Tosh Berman's Blog, page 101
March 14, 2021
THE VELVET MAFIA: The Gay Men Who Ran The Swinging Sixties” by Darryl W. Bullock (Omnibus Press) 2021
THE VELVET MAFIA: The Gay Men Who Ran The Swinging Sixties” by Darryl W. Bullock (Omnibus Press) 2021
If I had my own record shop, I would name the shop after Darryl W. Bullock’s book “The Velvet Mafia.” In my shop, instead of having sections or categories on artists, I would have Larry Parnes, Brian Epstein, Joe Meek, Robert Stigwood, Simon Napier-Bell, and Andrew Loog Oldham sections. Since these gentlemen are not recording artists but managers and producers, it will focus on their pop music view. Mostly gay, when being gay was illegal in England up until 1967, these figures articulate and sold generations music that was essential and sometimes bad. Here, bad is a sign of genius. All above are strong visionaries in how they sold a product - usually good-looking males, with occasionally questionable music talents, and artists of great importance and brilliance.
Due to the laws and the straight world, LGBT professionals had to work publicly and secretively. Managers like Larry Parents and Brian Epstein came from Jewish working-class families who had retail shops. Both tried to enter the show biz world as entertainers or actors but realized that they could go into showbiz through promoter and manager. For Parnes, his ‘yes’ moment was seeing the teenage Tommy Steele in a Solo coffee house and Epstein visiting the Liverpool Cavern to see the future Fab Four. Both saw the future, and especially Parnes invented homegrown British orientated rock n’ roll. The Beatles, of course, became a planet to themselves.
The book covers many grounds, but the focus is on Parnes, Epstein, Meek, Stigwood, and songwriter Lionel Bart. Each figure has other personalities circling them, and eventually, they mixed with the others. There are other managers/visionaries such as Andrew Loog Oldham and Simon Napier-Bell. Still, they will get their own book, or there will be a sequel to this perfect volume. I love pop music because it must be part of a more extensive culture or society. The Gay world so secretive, even with their own language at times, Polari, which is traced back to the 19th-century, and possibly to the 16th. It is a form of can’t slang that only insiders can understand. Here the Managers/Promoters made marketing decisions to create a product that appeals to the Gay’s sensibility and the screaming female fan market. Parnes is not a music person, but he realized that Rock n’ Roll needed its own platform in England and not shared with clowns, jugglers, and comedians. The roots of music hall culture will not disappear but transform into British rock n’ roll packaged tours. At times even great American artists such as Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, and Buddy Holly would be part of the big show. This cross-continental programming fueled the imagination and desires of British youth. Many of the musicians from the British Invasion have seen Buddy, Eddie, and Gene.
At the beginning of his career, who would have thought Robert Stigwood would end up being the king of showbiz. Managing Cream and Bee Gees, or the talented Lionel Bart, would lose all his dough. Parnes rarely made financial mistakes, and at times Epstein was overwhelmed with problems of narcotics, a hard love life, and finances that went totally out of his control. The 1960s was in consistent motion. I think this was the force that led these gentlemen to use their desires to make money (always the concern) and forge a new liberating culture.
Darryl W. Bullock’s “The Velvet Mafia” is a well-documented look at that decade. With the skill of a historian/journalist, he captures these figures in motion and all the byproducts of that landscape. Here you get the Kray Twins and the voices of the young British artists as their lives being changed by these business and social visionaries. Joe Meek’s sad narration is told here as well. It’s a fantastic story of a man struggling with his place in society and being a genius in his field of record production. Kimley and I discuss and interview Bullock on his book on our podcast Book Musik. It will be up on March 15, 2021.
March 13, 2021
Tomorrow March 14th The last Day to See "Who Is Lun*na Menoh?" at the Portland International Film Festival
Tomorrow is the last day to see the documentary film on Lun*na called "Who Is Lun*na Menoh?" It's a classic and iconic film on her work as well as her personality. I'm in it as well. Fun for the entire family (kids seem to like this film). Here you can get the tickets online to see the film online:
Tickets to see "Who Is Lun*na Menoh?"
March 12, 2021
Wallace Berman Postcard Sent to Dennis Hopper
March 7, 2021
"Who Is Lun*na Menoh?" at the Portland International Film Festival
Who Is Lun*na Menoh” follows the life and work of the extraordinary Japanese artist. From her early career in Japan to the underground music scene in Los Angeles, from fashion show runways featuring her sculptural designs to art galleries showing her fantastical work, Lun*na’s edgy, witty and beautiful creations are explored.Director Jeff Mizushima follows Lun*na’s artistic career, showcasing her uniquely individual expressionism and interviewing her family, gallery owners, models, fans, and fellow visual artists & musicians to find out who and what Lun*na Menoh is and why her art, in all of its forms, fits in our world.Directed by Jeff Mizushima81 mins | United States | 2020DocumentaryTickets are available now and you can watch the film online from today, March 5 to March 14. Here: Tickets for "Who Is Lun*na Menoh?"
Tosh Berman Discusses Wallace Berman's "Aleph" Monday, March 8, 2021
Monday, March 8, 2021 at 4 PM PST – 6:45 PM PST
CINE SALON FREEFALL SPRING 2012 ONLINE ZOOMTosh Berman will narrate a walk-through of his father's surreal collage art film ALEPH created 1958-1976 by the Beat artist Wallace Berman.https://news.dartmouth.edu/events/event?event=62959...https://www.thehowe.org/eve.../pid/2/sid/55/tid/141/eid/7378Son and author Tosh Berman will approach his father’s art, the "father of assemblage art" Beat Generation icon Wallace Berman, with a deep-dive into the experimental collage film ALEPH (1958-1976), a meditation on life, death, mysticism, politics and pop culture.
JOIN ZOOM MEETING
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89850653060...
Meeting ID: 898 5065 3060
Passcode: 550878
On TOSH (2018) published by City Lights Books: TOSH is a memoir of growing up as the son of an enigmatic, much-admired, hermetic, and ruthlessly bohemian artist during the waning years of the Beat Generation and the heyday of hippie counterculture.
FILMS: Selected film and tv clips, and full length screening of ALEPH (1958-1976) by Wallace Berman 7:43’ and a restored film by one Berman’s art world contemporaries. TRT 120 minutes.
BIO: TOSH BERMAN, writer, poet and once publisher of TamTam Books, penned the acclaimed memoir Tosh: Growing up in Wallace Berman’s World (2019).
LINKS: https://hyperallergic.com/.../tosh-growing-up-in-wallace.../
https://www.publishersweekly.com/.../78786-tosh-berman...
https://www.haaretz.com/.../.premium-this-day-a-famed...
https://www.monsterchildren.com/wallace-berman-artist/
https://bit.ly/2xadFOX
http://tamtambooks-tosh.blogspot.com/
Facebook page: Facebook Page for Event
March 6, 2021
Wallace Berman, "Silent Series: Magic Mushroom" 1965
Wallace Berman, "Silent Series: Magic Mushroom" 1965, verifax collage, 8 1/2 x 7 inches. Framed by Wallace Berman. Kohn Gallery is currently closed to the public. We are receiving deliveries and are available for appointment viewings. Please contact the gallery at 323 461 3311 or email Karys Judd at karys@kohngallery.com. Wearing of face coverings and signing of a waiver will be required for entry.
Gallery Hours
By appointment only
Gallery Information
1227 North Highland Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90038
T 323 461 3311
March 5, 2021
"WHO IS LUN*NA MENOH?" Documentary Screening at Portland International Film Festival March 5 to March 14
Today is the day for the premiere of the film "Who Is Lun*na Menoh? directed by Jeff Mizushima, and starring Lun*na. To quote: Who Is Lun*na Menoh” follows the life and work of the extraordinary Japanese artist. From her early career in Japan to the underground music scene in Los Angeles, from fashion show runways featuring her sculptural designs to art galleries showing her fantastical work, Lun*na’s edgy, witty and beautiful creations are explored.Director Jeff Mizushima follows Lun*na’s artistic career, showcasing her uniquely individual expressionism and interviewing her family, gallery owners, models, fans, and fellow visual artists & musicians to find out who and what Lun*na Menoh is and why her art, in all of its forms, fits in our world.Directed by Jeff Mizushima81 mins | United States | 2020DocumentaryTickets are available now and you can watch the film online from today, March 5 to March 14. Here: Tickets & Info for Lun*na Menoh at Portland International Film Festival
March 4, 2021
March 3, 2021
Wallace Berman "Untitled #127 (Donovan), Verifax Collage
Wallace Berman "Untitled #127 (Donovan), Verifax Collage, 6 x 6 1/2 inches, Framed 12 x 12 1/2 Inches. Kohn Gallery is currently closed to the public. We are receiving deliveries and are available for appointment viewings. Please contact the gallery at 323 461 3311 or email Karys Judd at karys@kohngallery.com. Wearing of face coverings and signing of a waiver will be required for entry.Gallery HoursBy appointment onlyGallery Information1227 North Highland AveLos Angeles, CA 90038T 323 461 3311Parking in rear off of North Citrus Ave
March 2, 2021
Serge Gainsbourg Playlist for Apple Music & Spotify
Here is the playlist Kimley and I put together for Serge Gainsbourg and connected to our Book Musik episode on the great Serge and the book by Jeremy Allen "Relax Baby Be Cool: The Artistry and Audacity of Serge Gainsbourg." We go deep here, so enjoy the music world of Gainsbourg:
Apple Music: Serge Gainsbourg Playlist for Apple Music
