Posted on

Women and Hollywood Forever

Women and Hollywood Forever

THE SECRET SOCIETY OF THE SISTERHOOD

Pamela Des Barres, Nicole Byer, Michelle Tea, Siel Ju, Kayden Kross, with Venus and The Moon, and host Trish Nelson

IN THE MASONIC LODGE AT HOLLYWOOD FOREVER
THURSDAY 03.01.2018
SEATED SHOW IN THE MASONIC LODGE
*** DO NOT PARK ON THE STREETS OUTSIDE THE CEMETERY ***

Calling to order all women and fierce allies of women!

Commencing on the full moon of every month in the glow of a candlelit room, The Secret of The Sisterhood invites some of the most prolific, iconic and diverse women of our generation to come together in front of our intimate audience, and share personal stories surrounding the topic of the evening.

The theme for March 1st is “I thought I was going to die!”.

Proceeds will be donated to Planned Parenthood (plannedparenthood.org)

by Reviewer Rob

“The Secret of The Sisterhood invites some of the most prolific, iconic and diverse women of our generation to come together in front of our intimate audience, and share personal stories…”

So said the promo email. All I saw was the photo of Kayden Kross. The names at first were irrelevant but afterward I saw Pamela Des Barres and realized I wanted to see if not meet the author and former rock groupie.

It looked like a great show. I wanted to attend and cover the event but hadn’t found out about it until the night before when I got the email from their press agent and impulsively bought a ticket.

I’m still based in San Diego as of this writing but have been groaning to take another roadtrip. Even one as short as up to L.A. for the day. Just anything to get out of this sunny peaceful town. I’ve been thinking about Vegas again, which I was at only five weeks ago for AVN and InterNEXT. Or maybe Portland or Seattle when the weather warms up a bit more. Even Dallas or NOLA. Hell, I’ll drive to D.C. just to visit the National Gallery this summer. I need a roadtrip so badly.

But then an hour before setting out for Hollywood Forever I realized that my mini Reviewervan, the Safari, had yet to be smogged and tagged for 2018, and it was the day before it was due and when the registration fee would go up. I’d been lagging. So I opted to try and get it to pass smog and then registered at a place where I can do both and pay extra for the tag before trying to make it to the show 100 miles to the north in Hollywood. On a good night I can make it in an hour and a half to the Rainbow bar,

I eventually foregoed the ride to stay in town and take care of this detail. My van needed work. I’m so responsible.

No refund I guess on the ticket I bought. I’ll just consider it a small donation to the cause of women in Hollywood’s Secret Underground Society Of Hotties.

Plus there’s that photo of Kayden Kross, omg. Kayden Kross. So obscenely hot. That sly smile, that turned ankle, that blonde hair and perfect skin… ungh.

Kayden Kross, just doing her thing, photo via Hollywood Forever
Kayden Kross, just doing her thing, photo via Hollywood Forever
Posted on

2018 plans

[Print Lives On]

Happy New Year

We survived, but 2017 sure sucked didn’t it.

by Reviewer Rob

I should probably address this first — happy new year, by the way — before I get into any explanations. I recognize that especially after 2016, 2017 was a tumultuous year for many people, MOST people, probably. Stories in the news, and I won’t get into the list of them, floored everyone. Things happening in Washington D.C. that filtered down into the cultural ethos have been enough to make the most optimistic among us consider moving into a cabin in the woods.

In 2017 I wrote a blog post announcing the demise of Reviewer’s print version. That was impulsive and unwise. At the time it seemed like maybe an appropriate time for a big change like that. I had and have other ideas for print I could implement (it’s all about, you can guess it, the money) and I was planning to relocate to a different city (San Diego’s gotten really expensive to rent in if you haven’t noticed), perhaps move to a different region altogether. I was looking for a fresh start. But now I know after thoughtful reflection that I can’t abandon Reviewer Magazine like that. I have too much investment in the idea of The First Amendment to let these recent social shifts unmoor Reviewer as a print venue, even ones as cataclysmic as what have happened in the last year or even ten years.

So let me put that to rest right now. I’ve changed my mind. I can’t abandon this baby. Reviewer Magazine is NOT dead as a printed publication. It’s just taking a vacation.

When I announced it would cease printing but stay online as a blog I was juggling many conflicting plans and intentions and the magazine had been going consistently for 20 years and had printed 50 issues, and those seemed like nice round numbers at which to stop and make a change of direction. I had started the “review” format back in the mid-1990’s before sites that crowd-sourced reviews of everything from music and movies to your local plumber became common and the concept appeared revolutionary in its simplicity. I wanted to print a newer type of magazine after publishing 50 issues, delve into other types of print publishing. But I can still do that. I just don’t want to drop off Reviewer Magazine at the orphanage.

When I started Reviewer in 1996 it was on a small light board in my second floor one-room Pacific Beach studio apartment where I would layout the Bristol paper pages with scotch tape and shrunken typewriter copy I’d xerox late at night at the Garnet Avenue Kinko’s. It was in black and white and I didn’t know that photos had to be half-toned. The printer had to inform me of things like that. Issue one was printed at 10,000 copies and was as much of a thrill as I could imagine. Contributing to the community Zeitgeist via print is a feeling of fulfillment that comes from knowing you’re doing what you’re meant to do.

Everything journalism-related is a review anyway, be it feature, news, or opinion. “This is what we know now, this is what we don’t know yet” — it’s a structure that meshes well with the ‘who-what-where-when-why-and-how’ upside-down pyramid of the basic news story.

But although digital print production has grown considerably easier than cut-and-paste layout, the computer revolution changed the newspaper and magazine advertising economy in ways that many saw coming but few were willing to accept in the early days of the late-twentieth century. Oh, there’s still a market for print. It’s just a downsized shadow of its former self. If you can accept that and move ahead of it then you can still do the job and be happy. I choose to be happy.

So getting back to the point: Look for another print issue from Reviewer Magazine relatively soon in 2018. When exactly I’m not sure. But if you’d like a deal on an ad let me know. 🙂

~RR

Another year has gone and a new one has arrived. But it's hard to find anyone who is sad to see the sun set on 2017.
Another year has gone and a new one has arrived. But it’s hard to find anyone who is sad to see the sun set on 2017.
Posted on

Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, signed by author Dr. Kary Mullis, for sale: $195, three-item bundle

[Rare Books]

Dr. Kary B. Mullis, Nobel Prize Winner

 

4sale: $195. Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, 1998. This is a signed and dated first edition with mylar wrap on fine dust-cover and is to be sold bundled with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing an interview with the author that preceded the issue of the book by several years. Other ephemera includes the book’s press release from Pantheon. This is a review copy that was annotated and highlighted in various places throughout by the reviewer.

by Reviewer Rob

I should say this is a review copy that was used for a book review in Reviewer Magazine, first of all, and that I was the reviewer who received this book by Random House/Pantheon in 1998. The interview and article in Celebrity Magazine which preceded the book’s release from 1994 were also written and photographed by me. So all the notes and highlights in the book are mine, full disclosure. It’s not an “immaculate” copy, but other than the annotations it’s in very good if not “fine” condition. I enjoyed reading it only once and then shelved it for almost twenty years until now when I brought it out for sale. I think I covered Dancing Naked In The Mind Field in either issue 9 or 10 of Reviewer, I’m not sure, I’ll have to go back and look.

This bundle includes the signed first edition with the dustcover wrapped in clear plastic, the copy of Celebrity Magazine, and the original press release from Pantheon who released the book.

I’m selling all together for $195.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.

Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with dustcover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.

Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with dustcover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with dustcover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Dancing Naked In The Mind Field, by Kary Mullis, signed first edition in good condition with duscover in excellent condition, $195, sold with copy of Celebrity Magazine containing prior interview/article with author.
Posted on

Me at 25

One Sunny Afternoon

by Reviewer Rob

Me at 25.
Me at 25, in a “found photo” I’d forgotten about and recently dug out of my archives again.

Cell phone pic of a 4×5 print of me at 25 years-old, summer of 1989: I was driving through La Jolla one day, probably a weekend, and had my Nikon FM2 with a 50mm f1.4 on it with me. I had recently purchased the lens at the local used camera shop in Carlsbad where I lived and was out trying the new hyperfast glass on scenery when I stooped and parked at ‘Euro Beach’, as Windansea came to be called later. From the top of the stairs north of the shack I saw someone I knew sitting on the sand with a couple of girls who I didn’t know, and I walked down to say hi. Robert Maxwell was a local fashion photographer who I met through Trevor Watson at Revolt In Style’s weekly Thursday night “Berlin” DJ night at Sybil’s Down Under where I was shooting club photos for the magazine. He was a few years older than me, a much better photographer and really well known. I can say things haven’t changed in that regard almost 30 years later. I’d only been doing photos of people and models and portraiture seriously for a short while at this point, maybe less than a year, so I was really green and hadn’t started using model’s releases on shoots. I had no idea what they were or why they were important. Robert Maxwell must have known this because he spontaneously handed me a blank model’s release form — which for some reason he had with him on the sand — and said I “should start using models releases”. I kept it, later xerox copied it and immediately began having models sign them during every shoot.

We spoke for a few moments more before he asked to take a picture of me with my camera. Usually when people asked me this I’d say no because at the time I always wanted to ‘take the photo and not be in the photo’ (weird, I know), but this was different, and this is the shot that resulted. The piece of paper in my hand I’m shielding my eyes from the sun with is the blank model’s release Maxwell handed to me. I rarely like photos of me but I like this for these reasons, plus it’s also a good shot… Perfectly in manual focus, exposed correctly and well framed. He got it right the first time.