Monday, January 18, 2010

Hobby Horses

James Parker: I’d say it’s about time that somebody did for the Catholics what Steven Beeber, in 2007’s The Heebie Jeebies at CBGB’s, did for the Jews.

Myself: Eh? I'm not convinced it's long overdue to be brutaly frank.

James Parker: Punk rock, argued Beeber, especially New York punk rock, is a Jewish thing -- in support of which contention he adduced the wit of Lenny Bruce, the poetics of Lou Reed, the dialectic of the Ramones (trust me, there was one), and the complex, fabricated libido of Blondie.

Myself: "Fabricated libido"? Did you ever see Debbie Harry on "Top of the Pops"?

James Parker: Pace Beeber, there was another socio-religious identity at work in New York’s 1970s underculture: Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe, like Jim Carroll and Andy Warhol, were tribally Catholic.

Myself: "As of course was sufferin’ Jack Kerouac, the grandaddy of them all, with his sacramental visions of homo viator." Why do I waste my time on this rubbish?

James Parker: And after reading Just Kids, Smith’s memoir of the life she and Mapplethorpe shared in pursuit of their respective vocations, you’ll be aware that this is something more than a coincidence.

Myself (sullenly): You appear to have crawled up your own backside; at least Mapplethorpe only ever stuck a bull-whip up his.

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