Nightclubbing Diaries 1978 -1988

Now that the Soul Jazz Book is out on the stands-
looking good on top shelf of Logos in Parco complex Shibuya yesterday,
and the Black Dog Pub. No Wave book out either now or soon -
today my post is about our 'Book' - Nightclubbing Diaries '78 -'88 ...
I think it will be a good read.
Good ?
for one , you will be reading stories you've never heard ( who was out, who did who , who did what)
for two , I was there.
Having promised myself at around 17 that I would use every 24 hour , 86,400 seconds a day cycle to push forward as best I can , these accounts of the highs and lows , flows of this seminal period will be illustration of what happens when one happens to be in the right place at the right time.
for three , by now I see the '80's period as being just as important as any of the old art movements we have heard / learned about in our lifetimes.

I mean , my own experience took in 70's glam , 'punk' , post 'punk' , art and performance of many (then) emerging kinds
into the informational , digital 'Third wave' of cyberpunk projects from '84 - '88.
With long roots in pre -'78 - for example my own father's work at the Pentagon on what was then called the Monet -
carrying through to post '88 waves of change- ie: from Music videos to Laser Discs through CD Rom to Web and network based creations.

Nightclub Diaries:
Book ( the original diaries plus footnotes/ full stories elaborated , ' words on a page' plus photos) -
DVD (plus music and more photos selected from other photographers) -
Movie ( some of the stories are that good, and the settings , clubs certainly are worth recreating for the people who were not there to see ; and I'm not talking about an MTV type 'virtual ' jaunt through LES !)

Lastly, while these are my actual diaries , I don't see it as only 'my story' or about only 'me'.
There was a cast of dozens, hundreds who had similar experiences , times and tribulations
and it's really all of our story.

>> end of No wave /post punk /proto electro -techno - mega art / video art / early CG art / virtual reality <<
Mudd Club , Tier 3 , Danceteria , Pyramid Club , Area , Paradise Garage
Futants , Ike Yard, Dominatrix , Death Comet Crew , Will To Power , Voodoists , black rain
downtown 8mm filmmakers , New wave Vaudeville , Madonna , Circus Mort , William Gibson , Bruce Sterling ,
SRL , Sogo Ishii , R Longo , Gretchen Bender , Sean Young , Seiko Mikami , Syd Mead , Jack Womack
DC , NYC
but also 1987 Tokyo , Osaka , Kyoto , Hong Kong Walled City Of Kowloon

Can hear the opening soundtrack tune now ... Nightclubbing from Iggy's The Idiot '77

We will put out a few proposals to publishers in Feb./ March
and will let you know how it progresses here

Cheers 2008
From Tokyo

Tokyo - Saitama - Omiya feeling

Been here in Tokyo for a week now , jet lags gone , chilly to cold.
Fugu , varieties of sake , oden , ramen , soba - in one end and out the other.
An offer of a taiko drum jam with this old cat from Omiya -
and actual jam session last night with Masami Endo on acoustic guitar and Tana on drum.
Excellent 4 hour world enviornmental crisis show on TBS the other night;
Sad head shaking scenes of apes being carried out of burnt Borneo forests still smoking ,
big moon dish face looking at the camera bewildered as blood trickles down from below an eye,
young actor Fujiwara staring stunned in bright sunset at the 'end of the world' feeling out on the dry salted Aral Sea basin
with beached old rusty ships on their sides ,
Another Japanese crying on the edge of the pent up glacier melt lake besides Imja Glacier in the Himal ,
a place I could recognize easily having been there in 2000 .
That lake will burst some fine day or night , probably drowning the unlucky or at least destroying some of the Nepalese villages he's met on his trip up into high altitude...
In the Arctic , a round hole of open water between Alaska and Bering Straight , ice floes hollowed and ponded with fresh melt.
Huge polar bear fighting viciously with chained up sled dog the bear is trying to eat ...

Having a fine , low key trip
Somehow it's been feeling like just another week happening a world away from a place currently called home.
Next week each nights dinner is booked, only afternoons left.
The 12th - 15th we will be in Kyoto.
A friend is setting up a party at a small bar in Shibuya for the 18th
We return to NYC on the 24th