http://www.vicandnatlys.com
As a music writer, I've already met, interviewed and conversed with James Brown, Dean Torrance ("Dead Man's Curve"), Mark E. Smith (we consumed several magnums of Champagne amidst a semi-hurricane one night in the Thirteenth Ward), Lydia Lunch, Dr. John (issuing a warning against "internal surveillance eunuchs" on the sidewalk outside Civil Defense Post 714 while inside CDP 714 officer Professor Longhair wailed at the piano), Elvis Costello (thrice), Robert "Jr." Lockwood (given guitar lessons by his "stepfather" Robert Johnson), Bobby "Blue" Bland (in monogrammed bathrobe), Little Richard (on my 18th birthday!), Bob Marley (in his backyard in Kingston; three days later--when I was invited for dinner--gunmen shot Bob in the same backyard), Ernie K-Doe, Allen Toussaint, Frankie Ford, Snooks Eaglin (my beautiful wife's hand is holding the revolver on the cover of Snooks' "Baby, You Can Get Your Gun!" album), Bobby Marchan, Robert Parker ("Barefootin'"), Nappy Brown, Suzi Quatro, Jerry Garcia (hours after the Grateful Dead's infamous and celebrated bust on Bourbon Street), David Byrne (our first encounter was when he was a bearded folk singer attending the Rhode Island School of Design), Brenda Lee (discussed relative merits of hot dogs), Alex Chilton, Henry Rollins (and the rest of Black Flag, of which he was then the lead singer; I gave a guided tour of New Orleans in my Honda Civic), Lee Dorsey ("Ya Ya"), Cab Calloway, drummer Joseph "Smokey" Johnson (wheelchairing around his patio garden), saxophonist David Lastie (entertaining the guests at my wedding reception), King Floyd ("Groove Me"), McCoy Tyner, Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh (in identical track suits beneath a fig tree in Kingston--and then Lee Perry pulled up in a brand new Datsun pickup, eliciting much envious commentary), Jonathan Richman (cooked him fried trout--he loved it!), Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown (cooked him red beans and rice--he hated it!), Clifton Chenier, Kim Fowley ("Popsicles and Icicles"), Mark Lindsay (of Paul Revere and the Raiders--my first interview, in 1967, for my high school newspaper: plenty of free pastries and albums in a suite at the Royal Orleans hotel, later to be immortalized by Led Zeppelin), Al Green, Chica Sato and Toshio Nakanishi a.k.a. Tycoon-to$h (the Plastics), the Meters (Art Neville and I dined on raw oysters and hogshead cheese in his kitchen on Valence Street), Terence Blanchard, Earl Turbinton and his brother Willie Tee, Ike Turner (claimed that he invented the jet-ski), Jerry Butler (expostulated against iceberg lettuce), the Bush Tetras, Lowell George, Andy Partridge (my band once opened for XTC), Jim Kweskin (we played basketball and he attempted to get me to join the cult headed by Mel Lyman: "Manson preaches peace and love--we don't!"), the Go-Gos, Randy Newman, Mark Knopfler, Irma Thomas, James Carroll Booker III (I composed the liner notes for two of his albums), Aaron Neville (bestowing upon me the nickname "Hatchetman" because I violated his belief that no one from New Orleans should ever criticize--in print--anyone else from New Orleans; this from the sublime singer responsible for "Tell It Like It Is"), Eddie Bo, Earl King (the seventh son of a seventh son), Pete Fountain, Chris Owens, Tami Lynn ("Exile On Main Street"), the "Big Shot" of the Zulu Social Aid & Pleasure Club, Roky Erickson, Morgus the Magnificent, Quintron (performing "cocktail music" at the opening of my "Art For Heterosexuals" exhibition) and Miss Pussycat (my voice had a "starring" role in her "North Pole Nutrias" movie), "Tuts" Washington (fearlessly attacking rock 'n' roll as music for the mentally retarded), the Italian punk band Raw Power, New Edition (when Bobby Brown and associates were still shy young teenagers), Marilyn Chambers, Percy Mayfield (accompanied by a very dour valet), Keely Smith, the Psychedelic Furs, a couple of "Playboy" centerfolds whose names I can't remember, and a few other citizens. I watched Jimi Hendrix ignite his guitar with lighter fluid from fifty feet away and was within spitting distance of the Sex Pistols when they performed in Baton Rouge at a strip-mall club where I had previously witnessed Albert Collins cruise the parking lot attached to his amp with what must've been a 5,000-foot cord. Afterwards, his saxophone player, A.C. Reed, relaxed at the bar with a large glass of cold milk mixed with a dollop of Scotch. Dyan Cannon, ex-wife of Cary Grant, grazed my shoulder at a Bob Dylan concert in the Houston Astrodome. Dita Von Teese, ex-wife of Marilyn Manson, once wrapped her thighs around my head as part of her act. My beautiful wife, seated next to me at a ringside table, thought it was pretty funny.As a cartoonist, I was honored to lunch with Dr. Seuss at the New Orleans Museum of Art. An elderly historian, Charles "Pie" Dufour, told Dr. Seuss that I had recently stopped (on the way to a parade) and changed his flat tire. Dr. Seuss chuckled: "Well, that's what cartoonists are good for!" My art exhibitions have included "Chihuahua: King of New Orleans Dogs" (Scheurich Gallery), "The Art of Bunny Matthews" (Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans) and "Bunny Matthews: Art For Heterosexuals" (Space Gallery). A large mural I created depicting Vic and Nat'ly's "Nint' Ward jernt" is on exhibit at the Louisiana State Museum in Baton Rouge and my work is in the Historic New Orleans Collection.On June 28, 1967, I was swimming in the pool at the Broadwater Beach Hotel in Biloxi, Mississippi, with Mariska Hargitay (age 3) and her brothers Miklos and Zoltan. Early the next morning, they were driving with their mother, Jayne Mansfield, to New Orleans when their car crashed into another vehicle. Jayne Mansfield was killed. Mariska survived with a small scar on her face and many years later became the star of "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit." Her current salary of $350,000 per episode makes Mariska the highest-paid woman on television.I would like to meet Maya Deren and Lizzy Mercier Descloux, but I'm afraid they're both dead.
My Top Ten (Revised, Winter 2008) 1. "Laisse tomber les filles"--France Gall (composed by Serge Gainsbourg; three other good versions are by Julie Fradette, Mareva Galanter ["Miss Tahiti" of 1998 and "Miss France" of 1999], and April March, who also recorded an English version entitled "Chick Habit") 2. "No No No"--Rosie Bunny (as well as the 1967 Dawn Penn original and Ms. Penn's subsequent 1994 remake) 3. "Dear Gabby"--The Eames Era 4. "Behave"--Charlotte Hatherley (one of the strangest guitar sounds ever recorded--and that includes Les Paul himself!) 5. "Cup Cakes"--Terri "Cup Cake" O'Mason 6. "I Wanna Be Your Dog"--Emilie Simon 7. "Barbwire"--Nora Dean 8. "I'll Kill Her"--Soko 9. "Be My Baby"--The Ronettes (the first record I ever bought) 10. "I Like Fucking"--Bikini Kill
"Harvey"
Shindig!
"Hot Countries" by Alec Waugh, 1930. Woodcuts by Lynd Ward. An excerpt: "Most of the girls are masked. They wear gloves and stockings so that not an inch of dark skin appears. Some of them, it is whispered, are white women in disguise. They might well be. It is a dance in which caste and blood are alike forgotten. Every one is drunk; not with alcohol, but with music."
My beautiful wife. Followed by, in no particular order,Brigitte Bardot, Dr. Che Guevara, Pablo Picasso, Voltaire.