My Town: Phoenix
A Power Publicist's Strong Pitch For The Desert City
Mark Palmen is one of the great champions of fashion’s irreverent and unconventional types. For 10 years he worked as PR Director for the queen of them all, Vivienne Westwood, before moving on to support the next generation of style provocateurs -- like Daryl K, VPL, Gary Graham, Southpaw*Pawe.wa, and Imitation of Christ. It was Palmen who produced IOC’s earliest and most buzzed-about fashion shows/theatrical performances, such as the funeral-parlor presentation, the Sotheby’s auction, and who could forget the reverse fashion show, in which editors were herded along the runway to RuPaul’s “Supermodel,” while the actual models sat front-row discussing how much weight everyone had gained? It was, as Palmen often refers to things: “Genius.”
So, to hear the Seattle native discuss Phoenix, Arizona – where his family has had a vacation home for the past 20 years – you’d think the guy had been hired by the mayor to work his magic. After all, this city isn't known for its exciting culture. It is, however, known for its blistering heat. In the summer, temperatures average well over 100°F, making it the hottest city outside the Middle East. Yet Palmen believes it’s on the brink of greatness.
“Because it’s such an inexpensive city and so beautiful – you have the hills, the sunsets – there’s a whole art scene emerging, and people are just starting to discover it,” says Palmen, who spends three months a year there, working on his “true love,” his art. “It’s a series of silk-screened and beaded fairytales,” he explains of it. “It’s all about growing up and realizing your dreams are just that, and you have to go play the lotto.”
As for Phoenix, here are his favorite things about it:
The Kusama Room at The Phoenix Art Museum
“Yayoi Kusama is this 80-year-old Japanese artist, who was big in the New York art scene back in the‘60s. She lives in a crazy-person home in Japan, and every morning she gets in her car and drives 30 feet to her studio, and in the evening, gets back in her car and drives 30 feet back home. She does these mirrored “infinity rooms,” and The Phoenix Art Museum commissioned her to do one for them: “It just opened, and it’s really a unique experience. It has tons of mirrors and fairy lights that cover the ceiling and change from red to blue to green.”
“The costume department at the museum is also really interesting. For years it went unpromoted, until Dennita Sewell -- who worked at The Met for ages -- recently became the director. They have like 5,000 - 10,000 pieces, from 18th C. France to modern years.”
Durants
“It’s this really old restaurant. The waiters have worked there for years – they’re as old as the restaurant and they walk around in wrinkled tuxedos. It has a really great bar. It’s a proper old-school steakhouse – you walk in through the kitchen.”
First Fridays
“It’s the big social event. It happens the first Friday of every month and it’s been going on since the ‘80s. All the art galleries downtown – like 30-40 different places – stay open late. Bands play on the front yards. Artists clean up their apartments and turn them into galleries. It’s really funny, and everyone turns out for it. It’s become one of the biggest art walks in the country.”
Passage
“It’s a new boutique, specializing in unique products and labels. They carry Gary Graham and Kai Kuhne. They have a ton of limited-edition artist T-shirts. They also have these finger puppets that I’m really into.”
Casino Arizona
“It’s really a trip. There are all sorts of weird people – it’s great for people-watching. If I’m not by the pool, I’m at the casino. I play the slots and blackjack.”
TT Roadhouse
“It’s a biker bar – total dive. But it’s really fun.”
Valley Ho
“It’s the new funky boutique hotel. It’s like The Standard with its whole ‘60s-modern gist. The James is also a hip hotel. Their bar, J Bar, is pretty much the hotspot – everyone goes to see and be seen.”
Go There:
Phoenix Art Museum, phxart.org
Durants, 2611 North Central Avenue, Phoenix; (602) 264-5967
First Fridays, artlinkphoenix.com
Passage, passage4400.com
Casino Arizona, casinoaz.com
TT Roadhouse, 2915 N 68th St, Scottsdale; (480) 990-9033
Valley Ho, hotelvalleyho.com
The James, jameshotels.com
His Assessment: “I like to videotape everything.” Fortunately for him, the phone can hold two hours of footage on its removable memory card, which he imports to his computer and edits. Of the video quality, Casey asserts, “It’s not just good, it’s good enough.”
Hunter Barnes has carved out his career by knocking on the doors of society’s most marginalized -- gang members, maximum-security prison inmates, citizens of an Oregon outlaw community called Sammyville, to name a few -- and asking to take their picture. He’s even been known to live with them for extended periods, to gain their trust and capture them naturally. Either the 28-year-old photographer has no fear, or he hides it well.
This week, Milk Gallery will exhibit Barnes’ biggest solo show to date, with photos from the past five years. For $1000, you could go home with a 16x20 portrait of Sammy, Sammyville’s 90-year-old namesake rebel, grinning big with ill-fitting teeth, and a .44 pistol aimed right at you. “That guy – he’s the banker, the preacher, the mayor – he runs that town,” says Barnes.
Since then, he’s spent time with the Ni Mii Pu tribe of Lapwai, Idaho; a bunch of bikers in New York, the low-riders of New Mexico, inmates of Corcoran State Prison, and members of the East St. Louis Bloods. And the experiences haven’t always been chummy.
Then there’s the experience at Corcoran State Prison, a maximum-security slammer in California. Barnes spent two hours in the prison yard with the inmates. The warden’s last words: “Watch your back.”
It took us a couple days to stop spewing milk through our noses every time My Ass jeans was used in a sentence. Our favorite was when the spokeswoman of the two-year-old Italian brand politely informed us: “If you have any other curiosity about My Ass, just let me know!” 
Adding -- in their own words -- “a touch of weird to the party” this season, the My Ass team has collaborated with “eccentric” cartoon/manga illustrator Saburo Ito. The result is a good dose of wacky, high-end erotica, like a pair of knickers with buttoned butt-flaps. “He likes experimenting, and pushing his designs to the limit,” explains My Ass rep Jessica Costa. Further proof of that is their spring ad campaign: Shot by Ito, the racy black-and-white photos were banned by every European magazine, except the Italian-street-style publication Pig. Enter your own joke here. 
To hear The Chapin Sisters perform their moody, lovelorn songs in heartbreaking three-part harmonies -- and to see them, with their milk-fed complexions, swathed in floaty white lace -- you’d think someone sprinkled pixie dust in your drink. Certainly, you weren’t still in a Lower East Side bar on a cold night in 2006, but rather, you’d been transported to a sunny, dandelion-filled meadow circa 1977.
Comprised of Abigail and Lily Chapin (the “early-twenties”-aged daughters of Grammy-award-winning folk singer Tom Chapin), and their half-sister Jessica Craven (the “early-thirty” daughter of scream-king Wes Craven), the L.A-based band mixes feel-good folk with a wicked sense of humor and an undeniable coquettishness to create a wholly modern sound. Even their coordinated ‘70s-style ethereal dresses, paired with suede boots and long shiny hair, look like something off Chloe’s spring runway.
“When the three of us sing together, something magic happens,” admits Lily, who worked in film production until two years ago, when, like her sisters, she was lured away from her day-job by the music. (Abigail had been working in costume design at Nickelodeon; and Jessica, screenplay writing.) It was a spring weekend spent in a friend’s studio recording enchanting covers of Soundgarden’s Black Hole Sun, Culture Club’s Do You Really Want To Hurt Me, and that big hit by Britney, which converted them all into professional crooners. 
Now, singing all new self-written songs, the Chapin trio are luring a fashionable cult following from L.A. to Austin to NYC, where Libertine’s Cindy Greene and designer Cynthia Rowley showed up to hear them play.
There are now 12 locations throughout Seattle, Portland, and L.A.; and the 13th – a more grown-up, appointment-friendly version called Rudolph’s – will bow in L.A. on April 15th . And the Ace Hotel, which Calderwood and partners opened in a Seattle flophouse in ’99 (a second locale will open in Portland, OR this coming August), brilliantly mixes minimalist design with street art. All for no more than $189 a night.
Neverstop, his genius is also seen in everything from Heavy, a must-have coffee-table tome in which contemporary artists reinterpret classic-rock album covers, to the double-decker Luella Bartley-for-Target bus that recently parked itself on a downtown New York side-street and caused a minor shopping frenzy.
The Cha Cha Lounge
Pike Place Market
Dick’s
Maximilien
Golden Oldies
“The way to go is mix new and old. Basically because most of today’s gadgets are just status symbols, and the only people who look at them are the kind I’d never want to talk to.
“The 
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The fact that Swedish denim brand 
“I’ve always been that bad campfire singer,” admits longtime rock photographer Mark Seliger, who has lately led a double life as the frontman of country-blues band Rusty Truck. “You know, pulling off Cat Stevens songs, but never proficient in any way.”
For the album -- which started out as a one-song goof with pal Jakob Dylan -- Seliger enlisted the help of some heavy-hitters: Dylan, Willie Nelson, T-Bone Burnett, and Lenny Kravitz all produced tracks; while Sheryl Crow and Rob Thomas were invited to sing back-up. “I didn’t want it to sound too garage-y; I wanted it properly put together,” says Seliger, who wrote all the songs. “I remember when I went into Lenny’s recording studio in Miami to make the title track, he said, ‘Sit back and let me do what I do. This is record-making here, not songwriting.’” 
The result is a beautifully melodic exploration into Seliger’s down-home world. “It was an amazing journey for me, making this album,” he says from a photo shoot in Nashville. This is, after all, a guy who on the song 1000 Kisses gets to perform a duet with Willie Nelson, whose 1978 album Stardust initially got Seliger hooked on country. “Working with Willie was amazing,” he says quietly, as if still in awe of the collaboration. “I mean, he sang the third verse of that song and it was like hearing it for the first time. He interpreted it exactly how I saw it.” 
“I hang out with musicians mostly. Sometimes I feel like a rapper,” says 34-year-old artist and Mexico City native Miguel Calderon, sporting a Black Flag T-shirt and a big grin. “I could diss so many tight-ass artist types!” 
Yet Calderon never makes it out the next night. Instead, he finds himself recovering from a full night of partying, a full day of film-festival screenings, and the looming opening of his untitled (“very schizophrenic,” as he describes it) solo show, now on view at Mexico City’s new gallery, Kurimanzutto.
“I like going from one side of town to the other, because I often feel I’m in different countries,” says Calderon, who spends more time at “random bars” than trendier, tourist-ridden spots. “When things build up here, they explode like nowhere else,” he adds, referring to spots such as the sleek rooftop bars at the Condesa DF and Habita Hotel, which attract a nightly crowd of trust fund kids and fruit-juice heirs; as well as the ultra-modern, light-flooded gallery spaces of OMR and Nina Menocal, which have recently earned international buzz.
So where do Calderon and his friends hang out? There’s the late-night, always-crowded taqueria, El Califa, just down the street from Calderon’s house: “My favorite taco is called Gaono -- yummy!” Or, he heads 20 minutes away to Downtown, “where I end up meeting criminals of all sorts.” There, he spends time at El Centenario: “I’ve been drinking that place dry for more than 10 years.” Or, Xel Ha, when El Centenario is too full: “I love this place. There’s a bit more space and you can consume whatever you like.” And, of course, Covadonga -- “which used to be an escape, but now it’s really hip, especially on Thursdays. As you can see, cantinas rule my world.”
Lydia Hearst-Shaw, the 21-year-old great-granddaughter of publishing baron William Randolph Hearst (and daughter of SLA-abductee-turned-John Waters’ actress Patty Hearst) obviously doesn’t need to be gracing the cover of Italian Vogue, nor the ads for Bottega Veneta, to pay the rent. But at least, becoming an in-demand model has gotten her out of the house. 
How they working on you, Lydia?
What are some of your favorite vintage shops in NYC?
Despite his reputation for being drunk and rowdy on the Lower East Side (or perhaps because of it), artist Dan Colen is all work these days. On the Friday afternoon of this interview, he had no time to take his eyes off the painting he was finishing. It was for a group show at Bortolami Dayan, opening the next day. That evening, he was due at Gagosian Gallery, where his show 5 Bathrooms 5 Paintings was opening in -- as the title insinuates -- the gallery’s restrooms. 
5 Bathrooms 5 Paintings – or, Potty Mouth Potty War, as he would have liked to title the show – consists of five found paintings that have been altered by adding words or images. Hanging over one toilet is a blue hazy picture of two figures embracing with the painted phrase “wouldn’t it be nice.” Another painting is hung facing the wall so that the back of the canvas is what’s shown, with the written sentence, “I found in this the awesome power of nature. And the warm nature of man.”
Making the exhibit even more extraordinary is the fact that the other artist showing in the gallery is celebrated American sculptor and painter David Smith. “Not just a big famous artist, but a big famous dead artist,” he explains.
Had designer Rogan Gregory been at the “soft opening” last Friday of his new R Store, and not in bed with a 101-degree fever, he probably would have described the shop -- like the manager did -- as “his lab.” 
But the store, which also houses Rogan’s suit line called A Litl Betr, isn’t just about clothes. With its heavy brick walls, black paint, and low-hanging aluminum lamps, the space (designed by Rogan himself) is a shrine to rare -- if not exclusive -- arts and crafts. There are shelves full of out-of-print books on subjects ranging from Art Nouveau lighting, to how to sleep better. And there are tables devoted to stylist Kate Young’s artful side projects, such as unusual corkscrews, wooden bangles, and stationary cards that read “dear true heart.” 
But the real focus of the shop, as well as its foundation, is Rogan’s clean-lined furniture collection, which debuted last month at Barneys. The hammered metal tables and modernist wood and leather chairs are made from recycled materials riddled with imperfections. Exactly the kind of pieces you’d expect from a man who likes his T-shirts artfully tattered.
Go There:
It’s nearing midnight. Henry Silva is sitting in a red, fuzzy Brooklyn bar called Sweet Ups, sipping his second Makers Mark of the evening, telling the story of Chekhov’s play The Seagull, from which the name of his band, Bravo Silva, originates. “It’s about an artist whose mother is a very famous actress – a real diva. He struggles constantly for attention, and in the end, shoots himself, hoping that will bring it.”
Instead, the band is the focus. So, who got to be Bravo and who Silva? “Ah, that’s a good question,” says Silva. “He seemed more like a Bravo – more theatrical,” he explains, smiling at his wild-haired, bushy-bearded bandmate.
For as long as any New York nightlifer can remember, Jauretsi Saizarbotoria has been throwing the coolest parties in town, with the most flavorful music to dance to. But that would be expected of the Cuban-American Miami native, who grew up hanging around her family’s restaurant, Centro Vasco, where just about every legendary Cuban exile performed. “Celia Cruz, Cachao, Albita – they all played there. I was raised around music.”
“There’s a brilliant youth culture happening down there that’s not covered in the news. Everybody talks about Cuba’s past – no one talks about its future.” So, with hopes of opening a dialogue on just that, Jauretsi headed back down to Cuba in summer 2004 with a couple of film cameras and the U.S. government’s approval. East of Havana, her awe-inspiring documentary, produced by Charlize Theron and co-directed by Emilia Menocal, premieres March 14th at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, and will hit theatres this summer.
Infanta
Finally, after 16 absurdly-long months, The Sopranos returns to television this Sunday night, and if you’re Jamie-Lynn Sigler -- who plays mafia princess Meadow Soprano -- you’ve already started celebrating. (And we did spot Sigler getting pretty wily at Stereo last Saturday night.) 
Where have you worn them?
So, JT Leroy doesn’t exist. At this point, does anyone care? Well, possibly Palm Pictures -- the distributors of the film adaptation of Leroy’s ‘novel’ The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things -- who, at the eleventh hour, had to rework the marketing of the film, which now bears the brilliantly convoluted tagline: Behind the greatest hoax of our time is the heartbreaking story that started it all. 
Casey Spooner, and a JT Leroy impersonator, she did her best to support the film (which she described under her breath as an “excruciating experience”) and the Leroy saga, which she admitted to being fooled by as well. 
It’s a relief to continually realize that the story is fiction, and that no one (that you know of) lived this kind of life. And then it dawns on you: ‘Then why am I sitting through this misery?’ Answer: Cuz it’s good. Argento is a masterful storyteller with a beautiful eye and some insane ideas (“I wanted the music to resemble our nervous system”), and she makes you want to follow her around like the fake little Leroy does in the film.
“Use a spray bottle with water in it. By continually spraying down your jeans, they'll start to mold to your body; and natural creases, folds, and areas of stress will start to break in. Wear as often as possible without washing to achieve the most authentic vintage appearance. With commitment, these jeans will become your favorite.” - Scott Morrison, co-founder/designer of Earnest Sewn
spray starch on them. You can either lay them on a table and do it, or put them on -- depending on how hardcore you are. Rub the starch in, and let them air dry, and it’ll give your jeans that rigidity that you loved about them when they were new.” – Richard Cadet, owner of Famous Friends
"I don't wash my own jeans. I always start with a pair of raw denim and wear them down to what looks ‘washed’ naturally. A washing machine removes the top layer of indigo and speeds an aging process that I do through normal wear over 2-3 years. I have known denim aficionados in Japan to stuff their jean pockets with dryer sheets overnight to absorb odor.” - Donwan Harrell, owner/designer, Prps
Floria Sigismondi makes music videos filled with exquisitely tortured souls, who twitch and writhe within color-drenched surrealist underworlds. They’re bleak, haunting, and breathtakingly beautiful – the sort of theatrical masterpieces one would expect from a woman who was born in Italy to opera singer parents, raised in Ontario, and regards Fellini, Frida Kahlo, and Hans Balmer as her artistic idols.
As for last year’s Blue Orchid video for The White Stripes, which cast Karen Elson in a lacy white dress alongside future husband Jack White (“you sensed an energy between them”), Sigismondi inexplicably saw Jack as the devil. “At first he’s the apple. Then he becomes the snake, then the horse that mounts Karen, who plays Eve, and makes love to her, and the rest is history,” she recalls with a laugh.
