Pledge Your Allegiance
2009.

The best thing about being a kid is that you could dress up in animal skin and corpse paint and it would still be cute. What to speak of a kid in a Suicidal Tendencies cap with the bill flipped up giving you the finger.

Photo: Angela Boatwright

Fortunate Teens Party with Morrissey, 1994
Derek Erdman, 2009

A seldom-told story about the King of Mope, as told by the artist:

Morrissey’s tour bus broke down in small town Ohio in the autumn of 1994. A full day was necessary for the repairs to be completed and Morrissey and his band delighted local teenaged fans by stopping by a house party to drink beer and smoke marijuana. “It was the time of my life,” remarks Tamara Marshall, who was hosting the party. “My parents were out of town and I was told not to have a party, but once Morrissey showed up I knew I wasn’t going to be a secret for long.” When asked what she remembered most about Morrissey’s visit, Tamara answered, “he didn’t like Rolling Rock beer.”

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Times Square
1961. New York City.

This photo comes via an amazing collection of New York City photos that compares specific locations as they appeared in 1961 to the way they are today. It proves something I’ve always believed about the city: some things change fast, and some things never change.

Phil Spector
1975.

Legendary producer Phil Spector — who has worked with everyone from the Beatles to the Ramones; the Ronettes to Leonard Cohen — was found guilty today of second-degree murder and faces 15 years to life upon sentencing:

In his closing arguments, prosecutor Truc Do told the jury that Lana Clarkson’s shooting was “a death waiting to happen in his world.”

“When he’s ignited, he always does the same thing — he grabs a gun,” the prosecutor said. “In every single one of these incidents, Mr. Spector demonstrates conscious disregard for human life.”

Oddly, the last record he’ll probably ever work on was Starsailor’s 2003 single “Silence Is Easy.”

Photo: Mark S. Wexler

The Ramp House
2009. Athens, Greece.

The architect wanted the ‘skateboarding’ element to be more than simply putting a mini ramp in the living room. Rather, the ramp, the bowl and all the interpretations of those terms would actually become the building elements for this space. It is intended to be a ‘ramp house’ and not a ‘house with a ramp.’

The street aesthetics of the skate scene are combined with a home atmosphere by combining concrete and wood. Concrete walls mould into the floor and concrete turns into wood to create a ramp partition with the kitchen. In that way, says the architect, somebody can flow from one space to the other, skating or walking.

Photo: Theo Vranas

Myrtle Avenue
2003. Brooklyn, New York.

“But I saw a street called Myrtle Avenue, which runs from Borough Hall to Fresh Pond Road, and down this street no saint ever walked (else it would have crumbled), down this street no miracle ever passed, nor any poet, nor any species of human genius, nor did any flower ever grow there, nor did the sun strike it squarely, nor did the rain ever wash it. For the genuine Inferno which I had to postpone for twenty years I give you Myrtle Avenue, one of the innumerable bridlepaths ridden by iron monsters which lead to the heart of American emptiness. If you have only seen Essen or Manchester or Chicago or Lavallois-Perret or Glasgow or Hoboken or Canarsie or Bayonne you have seen nothing of the magnificent emptiness of progress and enlightenment. Dear reader, you must see Myrtle Avenue before you die, if only to realize how far into the future Dante saw.”

— Henry Miller, Tropic of Capricorn, 1938

Photo: Peanambia