’s just the plain ol’ selfish ass**** who just can’t help being an irritation.

I think that was me. I’m just irritating. A plain ol’ selfish ass****. Can’t help it. I was always hurting people’s feelings. Why? Am I born that way? I don’t know. I didn’t choose it. Hey, I’m going for being a selfish ass?****. Yeah, that’s the lifestyle for me. Well, look at the people all around me that I just described. It rubs off on you. When I’m surrounded by people clawing their way to the top it’s hard to not turn into one of them.

”

And the music, entertainment, fashion world is full of all these people. It’s a cut-throat business. Hell, EVERY business or industry is like that. Get out of the way or get stomped. You’re part of the problem, not the solution. Move it buddy, I got kids to feed. There’s payments to be made.

Some people say just smile. Others say fake it until you make it. I’ve always been partial to an old friend’s philosophy of play their game and beat them at it. But sometimes I’m just tired of the rat race, of the competition, of trying so damn hard to stay afloat. And being criticized and damned if I don’t. So to the point: how is this glass half full, and not half empty. Allow me to continue...

In the midst of all the confusion something unexpectedly turned me around. Struggling with finances I looked for a part time job. I got one driving a cab. Crap, a regular job! But that’s cool, I was able to find something to fill in my weeknights or weekends when I had no gig.

Like any job in the blue collar work force, it’s tough. I get paid by commission and tips only, so man, you hustle to get that next fare. steelnotesmagazine.com | June 2014 66 | Steel Notes Magazine

You compete against your fellow hacks , the very people you want to be friends with, or who taught you the tricks of the trade to help you get started. I try hard to not be an ass****.

So there I am, driving through town in the dead of night. Picking up people from all walks of life. One guy is an author, with titles on Kindle. A woman is juggling all these kids and groceries on her small budget. This one is running from an abusive mate. These guys are using the company credit card for a night out. A bunch of guys are totally tuned and have the foresight to pool their money for a cab home. A gaggle of giggling girls jump in totally lit and thank me over and over for getting them home. This guy has a story to tell me. That guy just won’t stop talking. This girl is crying and sad. That girl is detailing her wedding plans. Another one is mentally challenged and can’t drive. It’s all a slice of life, good and bad, and I am an innocent bystander.

Then it occurs to me that I’m not thinking about myself and my problems anymore. Seeing other people with bigger ones easily helps, but seeing other people really happy helps a lot too.

I drop each of them off and move to the next fare, and the next story. I’m not thinking about my finances, health, or where the next gig is coming from. The job I was regretting having to take is turning into a therapy session for me. The glass is becoming half full.

What the hell am I talking about! I guess I’m trying to give you an optimistic angle on your situation if you’re down. Anyone can feel good when things are good, the real test is when things are bad. When things seem hopeless. You must have endurance.

Extraordinary passion, patience, and self-discipline. When things get tough, the tough get going. C’mon, you must know how to roll with the punches by now! So GET GOING! My bills didn’t go away (or really even decrease) because I’m driving a cab. My health certainly won’t get better sitting on my ass, literally, for hours on end. I just feel a little better about it all. I feel positive. Not always, but more often than not.

To top it all off, my wife (thank God for that positive person) snagged a discount on a couple nights at a beachfront room at the humble NJ shore. No Bermuda, or Key West. No Aruba for us. No one-week paid vacation in this line of work. But OMG do I appreciate it. Just a couple of days to look out the window, walking on a beach. Hearing the surf, not a command. The weather turned beautiful. I sat on the beach and watched the waves come in and let life go by. The glass was half full again, and getting fuller! Now I’m like, cool, what can be better than playing guitar and driving a cable (well, that guy out on the beach getting paid to drive a beach-comber as the sun comes up all of a sudden looks appealing...)

It will be over soon, and the glass will start seeming half full... emptier, not fuller! But that’s life. Hell, I’m learning a good lesson sitting here on the beach. Hey, all lessons don’t have to be BAD experiences. This lesson is the result of gratitude.

Being grateful is appreciating the small things in life. Things you struggle for. Things that made you really try, and work hard, to stay afloat.

Alas, as you’re reading this I’m probably stressing over my next gig, my next paycheck, or getting to that cab stand on time. My glass is half empty again.

But it will fill up again, I just don’t know when. I like to think I brought you some hope today. It worked for me, and maybe you can tell me all about it next time you see me. That would be at a gig, or in my cab... maybe even on a beach!

Dichotomously yours, Roman. ♫ Steel Notes Magazine | 67

It’s Now, It’s WOW!

by Amanda Kasinecz

Nautical Seaside Style Essentials Time to ditch those spring cardigans and dive into summer with the seaside-chic look! With a collection of cool blues and refreshing turquoise colors, what’s not to love about these oh-so-nautical looks? I’ve compiled a list of my must have style essentials to take on the sun and sea this summer. Will your coastal style be up to par?

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1. Blue Hues Just like the sea, a palette of blues, blending hues like crisp cobalts to mint greens, is iconic for achieving a seaside-chic look. Pair an eye-catching top with white shorts to make a true statement.

2. Beach-like Baubles Starfish, anchors, octopus and more! There’s no secret that these items are a hot commodity for making a style statement this summer. Boutiques and large retail chains are packed to the walls with beach and nautical themed jewelry like these. My favorites, Bee Stung Anchor Pendant Necklace $12, Charming Charlie Necklace $13 3. Classic Stripes Be brave and explore the adventurous side of color blocking this season. Stripes are a classic way to achieve a sophisticated and polished seaside look. Look for patterns that combine classic colors like navy and white with a pop of brightness like this ensemble. Top, Charming Charlie $25

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4. Trendy Manicured Tips Tap into your NAUTical side with these graphic Jamberry Nail wraps, perfect for any seaside bash. The striking patterns and prints are high salon quality that won’t chip or fade and lasts up to 2 weeks on fingers and 4 weeks on toes.

JamberryNails.net $15 5. Shimmering Sea-like Tote Sunscreen, lip balm, and moisturizer...you’ll need a place to store them as you head out into the sun. No bag is more of a quintessential summer staple than the trendy, oversized straw tote. This classic carryall is my favorite seaside musthave! The neutral brown paired with a shimmering, gold, graphic swirl pattern is sure to turn heads. Charming Charlie $35 ♫

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Come Along for “THE RIDE”

by Waylon Bacon

“A

s of this month, I am working on a new film project. It’s called ‘The Ride’, and is my first original work since ‘Help Wanted’ back in 2010. It will be a short, and features the usual mix of horror, comedy, and social satire, but also takes many steps forward in terms of plot and characterization.

But the big thing that distinguishes this project from my previous films will be Indiegogo. I’ll be launching a crowd sourcing campaign sometime over the next two months. The funds raised will go a long way towards helping me work with better equipment and make a more polished and fleshed out film. As well, and most importantly, I think it’s time my cast and crew get paid. Most of my films have been made with the same group of people continuing to lend their support for nothing more than pizza, beer, and the chance to watch me pull out my hair for twelve hours a day, and I owe it to them for their effort, love, and support!

I’ll be updating frequently over the next few months with production art, storyboard samples, and of course, the first campaign video, which I’m currently in the throes of shooting.

There is a finished temp poster for the film, colors and all. Prints of this will be one of the perks offered when the campaign goes live, although there are many, many more! Stay tuned!

Readers can check back in to see more of what Waylon has been up to at: www.waylonbacon.com for more info, or request Waylon as a friend on Facebook, he will totally accept! ♫

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International Beauty Show A Pictorial by Gary Pries

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NatashaNYC.com Summer Swimwear is here!

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Positively Energized…with Bobby Vinton

By Scott Brandon

Music legend Bobby Vinton will be gracing the stage at the Sands Event Center on June 15, 2014.

Bobby has been called “the most successful love singer of the Rock-Era” by Billboard Magazine. Starting with his first hit release, Roses Are Red in 1962, through 1972 (10 years), he had more #1 records than any other solo male artist, according to Billboard. Today, Bobby is one of the few stars who is capable of headlining in Atlantic City and Las Vegas, in addition to playing dates around the world.

A multi-talented musician, Bobby was born in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania (a suburb of Pittsburgh), the son of a locally popular band leader, Stan Vinton. When he was a young boy, his parents encouraged him to study music, and at the age of sixteen, Bobby formed his first band. The band played clubs around the Pittsburgh area and with the money he earned, Bobby helped finance his college education at Duquesne University. There he studied music and graduated with a degree in Musical Composition. While at Duquesne, he became proficient on all of the instruments in the band (piano, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, drums and the oboe) -- a talent which he displays in his shows today. He recently received an honorary doctoral degree in music from his alma mater. Bobby has been called “the most successful love In a recent phone interview, Bobby explained to me how he started his musical career as a band leader and arranger back in the late 1950s and early 60s. “Back in those days”, singer of the Rock-Era” Bobby describes, “most acts were solo singers who needed a band to back them up and by Billboard Magazine. play their music at each performance.”

Starting with his first hit When artists like Fabian, Frankie Avalon, Bobby Rydell, and Connie Francis would come release, Roses Are Red to the Pittsburg, Pa area, Bobby had a band that would back up those stars. Being an in 1962, through 1972 (10 arranger, he could modify their music to fit his band for the day. years), he had more #1 One day, Dick Clark heard about Bobby, and picked him up as the band leader, touring records than any other with Dick Clark’s Cavalcade of Stars. This afforded Bobby the experience to see firstsolo male artist, accordhand what the public liked in their music. So, when he got the chance to record, he was ing to Billboard. really in tune to number one records. Although Bobby was kind of a jazz musician, he never frowned on the early rock and roll, like a lot of the good musicians would back then.

When Epic records heard about Bobby and his teenage jazz band, they wanted to make him “the teenaged Glenn Miller.” Bobby recorded two big band albums for Epic, before they were ready to drop him in favor of rock and roll artists, to move with the changing times. Bobby’s contract stated Epic still owed him two recorded sides, so they agreed to let him record Mr. Lonely and Roses Are Red, as a solo singer. Bobby reflects, “My hope was that those two sides would make us enough money to allow me to record more band albums. I never expected them to become number one records. I have been very blessed, and am still trying to figure out how all of this world-wide success ever happened.”

Bobby still writes and arranges music. He informed me that just before our phone call, he was working on some new arrangements of his classic hits. He says, “I’m changing them around because as I rewrite the background of a song, I stimulate myself that it’s something new, different, and exciting. Once I am convinced the music is new and exciting, the audience picks up on that and feels the same way. At least I hope they do.” Bobby also added that new newer arrangements broaden his appeal to younger audiences.

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Bobby’s upcoming Sands performance will include much more than singing. He will also demonstrate his many talents playing various musical instruments. “It’s really a variety show, which can be hard to describe because people aren’t doing them anymore.”

Bobby continued by saying that the day after the 2014 Grammy Awards were televised, he was interviewed and asked, “What can we expect to see at your show?” Bobby replied, “Everything opposite of what you see on the Grammy Awards.” Bobby’s daughter will also appear on the Sands stage with a talent that I will let you just wait and experience for yourself, and his son will also be singing with him, adding a contemporary element to one of Bobby’s most beloved songs. Bobby adds, “I never really relied on old hit records to carry me through all these years. It’s the old records, combined with real entertainment value.”

When I asked Bobby why his 1992 album Timeless, which includes one of my favorite Bobby Vinton songs, What Did You Do with Your Old 45s, is not listed in the discography on www.BobbyVinton.com, he said, “That was a great song that was kind of lost.”

He further reminisced how Curb Records (who released Timeless) wanted him to go Country, but Country audiences rarely accept Bobby’s music. Conversely, the Timeless album was, according to Bobby, apparently too Country to appeal to his regular Pop fans. On a personal note, I highly recommend you audition both the above-mentioned album and single. ♫

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DeeDee Ramone and Connie Gripp

Jobraith, Connie, Maarlowe B. West - 1969

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Will the Real Connie Gripp Please Stand Up Written by: Guido Colacci

Before I begin this I would like to thank the following people for their contribution and without whose input, this column would not have been possible. Thank you S Debra Evans, Howie Pyro, Miss Mercy GTO, Marlowe B. West and of course Legs McNeil and his masterpiece of punk book, Please Kill Me. Also I have quoted Sherill Tippins and her book, Inside The Dream Factory, and Eileen Polk. This is a project I have wanted to do for years… Connie Gripp…

It has been a strange fascination that I needed to satisfy. I couldn’t tell you why exactly, except that at one point I became obsessed with her story and her life. Could it be that despite everything I read or heard, I still romanticized about her life? That I have a soft spot for broken and tragic people? That no one could be that bad or crazy and still be that integral a part of the music scene and so unforgettable as to fire up people’s imagination and emotions so much and still be remembered to this day?… I of course learned about her at first through Legs’ book, Please Kill Me. I had heard about her in tiny tidbits of remembrances made hazy by the years passing and the use drugs and saw one or two photos of her that left an indelible image. The stories always centered around what a crazy, violent junkie, groupie and hooker she was. I learned about her from various second and third hand stories, that she was a member of the GTO’s which turned out to be false, that she tried to cut off Arthur Kane’s thumb, which is inaccurate, that she stabbed Dee Dee Ramone in the ass, which I could never verify as true or false, except it is said by Dee Dee himself to have occurred when Connie caught him in bed with Nancy Spungen in 1975. “Connie was very naughty, she had a thing about knives and broken bottles and she’d just go at anyone if she was in the wrong mood, and one night she went after me. Nancy Spungen used to live on Twenty-third street. I was with her one night, and Connie came there and found me in bed with Nancy.

So Connie stabbed me because I was fucking Nancy.” The story that Connie Gripp - 1969 - 1970 she died of an overdose as a Jane Doe unclaimed which is not true, Steel Notes Magazine | 87

that she died in one of the years 1988, 89, or 1990 which is also not true, that she was dumb, which is completely not true, and that she was a sad miserable person which is an outright lie.

Connie came from Texas. Not much is known about this period of her life, I don’t know if this is where she always lived, but I’ve been told that she was born in Iowa. I do know she had a child born in 1965, in Texas. I believe it was a daughter from a post made by someone claiming to be her daughter and was looking for any information regarding her mother. This appeared in a forum Richard Hell had at one time; “Posted by: Missy (‘debbie.medoza@sbcglobal. net’) Posted on: 1 Jan 2006 Message: Connie is my birth mother and I am trying to find out more information myself. I was born in 1965 in Fort Worth, TX. I have been in contact with Leggs McNeill.

He didn’t know Connie personally, so I am looking for people that did. If anyone out there knew my mother and would like to share their experiences with me (good or bad) please get in touch with me. I myself have some personal information about my mother that some might be interested in. Thanks. Missy” Miss Mercy GTO verified that Connie indeed had a child whom she left in Texas when she came to the West Coast to live with Frank Zappa and The GTOs. From other unverified sources, I learned that Connie left Texas at age 19 and left the daughter in care the biological father.

Miss Mercy went on to tell me “while in California, although never a real GTO, she did spend a lot of time with them and in the Zappa household.” She appears in the Documentary film “A Day In The Life of Frank Zappa (1971). She is shown with Miss Lucy who is babysitting Dweezil and Moon Unit. In her scenes in the film she is referred to as “Chi Chi”. Miss Mercy continued, we were in LA and New York together. We had a one night affair, we both had Jobriath for a boyfriend. She went out with the great Bobby Womack and also dated Bobby Beausoleil, a member of the Manson Family. She recounted a story of how one night they were hitch hiking on Sunset and a Van passed them, it was Michael Jackson and he yelled out the window “Hey come with us.” So we went to the recording studio with Michael Jackson and were there for a while before Michael’s father realized it and then promptly had us escorted out Miss Mercy GTO verified that Connie indeed had a child whom she left in Texas when she came to the West Coast to live with Frank Zappa and The GTOs. From other unverified sources, I learned that Connie left Texas at age 19 and left the daughter in care the biological father.

Miss Mercy went on to tell me “while in California, although never a real GTO, she did spend a lot of time with them and in the Zappa household.” She appears in the Documentary film “A Day In The Life of Frank Zappa” (1971). She is shown with Miss Lucy who is babysitting Dweezil and Moon Unit. In her scenes in the film she is referred to as “Chi Chi”. Miss Mercy continued, we were in LA and New York together. We had a one night affair, we both had Jobriath for a boyfriend. She went out with the great Bobby Womack and also dated Bobby Beausoleil, a member of the Manson Family. She recounted a story of how one night they were hitch hiking on Sunset and a Van passed them, it was Michael Jackson and he yelled out the window “Hey come with us.” So we went to the recording studio with Michael Jackson and were there for a while before Michael’s father realized it and then promptly had us escorted out or rather kicked out.” She finished by telling me that “it was “said” she OD’d”, but we will never know the real story. She has her doubts that it was an accidental overdose. Either it was done to her or she deliberately did it to herself. I have to agree with her on this, I too have my doubts about the how part…

Also while in California she was a very good friend of Marlowe B. West who is named as a muse of Jobriath’s. In fact there is a photo from 1969 of Connie, Marlowe and Jobriath. ! So this moves us now to when Connie came to New York which would have been 1972 at the latest. At the time, according to Howie Pyro, the NY Dolls rehearsed in a basement owned

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by a guy named Champ, which was right near the clothing store Revenge, where Debra Evans and Eileen Polk worked, later to be joined by the great designer Natasha Adonzio. Connie would hang out at the store and and see Arthur, and flirt continuously. Connie was not the type of girl to take “no” for an answer and could go from sweet to vicious in the bat of an eye. Finally Connie and Arthur starting dating . It was during this time that the Dolls were hitting it big. The Dolls were going to California and Arthur and Connie got into it because Arthur told her that Connie, Arturo Vega, Dee Dee none of the guys were taking their girlfriends because there wasn’t enough money. So in the middle of the night - Connie got a knife and stood over Arthur and sat on him. It is told she almost cut his thumb off which is untrue, she actually sliced it down the middle and started carving it out, before Arthur grabbed the knife. Of course Arthur couldn’t play on the California tour, and a roadie and good friend Peter Jordan replaced him. They always talk about Connie’s violence and addiction without mentioning that Arthur was no saint. He was an alcoholic and could be very violent at times himself, not to mention the jealousies and competition for Arthur’s affections from other groupies, many of which were fights with Eileen Polk, a punk photographer, who was interested in Arthur also. The bottom line is Connie and Arthur got together and enjoyed a violent, passionate, drug and alcohol fueled lust affair.

By 1974 Arthur had moved on to be with his future wife Barbara Kane and Connie moved on to Dee Dee Ramone. The Ramones were starting to become a “BIG” thing and somehow Connie instinctually attached herself to Dee Dee… Sherill Tippins in her book, Inside The Dream Factory, describes the meeting between Dee Dee and Connie…Dee Dee stumbled out of CBGB’s drunk at four in the morning to find “this babe” in a black evening dress and spiked high-heeled shoes sitting on the hood of an old car on the Bowery, filing her nails like “an ancient vampire countess. Connie Gripp, former girlfriend of the NY Dolls’ Arthur Kane, was nearly a decade older than Dee Dee and made her living as a go-go dancer at the Metropole on Forty-Eighth Street, turning the occasional trick to earn money for heroin. Dee Dee fell for her instantly and soon moved into her apartment on Sixteenth Street, but their drug and alcohol abuse and constant screaming fights got them kicked out of first one flat, then another. which included Arturo Vega’s loft where they lived briefly.Finally they washed up at the Chelsea.” I have never heard this story other than in this book.

Again, let’s not paint Dee Dee as this innocent wide eyed kid who just got off the bus in New York City and ran into big bad crazy Connie who corrupted him. Dee Dee, before he was doing music was turning tricks himself to support his heroin habit. Connie just made things easier for him, yes she enabled him in many ways, one of which was to enable him to learn how to play the bass well enough to make the Ramones. Yes they fought constantly and loudly and at times violently. Like the fights with Arthur, Dee Dee gave much worse than he got.

Both he and Arthur were very violent with Connie, except Connie never backed down…

Let’s not forget a recurring thorn in Connie’s side returned. Eileen Polk, the same woman who interfered in Connie’s relationship with Arthur Kane returned to haunt Connie when she was dating Dee Dee, at that point they (Connie and Eileen) really had a lot of fights and the fights started to be even worse between them, compared to when Connie was with Arthur.

By her own admission and I quote “I was really attracted to Dee Dee Ramone because he was in a band, and I liked going out with guys in bands. I mean, he was really cute. He was adorable, but I’m sure there was a part of me that just wanted to create chaos - to steal Dee Dee away from Connie.” - Eileen Polk. The relationship between Connie and Dee Connie. Miss Lucy - 1971

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Dee was over in 1976 when Eileen finally “stole and saved” Dee Dee from Connie.

In the summer of 1977, Connie made a trip down to Miami Florida and stayed with her friend from New York, S Debra Evans. It was during this time that The Dead Boys were in Florida also recording what would be their second and final studio album produced by the late Felix Pappalardi. I hope the irony of this doesn’t escape anyone. Felix’s wife Gail Collins, even though they had an “open marriage” by all accounts, jealous of one particular mistress reportedly led to the argument that ended in Felix’s death, although Collins maintained that she’d shot Pappalardi accidentally while taking a firearms training session. Further,the fighting and tension between Felix and the Dead Boys was what led to the premature breakup of the band. They didn’t believe Felix had any idea what their music should sound like and represent.

So in my interview with S Debra, she revealed to me that while in Miami, Connie had reconstructive surgery to repair her breasts from the damage and violence inflicted on her by both Arthur and Dee Dee during their many knock down, drag out fights…

For the first time in many years Connie found herself without a rock star boyfriend. After Dee Dee, Connie started prostituting and turning tricks on a regular basis to support her growing heroin habit. She would rarely let anyone see her this way. There are stories of people she knew well seeing her and turning away so she wouldn’t see them and vice versa.

I will quote Howie Pyro verbatim “first and foremost Connie was a groupie and a junkie” … he went on to say “ that he liked her, she was always laughing, could be very witty and had a great sense of humor, which spoke to her intelligence. She was proud of her reputation of being very bad .” He went on “that although she was older than most of the other groupies, and didn’t have the name recognition like a Sable Starr or BeBe Buell or Miss Pamela, she achieved much more than most. She was one of a handful of VERY few groupies who transitioned from the 1960’s into the 1970’s and still was a star in her own right, to an iconic level, and not just a footnote to a music scene.

She was famous before she was good at it, and was always where she was supposed to be at the right time.” …

Miss Mercy GTO told me very directly “that although Connie was a hooker and using heroin even back in California, she had a heart of gold and was a great friend. She had an instinct for finding the right people at the right time, something like an X factor or “IT” factor…”

I quote Marlowe B. West verbatim… “Connie was one of my most favorite friends ... The times we shared were always the most fun & memorable ... A truly unique and most original character ... wilder than they usually come ... she was mischief ... cunning & hilarious …but she wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer and sometimes she really crossed the line… She lived with me a few times in Hollywood…Just thinking of her being resurrected like this by you makes my heart and soul soar to the zenith ... I LOVE her eternally”…

S Debra Evans said “ she loved Connie and they were very good friends.” She and Connie lived together for a while in Chelsea. She remembers Connie as being sweet and kind. One thing that remains very muddied and vague is her death…the how, when, where … some of the things have been taken as gospel about her death with no proof such as follows: “In the 80s, Connie (who was a heroin addict) became a hooker, she died in the late 80s, she had an overdose and died, I think it was 1988 or 1989.”

This appeared in an article written about her.

“After Connie and Dee Dee finally broke up, she started prostituting. Eventually she overdosed on valium and methadone in some doorway but nobody claimed her. Apparently, she is buried in Potter’s Field Staten Island.”

Connie Ramone (aka Connie Gripp):Groupie, prostitute. Claimed to be a former member of Frank Zappa’s conceptual girl group, the GTOs. Girlfriend of Arthur Kane and Dee Dee Ramone. Died of a drug overdose, 1990.

Every single one of these is ABSOLUTELY wrong …

This is the REAL truth, written by Connie’s niece; Connie Gripp is buried in Laurel Land Funeral Home and Cemetery 7100 Crowley Road Fort Worth, TX 76134 Phone: (817) 293-1350 Her body was claimed by her younger brother who lives in Fort Worth. She is survived by her daughter Missy, sister Susan, brother Bob and her 90 year old father Vern. Connie was the oldest of 3 kids. She was born in Iowa, Her mother’s name was steelnotesmagazine.com | June 2014 90 | Steel Notes Magazine

Bette. Bette died in 1995. Connie left home at 19 leaving her daughter to be cared for by her father. She returned briefly in 1971 when her sister’s daughter was born, me. She stayed for a few weeks and then left again. The next time she came home to Texas was in a casket in 1983.

I pulled this up after an extensive online search; Connie Ann Gripp Birth Date:

19 Aug 1947 Age at Death: 34 Death Date:

5 May 1983 Burial Place: Fort Worth, Tarrant County Texas, USA So now, after all the years of evil gossip about her, how unwanted she was, how unloved , how unimportant, how irrelevant she was even to her family… we have come to know the truth about Connie Ann Gripp. She was strong willed, independent, tough-as-nails, wouldn’t take no for an answer, woman, who was not passive, not scared and would not be “bull shitted” or back down from anyone. She was sweet, nice, funny, witty, intelligent and had an AMAZING instinct for finding and honing in on the next big thing before it was the “big thing”. I believe she used her instinct and intuition to survive, to always get with the right person at the right time before they broke big as if she knew they were going to be important, and she did. I believe she contributed to the look, the music, the attitude, the scene much more than she gets credit for … She was a Daughter, a Sister, a Mother, and an Aunt. She loved and was loved in return as much as she hated and was hated. No one is all bad or all good, Crazy, perhaps, but not nuts, naive but not stupid, someone who turned tricks to support her habit but more importantly, to support her man while he played his music and used her for sex and money and drugs. One thing was clearly true, hated or loved, truth or lies, good or bad, she certainly was not your typical groupie. You have to ask yourself, how much power or influence can one single woman wield to have every member of both bands that each of your boyfriends was in hate your guts to the very end? The time has come to acknowledge her accomplishments, she was a first generation groupie, following right after the GTO’s in the 1960’s Hippie scene, to the the early 1970’s Glam/Glitter scene, to the mid 1970’s Punk scene. And let’s remember she was with Jobriath, who was so far ahead of his time that it’s only now, 40 years later that people are beginning to appreciate his talent. She was with Arthur Kane who was the bass player of the most influential and seminal band of Glam/Glitter Rock and as if that wasn’t enough, she then was the girlfriend of Dee Dee Ramone, the bass player for the Ramones, the band that started the whole Punk music scene in New York and were a major influence to every band that followed in that scene, especially in the UK even to this day. I also have a eye for people, in that, I believe Connie was the “template” for the women who would become the wives of both Arthur and Dee Dee. Both Barbara and Vera are very close in appearance to Connie, whether anyone cares to admit it or not. In my mind and in my heart Connie was a “STAR”, and it’s time everyone knows it, whether you hate her or love her, you have to respect her accomplishments and contributions. There was a survey online that listed the 5 MOST influential and Iconic groupies, Connie ranked second only to Cynthia Plaster Caster.

Top 5 Groupies 5. Cynthia Plaster Caster 4. Connie Gripp 3. Pamela Des Barres 2. Sable Starr 1. Nancy Spungen Where ever your heart and soul are Miss Connie, please know that you are loved and very missed and sadly, we will never ever see the likes of you again. ♫ Connie Gripp - DeeDee Ramone Steel Notes Magazine | 91

Music Review

by Sheri Bayne

On May 1st Danish Rock Band Volbeat came to Bethlehem and hit the Sands hard. The group which originated in Copenhagen played their non-cookie cutter style to a sold out crowd. They play a fusion of rock and roll, heavy metal and rockabilly. The band put on an amazing two-hour show featuring songs from throughout their entire catalog. Frontman Michael Poulsen was flawless in his delivery of vocals and hilarious in his onstage banter.

They opened with one of their slower songs “Doc Holliday”. They then kicked it up by playing hit singles ‘Radio Girl’ and ‘Hallelujah Goat’. Then pumping up the crowd more with “BOA”. With barely enough time to catch their breath, ‘Lola Montez’ got the entire room bouncing and singing at the top of their lungs. “Ladies and gentlemen, I grew up listening to Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash and later Slayer,” Poulsen remarked, as he went into “Sad Man’s Tongue.” Then “Heaven nor Hell” continued to have everyone in the room jumping. As did “16 Dollars” and did their killer rendition of “Dead But Rising”. The next chunk of songs included them testing new material, they have a CD to be released soon. The crowd was able to sample part of the song “Satan”. Before they went into Judas Priest’s “Breaking the Law.” Even singer Matt Heafy and lead guitarist Corey Beaulieu, of opening band Trivium, joined Volbeat on stage for a song. The main set concluded with ‘Still Counting’.

They then came back and started their encore with “Pool of Booze, Booze, Booza” and played “The Hangman’s Body Count”.

However the highlight of the evening was during their next song “Thanks”. For this song they welcomed the younger fans on stage, none looked older than 13 years old, to sing the song with Volbeat. The look of joy and excitement on their faces was priceless.

They then closed the show with the crushing “ Warriors Call”.

The groups energy and the fact that they appeared to genuinely enjoy playing and interacting with the crowd was very refreshing.

Just watching their set, you could tell that Volbeat is a band that will be moving up to playing arenas within the next five years This year they received their first Grammy nomination in 2014 for Best Metal Performance. It will be exciting to see what a new album will bring and what new awards lie ahead for this hard-rocking group. ♫

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Tesla, at the Sands EventCenter

by Sheri Bayne

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Marlowe B. West Takez Manhattan!

Interviewz

Jerry Brandt MBW: 1974 ... I was still in my gypsy phase ... something I never outgrew ... Jobriath and I had been a wildly inseparable duo since 1969 ... Back and forth from LA to NY ... and vica versa ... We were Jet Setters ... At the time we were living in an empty apartment just off Hollywood Boulevard ... It had been abandoned by the girl he has since immortalized in his song Sister Sue ... She had just driven off a cliff up on Mulholland Drive ... I was there when he was transforming himself ... in the mirror ... into Marlene Dietrich ... with his Mary Kay mini make-up trunk ... He had her look down to the plucked out bottom eyelashes (ouch) ...

He was preparing to meet you in Malibu ... When he returned, those eyes were filled with stars ... He had just been ... what every Hollywood hopeful would call ... “Discovered” ... and you scooped him up and went to NYC ... Shortly thereafter you sent me that fateful airline ticket and said “Marlowe be east!” and commanded me to come to New York to join you guys ... You said “Jobriath wants you in his show. We’re opening at the Paris Opera House!” ... I was elated to the max ... the dream of dreams had just opened the door for me ... You put eight of us all up in a mansion in New Jersey called Hill House where we were kept undercover from the ever growing curiosity of the deadly man-eating media in NYC ... For starters we all had our hair and brows shaved ... I bleached mine twice until it was pure white and used magic markers to make it purple ... I had been willfully sucked into the land of no return ... such exciting fun ... then ... to my horror ... he publicly proclaimed himself to be ‘the true fairy of rock and roll’ ... my jaw dropped ... my heart sunk ... “What are you doing? I can’t do this! My father will murder me!” ... but it was too late ... The rest is history ... Within three months it took a turn for the worst ... Let me ask you ... Jerry ... What were you thinking ?

JB: (no comment) MBW: Wow! ... This is Fate! ... Pure & Simple! ...Like I said ... I was there before the beginning ... I know every detail ... I even have it all completely documented in my journal entitled Oh Eau Savage ... written daily during the entire duration ... I saw you victimized and made out to be the ‘bad guy’ then ... and more recently ... in Kieran Turner’s documentary Jobriath A.D. ... Kieran did an excellent job ... I praise him and sincerely love him for his mastery and dedication to my dead and defenseless friend ...

His film is beautiful ... beautifully researched and constructed in it’s entirety ... but ... Kieran was not actually there to be able to differentiate the facts ... his film was solely the canonization of Saint Jobriath ... Here I must lend a hand to pull you out of the mud and state “Jobriath was certainly no saint!” ... When you set him way up there as a star ... he turned into a freak ... He thought he was Gloria Swanson portraying the demented silent movie queen Norma Desmond in the movie classic Sunset Boulevard ... Great ... phenomenal character ... but ... pure bitch ... egotistical and cloaked in some delusion of power ... when I refused to kiss his ass he ordered you “Get rid of Marlowe!” ... I yelled back “Someday this will all blow up in your face!” ... I finally and miraculously have this moment to thank you for not firing me ... I hung in there throughout the glamorous and costly tour of the United States and simply walked out of the picture when his Troubadour show in Hollywood was over ... I was passing by you and Peggy Nestor in the parking lot behind the Troubadour ... You said “How did you like Jobriath?” ... I replied “I used to know him!” ... When I left ... so did all of his steam ... pathetic twist of fate ... David Geffin and Electra dropped him the same night ... and he lost the greatest friend anyone could ever have ... I know he was mine to me ... I am still seeking fame and fortune ... Jobriath was a priceless and mighty lesson ... I know you are too much of a gentleman to bad mouth our eternal friend, Jobriath ... So I will not pressure you into a response ... Instead I will turn the page to a brighter day ... Today !!! ... Please tell us all about your wonderfully alive book

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“Its A Short Walk From Brooklyn If You Run. JB: (no comment) MBW: I met Mick Jagger twice and spoke to him once on the phone ... No great claim to fame ... but ... if that was a great thrill in my life, how must it feel to be the person who brought the Rolling Stones to the United States of America ???

JB: Wonderfull and exciting. We were all kids.

MBW: I am curious as to the events leading you into the Rolling Stones scene ... Where were you ... How did you become so involved ???

JB: Alan Klein. Manager of the Stones at the time.

MBW: While we are on the subject ... Please enthrall us all ... Tell us about the girl who sang about you in You’re So Vain ... Carly Simon ...

JB: Wonderful lady MBW: What is happiness to you ???

JB: Waking up in the morning.

MBW: What would you say is your happiest memory ???

JB: My son and daughter being born.

MBW: I know you have been living in Miami ... but ...You caused riots ... I mean ... a lot of fun and wild activity with your Electric Circus, The Erotic Circus and The Ritz ... I feel that being you are more of a native New Yorker I should ask ... Is there any chance you will ever bring some of your hot Jerry Brandt action back home ???

JB: Yes there is a chance.

MBW: It is an ever changing and fast moving world ... Personally, I feel a lot is lacking since the turn of the century ... How do you feel about that ???

JB: Alots lacking in every turn of every century.

MBW: Alexxis Steele, and her rapidly rising to prominence Steel Notes Magazine, has an excellent question to ask you, Mr. Jerry Brandt ... What is your opinion of the music industry from your perspective ???

JB: Always fun when you’re successful.

MBW: I think it would be very interesting to know what it was that sparked off your interest and gave you the direction you took as a child to become this super legendary entrepreneur ???

JB: The radio MBW: ... and what ... along the way ... would you consider the highlights of your uber lifestyle thus far ???

JB: Whenever you have a hit is always the best time.

MBW: When I met you ... you said ... “I’ve had my eye on you for a while.” ... So that led me to believe you were this all seeing ... all knowing ... talent scout ... Besides the obvious money factor, if you don’t mind my asking, what led you to pursue talent ... for it seems to be instinctive in you ... it is unusual and an intriguing characteristic ???

JB: Since I can’t sing, dance or act. I went out and found it.

MBW: If I could grant you three wishes ... what would they be ???

JB: Redo Jobriath

Produce a musical on Broadway of Ali Baba and the 40 thieves.

Produce a movie of stranger in a strange land. ♫ Steel Notes Magazine | 99

Ginuwine, Performance at Bahama Mama’ s , Allentown,Pa

By Drama D

G

inuwine was one of R&B’s most loved men during the ‘90s heyday of Hip-Hop/Soul. Initially teamed with Timbaland, the most innovative producer of the late ‘90s, Ginuwine’s sultry, seductive crooning earned him a substantial female following and made him a regular presence on the R&B charts.

Ginuwine was born in Washington, D.C., on October 15, 1975, with the unlikely name of Elgin Lumpkin. As a youngster, Lumpkin’s interest in music was ignited by Prince and Michael Jackson. At the mere age of 12, he began performing at parties and bars with the local Hip-Hop group the Finesse Five. He later worked as a Michael Jackson impressionist and sang with another local outfit, Physical Wonder. In the meantime, he set himself up with a backup plan, and earned a paralegal degree from a local community college, in case music didn’t work out. In 1996, he adopted the name Ginuwine and was discovered by Jodeci. In New York, he met up with young producer Timbaland and cut the track “Pony,” whose slow, halting groove and impassioned vocals helped Ginuwine land a deal with Sony’s 550 Music imprint.

Ginuwine...The Bachelor, was released in 1996. “Pony” became a number one R&B smash, also reaching number six on the pop charts, and the album became an eventual double-platinum hit. It spun off several more R&B hits over the next year, including “Tell Me Do U Wanna,” “I’ll Do Anything/I’m Sorry,” “Holler,” and “Only When Ur Lonely”. Ginuwine became a bona fide sex symbol. He toured heavily in support of The Bachelor, and kept his name in the public eye in 1998 with his hit “Same Ol’ G,” in 2014 Performing recently at Bahama Mamas in Allentown Pa , Ginuwine proved that his music and style was here to stay. The crowd went wild with emotion when he performed his hit “In Those Jeans”. Smiling and engaging with the crowd full of women to sing along, his voice was so smooth as silk and was a pleasure to your auditory senses. After posting a live video of the crowd on his Instagram , he then performed his number 1 hit “ Pony”. Needless to say the girls were drooling and screaming at the top of their lungs , meanwhile G was seducing them with his slick dance moves. His voice was amazing , exactly what you would expect with the same vocal quality like his recorded albums! The true sign of a great vocalist is evident in an artist like G, because he does not need the auto tuning like most artists have been using. After G’s performance , lines quickly formed as the fans, having no problem with paying $20 each to get their picture taken with him , thought it was well worth the price for the 5x7 photo they would receive in return. G is currently working on a new album yet no set title is in place.

Ginuwine is also in the R & B trio with Tank and Tyrese for Three Kings, released in 2013 under the name TGT. If ever you have the chance to ride G pony and see him in person, I encourage you to do it!! You will definitely not be disappointed!

You can find Ginuwine at: https://www.facebook.com/ginuwinemusic *Some information contained in this article are excerpts provided by Wikipedia*♫

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Barbell Buzz

by Tim Caso

Before we get too far into exercises, workouts and goals, we need to go over some important preliminaries. Like showering in the morning, incorporating these guidelines into your workout routine will help point you in the right direction.

Building That Body How does saving time, working hard and building an outstanding physique sound? All good? Let’s get going…

The Military Press . Take a walk down memory lane for a minute and look at the weightlifters from the forties, fifties, and sixties (you can even find some grainy videos on YouTube). Back then, the military press was a competitive lift, and the competitors would regularly press hundreds and hundreds of pounds. You’ll see that these guys had really impressive arms and shoulders! And, yes, their technique was exceptional.

“Yeah,” you say, “that’s great for them but I’m not about to press hundreds of pounds!” Relax, grasshopper, you won’t have to lift hundreds of pounds in order to develop well-rounded and envied-by-others deltoids. This exercise is one of the premier, compound exercises as it engages your arms, shoulders, and back in a big way! It’s a real strength builder and body toner that no one does these days—maybe because “it’s so forty years ago!” Not anymore; we’re bringing it back in style.

Done properly, the Military Press will grow your shoulders like nothing else! You will notice a huge difference in your appearance in a relatively short period of time (barbells have a way of doing that). You are going to perform this exercise seated at first because the seated version allows you to regroup between reps. Before we get started, remember: technique first, strength second.

Okay, here we go: get a solid chair or bench and

place it inside the power rack. This will help prevent an accident if you lose your balance. Don’t poo-poo this as lifting accidents happen even to the most experienced lifters. Adjust the rack so that the bar is about shoulder height when you’re seated.

Sit very close to the bar with your neck up against it.

Move your feet under your body and arch that back. Put your palms up, elbows slightly forward of the bar, and chin down, and then press straight up forcing your elbows out at the hardest part of the press, which is called the sticking point.

When in the final position, the weight should be directly over your ears—not too far forward and not too far backward. You’ll want to keep the weight light for a while until this movement becomes second nature.

Stretch your back between sets here too.

A good variation on this exercise is the standing military press, which should only be done after you have mastered the seated press. The move is basically the same except that you’ll want to tense your thighs and glutes as hard as you possibly can to lock that lower body in a powerful position from which to press.

Once the military press becomes part of your routine, you can toss cables, flyes and just about any other shoulder “exercise” right out of the window. You won’t be needing them! ♫ Steel Notes Magazine | 101

Guido Says

by Guido Colacci

I’m not sure if this column will always be things I have actually said or written… I guess it is best to say, it is a column in flux. Although the best way to know someone is to listen or read what they have not said or written instead of what they have… So perhaps this will give everyone some insight to me... in the meantime, I do hope you see the raw truth, unsparing, unflinching gaze with which I wrote these, for they are written with my blood and soul…

ALL QUOTES © Guido Colacci 2014 “For me, it’s always all or nothing … there is no in between. Being in between is being nowhere, it’s like a slow death” “Riding the anxiety waves on a panic surfboard, relentless, the v makes it more quiet but no less violent or relentless, the waves keep crashing upon the shore of my mind, merciless, unforgiving, with intention... smashing, wearing down and away, soaked with no refuge, the best one can pray for is not to take you out to mid ocean on the ebb or better yet to just float.”

“I have lost and longed and died and yet not ever, have I allow myself the luxury to grieve me… “ “what looks like chaos, and its implied lack of structure, has DEFINITIVE structure and order and law, and although we may not see it… we KNOW IT MUST EXIST, for there are no coincidences in the universe…” G.C. “some days and nights, it’s like divining for blood” “as I looked into her eyes, she became more than a vision, more than human, more than my imagination could conjure…As I looked into her eyes, I realized, darkness never looked so bewitching, so captivating, so alluring, so PERFECT” “I remember a time when the shopping malls were first built and I felt sad...and then I see the decaying beauty of the abandoned malls and I feel even more sad. What was once thought of as “TOO MUCH” is no longer “ENOUGH” “of over-rationalization, of reading, of ink-sects, of institutionalized institutionalism, savoring the smokey, warm, and sweet, aftermath of atomic cognac” - G.C. “You know...sometimes I truly wonder why we bother...we spend years and years and countless hours researching ...uncovering, outing the lies and spreading the truth and yet...NO ONE CARES....not one single reputable mainstream media outlet (radio, newspaper, magazine, movies, TV) cares to tell the truth or to even raise a question that there is a truth to be told... If tomorrow we uncovered a taped, filmed confessions as to the COMPLETE TRUTH about J…FK, Pearl Harbor, RFK, MLK, Malcolm X, 9/11 … NO ONE WOULD HEAR ABOUT IT, NO WONE WOULD KNOW, and the media would STILL CLING UNFLINCHING TO THE ORIGINAL STORYLINE, … I am so exhausted and tired of trying to make people see what IS rather than what they have been told..it’s like shoveling shit against the tide…” “heaven is just another word for no place else to go” “hope is but a wish” “This speaks to me in beats of blood flow and adrenaline, melancholia and tears” “I am a vessel of divinity, she mouthed the words soundlessly”

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“the autumn is always the season after ...a raw, sobering reality to the warmth and playfulness of summer... “ “Love is not contagious , it is not airborne, you can’t get it from sharing saliva and other fluids …” “we are all lost and trying to follow the trail of poetry that we dropped to find the way back through our lives but the words were rearranged and some were stolen or misplaced and changed and we have lost our direction... “ “If a pastor, priest, minister or clergy is DEFROCKED when he is stripped of his title and no longer holds the ministerial office, Does that mean that he was FROCKED when he became a pastor, priest, minister or clergyman?” “you know if there is one expression I really dislike, actually it borders on lying to oneself, it’s the PC phrase, “let’s agree to disagree.” I find this to be a very disingenuous way of not having to confront the issues and keep things as status quo. BUT ...I NEVER EVER agree to disagree, because I cannot reject the factual reality of a situation and replace it with someone else’s misinformed or misguided opinion…” “what the 99 percent means…when the bell rings and 99 are still hungry and only 1 wonders why the bell rings…”

“Remember, when the drugs stop working, you can ALWAYS dance with the snakes....”

“Capitalism is a weapon of mass destruction” “These days, most evolution ends up wasted, in a tissue, swallowed, in a condom, or down the

drain…”

“think of the craziest thing you could possibly believe and then times it by 1000 and you have what is today’s zealot... they’re crazier than a rabid raccoon on acid trapped in a bird cage…” “democracy is a concept that we measure by the number of crosses in military cemeteries and the number of warheads we have in stock.” ♫

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Music Review Guns & Roses

by Lisa Koza, photos by Sheri Bayne

The steel city of Bethlehem, PA fell into the path of rockers “Guns n Roses” on their 2014 tour schedule last Wednesday night.

The band performed to a sold-out crowd for nearly 2 ½ hours at the Sands Event Center, Bethlehem,Pa. The band’s notoriously recorded antic for arriving late was happily non-present, in this newer, and younger inflated crew of musicians. Axl Rose, age 52, is the only remaining member, in a lineup that consists of guitarists DJ Ashba and Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal, rhythm guitarist Richard Fortus, bassist Tommy Stinson, drummer Frank Ferrer, keyboardist Christ Pitman, and longest standing member, since the “Use Your Illusion” era, keyboardist, pianist, percussionist, Dizzy Reed.

The band opened with the title track off the latest album, “Chinese Democracy”, from 2008, then led straight into a swarm of well known riffs from old favorites such as “Welcome to the Jungle”, “It’s So Easy” and “Mr. Brownstone”. The evening was filled with memorable gems such as “You Could be Mine”, “Sweet Child O’ Mine”, “November Rain”, Bob Dylan’s cover “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” and “Paradise City”. Several covers were thrown in as well, with Tommy Stinson on lead vocals in a rendition of “Chatterbox” from the New York Dolls. “November Rain” was preempted by a Led Zeppelin’s, “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You” jam.

The encore was escorted in with an excellent cover of “The Seeker”, by The Who. The setlist was impressively at 24 songs, with a few jams thrown in here and there.

Axl Rose kept under garb the entire evening, practically incognito, sporting a jacket, sunglasses and hat. Contrary to what many of us were expecting, he looked fit. His mingling with the crowd was kept to a minimum, with a brief statement of, “How you doing? This is a nice place you got here. We’ll try to stop by more often”. Rose ducked to the side of the stage often, allowing his fellow bandmates their time in the spotlight. They were well deserving, for their talents were stellar in delivering to the crowd a very large, tight sound.

The show, overall, felt like a grand performance, perfected and orchestrated, instead of the crass rock n roll of the olden days Guns N Roses. The presentation, the feel and the vibe of this 8 piece band and the perfection and tightness of the show in general all felt like that of maybe an Elton John show. Obviously a different style music, but the grand gesture and rich element of talented, hired musicians accompanying their lead singer on the road, lent this feel to viewing something big. But the comradery, the rawness and that edge that some of us look for when desiring to stretch our rock-concert legs, happened to be absent this evening.

Rose’s vocals, while occasionally revealed slight inconsistencies in strength, are still uniquely phenomenal and high pitch reaching. The show was good, it entertained, it offered a value for its price tag. Was the band different than they once were? Well, of course, the lineup is sparse, they’re not the same, it isn’t truly a witnessing of GNR rock n roll history in it’s entirety, but you still are entertained.

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Hardware

Repair / Replacement Complete system Setup, Backup & Restore.

Software Installation Operating System Repair Remote Assistance, Individualized Instruction,

Laptops

Screen / Keyboard Speaker / Camera Power Supply Hard Drive Replacement,

Macintosh Linux Android Windows

Graphics Logos Page Layout Prepress Photo Correction Signs and Banners http://lelanda.com

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Zombies Take Over House of Blues 7th Annual Zombie Walk - by Stormy Boz

W

e have all seen the effects of “The Walking Dead” and multiple other zombie shows and movies. Every year for the past 7 years, the House of Blues Myrtle Beach and Sea Haven for Youth have joined forces to put on an all day show of music, zombie make up and fun to raise money for at risk youth called the Zombie Walk.

This year was no exception! 30 plus bands performed from 10 am to 11 pm inside and outside of the House of Blues. Attendees walked around in zombie make up that was provided free by multiple make up artists who donated their time to this great cause. At 7 pm, the attendees and bands walked around Barefoot Landing chasing pre-determined “victims” for all of the shoppers delight! Behind all of the fun is a charity that is determined to help homeless youth, at risk youth and crisis counseling for youth.

Safe Haven for Youth provides four main components. Sea Haven Shelter Home is a residential, licensed by SCDSS that can house up to 9 youths from ages 13 to 17 who are in the need of emergency temporary shelter. It provides a home like environment and family style guidance. It makes sure that the youth are enrolled in school and they assist with academic goals.

Safe Haven Street Outreach Project Lighthouse is one of the most popular components of Safe Haven. Project Lighthouse provides educational, informational and preventative support for homeless and runaway youth. Services offered vary from showers, clothing, food, laundry and referrals. It also offers the ability to obtain proper state identification for youth.

Transitional Living provides free opportunities to youth ages 16-21 that helps prepare them for life on their own with life skills instruction and case manager. They provide mentors for job readiness as well as career planning and provide assistance with obtaining and furthering their education as well as providing life skill instruction. They allow youth to move forward, be independent and self-sufficient by encouraging them to achieve their personal goals.

The last component is quite important. Project Safe Place is a National Acclaimed youth outreach program that involves the entire community to help provide safe havens and resources for youth in crisis. With “Get Help Fast” youth can benefit from community partnerships with schools, businesses and other community organizations.

Granted, the Zombie Walk is for a good cause, it also a pleather of fun! Face painting, socializing and most importantly, THE MUSIC!!!! A variety of music was provided for all ages and breeds! Adults with rotting skin, kids as zombie princesses and dogs that appear to have an appetite for brains, everyone was there for the music. Acoustic sets, metal sets, pop sets and punk sets. With three stages available, you could roam to catch some of the best music on the beach.

Bands included Falkreath, Reine and the Reckless, 13th Paradox, The Not So Evil Dead and so many more! Headed up by several locals, the bands and their fans flocked to the House of Blues to enjoy a day of music that was not even hampered by an overcast, rainy day.

The fellowship this event provided made this writer proud to be part of the music scene. It brought out some of the best local talent in Myrtle Beach from music to make up artist. The most important thing is that it helps an amazing cause. If you would like more information on Safe Haven you can find them at www.seahaveninc.com, Facebook at www.facebook.com/seahaven.tlp and Twitter at www.twitter.com/seahaveninc. Keep watching their website for the 2015 8th Annual Zombie Walk info. I would strongly suggest if you want to have a great time, come out and the tickets are less than any festival you would attend.

Till next month, keep your head up, feet on the ground and music in your ears!

Stormy Boz ♫

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Mindmaze

Photos and article by Sherri Byrne

MindMaze is a four-piece female fronted metal band from Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Current members are Sarah Teets - Lead Vocals, Jeff Teets - Guitars, Keyboards, Backing Vocals, Kalin Schweizerhof - Drums and Rich Pasqualone on bass. Sarah’s vocal influences are Russell Allen, Glenn Hughes, Urban Breed, Phil Mogg, Ray Gillen, David Coverdale, Zak Stevens. Jeff’s guitarist influences are Adrian Smith, John Petrucci, Mark Reale, John Sykes, Doug Aldrich, Neal Schon, Gary Moore, Criss Oliva, Gus G, “Lord” Tim Grose. Jeff has been the primary songwriter, musically speaking. Sarah on the lyrics and vocal melodies. You can definitely see their influences in their songs.

They have played over one-hundred gigs spanning over 250+ miles, including sharing the stage with Saxon, Doro, Overkill, Jon Oliva’s Pain, Circle II Circle, Fozzy, George Lynch and Raven. Last year they were finalists in WZZO’s back yard band contest. In a separate contest they won a chance to open up for Motley Crue.

The band’s debut album “Mask Of Lies” was released in February 2013. It sold 90% of the first pressing in just 10 months. They are selling it on their official website, and through a variety of third-party sites. Amazon, CD Baby. The band is currently working on their follow-up album, “Back from the Edge”, which is tentatively due in September 2014. It features Symphony X bassist Mike LePond on all tracks, and guest appearances by members of Stratovarius, Pharaoh, LORD, and Draekon.

So if you like music that falls into any of these genres: Traditional Metal, Power Metal, Progressive Metal Melodic Metal you need to check them out.

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Their upcoming schedule is as follows:

6/6/1014 6/21/2014 7/12/2014 8/1/2014 11/09/2014

The Pinch - Washington, D.C. The Wooden Match - Bethlehem, PA The Rex Theater - Pittsburgh, PA The Neutral Zone - Pittston, PA Deland Rock and Metal Festival - Deland, FL♍

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