Alice Teeple is a photographer, artist and writer. Her work spans documentary and the arts scene in NYC. All of her photos are proudly shot with a Canon EOS 7D and a Canon EOS 5D. She also writes for Post-Punk.com.
Jimmy Webb has been described as the angel of Saint Mark’s, and he earned that title with every fiber of his soul. The famed stylist and friend to a myriad of rock n’ roll misfits passed away from cancer yesterday at 62.
The cheerful, kindhearted Webb was open about his earlier struggles with drug addiction and homelessness, and eternally grateful for his opportunities to overcome them. He did everything with great zeal. His flair for styling evolved over the years as he created outfits for clubbing at places like Studio 54. He got clean in 1999 and finally landed his dream job at Trash and Vaudeville. From there, Webb cultivated a broad, appreciative clientele as well as countless wonderful friendships. From the seasoned stage vets, to the disgruntled teens needing a safe place to vent, to little kids just discovering The Ramones, Jimmy embraced them all.
Photo by Alice Teeple
“I’ve lived through so many times and not a lot of people are left,” Jimmy told Downtown Magazine in 2018. “The reason I keep dancing and the reason this store is here, and the reason I’m so blessed by people like Debbie and Iggy and Slash, is because I carry on and I dance for all of those who aren’t here to dance anymore. They all touched me in a very special way.”
Jimmy Webb’s knack for styling brought him a special kind of fame amongst the rock n roll set, the alt kids, the punks and the pop stars. He outfitted everyone, made everyone feel special, and knew just what would make a person shine their brightest. Jimmy’s looks have been featured in Rolling Stone, Vogue, MTV…and the streets of the East Village. In 2017, he opened his own boutique, I NEED MORE.
Downtown’s editor in chief, Deb Martin, knew Jimmy for years, often helping him out in I NEED MORE. In 2018 Jimmy made an appearance in Downtown Magazine. She fondly reflected on their close friendship:
“Jimmy loved with his entire self, and when he loved you he loved you and was the most loyal friend. But he also had a finely-tuned bullshit meter and some of the best laughs we ever had were about the con-artists and grifters we have known. He loved authenticity because he was wickedly, fiercely authentic.
I will forever miss his long, frequently hilarious voicemails and texts. I will miss his kindness and his love. I will miss his laugh. We were spending a lot of time together in the past year or so, and I treasure every single moment. My office was just a couple of blocks from the store so I would pop over whenever I could just to give him a hug and share a laugh or see if he needed anything. I helped him plan his last big event, Footprints in February—Debbie Harry and Iggy Pop put their hands and feet in cement inside the store, Hollywood-style. He emailed me the guest list and asked me if I thought it was ok. I told him that no one could dream up a better downtown guest list. It turned out to be the party of the century. But then all of Jimmy’s parties were the best because of Jimmy and the gigantic love that he showered on everyone. He touched so many lives. But that night in particular was filled with love and light. It took a lot out of him and even though we had a lot of fun planning it, there was also a touch of sadness because I think we all knew that it could be the last party. He had been battling cancer for several years, he was a fighter, he muscled through it, but it was taking its toll.
The last time I saw him was at the end of February, a couple of days after the party. I had already started to quarantine but I had to pick up something at the store. He wasn’t feeling well but he had to go in. He called me from the car and we met at I Need More. We talked about the party and had a great laugh as we always did. He told me, “I’m so glad you came in today, you always make me laugh and I really needed to laugh.”
It was the great joy of my life to make Jimmy Webb laugh. I feel so lucky to have called him friend, and I’m sad for anyone who didn’t have the chance to know this remarkable man.
The world is a little less brilliant today, but I know Jimmy wouldn’t want us to be sad. Well, maybe just a little sad, but not forever. He would relish all the tributes pouring out from all over the world but he would also tell us, the people he loved, that we have to carry on for him. I will forever be grateful to have loved and to have been loved by Jimmy Webb. I will keep on dancing for him, until the end of my time here on Earth.”
With Debbie Harry
With Iggy Pop
With Debbie Harry
With photographers Bobby Grossman and Mick Rock
With Amos Poe
With Jim Jarmusch
With Henry Rollins and Duff McKagan
With the Gruens
With Bob Gruen
With Iggy Pop
With Godlis and Bobby Grossman
With Debbie Harry and Chris Stein
With Danny Fields
Thank you, Jimmy, for all you gave us. We shall miss you.
Bored with boxed mac and cheese and spoonfuls of peanut butter?
There are still glimmers of civilization out there offering delivery and pickup. Who are these brave souls and how can they feed you something tastier than your dwindling pantry supplies ASAP?
Clinton Hall offers delivery and pickup at their 90 Washington St. and 16 W. 36th St. locations from 1pm – 9pm. Enjoy comfort food, canned beers, bottles of wine, growlers of beer and games to make self-quarantine more enjoyable. Menu items include Fried Pickle Chips, Buffalo Cauliflower, Beyond Veggie ALT and the Double Smashed Burger. For alcohol, enjoy CH Gigawatt IPA, Blue Moon, Montauk Summer and White Claw in addition to $19.99 bottles of wine. Growlers with a special beer of the day are also available as well as games like Jenga, Uno and Cards Against Humanity along with other essentials like toilet paper sold by the roll. For delivery visit, UberEats or Seamless.
Brooklyn Chop House in the Financial District, which offers everything from dumplings to steaks, is also offering beer, wine, Lychee Martinis, Spicy Mango Margaritas, and Mules to alleviate some of your social distancing woes. From 12pm-5PM, select happy hour cocktails are $10…and since they’re operating with airplane drinking rules, start whenever you want. Additionally, if you order a feast over $250, you’ll qualify for a free bottle of Absolut. Orders can be made via Postmates or visitingwww.brooklynchophouse.com.
Fornino in Greenpoint offers their beer and wine selection for 50% off the normal price. For all wine bottles, enter the code WINE50 at checkout to indulge in delicious vino while treating yourself to pizza, kale salad, or wood roasted Brussels sprouts. Order by visiting https://www.fornino.com or by going to Chownow.
The Lower East Side is in danger of losing a very important piece of history. The Tenement Museum has called for some financial assistance during the COVID-19 crisis.
The Tenement Museum tells the true stories of American immigrant families through recreated apartments in a historic tenement building. The museum offers neighborhood walking tours, evening programs, free English language classes, and programs for school groups.
The Tenement Museum’s mission is to “foster a society that embraces and values the role of immigration in the evolving American identity.” They accomplish this through guided tours; curriculum and programs for secondary and post-secondary educators; stories, primary sources and media shared on our website; and interactive online experiences such as Your Story, Our Story, podcasts and more.
Due to the crisis, the museum has had to close; forgoing their normal earned revenue, as well having to cancel its fundraising gala. The museum’s dedication to keeping the experience and the story of the LES immigrants’ experiences alive is unparalleled. Just like the immigrants who made their homes at 97 and 103 Orchard Street, New Yorkers are experiencing a pandemic and financial crisis of our own time, and it is important to remember how our ancestors prevailed.
“We are living through the stuff of history. It’s all the more important, therefore, that our response fits this moment,” says President Morris J. Vogel in a statement.
Please consider making a gift that will allow the Tenement Museum to survive these unprecedented times, remain strong, and reopen when circumstances allow.
Corporate sponsorships are also welcomed. Corporate Members are entitled to free admission for employees and their guests, merchandise discounts, early access to Museum events, and recognition on the Museum’s website and in its Visitor Center. The Museum can also tailor packages to meet other corporate philanthropic and marketing goals.
Get ready! Sunday, March 22nd marks the day for for the new Morrison Hotel Gallery’s Instagram Live series, which will stream directly from the homes and studios of some of the music industry’s most influential personalities. It is a special treat to learn the process of these artists in such an intimate setting. Mick Rock has already made an appearance, and tomorrow iconic photographer Danny Clinch will be live streaming from his home in NJ, beginning at 5 PM EST.
From the Morrison Hotel Gallery:
Offering fans unprecedented access inside the daily lives and legendary archives of the music industry’s most captivating personalities, Morrison Hotel Gallery’s Behind The Lens format expands its reach with the unveiling of a new Instagram Live/IGTV video series. Streaming directly from a featured photographer’s home or studio, each episode merges elements of storytelling, conversational Q&A and the cultivation of a global music culture in accordance with the evolving brand identity of Morrison Hotel Gallery, the international leader in fine art music photography.
Danny Clinch has established himself as one of the premier music photographers in the music world and spanning every genre, having shot and filmed everyone “from Johnny Cash to Tupac Shakur, from Bjork to Bruce Springsteen.”
Bruce Springsteen photographed by Danny Clinch
Starting his career as an intern for Annie Leibovitz, Clinch’s work has appeared on hundreds of album covers and in publications like Vanity Fair, Spin, Rolling Stone, GQ, Esquire, and more. His music videos have garnered three Grammy nominations, having directed for artists like Willie Nelson, Tom Waits, Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters and Dave Matthews.
The Morrison Hotel Gallery originated in SoHo seventeen years ago, boasting a 1400 square foot photo gallery devoted to music. Exhibitions of fine art photography span the iconic to the esoteric, featuring guests such as Paul McCartney, Patti Smith, and Tony Bennett. Now they bring the space to your devices by offering fans unprecedented access inside the daily lives and archives of some of the music industry’s most captivating personalities, the Morrison Hotel Gallery’s Behind The Lens conglomerate expands its reach with the unveiling of a new Instagram Live series.
Today Johnny Dynamite (Whiner, Ashjesus) releases Wannabe, a dreamy, 80s-infused B-side from his 2020 album Heartbroken.
Wannabe is ethereal and transcendent: a welcome, if melancholic motif for these chaotic times. It fits right at home in a veil-straddling David Lynch diaspora, its thoughtful and shimmering synth reminiscent of a late 80s college radio discovery at the midnight hour.
“I wrote it before I thought about going solo, before I took on the name Johnny Dynamite,” he says. “It’s a track about self reflection, inward thoughts, and finding peace within. I never felt like I had a real home. I grew up on Staten Island and I moved around a bunch. Then I left to go to college in New Paltz, where I lived for 4 years. I moved back down to NYC after, and at the time, home felt like nature. The line, “I say to myself, ‘you’d be alone if you were someone else’, I wannabe alone”, reflects the loss of self when you have no place to call home. I felt an emotional attachment reflecting on this song right now, because I left NYC as soon as there was a mention of a quarantine. I’m currently down in Maryland staying with my girlfriend at her parents’. Coincidentally, this is also the state I finished recording the song in.’
Dynamite read that the CDP was starting a COVID-19 Response Fund and immediately wanted to help.
“I was already planning to release a B-side on Friday on Bandcamp, who are waiving their revenue that day to help all affected artists. After reading the article on the CDP, I decided that all the proceeds I get from my song will go to the response fund. We’re in some bizarre times right now and we all need to work together to get through this. The donations will focus on supporting hourly wage workers, workers in the gig economy, new American populations, older adults, people with disabilities, mental health, and economic impacts of the pandemic. As we all know, every dollar helps right now and you can donate a dollar or more to help support the cause.”
Photo: Alice Teeple
The album cover art (and the Johnny Dynamite moniker) came from the artist’s grandfather, Pete Morisi, who co-created the comic bookprivate detective character in the 1950s with writer Ken Fitch.
You can purchase the beautiful track here AND help a good cause:
New York is eerily quiet now, the usual bustle and clamour of the bars silenced. You can even hear birds chirping in the trees; a peaceful juxtaposition to the collective despair currently facing New York City’s service industry. Hundreds of thousands of hardworking servers, cooks, bartenders, co-ordinators and baristas are suddenly stranded without any source of income. Because of the nature of their jobs, those in the service industry cannot work from home and have had their hours cut or eliminated for the foreseeable future. Many are reliant on tips to survive, with thousands of food servers and bartenders otherwise earning under the standard minimum wage with no access to health care. As New York’s hospitality industry wrestles with the COVID-19 crisis, public, private, and non-profit sectors are striving to ensure that the city’s 321,000 food and beverage workers maintain some economic security and access to healthcare.
These are people holding up the fabric of our society. This crisis affects literally everyone who has ever eaten in a restaurant, gotten their hair professionally done, had a mani-pedi, ordered a cup of coffee, or gotten a drink at a bar.
Ivy X, a law student who works for a major talent industry, immediately organized Tips For Kicks NYC, a GoFundMe focusing solely on tipping service industry workers.
“Think about how much you tip for a coffee, a meal, a haircut, or a live band playing at a bar,” she says. You donate however much you want. It goes into a pot and is divided among applicants who have been immediately impacted.”
Tips For Kicks has almost met their initial goal of $1000, but more is encouraged and everything goes straight to the recipients as a regular tip jar would.
HOW SOON TO DONATE:
The campaign will run through Saturday, March 28th to ensure that workers can get their tips ASAP.
HOW TO APPLY FOR AID:
You must be an NYC resident who relies on tips to supplement your income. You must apply by Monday, March 23rd to be considered.
Email the following to tipsforkicksnyc@gmail.com :
• Proof of employment
• A short description of the nature of your work
• Your Venmo handle
All applicants will be notified whether they are approved through email.
