The artist John Van Hamersveld and Alida Post, his wife, have brought the Summer of ‘69 to Vegas. Both friends, I visited them in California a few months back and heard of their amazingly fun opportunity unfolding in Vegas. While first hush-hush, now everyone can know.

Alida and I met 17 years ago in New York City and have kept our friendship over the years and as we each switched coasts. Along the way, she met and married John. John brings his creative artistic talents; Alida her savvy relationship skills and marketing talents; together a force of creative nature.

John has created many memorable images including The Endless Summer movie poster; album covers for the Beatles, Stones Jefferson Airplane, KISS, Blondie and Grateful Dead; the classic Jimi Hendrix concert poster; Johnny Face; the St Mark’s series with Mickey Mouse; Pinnacle Indian. For me, his artwork ranges from bright silkscreened images to iconography to monochromatic drawings. In all cases, having a sure hand on layout, focus, subject, color, proportion…all qualities that are found in a skilled craftsman; with images of emotion, feeling, depth, completeness and originality that are found in a true artist. If you like Keith Haring, KAWS, or Shepard Fairey, then you will likely appreciate Van Hamersveld.

Now in Vegas, John and Alida have the opportunity to bring his art to a broad audience. I am particularly excited about the canopy movie debut, Signs of Life. John has created a movie that is projected from the Viva Vision canopy above Fremont Street in Vegas. Two custom-painted vintage school buses flank the street while John’s iconic images and recognizable style are animated 90 feet high and five blocks long. The visual engages you; sweeping you down the street and back to 1969. Video here.

To round out the Summer of ‘69 experience and bring John’s art into your own home is Hippie Nation Gallery & Records. Hippie is an art gallery located right at the Fremont Street Experience that will sell custom John Van Hamersveld posters, digital prints, original drawings and hand pulled silk screens, in addition to record albums. Do it this summer because the show ends Labor Day! More info at Vegas Experience.

Here are some pictures I took from the 2008’s Night of a Thousand Stevies #18. An amazing night!

Tonight, my friend Rainblo invited me to his new event, Sideshow. Sideshow is each Sunday night currently based in Tillman’s located at 165 W 26th St, New York. Open bar from 10-11pm w/ performances throughout the night. This opening night, the performances included sexy women dance group, erotic ballet, and juggling. Rainblo owned the room MCing the performers, spurring the crowd on to debauchery, and keeping the spirit fun, sexy and full of life. The venue has a great vibe and is perfect for this show. I’m going back for more Sideshow!

Ran into Josh, Amy from Atlanta, Murray, Rich Rent, Paul Alexander, and more. Paul Alexander is an icon of mine; being part of the Jackie 60 crew and The Ones. Paul and I talked for a while on his current band as well as his history with Jackie. I made a trip to New York City in October 1996 with a major reason being a part of a Jackie 60 party. I did and that experience is one of the significant inspiration moments in my past leading me to what I do today. I have a fantastic story about calling the Jackie 60 phone number that Tuesday morning to hear the theme and crawling the city to put together my outfit. It includes a rubber miniskirt, the Path train, and approval from Kitty Boots on my outfit you see me wearing in this picture. Ask me sometime and I’m happy to tell you this story.

Kristin Von Claret is performing as a dancer at McCall Hall as part of Gluck’s Iphigenia in Tauris, a Seattle Opera presentation and co-production with the Metropolitan Opera of New York. Kristin is also the choreographer my company Social Living Productions partnered with for my three productions: Tokyo 2025, Revenge of Tokyo 2025, and 4 Seasons.

Yesterday, Kristin arranged for me to watch their first rehearsal in McCall hall. The first time that all the teams (dance, voice, set design, lighting, etc.) came together on the McCall stage. There was marking, adjustments to sets, surprises as to the floor material, and stage direction from Stephen Wadsworth. Here’s a sneak picture of her about to leap into action; she’s center in black. Erin, one of the dancers from my Revenge of Tokyo 2025 production, is also a dancer in this production.

I was able to watch until about 8:30pm but needed to leave to go shower and meet other friends out for a drink. We met at Cha-Cha’s new location on Pike St. between 10th and 11th Ave. Vinita, Bruce, Nima, Gary, and Bud all came by. We started upstairs but later moved to a primo corner table downstairs where we held court. I shared stories of New York and one time was kidded about my changing accent when they heard me say, “Long Island.”

Last Thursday, Sept 20th, my friend Khris held his first fashion show. It was in Astoria, NY. He had three models, many outfits, and pro hair and accessory support from his crew.

I liked several of his outfits. One woman fell in love with a dress and is having Khris make one specifically for her.

It was my first time in Astoria. I heard that is was originally a Greek community but has grown to be much more culturally diverse. I loved the models. They were beautiful, sweet, and reminded me of Jenny From the Block. After the show, we celebrated in Astoria then hopped the subway to Manhattan.

There, Khris, his friends, and I stopped by Nowhere bar. Turns out it was Trannie night. Again, women in great outfits and having fun. Khris and I continued on to Lotus to meet my friend Rainblo where we picked up a friend of Khris’ and we ended the night at Cielo.

This is fucking out of control. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

I want to see Chemical Brothers at the McCarren pool this saturday. The band charges $44. The ticketing service charges $11.10. That’s 25% the ticket cost. That is completely unreasonable and, given my online service creation experience at Microsoft, unmatching a reasonable profit margin above their cost of service. It doesn’t cost $11.10 per ticket to host and run their ticketing service. Unless…they are idiots running a poor service.

The Chemical Brothers gets their $44 and probably don’t care beyond that. They may even have a flat fee and the promoter chooses the per ticket cost. The band has a single promoter (Made Events) and that promoter choose an exclusive ticket provider (TicketWeb), there is no free market. There is no competition. It is locked in. The only choice I have is to not choose to see Chemical Brothers.

Fucking thieves are TicketWeb, TicketMaster, and the lot of them. EXCEPT for Brown Paper Tickets. They charge reasonable service fees and have excellent service. I’ve used them as a promoter and its excellent.

Weeee. The doc gave me a short supply of Zyrtec until my preferred Allegra arrives in the mail. Zyrtec always makes me dazed and I feel like I’m floating. No heavy machinery for me. It works great for allergies, but I can’t take it regularly.

Much of today was rest and zoning out. As it got later in the afternoon, my head cleared and I decided to venture out for Low Life at the Howl! Festival. The festival is named in honor of the groundbreaking poem Howl! by Allen Ginsberg and produced every summer. It celebrates the East Village and Lower East Side’s role as a preeminent locus of culture.

I first saw Miz Metro, The Trashion Dancers, and Room 404 Media. Her voice reminded me of Gwen Stefani’s “Love. Angel. Music. Baby.”. 404 did visual media alongside the other two on stage. The dancers were doing very athletic movements and were obviously having a lot of fun.

The highlight for me was Low Life. Its a production at this year’s festival done by the Jackie Factory crew. They are most famous for the JACKIE 60 party throughout the 90s. It ran for 10 years, had over 550 themed weekly editions of JACKIE 60 and ended on top. I made the opportunity to go to one in, I think, 1996 with the theme being the french fetish photographer “Molaire”. I could have the name wrong; its 11 years ago. Someday, I document the hilarious and wonderful story of the tues of the Jackie 60 party starting with me calling a telephone number to get the theme. Meanwhile, if you see me in person, ask me and I’ll gladly tell you the story in person.

Low Life was fun. Easily 150 people were in the audience and included nightlife luminaries from 90s and today. I saw my friends Spot, Desi, and Brendan. Johny Dynell was upstage overseeing everything. Hattie Hathaway and Paul Alexander were MCs. I stayed for the first part of the show and saw the following performers: Dirty Martini, Sweetie, Trina Rose, Miss Delirium Tremens, Acid Betty, Robert La Fossee w/ his Broadway B’Hoyz, and Voltaire.

About 6:30pm, I left to head down to Battery Park. The River to River festival is still going and tonight the Joyce Theater and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council present the Paul Taylor Dance Company; one of the best dance troupes in New York! A borrowed summary from a River to River press release:

Tonight features the work of one of modern dance’s most celebrated artists with over 50 years of dance-making. Audiences will have the opportunity to see one of The Joyce’s 25th Anniversary Commissions with the New York premiere of De Sueños (“Of Dreams”), a surrealistic dreamscape referencing Mexican culture and folklore as the Day of the Dead and the Deer Dance. In Polaris (1976), the choreography of the first section is repeated step for step in the second, but performed by different dancers, to different music and with different lighting – the results are fascinating. The program is completed by Company B (1991), set to hits of the Andrews Sisters, is a distillation of 1940s Americana tempered by the shadows of GIs dying in World War II.

I called my friend Paul, a modern dancer, to come join me. The performance was stellar. I got a great seat center stage maybe 12 “rows” back. It was lawn general admission so I couldn’t see the dancer’s feet, but the rest was clear. I got almost 400 pictures. A few are linked here, I’ll upload more later as I toss the poor ones.

After the performance I needed to decide whether to go to Blowoff or take a quick roundtrip ride on the Staten Island Ferry. I’m still not well and didn’t have the energy to go out to a late night party. So, Paul and I took the ferry ride. It was my first time on it. There are clear views of Ellis Island, the Statue of Liberty, and the New York skyline. I intend to visit Ellis Island soon so check for any Phurrough’s that came across the ocean. Its very likely the spelling will be wonky so it’ll be a hunt.

I did want to go to Blowoff tonight. My friend, Andy, was doing the PR for it. It was an alt-rock and electronic music show with Richard Morel and Bob Mould; they both host and DJ a musical smackdown featuring their meaty signature mix of indie rock, electro and house. So says my friend.

I remember Morel for his fantastic song “True (the Faggot Is You)” back in 1999. I heard it both in afterhour clubs and also got it on Deep Dish’s mix CD Yoshiesque from 2000; its towards the end of Disc 2. “True” is a great song with an echo-trippy funky sound as if you were dancing to it in a tunnel with a big smile on your face.

The Decibel guys back in Seattle have been hyping their lineup for months now. Here’s my advice. Sean Horton and Jerry Abstract are two of the key guys; friends for a long time. I think both from near Detroit. They love techno and if from Detroit that makes sense. The technology for laptop music became affordable several years back and they leaped into it. So they are both laptop laptop techno oriented.

The first few years of the Decibel Festival were influenced by this. Nothing wrong with that, it was natural for them. But something that an attendee should keep in mind. They are not neutral curators, instead biased performers with a good knowledge base about electronic music. You will continue to see a strong influence of that music style as well as performances by them or their close friends in the festival even this year.

I do praise for pulling the festival together. No one else was going to do it as the public Seattle electronic scene has been sputtering near death since 2001. Once the stock market bubble crashed and people didn’t have extra money anymore, the audience didn’t go out as much. Artists didn’t have as much money to buy equipment. Bars didn’t experiment or pay performers. And unfortunately, that event six years ago has still seriously dampened the scene in Seattle.

However, Seattle loves festivals. It makes people think they are getting a good “bang for their buck”. They’ll take off their Teva sandals, dust off their tennis shoes, and go to a bar to hear a fest-i-val! Weeee. Sometimes, festivals like Decibel pay off; sometimes not. In this case, they bring in artists rarely seen in the town of Seattle. They bring the couch potatoes out to listen to music that is not played on MTV, VH1, or commercial radio. They bring a glimmer of light.

The Decibel Festival lineup is available. Look it over. After hearing about their lineup announcements for months, here are my picks and cautions.

• Henry DB Art Gallery opening. Its electronic music in a modern art gallery. What’s not to love for $10. Lusine is performing and you can see “COLORFIELD VARIATIONS”.
• DB opening part/death of party w/ Diplo, Switch, and Simian Mobile Disco. $17 is pushing it.
• Beyond bookings/ NYC showcase. I’ve heard Wolf + Lamb in New York. Mostly minimal laptop tech, but its ok. Not worth the $20 though.
• Future Funk Showcase. Its got another live set by Jacob London. I love these guys and deserve support. Its worth the $12. DJ Heather is also performing but she’s not my fav anymore.
• Sunday headfuk showcase/db finale has Chris De Luca of Funkstörung and Shitkatatpult’s Phon.o. I like both Funkstorung and Phon.o and recommend checking out their collaboration/batter here. The PR says, “…with a spirited live set of glitched out accapellas, booty bass and the filthiest break beats you’re likely to ever hear.” I’d pay the $20 just to hear what mayhem they might create
• Claude VonStroke is performing at the Mothership Label Showcase for $20. I think too much money but if you like his sound, check it out.

All videos of the dances in my latest show “4 Seasons” are online. Choreography by Kristin Von Claret.

Here are lots of great pictures from my most recent show “4 Seasons”. Our photographer Kim Behrens took some great pictures and then I took waaaay lotta time to find the best ones and photoedit each of them. Below are three random pictures from the set or you can view the whole set.