Oh yes, another blog without photos- and no spell check, you have my sympathy. I am still up here in MASS, did a lot of shopping today with Jasmine, we raided Tower Records- had to have Ottis Redding's greatest hits and ANOTHER copy of the Beatles “1” ( all their number 1 hits). As we were getting into the car, the car next to us, which had a puertorican guy in it, stepped out to start fighting with many other guys, they were all fighting and screaming and bumping into our car while waving knives around, I put the windows up as fast as possible and locked all the doors and just peeled out of the parking space as fast as possible, it was already dark, like around 9:00pm, so I was lucky to not have ran anyone over, but we were in the middle of some black/puertorican gang fight, what the HELL!!! Not sure what town it was, I guess it was Burlington – as the Burlington mall was just down the road. Didn't expect such a thing to happen in a parking lot of tower records- there was a big crowd gathering by the time we got to the exit of the lot. Close call. So I guess you just never know where is safe. I went through my floppy discs tonight, trying to get organised and came across many emails from Joey Ramone. I am not assuming you all know who he is, but he was my first real love, my first real boy friend.
The emails were from 1999 to just before he died. Even though we werent together anymore, we still kept in touch and adored eachother. I am wondering what he would think of what is going on now that he is up there in rock and roll heaven. As Jasmine and I shopped, we saw so many Joey Ramone dolls and Ramones crap for sale, plus, have you all heard the new At&t commercial ” hey ho lets go”?( read:someone is CASHING IN BIG TIME!) Now that Joey is dead, the money starts pouring in? Doesn't that SUCK that artist make so much money after they die? What really makes me sad, is how Arturo is getting treated. ( see photos of Arturo in my Ramones section, in the STAR section). He designed every LP/CD cover and T-shirt of the Ramones, he invented the very popular Ramones symbol, the eagle holding a baseball bat in his claw. He was with the Ramones from the begining, he took the photo of them out side of his flat in the east villiage for the album cover road to ruin.
He toured with the for YEARS(did lights sometimes sound, etc), he was family! He runs the www.officialramones.com web site and preaches their music even now.How does he get repaid? Joeys mother and brother cut him out completely and are being so mean to him, I can't even write the whole story as it would cause so much trouble. Even Joeys last solo lp that came out, they used Arturos eagle symbol and didnt pay any royalties to Arturo or even say thanks. I find this rude. If Joey and Dee Dee were alive to witness this, they would FREAK out! Thank god one of the Ramones still appreciates Arturo, Johnny is still freindly to him, but then again, he makes a lot of money off of the merchendise that Arturo makes and sells. Perhaps it is none of my buisness, but I also toured a few years in a row with the Ramones, on Joeys side, hell, I never went to school on fridays the whole 11th and 12th grade, seen over 100 shows- so I could spend the three days with Joey.
For those of you who havent read my book ( its only out in GERMANY presently, but will come out soon here) I convinced Joey to have the Ramones come to my tiny little corn field town, Ellington CT, to play at a restaraunt/bar called the Country Squire. ( now it is called Chippinos or something). My whole high school was there, they didnt believe me until the very last minute, the Ramones came almost 2 hours late, apparently the cops pulled them over and have them a lot of shit ( CT state troopers are the most shrewd cops!) . It was spring 1984 and they rocked the roof off! Joey was so tall, he had to bend a bit on the knees to sing on the stage the whole time, and between sets, they all went out side and were amazed that there was corn and cows all around the whole building- Richie was the drummer at that time and it was fucking fun! Anyhow, it was overwhelming tonite to read all of Joeys sweet emails, he was very concerned always about Jasmine, he wrote in every email , “how is the little one? ” etc. Also, after reading my Ramones chapters that I sent him, he approved and enjoyed them, but asked me to “go easy on Johnny will ya?” .
So I went back and edited my wrath of Johnny (anyone who knows the Ramones knows that Johnny was a manipulative grumpy fucker most of the time- even the crew couldnt stand him!!! This is not gossip, this is the truth. One thing about me, I never exaggerate- if anything, I leave shit out to protect people. Somethings you just have to get off your chest, it is called freedom of speech- and I believe it goes for the written form too, don't you? I heard tonite that Howard Stern will go off the air soon, E! didnt want to extend his contract- does anyone know the real story? Is this true? can I already celebrate? Let me know if you know. If not, I challange him to go one month, or even one week, without mentioning womens breats/tits/jugs what have you- or showing them, even drawings of them. I bet he can't. Sad to see a show more dependent on breast then a new born. It is 5am- “the torture never stops!” (frank zappa quote)