Golden Oldies

Robert "Bleecker Bob" Plotnik

Rest In Peace

Fare thee well to the one and only Bleecker Bob. Yeah yeah, his store was generally a rip-off and he was a grump, but he was always cool to me, busting my chops in a proper True York style, and he employed a few of my friends (who always hooked me up). For years he told me he'd give me a vintage BB's shirt, but never came through. Then one day he yelled at me as I was flipping through records, "Ay, here's that damn shirt I promised you..." It was a fucking XXL! Thanks, Bob.

One Day... All This Will Be Gone

Digging: Quadrophenia (the original double-LP), the company of childhood friends, big life changes, the Megative LP, the musings of Dan Rather, and experiments in leftover turkey consumption.

Not digging: the rapid destruction of NYC at the hands of mega-corporations (in collaboration with our local government), the ugly demonization of immigrants, and as always, the MTA.

A Gallery Of Cool, Take Twenty One

True cool is timeless.

Dig: A Gallery Of Cool, Take Twenty

'Nuff Said!

Stan Lee

Rest In Peace

"I used to be embarrassed because I was just a comic-book writer while other people were building bridges or going on to medical careers. And then I began to realize: entertainment is one of the most important things in people's lives. Without it they might go off the deep end. I feel that if you're able to entertain people, you're doing a good thing."

Freedom To Criticize And Oppose

"Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost."

Gotta Break Free

"Right here, all by myself. I ain't got no one else.

The situation is bleeding me, there's no relief for a person like me."

My entry to punk-rock, hardcore, and "underground music" was via Reagan Youth, MDC, the Misfits, and D.O.A.: A Right Of Passage documentary, but Black Flag was the real game-changer. It's hard to put into words how important the band was to me (and still is), but I know I could not have dealt with the long and depressing train-ride to high school every morning without Black Flag, along with taped copies of Kool DJ Red Alert's Kiss-FM radio show, blasting at an ear-splitting volume on my walkman.

Photograph by Lee Greenfeld © 2018

A Visit

"We have art in order not to die of the truth."

In awe at the studio of legendary painter Larry Poons. (Poons also played guitar in '60s avant garde band The Druids along with La Monte Young, Jasper Johns, and occasionally Andy Warhol.)

Photograph by Lee Greenfeld © 2018