“I loved Hilly—and he wasn’t punk, he was entirely bluegrass,” said Larry “Ratso” Sloman of CBGB founder Hilly Kristal. The
only one not wearing black at the after party for the Tribeca Film Fest
CBGB doc Burning Down the House at Bowery Electric on Friday night, the
National Lampoon editor and Bob Dylan biographer wore a checked eggshell suit and clear plastic shades.
Moving on through the basement bar, legendary “band-aid” Bebe Buell and husband Jim Wallerstein (Kristal introduced the pair) ran out before I could quiz them, but punk photographer Bruce Alexander was stoked for conversation, “I’m a journalist too, man,” he told me, holding up a copy of the New York Waste. “You should talk to Dick Manitoba and Jesse Malin from D Generation, man,” he informed me, but instead I asked him for some of his best moments in punk rock. “Once there was this hot Scottish girl that I wanted to get with but instead I blew her off to see Edgar Winter, and ended up at the Nursery, an after hours on 12th and 3rd Ave. where I played cards until 7 a.m. with Wendy O.Williams and the Plasmatics.
I was always missing my chance with ladies because of this shit.” Despite hearing about Debbie Harry from plenty of aging punks, the still-blond star never made it from the screening to the party so I moved on to brunettes, specifically director Mandy Stein, who told me that CBs was “like home” to her. “It co-existed with Studio 54—each of these clubs became their own cultural icons,” she emoted, before sitting down, exhausted. It’s amazing how many legendary survivors there are from the punk days—if only a few more of them could stay awake long enough for the after party.
Moving on through the basement bar, legendary “band-aid” Bebe Buell and husband Jim Wallerstein (Kristal introduced the pair) ran out before I could quiz them, but punk photographer Bruce Alexander was stoked for conversation, “I’m a journalist too, man,” he told me, holding up a copy of the New York Waste. “You should talk to Dick Manitoba and Jesse Malin from D Generation, man,” he informed me, but instead I asked him for some of his best moments in punk rock. “Once there was this hot Scottish girl that I wanted to get with but instead I blew her off to see Edgar Winter, and ended up at the Nursery, an after hours on 12th and 3rd Ave. where I played cards until 7 a.m. with Wendy O.Williams and the Plasmatics.
I was always missing my chance with ladies because of this shit.” Despite hearing about Debbie Harry from plenty of aging punks, the still-blond star never made it from the screening to the party so I moved on to brunettes, specifically director Mandy Stein, who told me that CBs was “like home” to her. “It co-existed with Studio 54—each of these clubs became their own cultural icons,” she emoted, before sitting down, exhausted. It’s amazing how many legendary survivors there are from the punk days—if only a few more of them could stay awake long enough for the after party.
