Jade
was this pale faced girl with dyed jet black hair . . . and
she and her sister always wore black. Nothing else, just black
. . . very black.
I named her that as she and her sister,
ZELDA (at least I called her that I don't know her real name
[Zandra]) was always yelling VIOLENCE! We met at the Starwood,
probably at the Damned, but wasn't until several punk outings
later that I actually walked up to her and yelled VIOLENCE .
. . then she gladly acknowledged me. Jade and her sister told
me how they were soooooo bored and that this was the BEST thing
to happen in a long time. Hanging out. Boozing it up. Watching
other creatures of the night like us. I guess Jade had just
come down from the Glitter hangover that so many of our pre-punk
elders had experienced. The closest I ever got to Glitter was
buying Bowie records and hanging out at the Sugar Shack. Being
18 was not fun back then, as so many of the people who hung
out were from the Glitter years and rolling over to Punk.
I felt a genuine emptiness, along with Jade
and her friends, as I never had such excitement before punk
. . . I guess coming from the Glitter scene and transforming
into Punk was kinda hard as during Glitter a rip in your fishnets
was a no-no where as punk it was way groovy (thank God as I
coming from a lower middle class Mexican/American family always
in tatters).
What was awkward about the Starwood was
that it had this disco room. So before or in between bands you
could hang out and dance! Ya'd be surprised who danced on that
disco floor! Then once the band ripped their guitars and the
"Check, Check" of the mics sounded, you ran back and
put on your best "I don't care" attitude not to let
others know of your secret dancing you just performed.
One particular nite while hanging out in
front of the Rainbow Bar and Grill, a drunken guy approached
Zelda and asked "how much" . . . in her Divine punk-like
attitude, she stared him in the eyes and uttered "Fuck
Off!" He insisted that she wanted him and she would perform
her womanly duties for him and wouldn’t go away. Zelda
was wearing (as so many fabulous women of punk did) a black
nightie with her hair bleached with a crew cut. I guess rich
old farts traveling down Sunset would think "Hey that new
Donna Summer cover looks just like that! Underwear and all she
must be a hooker!" So were judged by what we wore!
So after several forceful attempts to pass
his seed, Zelda finally grabbed the twenty bucks and we ran
down the street by the Whisky. We noticed at some point a cop
car was following us, so we walked down Sunset to Holloway where
punk photographer diva Jenny Lens was living. We knocked on
her door and screamed "the cops are after us." NOW
I REMEMBER JENNY . . . YOU WOULDN'T LET US IN! So we ran to
the Germs apartment where the cops came and at first they won't
believe us, but finally after several explanations they believed
that she was not a hooker and left us alone. I think at this
point the grils were convinced that Jenny must die... but they
got over it once Jenny Lens started flashing to make history.
It was one of those punk things... Jenny didn't open the door
so they were going to kill her . . . well, needless to say Jenny
is alive and kicking! Mark
[Jade produced an early fanzine, "Generation
X." I found her via comments on "Neutron Bomb"
book on Amazon's website and started emailing her in late 2004.
Great story. Who knows, I could have been in my darkroom, not
home, or whatever. Neither Jade nor I remember it, but it explains
why Mark’s name is on a Generation X page reproduced in
Alice Bag’s site, but my name is quite absent! I found
a great shot of Jade at the Weirdos Larchmont show, standing
in front of John Denney’s monitor. Archivist David Jones
told me the Weirdos were Jade’s favorite band. See the
shots in my Weirdos section. I found two shots of punks sitting
outside the Masque, with Jade and her pals Meredith and James.
I have shots of another pal of hers, Pearl Harbor, at a punk
party with Natasha, who found me at Johnny Ramone’s statue
unveiling. Jade and Natasha were close pals as well. I always
loved shooting gorgeous, sweet, quiet red-haired Natasha. I
can’t wait til I dig up, scan and post my fashion shots
of her and others! Jenny] |
