Saturday, May 31, 2014

Leesa Creamer: A Day in the Life of a Rock 'n' Roller


I met Leesa Creamer back in 1995. My first initial reaction upon entering her home was one of awe and some trepidation. There was some voodoo afloat and I wasn't quite sure if she was a punk rock witchdoctors or if I had just stumbled upon the most amazing person I had met yet. Luckily my overnight stay did not include any ritual sacrifice and I woke up in her colorful world of horror movies and rock n' roll. 

This photographic series would not be complete without featuring Leesa. From being the lead singer for The Creamers for over 25 years to co-owning one of the most amazing cult video stores ever (which was located up in Sacramento) called Cinemania, Leesa has always dedicated herself 110% to her passions. 

What made you fall in love with rock n' roll?

"I started going to see the whole Lazy Cowgirls / Eddie Flowers / Moist & Meaty / Claw Hammer clique of bands and through my association with those amazing players got turned onto The Ramones, The New York Dolls, Social D., The Clash, The Hard Ons, The Replacements and the whole punk rock and glam genres. Once I found The Ramones I felt like I was "home".  

How did The Creamers get together?

"I was very drunk at a Lazy Cowgirls show at Raji's and I went up to Rosa (who I barely knew at the time, but I knew I liked her) and slurred something along the lines of "Quieres hacer un groupo punk rock?"  (I feel it's always better to attempt a foreign language when drunk).  Rosa was like "OK boracha".  So Rosa stared playing guitar the next day and three months later The Creamers had their first gig."

Traditional Chinese Medicine & Acupuncture are her main focus now and just as she had given 110% of her energy to horror movies and rock n' roll, she now turns that same razor sharp focus and attention to her practice. Recently, Leesa graciously allowed Patterns and Tones a peek into her world for a day and what follows shows that she still indeed leads a colorful and vibrant life, inside and out...

Julie Pavlowski Green
May 31, 2014















Saturday, May 24, 2014

Stop and Go: Documenting in a Traffic Jam

Beverly Blvd.


Commuting an hour and a half ever day, I have found it a necessity to find something productive to do with my time during that daily drive. I usually talk on the phone, catching up with friends and family or listen to music on the radio. Sometimes I find myself trying to meditate in the midst of aggressive local drivers fed up with tourists slowing down to see the sights. Through it all, I remember how I used to take public transportation for years throughout San Francisco wishing I had a car to get me there faster. The grass is always greener...

The other day I was on my way to meet a friend for oysters in Silverlake after work and started the trek across town going East on LA's historic Beverly Boulevard. I immediately found myself in a nasty traffic jam and decided there and then that I was going to make the best out of a very frustrating situation. But talking on the phone or listing to music in a traffic jam doesn't always cut it...

I have often driven across town wishing I had the time to photograph and document it's varied architectural history. And there I was, with plenty of time to do just that. I picked up my iPhone and began to photograph what was outside my car window every time I had to stop. What developed from a need to keep me from stressing out in the middle of a parking lot, was a series of images that captured random street scenes thanks to the very traffic jam that made me late for my dinner date. Normally, I would have never captured images on my iPhone from my car but as I was literally waiting for things to move, I grabbed the chance to document my journey.

Looking back at the images after I had finally reached my destination (almost an hour late), I saw not only the architectural history but the culturally rich diversity that ran from West to East. You can see which areas were depressed, which have been handed down from one culture to the next and which were being brought back to their original period. Each block revealed the progression and evolution of their surrounding neighborhoods melding into the next, allowing me to capture a small portrait of Los Angeles in the midst of her madness.

Next time I'll take Wilshire,

Julie Pavlowski Green
May 24, 2014














Saturday, May 17, 2014

Space Couple from The Mask Series

"Space Couple No. 1" from The Mask Series

"Space Couple" is the 3rd set of images I shot for The Mask Series. Their iconic space helmets were a perfect foil for these subjects, allowing us to explore themes and personalities of traditional and nontraditional astronauts and space rangers.

The first question I'm always asked when people view The Mask Series is "who is the person behind the mask?" The desire to know the identity of the subject comes up over and over again. My attempt at allowing subjects to become universal iconic characters, hiding their own personality, gives them freedom from the constraints of their individual personas.

Two limited edition prints from this set are available through my Etsy store.

Julie Pavlowski Green
May 17, 2014

 


"Space Couple No. 2" from The Mask Series

"Space Couple No. 3" from The Mask Series

"Space Couple No. 4" from The Mask Series

"Space Couple No. 5" from The Mask Series

Saturday, May 10, 2014

Black Mambas: Bell Gardens' Best



Eddie Cochran moved to Bell Gardens, CA in 1953, but little did he know that 60 years later, rock n' roll would still be alive and well in his adopted city in the form of the Black Mambas! With Michael Prince on vocals, Dorian Chavez on guitar, Leroy Martinez on drums and Eric Martinez on bass, the Black Mambas are a revved up rockin' good ride that keeps you on the edge of your seat all the way through their set.

Their debut self titled CD and a 45 single "Baby, I'll Give It To You" came out in 2013 on Wild Recordswho describe them as a 4 piece rock & roll band playing first wave punk. Rodney Bingenheimer has said "they have a Rolling Stones-meets-Iggy and The Stooges way about them. Very blusey side of the Stones vibe, with an edge of garage". And they were described by Chris Ziegler, editor of LA Record, as "staggering into 1976 with gutter-glam songs and dawn-of-punk velocity and attitude".

I was introduced to the band through promoter Asia Muka, who's enthusiasm for them was so great, I took note. I caught up with Eric Martinez recently and the following interview with him, along with shots I took of the band at their record release party at the Cochran Club last year, provides a small peek into the world of the Black Mambas! 

Their Gonna Give it to You!

Julie Pavlowski Green
May 10, 2014


How did the Black Mambas form?

Eric Martinez: We are all from our home town of Bell Gardens and went to high school together. We’ve all known each other from different circle of friends and all met up partying. Eventually Michael and Dorian started the Black Mambas with just vocals and guitar. They later recruited Leroy on drums and started playing as a 3 piece. They went through a couple of bass players but for some reason it never worked out. I was on the brink of breaking up with my previous band and took the opportunity to join the Mambas and eventually made it my permanent band and so it began.

Tell us something we don’t know about your hometown!

EM: We’ll for one thing it’s not very special haha other than Eddie Cochran living there decades ago. It’s a predominantly Hispanic city South-East of LA. It’s fairly unknown but we take pride in the fact that we are from there. There aren’t many bands (if any) that come out of here.

You have a dedicated following. Have they been with you from the start?

Michael Prince

EM: Definitely, a lot of our fans have seen the band grow and change and almost all of them we consider our friends.

Being compared to the likes of Slaughter & The Dogs, Real Kids and Stooges you must have been turned onto 70’s punk at some point. How did you get hooked on Rock n’ roll and who is your favorite all time band?

EM: The great thing about coming from a small town is that you get to know most of the people your age group. We were all into music and that was the main reason we even bothered to try and get to know each other in the first place, haha. We all discovered a different and new band and just shared that excitement. I went through my fazes as a kid listening to different types of music but it wasn’t until a friend of mine came into our high school art class, popped out his CD player and played “Money” from The Kids. The steadiness of the drums, the gritty guitar and catchy lyrics, I was blown away. I felt as if it was the sound I’ve been looking for my entire life. After that Rock n’ Roll was just inevitable. I can’t speak for the rest of the guys but I am sure our situations where all the same …oh and the Stooges. Stooges, man.

Dorian Chavez

What has been your most memorable show so far?

EM: Well the ones we can remember Hahaha There were a couple. We had a show at the Five Star Bar in Downtown LA one night and it was when the Occupy LA movement was happening. We were unloading our equipment down the street and I was the last one. As soon as I got to the corner the cops blocked the entire street. I had no way of getting pass the yellow line to the bar and it was literally 5 steps away! The cops were being dicks though. I literally had to walk down to 2nd street from Main and back up Figueroa to sneak through. I felt like some special ops agent sneaking in between the cops. I made it through haha there ain’t no yellow lines that can stop rock n’ roll!

You guys have a full length out on Wild Records. Tell us a story about either a song on the record or the production of the record.

EM:The record has been out since November of last year. We had an amazing record release party down at the Cochran Club in Bell Gardens. That’s where we met you Julie! The production was really simple, stripped down and raw. That’s usually how Wild Records does their recordings. Plus some added whiskey for good measure. There isn’t much of a story to our songs, their mostly about having a good time, drinking, sex and partying. Plus some covers.

Eric Martinez

Who produced your new record?

EM: Mr. Reb Kennedy and Omar Romero of Wild Records.

How did you get hooked up with Wild Records?

EM: We were introduced to Reb through our friends from The Hurricanes. We’ve met them will playing a few gigs down in Santa Ana. They recommended Reb check us out and he liked our sound and asked us to join the label and so we did. At first we we’re a bit confused about his interest being that the label is known to have more rockabilly artist but it’s all rock n roll anyway and we’d like being the odd band out of the label. It gives us street cred.

Are you guys related?

EM: Why, cuz’ we’re Mexican? Just kidding. No, we are not but we do consider ourselves brothers. People think Leroy and I are since we have the same last name. But no, he came out of some other womb.

Leroy Martinez

If you’re not a snake or a dance, what are you?

EM: BLACK MAMBAS! There are lot of people that get confused from where we got our name. If you look up what a Black Mamba is and why its deadly, then you’d know why we are the one and only Black Mambas.

Have you seen the ghost of Eddie Cochran at the American Legion Hall? 

EM: Yeah, every time we play the Legion. Through Dorian’s guitar playing and Michael's singing!

Are you going on a European tour soon? If so, where and who are you playing with?

EM: Yes! It is being booked as we speak. It should be at the end of August beginning of September. At the moment there aren’t any names yet. I won’t be joining unfortunately but our friend Bobby who sat in for The Ladykillers from the UK on our tour last month will be filling in for me.

What was the first record you ever bought?

EM: Let’s see the first record had to be…Dead Kennedy's “Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death” when I was about 13 years old.
           
Tell us an Asia Muka story.

EM: She interviewed us a while back at a bar in Hollywood, she had this toy microphone that lit up that we thought was weird, haha. We we’re having a good time, having some brews only to turn out her camera was never recording, hahaha, it was great tho. There was also this time we played for one of her events and she decided to throw her heel at us, I think she wanted to see some blood. Asia is great. She’s always been a big supporter of our band and is a unique soul with the true passion for Rock n’ Roll. The scene would be a lot livelier if there were a thousand more of her.
           
When is your next show and where?      

EM: Our next event will be this Saturday, May 10th with Luis and the Wildfires at Viva Cantina, in Burbank. We will also be at Fern’s in Long Beach the 17th and on the 23rd at the Redwood Bar in Downtown LA with The Stitches and Sex Crime. We are trying to branch out of LA a bit more, so please make sure to catch us when we do. We’ll try not to disappoint!



Saturday, May 3, 2014

ARID Entry: A Journal of Desert Art, Design and Ecology

"The Structural Ecology of the Lower Desert"


My visual essay submission to ARID: A Journal of Desert Art, Design and Ecology consists of 7 previously unpublished images investigating the juxtaposition of man made structures with the natural architectural elements found in the desert landscapes of 29 Palms and Joshua Tree. Taken throughout the summer of 2003, I began to explore and investigate how these communities visually impacted and blended with the natural environment of the lower desert. 

I approached the composition, subject matter and scale with deliberate intent. The snapshot quality of prints with white borders, fingers in front of the lens and a pilgrimage to Gram Parsons' last hotel room, lends itself to a folksy feel - as if a tourist on vacation. 

The man made one story structures, all harkening back to an era of wooden road signs and drive up photo huts, were engulfed by the vast open spaces, towering moonscape mountains and human like totems of the Joshua trees which dominated the environment. 

For your consideration,

Julie Pavlowski Green
May 3, 2014