Diane, A Shaded View on Fashion

TETINE'S NEW VIDEO 'LET THE X BE X'

Dear Shaded Viewers,

I was visiting Blow de la Barra's blog and quite liked 'Let the x be x'

Forthcoming album on Soul Jazz Records out in Feb 2008
Dir: Eliete Mejorado/ Rodrigo Garcia Dutra
www.tetine.net
www.myspace.com/tetine

Shane Shu First Music Video. Directed by Yoann Lemoine / Wanda Productions.

Dear Shaded Viewers,

Here is YoannLemoine's latest music video.

www.yoannlemoine.com

Henrik Vibskov the rock star in Melbourne, Australia

Dear Shaded Viewers,

Download MOV00078.MP4
Who does not love Henrik, enjoy a few seconds with him today.

Later,

Diane

Brilliant Key Solo!

Thanks to Yoann Lemoine for sending it to me

CHUNGKING - STAY UP FOR EVER VIDEO

Dear Shaded Viewers,

Zeroh has a film in the first edition of You Wear it Well. They are friends with the band Chungking, the record label did not want to make a budget available for the band to do a promo video for their new single 'STAY UP FOREVER', so within the space of Zeroh's tiny house and 24 hours they made one for them and you can see the results here...

http://www.zerohdesign.co.uk/stayupforever.htm

Later,

Diane

Mambo Italiano - Redux by Isabella Brave

Sent to me by Lovey Marino currently in Buenos Aires

Dead Records launched in Iceland

Jon Audarson is behind the new label Dead Records, the first disc is coming out next week.

Later,

Diane

coke fete de la music

A little more blue - Maria de Medeiros - postponed at Theatre des Bouffes du Nord

Patti Smith tonight at the Olympia

Dear Shaded Viewers,

You won't be able to tell much, it cuts off really poorly, is on it's side and a bit of a mess but, tonight I went to see Patti Smith at the Olympia as a guest of my friend Vincent Gagliostro.

Download patti_smith_28507.mov
Download MVI_0507.AVI

I've never seen so much enthusiasm in Paris before.

Later,

Diane

Astrud.

Dear Shaded Viewers:

Astrud played tonight his new album in Barcelona,

for me, this one is the best spanish band,

my friend Laura played with them,

http://www.myspace.com/losastrud   

Thank you Diane,

lenfanterrible.

DINO DINCO : NO BRA ON THE WEST COAST!

No, I won't be liberating my hairy areolas from Tijuana to the Canadian border...I've already done that plenty of times.  This is more like when fantasy becomes reality. 

I just received word that maxi-excellent NO BRA (www.myspace.com/nnobra) will be supporting Patrick Wolf on some dates in Cali and Vegas, too.  Here's the schedule. 

16 May 2007 Los Angeles Troubadour
18 May 2007 San Diego Beauty Bar
19 May 2007 Las Vegas Art Bar
21 May 2007 San Francisco Cafe Du Nord
22 May 2007 San Francisco Cafe Du Nord tbc

(photo by Dean Chalkley)

Rock the discotheque.

Dino

Ziggy Diaries review in Vanity Fair by John Vignola

Dear Shaded Viewers,

Vanity Fair, n 8, 10 Maggio 2007

Cherry Vanilla was the publicist for David Bowie during his Ziggy Stardust days. Everyone loves David Bowie and Cherry Vanilla is just to cool for school. Cherry Vanilla sang on stage for the first fashion show that I ever participated in. It was a recreation of the door scene at the Mudd Club. When I was in Los Angeles last year for the launch of You Wear it Well I stayed at Cherry's and in the bathroom there was a great photograph of David Bowie from those years, signed and dedicated to the lovely, sexy blue haired Cherry. Although at that time her hair might have been the colour of cherries.

Later,

Diane

HIDROGENESSE

Dear Shaded Viewers,

Today I would like to show you this couple of guys from Barcelona, Hidrogenesse. I met them in the underground a few years ago and tonigt they played his new glam/rock album about animals.

Carlos also paints very nice t-shirts,

and Genis.

www.austrohungaro.com/hidrogenesse

www.myspace.com/hidrogenesse

Thank you Diane,

lenfanterrible.

Rufus Wainright's concert dedicated to Judy Garland

Dear Shaded Viewers,

I was invited to go to this concert by Linda Leopold, ODD Magazine but I had to stay in front of my computer screen. Vincent Gagliostro did go and took a few snaps.

Later,

Diane

Anne Pigalle

Dear Shaded Viewers,

When I was a designer in New York, more than once, I used the vocals of Anne Pigalle for my show music.

Later,

Diane

Maria de Medeiros at La Fondation Calouste Gulbenkian

Dear Shaded Viewers,

Over he weekend I went to see Maria de Medeiros perform A Little More Blue with her musicians, Pascal Salmon on the piano, Emek Evci, contrebasse, Edmundo Carneiro, percussions. Her album A little more blue will be out the beginning of February. Maria is a director, an actress and a singer. She played with Isabella Rosselini in a beautiful film, The Saddest Music in the World by Guy Maddin. Imagine Isabella Rossellini as Lady Helen Port-Huntley the head of a beer empire. All I'll tell you is glass legs filled with beer.

Maria and Sophie Caille
Carlos Torres showed his paintings and I asked him to stand in front of one of them. Years ago I was working on a tv pilot called Exotic Breed and interviewed him. The idea was to interview people that had left their countries and to see if there were similar characteristics between them. I don't know the statistics but I think it is something like 90% of the people never live more than I forget how many miles from where they were born. I never managed to sell it. I still think that it is a good idea, Maria was one of my subjects too.

The concert was pure delight full of warmth and simplicity. A beautiful woman with a beautiful voice. Sitting a few seats away from me was a young man that kept smiling at me. When the concert was over he asked me if I was who he thought I was. I told him my name was Diane. He had been sure that I was Martiria, an iconic Spanish singer from the 80's. I've heard it so much over the past few years that I knew immediately who he was speaking about. One day I will meet her and do a video interview with her and at a certain point I would ask some one to turn the camera on the two of us to answer the quetion, do we really look alike?

Later,

Diane

Photos by Carlos Torres

Goran Vejvoda reports on the classic music benefit for the International Foundation Vladimir Spivakov, chez Alaia on the 8th of November

Dear Shaded Viewers,

Photos by Goran Vejvoda

Later,

Diane

BENIAMINO MARINI REPORTS ON “JOAN AS POLICE WOMAN” SHOWCASE/CONCERT IN MILAN, LAST NIGHT AT “LA CASA 139”

Dear Shaded Viewers,

here a brief note about a delightful music event and a couple of energetic and powerful women I saw tonight at “La casa 139”, a sort of ex-squat just a few blocks from home, now one of the hypest places for concerts in Milan.

If you translate it in my language, the band’s name sounds more like a 70s soft porn italian comedy, “Giovanna la poliziotta”, but thank God it has nothing to share with that pictoresque style of our cinema. Indeed, Joan Wasser, with Rainy Orteca and Ben Perwosky, known as “Joan as Policewoman”, comes from Brooklyn, New York and offers to our ears such a brilliant mix of soul-punk music and extraordinarily touching lyrics.

First of all, Joan (who is 36) is so beautiful! Her voice is perfect. No wonder she was in “Antony & The Johnsons” band for a few years before joining Rufus Wainwright. She plays piano and guitar and used to play violin too. This first release, “Real Life”, can be either mellow and suitable for a slow dancing and first kiss, or powerful and angry (i.e. against Condoleezza and the US government, like in “Happiness” or in “Are you not furious?”). I had the opportunity to appreciate the songs in advance thanks to the CDs sent to me by my friend Veronique (everybody knows her as “Micro”), founder of Spin-Go, the independent labels’ embassy in Italy.

Enjoy Joan and her music on her website: joanaspolicewoman.com

Best,

BM

Swedish Band The Knife at La Locomative last night as seen by Shoji

While I was at dinner with Mario and Antoine, Shoji was enjoying The Knife.

Later, Diane

Liners Albies DJ's - 15 June

Marietta Vazquez y Pablo Crespo
www.lineasalbies.com

Sayoko's Robot Fantasy

Dear Shaded Viewers,

My friend Sayoko just posted her latest performace "Robot Fantasy" visit her site so you can enjoy her www.sayokoparis.net

Congratulations, Sayoko, I love it.

Later,

Diane

The Likes first Paris performance at the Charles Anastase after party

Sat 04/03/2006 22:03 DianePERNET(2028)

Cherry Vanilla and the Police 25 years ago today

Dear Shaded Viewers,

Just got in from my dinner at La Corte and found this in my post. Here is my friend Cherry Vanilla playing at one of my favorite clubs, the Roxy in l977. Great memories. Loved it, Cherry.

Later, Diane

I dreamed I was there in Hillbilly Heaven, oh, what a star-studded night: Glenn Belverio goes down to Nashville, Music City USA, the Athens of the South

Howdy Shaded Cowboys and Cowgals,

That portrait of Hank doesn't hang on the wall of some faux-honky tonk in NY's irritating Meatpacking District, where Grey Goose-addled Tara Reid look-a-likes bare their bosoms after maxing out their credit cards at Stella McCartney's boutique around the corner...oh, no no no Shaded Viewers, the spirit of Hank haunts the king of honky tonks at Tootsie's Orchid Lounge in downtown Nashville. I recently made a trip to the Country music capital for an assignment and to take in the sights and sounds of this historical American city. I didn't really hear anything as good as Hank Williams' "Your Cheatin' Heart" -- a record which still sounds avant-garde after fifty-plus years -- but there were plenty of other treats in store.

There sure is a lot of junk on the wall at Tootsie's, an accumulation of honky tonk history, with portraits of just about every country star who's ever mattered. You may recall the scene in Coal Miner's Daughter where Sissy Spacek as Loretta Lynn meets up with Patsy Cline, played by Beverly D'Angelo, which was shot at Tootsie's. You can meet some interesting characters here, like the guy who told me he was good friends with Johnny Cash. He said that in mid-90's, Cash had advised this man to stay away from drugs, and told this guy that at one point he was so hooked on heroin, he had an intravenous tube hooked up to his leg that ran up under his pants while he performed. Whenever Cash needed another fix there was a pedal on the stage, like a guitar pedal, that he stepped on to administer the dose. I'm not sayin' I believe this story, I'm just telling you what the man told me. Johnny Cash mania, thanks in part to Walk the Line, is everywhere in Nashville, but I was majorly disappointed that there were no Chairman Mao-style statues of the Man in Black standing sentry on Music Row.

This is the record store where Loretta Lynn performed a Patsy Cline song live on WSM when she first came to Nashville. In the back of the store is a shrine dedicated to this moment, including the Coca-Cola boxes she stood on so fans in the back of the store could see her as she sang. My favorite Ernest Tubb story is how he used to get drunk on his tour bus and fight with members of his band. As the bus traveled en route to the various gigs, he would fire various band mates and throw them off the bus in the middle of the night. A small van would always follow the bus so the ejected pickers (as the musicians are called)  could be collected and reunited with a more amicable Tubb at the next gig location. I plan on duplicating Tubb's antics during my book tour.

The honky tonks and barbeque pits of Lower Broadway. Due to the one hour time difference between Tennessee and New York, I was terribly jet-lagged, so I apologize for any photos that are out of focus.

I dubbed this girl the "hillbilly Edie Sedgewick". I caught her band, Silk and Saddle, at one of my favorite honky tonks on Lower Broadway, Layla's Bluegrass Hillbilly and Country Inn.

I loved Edie's bandmate, she reminded me of a model who had been abducted from a lingerie shoot by radical hillbilly musicians. She's like the Tania of underground country music. "I have chosen to stay and play."

The famous boots at Robert's Western World, another Lower Broadway honky tonk.

Here is my hotel, the Nashville Hilton, located on the banks of the Cumberland River. I had two rooms and a path to the outhouse. There was running water as long as I was willing to run and git it!

Just kidding. This is really where I stayed, the Wyndham Union Station Hotel, located in a former train station built in 1900. The lobby features a dramatic vaulted ceiling made of stained glass.

This is historic Printer's Alley, a tiny street where notable such as W.C. Fields used to come and party. On my second night in Nashville, a friend who works in the music biz took me out for a wild night of drinking, honky tonking and gay clubbing. Yes Virginia, they do have gay bars in Tennessee. And they're no different than the ones you'd find in Chicago, Shanghai or on Mars. We sure did drink us up a storm that night, but instead of Brokeback rotgut whiskey, it was more in the neighborhood of several rounds of mango mojitos, followed with a chaser of 5 or 7 dozen Jack Daniel's and Coke.

The red photo is from Bourbon Street Blues on Printer's Alley and the blue one is from, I think, a gay bar called the Chute, but it was all a blur at that point. I seem to remember dancing to a hi-NRG mash-up that combined "I Feel Love" by Donna Summer with "Folsom Prison Blues" by Mr. Cash. Someone handed me a tambourine and a fiddle on the dancefloor. Only in Nashville, kids, only in Nashville.

Just in case any honky tonkin' despots get any ideas about where to hide their WMD, the good ole boys of Nashville are two steps ahead of 'em.

No, I didn't hop into Doctor Who's Tardis for a jaunt to Greece...this replica of the Parthenon is located in Nashville's Centennial Park. Fans of Robert Altman's Nashville (a film that is still not readily embraced by some denizens of Music City) will recall that this is where Barbara Jean, played by Ronee Blakely, was assassinated while she sang at a political rally. Talk about leaving them wanting more.

There's even a replica of Athena inside, based on historical texts and the "artist's imagination." She certainly doesn't look like she'd be welcome at the Grand Ole Opry.

The controversial (and tacky) Musica sculpture, erected by the "Athens" crowd, at the foot of Music Row. A lot of country music people don't like this statue (it doesn't get rave reviews from me, either)....I mean, naked pagans frolicking in the buckle of the Bible Belt!? It just ain't right.

The Country Music Hall of Fame contains sacred relics such as turn-of-the century fiddles from the Appalachians and Dolly Parton's wigs.

The Mother Church of Country Music, the Ryman Auditorium. I can't tell you how excited I was to attend a performance of the Grand Ole Opry at this historic venue. Of course, I had fantasized about it so much, I was bound to be slightly disappointed. Visions of a recherche Hee Haw fantasia had danced in my head for months: legions of rhinestone-suit clad troubadors, holographic images of Hank and Cash projected on the stage, Karen Black in a red tulle ballgown, Dolly singing "Jolene", Loretta singing "Your Squaw is on the Warpath", Webb Pierce driving across the stage in his Nudie-designed Cadillac replete with steer horns, guns and a silver-dollar covered saddle, a seance with Minnie Pearl.....of course I got none of that. However, Porter Wagoner was on the bill and I was excited about that. He was a no-show.

As a consolation, I got Bill Anderson, who is an Orpy legend. In his Manuel jacket and white chiffon scarf, Bill was one of the best dressed performers on the bill. He's also a funny man. "I told my wife the other day - 'We've had some good years...unfortunately they were the tires on our car."

These wonderfully talented old-timers had me clappin' my hands and stompin' my feet. None of that modern hard rock-country crap for me.

Eye candy at the Opry! This strapping, corn-fed young man, who made sweet love to his harmonica, is a member of the buzz-heavy, Grammy-nominated Crabb Family. And they're a Christian gospel band! Whoever said it wasn't God who made honky tonk angels obviously didn't know this fella was headin' for the Opry. I was so entranced by his harmonica playing, that I tried to sneak backstage after the show.  When I got turned away, I clubbed one of the ushers who was dressed like Minnie Pearl, stashed her in a broom closet and put on her outfit. "Hoooowdee! I'm jes so PROUD to be here!" I exclaimed backstage, trying to blend in. I was swiftly given the bum's rush in bluegrass melody.

The Ryman's church pews emptied out quickly after the show....and somehow I made it out of there alive still in my Minnie get-up.....

Thank you for reading about my Nashville adventure. For a virtual honky tonk visit, I recommend the streaming music on The Cowboy Cultural Society.

Love, Glenn Belverio