What the heck is the mother of Jesus doing at the Limelight? Well, this pic was snapped circa-1999, so she sure as heck isn’t looking for the latest LeSportsac or nibbling on “mini wedding gateaux made of, yes, candy” at the former Episcopal church’s recent incarnation as a mall. Oh, sorry, they’re calling it a marketplace.
Can we just go back to 1999, when the building on the corner of 20th & 6th was still an old-school (through admittedly drug-peddling) nightclub? That’s not really Mary, but yours truly, posing with a red-tailed boa constrictor named Girlsnake (if you look closely, you can see her laced through my fingers). FYI, she put herself there, it’s not like I tied her or anything…Could you tie a snake in a knot anyway? Talk about an exercise in futility, like trying to stop the world from becoming one big store.
Anyway, I was posing as Mary as part of my friend Michael Cerchiai’s (sometimes Tweaka Turner) art installation. I stood all reverent like that for an hour, which actually flew by. I heard people debating about whether or not I was real or not. “Look at the feet, though,” they said. “They’re too white.”
And, “Ewwww, a snake.”
Alas, I no longer have Girlsnake, or that dress, and Mike has up and moved to San Francisco anyway, so we won’t be doing a repeat performance. Sometimes you just can’t go back.
Music to say your Hail Marys by
Sunday Morning, The Velvet Underground
Sunday morning=church. Limelight=church. Limelight=opening party hosted by Andy Warhol in 1983. Velvets=hosted by Andy Warhol in 1969.
I Believe, The Buzzcocks
Apparently I missed the whole point of this song the first 500 times I listened to it. I like it better now.
Oh, Pune, that is a fabulous photo, and an even better memory. What a great experience. However did you achieve such a look of radiance and saintliness? I'm impressed.
ReplyDeleteI remember the Limelight, and went there on several occasions. Never took part in the drug debauchery, but I think its drugginess was probably no worse than other clubs. I suspect Limelight didn't pay the shakedown fees demanded of it.
I do like the snake entwined in your veil. Had to study it up close and then located it. It was akin to a reptile Where's Waldo?
As always, very good posting. Shows your free-spiritedness and free associating.
p.s. Thursday is Ascension Thursday. Went to my daughter's crowning of the real Mary's statue yesterday. It was so windy the floral crown blew away! Poor Mary was windswept.
Stephanie, thank you as always for your comments. And everyone reading this, can you tell she's my former editor?! A great one, too!
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