Debbie Harry

“You never want to piss off a drag queen!” said director Steve Saporito at the Tribeca Film Festival premiere of his movie, Squeezebox! on Friday night.

The after-party for the film was a joyous excuse for drag queens and 90's-club-scene nostalgistas to gather at the Blender Theatre and relive the nights of Don Hill’s drag-rock that became known as Squeezebox!  read more »

God, we love Debbie Harry—iconic, sensual, intelligent, fashionable. She's still relevant decades after she became the queen of the CBGB punk scene. Last week she released her new album, Necessary Evil, and recently approved Kirsten Dunst to play her in a Michel Gondry-directed biopic. We're not sure about that decision just yet, but we trust Harry's judgment. Even at 62, she is still the coolest chick in town and we're jealous that The New York Times' Melena Ryzik got to sit down with her at the Chelsea Piers:

In slim black pants and a sleeveless Dresden Dolls T-shirt (she performed with that punk cabaret duo on Cyndi Lauper's True Colors Tour this summer), accessorized with red bra straps, a gold skull pendant, black wraparound sunglasses and her much-blonded hair, Ms. Harry still looks sexy-punk.

(Ugh, we love it!)

And legions of downtown girls imitate her Blondie-era style, from the shaggy dyed hair and red lips to the vampy shredded dresses. "Those bitches!" she joked. But she follows her progeny, counting M.I.A., Lily Allen and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs among her current favorites.

"She just never stopped being cool," said another descendant, Johanna Fateman of the post-riot-grrrl band Le Tigre.

Ms. Harry demurred. "It's hard for me to think that Blondie was so completely original," she said. "I don't really think that I'm an icon. I think an icon is a statue, something that's frozen, you know. I don't feel like that." And she added, "I don't really love walking down memory lane."

But we will because we love her and this video of a Blondie performance at CBGB's in 1977 is classic. Who else can pull off patchwork pants?

  Vibe    read more »

Is the press turning against CBGB's? After a series of fawning profiles of the legendary club's woes, recently there's been a wave of stories taking more complex positions. It's true that Debbie Harry sounded pretty bad at that benefit.

On August 5, Robin Shulman wondered whether you can trust a punk club over 30. (We've been wondering whether you can trust one under five. Warsaw, anyone?)

Just yesterday, music critic Jon Pareles posed the question: is it worth keeping CBGB's alive, despite being a shell of its once radical self?

"The club has been some kind of symbol for decades. The question is whether that symbolism can transcend real estate and real noise. A transplanted CBGB's would be irrevocably changed, and an artificially preserved one could be just as dicey."

Indeed, the Bowery does seem to be going the way of St. Mark's Place, if a little classier. The Real Estate remembers a decade ago when East Village kids loitered outside Coney Island High, instead of Chipotle Mexican Grill. And you walked very briskly down Rivington Street en route to ABC No Rio.

Last week, CBGB's owner Hilly Kristal won an important legal victory over payment of back rent, though still faces eviction at the end of this month. And the benefit shows featuring reunited, aging punk rockers continue on.

However, with considerably less fanfare, another downtown landmark is soon closing due to rising rents.

In September, the doors will shut on Keith Haring's Pop Shop; the Soho boutique has been selling the late artist's works since 1986.  read more »

Even if CBGB's and Pop Shop close, you can still buy the bootleg shirts on St. Marks Place and head down to the Mars Bar for some 80's New York reminiscing.

- Michael Calderone

We're at millennium's end, and I can't figure out whether we are doing more looking back or looking  read more »