RAYMOND CHANDLER: THE PRIVATE EYE AS L.A. POET
Los Angeles may have found her Virgil in an Anglo-Irish-American detective novelist named Raymond Chandler (1888-1959). The character...
Ingrid Jensen
LEE MILLER: THE PHOTOGRAPHER OUT ON A LIMB
Lee Miller (1907-1977), from Poughkeepsie, led a full and adventurous life. Conde Nast sought her out as a...
R.I.P EVE BABITZ: THE QUINTESSENTIAL L.A. WOMAN
When Eve Babitz died on December 17, the light dimmed a bit in Los Angeles, the city she...
INSIDE THE WINDMILL WITH PHOTOGRAPHER LOU SMITH
The videos and photographs of Lou Smith have been tearing up YouTube and Instagram in recent years, launching...
ISABELLE EBERHARDT: RIMBAUD’S ‘DAUGHTER’
Patti Smith championed her, Paul Bowles translated her writings into English, but Isabelle Eberhardt (1877-1904) may be best...
RUTH UNDERWOOD: A MOTHER OF INVENTION
An integral part of Frank Zappa’s band the Mothers of Invention, Ruth Underwood stayed mostly in the background...
JEAN COCTEAU: THE POET AS PROPHET
Jean Cocteau (1889-1963) was the original boundary pusher. No creative urge was safe from his efforts. He was...
LOU REED AND VACLAV HAVEL, 1990: WHEN THE VU FUELED THE VELVET REVOLUTION
Lou Reed visited Czechoslovakia in 1990, months after the country was freed from Soviet rule. The writer and...
OSSIE CLARK: THE KING OF KING’S ROAD
When London was at its swinging-est, designer Ossie Clark (1942-1996) was the cock of the walk along King’s...
BECOMING TWIGGY: THE FASHION MODEL AS POP STAR
Hers was a face (and body) that launched a thousand quips but also made her the first fashion...
HEDI SLIMANE: THE DESIGNER WHO HAS RESURRECTED ROCK ‘N’ ROLL GLAMOUR
French clothing designer and photographer Hedi Slimane has turned the menswear world upside down by using rock ‘n’...
DIARY OF A DAMNED SOUL: THE ENDURING INFLUENCE OF ARTHUR RIMBAUD
It could be argued that the French poet Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891) was the first punk. Instead of using...
LUX INTERIOR: WHERE ON EARTH DID YOU COME FROM?
The Cramps’ frontman was impossible to miss, on or off stage, the perfect foil to his equally striking...
POISON IVY OF THE CRAMPS: UNCROWNED QUEEN OF ROCK ‘N’ ROLL
Poison Ivy Rorschach, lead guitarist, songwriter, arranger, producer and sometime vocalist of one of the greatest bands in...