Just Kids

Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorp at the Chelsea Hotel

  I recently finished reading the biography Just Kids bye Patti Smith and was completely blown away. Just Kids is a memoir of the friendship and inseparable bond between Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorp, taking place primarily in New York during the late 60's and 70's. Patti writes with the same clarity and strength with which she writes her music, taking you through her humble beginnings with Robert and their steady rise to success.

Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorp, Coney Island

Reading this book has made me think of what it was like to live in New York during a different time. New York in the 70's was a very different place then it is today. Times Square was a place for prostitutes and drugs, the Chelsea Hotel was a haven for artists and musicians, and the Factory was home to Andy Warhol, Edie Sedgwick , and Jim Morrison.  It was all about music, art and inspiration. It was a time full of grit and glamour.

Bryan Adams at the Chelsea Hotel

I have become enamoured with the 70's in NY, and it has made me wonder where I would have fit into this bohemian world. As much as I love the idea of being part of this free spirited culture, I wonder if I would have felt like an outsider, although I don't know if that is my personality, or the effect that today's environment has had on me. Fashion and music in the 70's were a movement, today they are reality t.v. empires, it was a complete revolution that no longer exists in our organized online world.

Max's Kansas City

For now, I just want to be inspired by all of these amazing people, and imagine what it would have been like to have a shot of tequila at Max's with Patti Smith.

Janis Joplin

Janis Joplin, Jimmi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, Jim Morrision and now Amy Weinhouse, all young artists who have lost their lives at 27, a heartbreaking club of incredible talent and troubled lives. May they forever be remembered

Andy Warhol and Edie Sedgwick

The beautiful Edie Sedgwick

 The CBGB, the birth place of punk rock and a New York Institution.