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Teenage Michael Stipe attends ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’ in Frank-N-Furter drag, late 1970s


 
A local St. Louis news broadcast from the late 1970s about the fans of the then almost controversial horror-musical The Rocky Horror Picture Show at the city’s Varsity Theater.

At around the 1:25 mark, you’ll see future R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe, in his best Frank-N-Furter drag, talking to the camera about the film.

“We’re all quite normal, really” sez the young Mister Stipe…

The clip is not dated, but seems likely to have been taped around the period while Stipe was living nearby with his family, across the Mississippi River in Collinsville, IL (home of the world’s largest catsup bottle) before moving to Athens, GA where he would meet the other members of what would become R.E.M. at the University of Georgia.

Win a Blu-ray of the new documentary R.E.M. by MTV from Rhino here.
 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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06.03.2015
02:25 pm
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What? You’re the world’s biggest REM fan but you haven’t visited Michael Stipe’s awesome Tumblr yet?
09.09.2013
11:55 am
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Michael Stipe's Tumblr
 
True, Michael Stipe is no longer in REM, but he’s still artistically active—most publicly on his stimulating Tumblr page. It’s called “Confessions of a Michael Stipe” or, in Tumblr-speak, confessionsofamichaelstipe. If Tumblr’s archive module is to be believed, he’s been running it since January 2011, and he posts incredibly frequently—I would estimate well over 100 posts a month. Many of the pics he posts focus on high art or experimental art, but there’s plenty of music and movie imagery as well.

It’s decidedly NSFW—there are plenty of pictures of the beautiful male figure in all its glory—but it’s simply a very high-quality Tumblr. Prominently featured right now are original one-sheets of Fellini Satyricon and Antonioni’s Zabriskie Point (both from Stipe’s collection), Valentin Serov’s painting Portrait of the Italian Singer Angelo Masini, a Marianne Faithfull album cover, a photo of Brigitte Bardot, and a painting by Winston Chmielinski.

In the archives you can see patterns. In July 2012 he was posting about George Herriman’s Krazy Kat, in December 2012 he was all into Kate Moss. On August 5 he posted an amusing sequence consisting of several b/w images with the blue label “I DID THIS FIRST MICHAEL STIPE” superimposed over them.

In among the high-quality artsy-fartsy pics you’ll glean new bits of information about Stipe you may not have known before. For instance, you’ll see pics of

the first three records that i purchased, and with my own money (to boot)

deep purple “hush”  (na na na nahh na na nah, na na na na na nahh)

glen campbell ”galveston”  (hand written name, taken w/me to summer camp)

van morrison “brown-eyed girl”  (also my first 4”flexi/hip-pocket record)

In this video with Tumblr Storyboard, Stipe discusses the “confessional” side of his Tumblr as well as the sculptures he’s been working on for the last several years.

 
via Fluxtumblr

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
70s Michael Stipe in drag at ‘Rocky Horror’
Michael Stipe’s pipe!

Posted by Martin Schneider
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09.09.2013
11:55 am
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Michael Stipe’s pipe!
09.21.2011
04:31 pm
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And speaking of nude rock stars...

It was announced today that R.E.M. broke up. Truth be told, I thought they broke up years ago, so that tells you what I know, but the timing was curious, coming as it did as Michael Stipe decided to post naked pictures of himself looking like a meth-head denizen of one of those sleazy motels on Sunset Blvd.

What gives? I’ve read that these shots are supposed to be some sort of “art project” but it looks more like pics from a Craig’s List ad or his Grindr profile, doesn’t it???

See much more of Stipe’s NSFW “pipe” at BuzzFeed.

 

 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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09.21.2011
04:31 pm
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70s Michael Stipe in drag at ‘Rocky Horror’

 
Thanks, Marc Campbell!

Posted by Tara McGinley
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06.03.2010
02:12 am
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