chug it!

hey, what's better than those candid black and white shots that reveal the hedonistic goings-on at studio 54? and this is a great shot to illustrate what i mean. its seems like, whoever happens to be pictured, celebrity-wise, seems to illicit the response, "...well, of course they were there." like, if you tried to make up a group of celebs who'd be hobnobbing at studio 54, no matter how mismatched the group seemed to be, you'd still believe they were actually there together. like, if someone told you they had a photo of tatum o' neal, gore vidal, divine, and a naked dude, you'd be like, '...sure, okay.' or like, perchance the grouping of bianca jagger, olivia de haviland, joey dellesandro, lou reed, and a tiger cub, you'd be like, "...i'm not even blinking." in THIS photo, it looks like we have bianca jagger, andy warhol, jerry hall... and are those last two people like, calvin klein, and lulu...? yeah, i'll bet THAT was a wild night that absolutely nobody remembers. i can't lie, though... part of me would love to have been there. coke it!

liza!

okay, this is just for fun... like 'comic strip,' of sorts. i found the picture, then i found myself 'captioning' it. hey, i have great respect for liza. she's a firecracker. but the whole studio 54 thing, i find it all very fascinating. like, if you wanted to get a picture of two people who'd never under any circumstances be in a photograph together, then all you had to do was get them inside of studio 54, and -snap!- you've got your photo. like, for instance... do you want a photo of Divine and Tatum O'Neal...? no problem, just get them inside that club. what's that you say? you want a candid pic of Normal Mailer, Liz Taylor, Jacques Cousteu, and an anonymous 'almost-nude-dude?' just get them inside those doors. so hey, here's my little '54'-fied comic strip.

truman show

i think this picture is hilarious... i don't know why, i just do. i've you've visited 'planetcool' recently, you may have noticed i dig shots of celebrities caught 'unawares' at the legendary Studio 54. so, a few nights ago, i found this shot of the talented and eccentric novelist truman capote collapsed in some kind of bathrobe garment alongside an unlikely female starlet. does he have on like, bedroom shoes and a straw hat?? whatever you think you look good in, man. he looks like he doesn't want to be recognized if he can help it. good luck, i mean, you're truman capote. and what's with the sleek and sexy carrie fisher-resembler sitting there? was she hoping to turn on his 'straight' side or something? i have only two words for her: lost cause. seriously, he looks like he was shanghai'ed as he stepped out of his shower at home and just dumped there. and what do you suppose could be in that big white bag? party-enhancing chemicals? some brilliant manuscript brought there purely by accident and used to make confetti for when the white horse and rainbow-painted twinks prance out? who knows. still, i know i might be alone in this one, but i think the picture is a scream. (oh, and just to give truman some due credit; i've read 'in cold blood,' and i thought it was some very daring and spare poetic genius. a lethal, potent piece of storytelling. really effective stuff... but that doesn't mean this picture isn't hilarious.) click to enlarge.

jack and 'jelica

okay, i know i've posted a lot of 'celebrity' picksh lately; not to mention a goodly share of anjelica huston picksh, but i figured one more couldn't hurt. i think this one might also be a 'studio 54' shot. but i think its quite good. i mean, jack looks good, and anjelica looks gorgeous. i like the angle, i like the contrast, i like the flower in her hair. i don't really know too much about their relationship like, factually... but in this shot, it sure looks like they're into eachother. i don't know if they ever had a child. but wow, they sure look good together. man, i don't know if i'll ever go 'clubbing' again. even if i had the opportunity, i don't know if i could manage the energy. plus, you have to shout all the time, and worry about 'where the hell is my purse?' and i don't like that feeling that can best be described as, '...i danced too hard to that last song, and now i honestly can't tell if i'm three seconds away from dropping the vom-bomb.' and i don't really like not having zero control over the music. and it gets hot in there, man. and i can truthfully claim that i've never had sex in a club. but considering my behavior through much of the '90's, that's purely accidental. (click to enlarge)

more 54

i love this shot. it looks like it was just taken a few moments after another studio 54 shot i posted recently. let's see... it looks like we've got the designer halston on the far right, getting a completely anonymous and risky liplock from some disco 'shim' leaning down into the shot. i wonder if he's gonna remember that in the morning? and then, we've got the exotic miss bianca jagger with only two thoughts going through her mind. the first thought: '...damn, where can i get some more coke?' and the very next thought: '...my hair!!' then we've got the facially-challenged artistic ...genius? andy warhol, with a rare smile on his face. perhaps he just realized he could xerox and color-tint his parking valet ticket stub and sell it for a zillion bucks. and in the background is the chronically-happy miss liza minelli with some bearded dude i don't recognize. hey, it looks like an average night for the folks at the good ol' Studio 54. (and i like that heavily-made up, androgynous, robot-like profile intruding from the bottom right hand corner. i wonder where that dude is today?) (...mmm, 'starbucks' general manager.)

jerry lights up

yeah, i think this might be another shot taken inside the weird and fabled

'studio 54.' i love almost any studio 54 picture. i tried to find that shot of bianca jagger riding a white horse through the discotecque. (mmm, i wonder if the 'white horse' symbolized anything...? (mmm, sniffety-sniff...!) this one is almost cliche, considering the stars are none other than andy 'white bangs' warhol, and jerry 'hey, i'm just glad to be here, ya'll...!' hall. he's lighting her fire. and i'm guessing that was probably the only female fire he bothered to light that night. she looks wonderful, though. she's living proof that southern girls can at least look sophisticated. i look at her gorgeous flowing hair, long legs, strong cheekbones, and fine teeth, and i can't help but wonder what kind of 'deep-south-livermush-and-biscuits collard-greens-and-grits' type foods she ate growing up. and hey, i'm not bagging on that kind of food... i grew up on that stuff myself. and, for what its worth, i have been to the 'studio 54' of my own mind.

54

so, again, this might be the only thing i post tonight. but since its crazy friday night (saturday morning) i thought i'd post this cool shot from the powdered-sugar days of studio 54. man, the mid-90's movie they made about the place was pathetic. there was so much potential there for an incredible visual experience, and it was just about the most flaccid thing i've ever seen on the big screen. (it was right up there with 'memoirs of an invisible man.') i wish ken russell had been able to get his hands on it, and made it a rock musical or something. anyway, this shot shows, from left to right: halston, the designer, bianca jagger in the middle, and little miss snowflake liza minnelli on the far right. man, i think spending the night inside that place, (in its heyday) would've been exhausting. but i dig the pic. nightlife, man. at 36, i think i'm too old for that stuff. i honestly don't think i could keep up. i'd be back in some room on some plush sofa with ice against my chest, begging for some kind of 'downer.' the club scene? you can keep it. in the words of the immortal fagin, from 'oliver!' : "...i'd rather sleep, anyway." (and no, i didn't photoshop that dot on bianca's face... it was already there.)