Sad—and also disturbing—news about DJ Kutmah, the popular record producer, visual artist and record spinner for the Dublab collective. Reports from the LA Weekly and elsewhere indicate that Kutmah, a.k.a. Justin McNulty, a British national born of a Scottish father and Egyptian mother, had been taken into custody by U.S. immigration officials last week and is being detained in a facility in New Mexico.
Kutmah was to be a part of Flying Lotus’ live band during a performance this week at the Echoplex, but obviously will not be able to attend the event. Over the weekend, news of his troubles began to make the rounds via Twitter. Fellow DJs J. Rocc, Flying Lotus and the Gaslamp Killer tweeted their support, urging friends and fans of Kutmah to sign an online petition on McNulty’s behalf and to add the above graphic to their Facebook pages.
Interview magazine has a long and fascinating interview with so -called “Club Kid Murderer” Michael Alig, subject of the film Party Monster. I met Michael when he was a student at Fordham University. I actually met him on the day I moved to New York, in November 1984. That night, at the Area nightclub, Michael physically pushed me into Andy Warhol. Welcome to New York!
At that time Michael was a smart, sweet and very attention-starved kid from Chicago. He was extremely charismatic, if somewhat amoral and cruel Although I was never the object of Michael’s cruel streak, I did witness it on several occasions. He didn’t seem to have a self-censorship mechanism in this makeup. He once stole a Nina Hagen cassette from me. I knew he did it for the sole reason that he was the only person besides me and my roommate to be in the apartment—since I had lived there. He brought it back, but blamed his then boyfriend who had never been in the apartment.
I shrugged it off and continued to have a cordial relationship with Michael over the years, but had not spoken to him in several years when the murder happened. The interview shows him contrite and sad about what happened, if overly optimistic about when he’ll get out.
Here’s an excerpt where interviewer Christopher Bollen asks about the infamous outlaw parties:
BOLLEN: That’s when you started doing the Outlaw Parties as promotion?
ALIG: That was a gimmick to get people to come to the clubs. Vito Bruno had done it before us, and I started doing mine with him so it wouldn’t seem like I was stealing someone else’s idea. People weren’t coming for the free drinks anymore, so Outlaw Parties were a great draw, which we always held suspiciously close to the club. When the bust happened, there would be 2,000 great people two blocks away, and we would have a surprise open bar for them, and the club would get a rush of people. It was a marketing tool.
BOLLEN: Where are some of the Outlaw Party locations you remember being most successful?
ALIG: Dunkin’ Donuts, the train bridge that is now the High Line, one of the piers. When the World was paying, we did one party at the Pitt Street pool. When the Red Zone was paying, we did one in a building that had recently exploded. It had been cordoned off with yellow police tape, and we did a party right inside the building.
BOLLEN: Walt told me you had one party in a crack house called ID that was off the Hudson River.
ALIG: It wasn’t a crack house. It was an abandoned building where some homeless people were living. Like a squat. We paid them in crack.
BOLLEN: So you made them into crack addicts.
ALIG: No, they were crack addicts before that. At first we gave them $100 to have the party there, but we noticed they would run out and buy crack with the money, so we just made it easier for them and gave them the crack.
Below: Club kids (including DM pal, James St, James) on the Donahue show:
The infamous “outlaw party” held in the Times Square McDonald’s which was recreated in Party Monster. This footage was shot by the late Nelson Sullivan (I was at this party, but am not seen in the footage).
Michael Alig interviewed by Christopher Bollen (Interview)
Australia’s 21.C, edited by Ashley Crawford, was probably the best magazine of the ‘90s—it was my favorite at least—and to be profiled in its pages and later to contribute to it, was an lot of fun for me.
21.C was the most unabashedly intellectual and forward-thinking journal that I have ever seen, anywhere. And it was a striking and beautifully designed product to hold in your hands. Each issue was finely crafted, I must say. To have my own writing published alongside the likes of Erik Davis, Mark Dery, Greil Marcus, Hakim Bey, Rudy Rucker, Bruce Sterling, R.U. Sirius and Kathy Acker was an honor. I also met Alex Burns via Ashley and Alex, of course, went on to edit the Disinformation website for many years.(I wrote about art for 21.C’s sister publication—also edited by Ashley Crawford—the quarterly glossy World Art. I know that I wrote an article about the product design of the Japanese pop combo Pizzicato 5, but I can’t remember what else.)
As all really serious dance music aficionados know, Los Angeles—specifically the east side—is becoming the epicenter of truly far-out, multi-layered, psychedelically-tinged new music. The weekly Low End Theory party, held each Wednesday at the Airliner, is the physical manifestation of this scene and features a world-renowned lineup of DJs, including The Gaslamp Killer, DJ Nobody (AKA Elvin Estela), D-Styles, Daddy Kev and Nocando. Another “high-flying” (cough) selector at the club is Flying Lotus, or Steven Ellison if you want to call him by his birth name. Flying Lotus is the scene’s international breakout star and features the likes of Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and Erykah Badu on his new album, Cosmogramma. (Ellison is profiled by August Brown in the Los Angeles Times).
The Airliner’s sound system boasts of 10,000 watts of amplification moving through 12 18-inch subharmonic drivers. This rib-rattling sound system is how music was meant to be heard. With speakers that powerful moving the air around the club they probably don’t need air conditioning. This Wednesday’s set features the Daly City Records Tour in addition to the resident DJs.
Low End Theory, Wednesdays @ The Airliner, 2419 N. Broadway, Lincoln Heights.
Photo: The Gaslamp Killer (a.k.a. William Benjamin Bensussen), left; Kevin Moo, founder of Alpha Pup records and Low End Theory; and DJ Nobody (Elvin Estela). Credit: Spencer Weiner / For the Los Angeles Times. You can download the Low End Theory podcast here.
Anti-piracy public service announcement from a group of “all star” pornies, including “hedgehog” Ron Jeremy, a bunch of sluts I’ve never heard of and Sarah Palin porn-a-like, Lisa Ann (I’m no fan of Palin’s but this woman looks like Sarah Palin maybe after she’s been hit in the face with a shovel).
This PSA will have perhaps less of an effect even than anti-marijuana messages, which is to say next to none. How many horny guys dialing up LubeTube will have second thoughts about stealing their product after seeing this? I’d wager zero is the winning answer to that!
Shakespeare’s immortal “To be, or not to be” takes on a whole new meaning (and medium) as classical stage and screen actors David Tennant and (recently-knighted) Sir Patrick Stewart reprise their roles for a modern-dress, film-for-television adaptation of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s (RSC) 2008 stage production of Hamlet.
The production will be presented on PBS by the Great Performances series on Wednesday, April 28, 2010, at 8 p.m. EST (check local listings). Immediately following the broadcast, the film will be available online in its entirety here on the Great Performances Web site.
Best known for his performance in the title role of the popular British TV series Doctor Who since 2005, Tennant made his debut in October as the host of MASTERPIECE CONTEMPORARY on PBS. His many other credits include his recent portrayal of Barty Crouch Junior in the big-screen blockbuster Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
With the new student at Riverdale High being the openly gay character, Kevin Keller, Dangerous Minds pal James St. James reminds us that Archie Comics have been gay for a while now…
Ah, my “Prince Charming” outfit is now complete! Pants from Spanish designer Isabel Mastache’s Fall/Winter ‘10 collection. More from the collection below:
A horse-drawn carriage led the coffin of Malcolm McLaren through the streets of London today. The coffin was black and spray-painted, “Too Fast To Live, Too Young To Die,” the name, at one point, of the former Sex Pistols manager’s King’s Road clothing shop.
In celebration of the impresario’s life, McLaren’s son (and Agent Provocateur founder), Joseph Corré, urged people to enjoy a midday moment of mayhem: “Put on your favourite records and let it RIP!” I’ll be playing this.
. (Ellison is profiled by August Brown in the 
