As you can probs guess from our name, Bedford + Bowery is all about uniting the neighborhoods on either side of the Williamsburg Bridge and the L line. But East Village musician and artist Adam Green has another idea. Earlier this month, we spoke to him at the Newsroom after a screening of How to Act Bad, a documentary that follows the singer-songwriter over the course of two years of touring Europe, getting cozy with the Shining Twins and dabbling in ketamine and DMT. Green told us, “I tried this virtual reality helmet the other day. Have you ever tried this? Oculus? I feel like it’s going to bridge the divide between these two neighborhoods.” According to Green, we could all be chilling in a French chateau instead of wondering whether life is better on the other side of the bridge. “When they took the helmet off of my head, I didn’t want to go back,” he said.
Watch the rest of the discussion between Green and the documentary’s director, Dima Dubson, above.
If you caught our screening of How to Act Bad last week, then you know some of the documentary’s most memorable moments were Adam Green’s steamy liaisons with The Shining Twins, Alex Weiss and Marisa Kreiss. The punk-pop duo just put out a video for their old song “Pyscho,” originally recorded by Loren “Ted” Humphrey (of Guards) at his studio in Bushwick. The depiction of the rock-n-roll life, by puppet maker Amber B Dianda and filmmaker Kirk Dianda, is short and sweet, and features a disturbing amount of spaghetti vom. Enjoy!
Nightclubbing + a discussion with the filmmakers and musicians
Consider this a killer warm-up to next week’s CBGB Festival. Pat Ivers and Emily Armstrong spent the late ‘70s filming performances at places like CBs, Mudd Club and Danceteria, and amassing an archive that’s currently being digitized for the NYU Fales Library’s Downtown Collection. Readers of Bedford + Bowery have seen clips from Richard Hell and the Voidoids, the NYC debut of the Dead Kennedys, and even Iggy Pop covering Sinatra. On Friday, you’ll see rare gems from the Nightclubbing archive like you’ve never seen ’em before — on the big screen, with the sound turned up. After the screening, Ivers and Armstrong will chat with Richard Boch, an artist and writer currently working on a memoir about his nearly two years working the door at Mudd Club, and Pat Irwin, a founding member of The Raybeats and Eight Eyed Spy who later joined The B-52s and currently scores TV shows and movies for Showtime, HBO, and others.
All events at the Bedford + Bowery Newsroom, 155 Grand, off of Bedford Ave.
