7-14-12 Survival Jobs for Writer-Musicians – Starter Job #147 (The Washington Squares - Early Visuals 3)

More visuals for my personal oral history of the Squares. . . here’s a pic of my best friend at the time, Stephanie Chernikowski, an old fashioned photographer who lived in a storefront on the Bowery and processed her own black and white images in her own self-made darkroom underneath her loftbed. The smell in her groud-floor, mostly sunless apartment was acidic, mysterious, and agreeable because my father had a darkroom in the basement and I loved those smells. Stephie took a fair amount of my boyfriend, Rick, and me for the Village Voice quite often. Tom called Stephie “The Silver Fox” because she grew her hair out naturally gray & white at an early age so that her face remained pretty & unwrinkled (she had merry brown eyes, too) but her hair was quite different from almost everybody we knew. She was fifteen years older than me, too.

Steph shot and wrote in the ‘80’s mostly for The Village Voice; her Getting and Spending columns always waxed poetic (like the one here, where she referred to the passing of Andy Warhol, one of her heroes).

Originally hailing from Beaumont, Texas -- like our idol, Janis Joplin -- Stephanie moved to Austin, the hip college town. For a brief spell, she taught at UT at Austin, her most notable English student being a freshman George W. Bush (“Dumb as a post,” she said, wondering how he ever managed to finish school, much less transfer to Yale). 

When Stephanie moved to NYC in her thirties, she wasn’t expecting to get involved in the downtown music scene, necessarily. Her oeuvre was country music and in the seventies the Lone Star Café was the best place to catch all kinds of Nashville and Texas musicians (George “Possum” Jones, Delbert McClinton, Merle Haggard, Tammy Wynette, etc.). Her other best friend, Martha Hume, wrote for Country Music Magazine and the like so she always had work.  Then, when CBGB’s opened and started up, because Steph lived two blocks away, it was a cinch to go out and get early photos of the Cramps, the Ramones, Debbie Harry, Patti Smith, Television, Tish & Snooky. . .and then she met me.

We got along famously -- for 20-plus years.

1-25-12 Survival Jobs for Writer-Musicians – Starter Non-Job #23 (Being Trixie. . . Knowing Your Rock Writer Pt. 1)

I love hanging around young people; their sense of self importance usually makes me giggle, although when in a darker mood I just want to roll my eyes and walk away. . . taking long walks are very therapeutic indeed.

I remember being young(er), but I don’t think I had too much of a sense of self importance, as my Catholic upbringing cautioned against thinking too much of yourself. Humility was a virtue; as was patience, compassion, and a vow of poverty, chastity, and obedience: none of these virtues were mine, and I’m still working on a few of the more appealing ones.

Do these kids want to hear about me playing pool with a very tall, shy, gangly Joey Ramone at CBGB’s? Or playing pool with a rather drunk Alan Lanier of Blue Oyster Cult in an Atlanta, GA, hotel barroom? Or watching/hearing Jonathan Richman jamming in a basement in Boston before he hit it big as a beloved solo cult artist? (I’m not a hotshot pool player but it does pass the time, and as for the Boston visit with Jonathan Richman, I felt awkward and excited and after having a small Greek salad and cranberry juice in a little dive diner with him, I threw up, in a bathroom.)

Ah, well, it all depends on who the audience or person is -- some younger people dig that whole “Spirit of ’76,” which is cool. Some people -- whatever their age -- are wiling to stop talking for a few precious minutes to let others get a word in edgewise, even to listen and learn a little something.

Most of my life, I ask the questions (I’ve done over a hundred interviews, mostly with music people) and I feel comfortable as the questioner. Still, it’s very flattering when others ask ME questions. In fact, I am indebted to people who are curious about others & their lives; I am especially indebted to younger people who ask me what NYC in the ‘70’s was like & that whole music scene.

Thanks to Lenny Kaye for interviewing a jejune young Trixie and using Lauren Agnelli in print. That was so sweet of him to make me “Know Your Rock Writer” in Rock Scene magazine (and for Stephanie Chernikowski to take that, and many other, cool pics of me back then).

Sure, my perspective is personal AND flawed, and I admit it! But it’s at least entertaining to me and, possibly, to others. If it’s good for YOU, thanks again for reading.

I’ll continue on 1-26-12 with a story about what it was like for me as Trixie A. Balm . . . and why I had to write.