Vermilion, Punks, Naked Women, and More: The Year in Review 2016
One of the gifts of this ol’ writing life is somehow being able to make a living by loving aspects of culture that are either obscure, subversive, glittery, or all of the above. This year in particular I was granted the opportunity to spend time with a few creators whose careers in one way or another exemplified these adjectives. These were the kinds of assignments where, if you told me I would have been doing them when I moved to the city nearly 6.5 years ago, I would have fallen over in joy and disbelief, or at least my jaw would have. I managed to hold it together, however, and produce a few works of which I was and am proud. Here they are.
A New, Online Chapter for Fashion Legend Patricia Field
Published on i-D
Editor: Rory Satran
This assignment arose after the wonderful Rory Satran mentioned she’d love an interview with the fashion icon, someone whose style and eye for the unusual I had admired for eons. I set the wheels in motion, and in a few weeks I was sitting in Field’s apartment, poodles, glass murals, and gold details and all. Pat is so kind and welcoming, and I love the throaty purr of her voice.
‘Please Kill Me,’ 20 Years Later
Published on Noisey
Editor: Dan Ozzi
The book Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk is regarded as a sacred text in my home, its holy makers authors Legs McNeil (co-founder of Punk magazine) and Gillian McCain. Sitting in McCain’s brownstone interviewing them is perhaps not just a highlight of my year, but my life. Many thanks to Dan Ozzi for giving me the opportunity to live out the daydreams I had as a fourteen-year-old.
The Ecstasy and The Ecstasy: Nikola Tamindzic’s Fucking New York (NSFW)
Published on Breed
Editor: Marius Troy
Writer Hannah Orenstein forwarded me photographer Nikola Tamindzic’s Kickstarter page for his book Fucking New York, a series of art/fashion images taken to represent a sexual relationship with the city. Upon seeing it, I knew I had to write about it somehow. I loved the freedom and abandon with which Tamindzic’s women posed in front of the lens, loved the color and sense of humor he created in each bawdy scene. Sometimes we forget to laugh at sex, but Tamindzic’s project is a fun reminder.
Eddie Peake Brings a Subversively Sexual Performance to New York (NSFW)
Published on i-D
Editor: Rory Satran
One on one, Eddie Peake is sweet and softspoken but his work speaks much louder and more determinedly, about relationships and sexuality specifically. I think his work is interesting because you can see him trying to understand and explore his feelings as you look at it. This piece felt like an exercise in knowing the person and knowing the work, and how the two are both separate and overlapping.
Four Times a Year, the Rolling Stones Sing the ‘Cocksucker Blues’
Published on Noisey
Editor: Dan Ozzi
Cocksucker Blues, the contraband Robert Frank documentary of the Rolling Stones’ 1972 tour, had hovered through my life under a shroud of mystery, regularly, deliciously out of reach until the opportunity of seeing a screening at the Brooklyn Academy of Music presented itself. Dan was, thankfully, game for the story and I was excited to be able to write about it for Noisey. I made my way to the theatre with a friend where we saw the film in all of its gritty glory; the experience was not unlike two teens sneaking into the liquor cabinet while their parents are away, then also watching the Rolling Stones get high afterward.
Miles Aldridge in an Instant
Published on Breed
Editor: Marius Troy
Sometimes you have an idea of a story you’d like to do, and then you set it in motion, and then..it happens, just as you planned. It seems simple, but the ‘happening as you planned’ part is magic. I’ve long loved the eerie, Technicolor dreamscapes Miles Aldridge creates (using mostly film, by the way!) so it was a rush to be able to interview him at the Steven Kasher Gallery for the opening of his new instant film exhibition there.
On the blog:
I have a blog where I write about living in New York called Miss Manhattan. Here are two posts I particularly enjoyed writing this year:
Miss Manhattan: This is the Only Place I Belong
I thrash wildly against the mere thought of suburbia. New York is the only place where I’m not weird, and for that reason I love it passionately.
Miss Manhattan: Rain and Gourmet Painkillers
Drenched post-rain with terrible heartburn and cramps? Time for some chocolate you can’t afford.
And last but not least, another proud moment of the year was when the reading series I host and curate, named The Miss Manhattan Non-Fiction Reading Series after my blog, was featured in The New Yorker. To say it was exciting and an honor would be a profound understatement. Come by for the next edition of the series on Monday, January 2 at Niagara in the East Village .
If you’d like to read more of my work, please visit me at elyssamaxxgoodman.com and miss-manhattan.com.
