Man, 20 years goes by like lightning.
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Tag Archives: ministry
Instagram Post Of The Week: Gail and Al Jourgensen
The year was 2003, and I was enjoying myself immensely at an after-show party at Lit Lounge in NYC’s East Village, partying hard with the members of Ministry and their entourage, having just seen the band kill it at the late, great Roseland Ballroom. That’s where this photo of me and Al was taken, probably by Paul Barker. I had become friendly with Paul and Al at the time, and you can see the love on Al’s face in this shot and he wraps his arm around my shoulder and smirks for the camera. I was fortunate to interview Paul and Al several times back in the day and they were always fantastic guys to speak with. Good times indeed. Be sure to follow me on Instagram for more celebrity Rock Star stories from the vault!
Ministry’s Al Jourgensen Co-Creates Comic Book Series, Becomes Super Hero
Legendary, Industrial music pioneer and all-around Rock Star Al Jourgensen has joined forces with British dark-artist Sam Shearon to create a series of comic books entitled MINISTRY: The Devil’s Chord – The Chronicles of Alien F. Jourgensen, a 13-issue comic book series targeted to premiere at next July’s Comic-Con in San Diego. Each issue in the series will be based on a Ministry album, including the Platinum-certified Psalm 69, the Gold-sellers The Land of Rape and Honey and The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Taste, as well as Filth Pig, Rio Grande Blood, The Last Sucker and Relapse – all Top 20 albums on Billboard’s charts – among others.
The idea for a Ministry comic book was conceived by Al’s wife and Ministry manager Angelina Jourgensen. The story/script of the comic book, written by Sam “Mister-Sam” Shearon was inspired by conversations with both Al and Angelina Jourgensen about Al’s life, which provided the factual ingredients for Shearon to write this epic. Shearon has written the copy, created all of the characters and designed and illustrated the artwork for all 13 main covers as well as the inner illustrations throughout the entire series. According to Jourgensen, He’s, “been wanting to step away from music for a bit, switch gears…then I met Sam and then POOF! Sam turns me into a super hero. Yeah, I’ll sign up for that!”
I’ve interviewed Al on several occasions and have also dined and hung out with Al and Angie both in NY and LA, and I can tell you, based on my experiences alone, that they are endlessly engaging, charismatic and entirely charming people who have stories to tell beyond what you read in the media that would make your head explode. So, I know this comic book series is going to be amazing. Read the full press release and lots more quote from Al at This Link!
Happy Birthday, Keith Nelson of Buckcherry
Keith & Me at Some Mexican Restaurant in Los Angeles
Buckcherry Guitarist Keith Nelson Celebrates a Birthday today, February 8th! Keith shares his special day with Motley Crue vocalist Vince Neil and former Ministry Bassist Paul Barker. Happy Birthday to my Aquarian Bothers in Rock!
And, oh yeah – please check out my interview with Keith from way back in 2001 at This Link!
Gail’s 2011 Pop Culture Top Ten List!
Now that we are just a couple of short weeks away from kicking off a spectacular New Year, full of art, music, pink things, bacon and free food, I would like to ask you, Dear Readers, how was your year? I hope it was awesome. As you can see from this Rad Blog you are now reading, I got to do some fun things in 2011, including going on my most fun vacation in many years when my sister and I took a 7 day Caribbean cruise, with three days in New Orleans on the front end. Holy cow, was that ever fun! Such adventuring! Such fine dining! Such ridiculous humidity! I’m still sweating.
What this all means is that it’s time again for the obligatory Year End Top Ten List, so, instead of going with the predictable, rote, yawnfest Top Ten CDs list I’ve decided to do more of a Pop Culture Mixed Bag, if you will. Because that is how I roll. Let’s get started.
Best Album: Manraze, PunkFunkRootsRock. Take guitarist Phil Collen from Def Leppard, team him up with drummer Paul Cook from The Sex Pistols and add Simon Laffy, the bassist from Phil’s former Glam band, Girl (because every power trio needs a bassist), and you’ve got a record that sounds, well, like a raunchier version of Def Leppard! We especially love Phil’s Lemmy impersonation on “Over My Dead Body.” Record of The Year! Read my interview with Paul Cook at This Link.
That’s Me in the Back Row: Third in from the Left
Best Game Show: The Kostabi Show, where a panel of three Art critics and/or celebrities compete to title the works of modernist painter Mark Kostabi for cash awards, while a jury votes on which title suits the painting best. I had the opportunity to serve as a member of the jury for a taping this past summer and went home with $6 cash more than I had when I arrived, plus a Kostabi coffee table book signed by Mark. Bonus: free pizza! Kostabi, who is an accomplished pianist, also released a swell modern classical CD, The Spectre of Modernism, this year, which has been in heavy rotation on my iPod for ages now.
Best Beatles Thing: Dave Depper’s Ram Project, an authentically-covered version of Paul McCartney’s second solo album, complete with off-key Linda-esque backing vocals! So good!
Best Rock Book: Nick Kent’s Apathy For The Devil, a memoir of the British rock critic’s life and career in the 1970s. Everyone knows that all of the best music happened the Seventies, so I will admit that, as both a writer and fan, I certainly would have loved to have lived that life myself, save for the messy heroin addiction part.
Best Fashion-Related Museum Exhibit: Alexander McQueen’s Savage Beauty at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Four words: Crown of Thorns Headdress. The Savage Beauty Exhibit set all kinds of ridiculous attendance records for the Met and was just insane. Insane!
Best Homage to Eighties Alternative Goth: Chris Connelly’s Artificial Madness. David Bowie Meets Killing Joke plus Bauhaus sautéed lightly with Magazine and a little Ministry on the side. Homage!
Best Rock Documentary:Fix, The Ministry Movie. Kids: Don’t Do Drugs. Or do a lot of them. One or the Other.
Best Seventies Southern Rock: The Sheepdogs, Five Easy Pieces EP. Bonus points to the band for their fan-winning appearance on the most recent season of Project Runway!
Reality TV (Competition): Top Chef, because Celebrity Chefs are the new Rock Stars!
Pop Culture as Art: The Suckadelic Art Toy Universe Retrospective and Pop Up Store at Boo Hooray Gallery (NYC). The judges and critics on the second season of Bravo’s Work Of Art didn’t really dig the SuckLord’s artwork too much, but his parodies of Star Wars toys served up with a serious side of snark made for one of the most subversive, hilarious and memorable art shows of the year! Art!
Honorable Mention: Kasabian’s Velociraptor, MGMT Live at the Guggenheim, The Zombies at City Winery, Single Fare Please Swipe Again at Sloan Fine Art, Spiderman: Turn Off The Dark, Jeremy Dower’s Canis Mortuus Familiarus at Bold Hype Gallery, American Horror Story, Maurizio Catellan’s All Retrospective at The Guggenheim, Patti Smith at Webster Hall, The Wyld Olde Souls’ Ensoulment, Jeremy Fish Listen & Learn at Joshua Liner Gallery, Robot Chicken, Tosh.0.
Happy Holidaze and all the best for 2012!