Jim Morrison by Joel Brodsky at the Morrison Hotel in New York.
Only in my life could a place called the Morrison Hotel be located on Prince Street (my two favorite singers of all time)! The Morrison Hotel is not just a place – it’s an amazing art gallery that has all kinds of amazing rock and roll ephemera and their current exhibit (at the location on 124 Prince Street) is one of the late Joel Brodsky, who captured so many iconic images of Jim Morrison. You are probably familiar with the images, but when you see the prints blown up, you might wet yourself as I did. The photos look like they were taken yesterday and they are simply stunning to feast your eyes on. Since the photos are copy written, I was allowed to take gallery view shots and present them to you. If you are a fan of The Doors, you owe it to yourself to catch this exhibit – it will really light your fire. Check the Morrison Hotel Gallery website for more details.
See some more of Joel Brodsky’s amazing photos after the jump.
Mr. Brainwash has done it again. On the heels of his extremely successful Icons art show in New York, he’s remixed the exhibit. For those who have already seen this exhibit, you are going to have to go back and see all the changes. The top floor is completely different. The pieces have been traded out for newer models. The Madonna wall, the Matchbox taxi and the extremely large paint can are still in tact, but the images above and below (and many more) have been added to the exhibit. Gone from the bottom floor are the Iconic rock stars made out of broken vinyl record pieces and instead the exhibit has become interactive where cans of spray paint are left out for visitors to make their own art on the walls of the gallery! I attended the exhibit on opening day as I did for the initial “Icons” exhibit and like the first time, it was quite a scene. The first 300 people received a free “Charlie Chaplin Love” print, hand signed by Mr. Brainwash and people lined up as early as 6 o’clock in the morning to get their hands on MBW’s latest work. The print distribution system was slightly better organized than the February opening, but it was still mayhem as New Yorkers stood outside on an extremely windy and cold day. Mr. Brainwash got a chance to mingle during the opening and he was gracious enough to autograph a few pictures that I took of him during the February opening. Once again, he was super nice and he was pretty impressed by my photography skills as he made the comment to me during our encounter. There’s been quite a bit of controversy about MBW in the art world as the movie Exit Through The Gift Shopis being regarded as “Banksy’s biggest prank,” but the great thing about the film is that you can judge for yourself after you see it. Either way, I am one of the many that’s been Brainwashed.
As many of you already know, I love all types of music, but one of my favorite bands of all time is The Doors. When I found out I would be attending the first New York screening of the new documentary, “When You’re Strange,” directed by Tom DiCillo, I could barely contain my excitement. I have been eagerly awaiting this documentary since a trailer surfaced on the internet about a year ago. I have to say, the film is AMAZING! There is no filler. There are no conspiracy theories. There is no Oliver Stone Doors mythology. Instead, it’s literally footage of the band – on stage and off – comprising the entire movie. Johnny Depp narrates the film and while some of his expressions are a bit over the top, it does not detract from making this the best ever film about The Doors. The footage in “When You’re Strange” is not just the same stuff that makes it’s way into every Doors release either, but you will find some of that appears as well. The fact that this footage exists at all is pretty amazing since technology in the late 1960s was nowhere near what it is today. As a Doors die-hard who has seen it all, there was so much stuff in the film that was new to me. When the film started with crystal-clear footage of the still unreleased Jim Morrison film “HWY” (directed by Paul Ferarra), I just kept thinking “I cannot wait until this is released on DVD because I must own this film immediately!”
For someone that knows all the music by heart and has read every book possible about Jim Morrison, “When You’re Strange” made me see Jim Morrison in an entirely new light. Jim had the “it factor” oozing from all his pores and whether you like his music or not, I think the candid footage in this movie could convert the non-believers into the church of Jim. Jim Morrison obviously burned out too quickly and because of that, his tremendous gift and intelligence are so often over looked. The guy read (and understood) William Blake and Rimbaud at the age of 16, wrote down the lyrics of “concerts that he heard in his head” by his early 20s and was a world famous sex symbol by the age of 24. Even under societal pressure and under the influence of drugs and alcohol, the guy still wrote the lyrics for 6 albums worth of music, performed hundreds of concerts, wrote 3 poetry books and directed a film in the short span of 4 years, and all before his death at age 27. By age 27, where were you in life? People thought of him as a fool for “messing his life up,” but who is the bigger fool – a person that questions every possible convention and authority publicly or a person who is a slave to the system because they don’t take a chance to see what the possibilities are?
“When You’re Strange” opens in major markets across the country today and I strongly encourage you to see it. It’s playing at the world famous Angelika theater in New York for those interested.
After the screening, I met director Tom DiCillo and he was super cool. Thanks Tom, not only for being really nice, but for making this movie which I cannot wait to see over and over again! I asked him what the reaction has been from the die-hard fans and he said it’s been very positive. The band has embraced the film as well. He mentioned that they used all the footage they had, so there probably won’t be any additional footage when the DVD is released; however, with all the rare and unseen footage that is featured in “When You’re Strange,” fans new and old are going to cherish this movie as the ultimate visual document of a band whose music is as infinite as the William Blake quote from which The Doors got their name.
The period of 2000-2009 saw the re-release of some of the greatest music of all time, packaged with superior sound, deluxe liner notes and bonus tracks. After the jump, see my thoughts on the greatest reissues of the decade.
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