New York Dolls
Photographs by Bob Gruen
Abrams Image ($24.95)
From hot pink satin cover to cover, Bob Gruen’s visual history of the New York Dolls is fabulous. From the nipples to the polka dots to the fuzzy animal prints to, of course, the platform shoes, the big haired, gender-bending aesthetic of the 1970s new wave punk band bleeds with rawness. Many of the shots are from live shows during the band’s heyday and exude the screaming, strutting angst that put the band on the musical map. Others show the boys prettied up for a day poolside or a prohibition-era style shootout. Even in the studio, the New York Dolls were dressed up, making their glam rock groove just another day in the lives of the musical legends.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
R, 98 min. (1975)
Rocky fans are sure to get their garters in a bunch when MTV and Sky Films release a joint remake of the cult classic. No cast details for the recently announced remake are available yet, but diehards are sure to ignore it anyway. For virgins who haven’t spent a night with Dr. Frank-N-Furter, the story goes like this: Brad and Janet get a flat tire in a rainstorm, ask the residents of a local castle for help and are thrust into a musical orgy with some intergalactic transexuals. You can find Rocky on DVD, but don’t cheat, the experience is best live and showings usually pop up around Halloween.
Velvet Goldmine
R, 124 min. (1998)
Before he saved the world as Batman or John Connor, Christian Bale played a tarty music journalist who followed the glam scene’s superstars Brian Slade (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) and Curt Wild (Ewan McGregor). The fictional story, based loosely on the relationship between David Bowie and Iggy Pop, is an androgynous good time with music from T Rex, Brian Eno and Roxy Music as well as modern day supergroups The Venus in Furs (Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, David Gray, Bernard Butler and Andy Mackay) and Wylde Ratttz (Ron Asheton, Thurston Moore, Steve Shelley, Mike Watt, Don Fleming and Mark Arm).
Santa Fe Reporter