Cookie Mueller

Picture this Cautious Lips, Cookie is on her way to see an art show so she can review it for her weekly review in The East Village Eye ( local arts newspaper of the east village) I run into her on 57th street uptown and she invites me to join her. The opening is in a gallery on the 9th floor of a building on W.57th St. We arrive early before anyone so she can see all the work clearly without anybody in the way. We take the elevator to the 9th floor and the door opens right into the gallery. The only person there is the food gwen who has arranged a table in the corner filled to the brim with fresh oysters laid out on a bed of shaved ice. The only thing not in place yet are the lemon and cocktail sauce so the young gwen grabs the elevator as we get off and heads back down to the street to the caterers truck to retrieve them. A quick glance at the bad art and we decide, being hungry and from Baltimore, to sample the free oysters. Having indulged in a funny little ciggerette just before our arrival, we start eatting them like the famished folk we are. Talking and eatting and eatting and talking and suddenly I notice and say to Cookie " Hon, there's no more oysters." We had eatten every last one. We move to the elevator and the door opens and out steps the gwen and in we step. As the door closes we watch the gwen set down the lemon slices and cocktail sauce only to realize what we already know, We had eatten every last one. As the gwen turned to us in horror the door closed and Cooks says to me " Well, those were good Hons, too bad they were too cheap to have enough for everyone." I agreed and out onto w.57th Street we headed, burping oysters as we went.

Thank you. You seem to always have such stories...you should consider writing a book (I know I'd buy it.)
On a positive note, I am trying this patience you spoke of in the Anya thread

Shhh...I'm trying to listen to reason...

And Cookie was a brilliant writer, as well as being a photographic icon and movie star, CL.
There's a worship site at:
http://www.angelfire.com/md/cookiemueller/home.html
if you can stand the pop-ups.
Her book, "Walking Through Clear Water In A Pool Painted Black" is an amazing classic and I believe still available from Amazon.

I first met Cookie that summer that everyone from "Desperate Living," as did I, lived in Provincetown (where Bobby lives now.) The summer when Willy Brookes, the Pieman, passed out and nearly plunged to his death from the balcony during the "World Premiere" of that film at the Provincetown Cinema. Luckily someone caught him.
Back in NYC, for a while, Cookie & Vittorio were selling pharmaceutical-quality MDA, and one would have to call their house and say,"Cookie, I'd like a Masters Degree In Art," in order to fool the DEA wiretappers Cookie was convinced were spying on her. I guess the DEA was pretty stupid back then. Come to think of it, they are pretty stupid NOW...

Hatches - they were spying on her, as per Linda Y. Know what I mean?

I am SOOOO loving alll the ole tales from back in the days... hatches, needles and bobby (more pictures dear bobby boy! Please! Please!)... although I never quite 'got' Cookies 'talent' as a writer... bon vivant perhaps but scribe no.. but maybe its me...(more tales of 'old' please)

So simple and clear it is more like talking than writing. Very hard to pull off - im a big fan.

I recently read Ask Dr. Mueller:The Writings Of Cookie Mueller. It was amazing-I laughed, I cried, it was an amazing read.

I also recently picked up I'll Be Your Mirror(video) and it was such a touching film. I was not around during the club periods, etc so this video is nothing short of amazing. I do admit, I cried a lot while watching the parts with Sharon and Cookie.

Cautious Lip, please, please tell me where you picked up the video for "I'll Be Your Mirror"

Thanks!

I was just having some wonder...
I was looking through My SO 80's book By Patrick McMullan...And I saw Cookie in Her casket...
I always wondered why she died so young...so I started searching...
I have had such a great time researching her.
She was such a jewel.
I wish I could have met her...

She was a jewel, you are right.
I think there is a Cookie topic here somewhere.

Daddy..you silly..THIS is the Cookie topic.

And here in Ptown we have Cookie's son Max aka Baby Noodles from Pink Flamingos and Cookies baby grandaughter who looks just like her. She danced next to me for an hour last week in front of town hall as I played guitar and sang. She's a real pisser.

Of course this is the Cookie Topic.
I'm so stupid.
I'll never figure out this whole interweb thing. Chi Chi just laughed. She said, "Now the whole world knows what I know".
Actually, that was a VERY Cookie Mueller thing to do. She was really smart, really funny and REALLY ditsie.

I was honored in 1984 (I think) to do a reading w/ Cookie Mueller, who I did not know, at Hallwalls gallery in Buffalo NY. It was one of my first solo poetry readings. I didn't really know anything about her then, except that she had been in Pink Flamingos. But I *loved* her writing, and the way she read it was so great -- she had a slight lisp, and a very hilarious, deadpan delivery, but you were in on the joke with her -- she never had that snotty distance so many "cool" people have. The boy I had a big crush on was falling all over her that night, but I could hardly blame him! Cookie Mueller was just a glittery, fascinating lady, the kind of person who could make almost anything fun. She walked around downtown Buffalo (such as it was) with us after the reading, smoking a joint. Wow, I haven't thought of all this in a long time. Cookie Mueller. God bless her, she was a good, good soul.

It's a good thing you didn't mess with her Emily.

Cookie: "I've got a knife in my purse and I'm going to cut you up after class".

She was such a beautie.
I love this picture of her.

Penny and I were just talking about Cookie Last night.
I wanted to ask her if she was friends with her...

Hello ,
I am an artist based out of Berlin and I am working on a project about Cookie
Mueller. The project includes collecting stories,
interviews, writings, memorabilia, pictures, trivia
and anything out of the ordinary about Cookie for an
independently produced art/homage book.
I would like to meet you and find out some strange
facts, stories or anything you would be willing to
contribute. I am presently in new york city for a couple weeks and
I would be able to meet you at any place that's convenient
for you. Looking forward to hearing from you,
thank you,
Chloe.

yes almost forgot- you can email me at: chloe.m.griffin@gmail.com
want to hear some stories!!

Chloe and I met here in Ptown. She is a bright and interesting girl. I think her book project is going to be great. Please make some time for her if you have a good Cookie story.

Absolutely gorgeous pic of Cookie + Max Mueller + Gennaro Palermo, definitely taken in Ptown, year and photographer unknown. What beauty!

Thanks to Bobby M who sent this over...

Gorgeous! I would guess, looking at them all, it was 1977.

The photographer is Bobby Miller:

http://www.facebook.com/photo....490196&id=1356943416

Thanks Punklet, but Bobby Miller is NOT the photographer of the picture posted above.Bobby DID post the picture on Facebook as well as send it to us..Like us, he doesn't know who the original photographer is - if anyone does, do let us know!

I wish I had taken that photo but alas no. I will ask Sharon, she might know.

I'm pretty sure it was taken by David Armstrong.

Yes, it was taken by David Armstrong.

Just to set the record straight.. I AM the photographer of the photos of Cookie Mueller, her son Max and Gennaro Palermo in Provincetown, that have been floating around.  Not David Armstrong. 

Dear Audrey Antler,

 

I apologize for my wrong assumption about David Armstrong -- whose “Summer of ’79” show at the Albert Merola Gallery in Provincetown (25 May -14 June 2007), which included several photographs picturing Cookie and John Waters during that P-town season, led me (and others) to suspect that it was Armstrong who took those great photos. Judging from Max's age, they look like they were taken in the late '70s.  But of course Cookie was photographed by a lot of people throughout her life.

 

You probably know that another photo from your contact sheet of images taken on that day, picturing Cookie and Max laughing in a field, was used for the frontispiece of Cookie's posthumously published 1990 book "Garden of Ashes," as well as in in the Details magazine 1990 homage article "For Cookie," with reminiscences by Glenn O'Brien and Annie Flanders.  That photo too has been miscredited over the years, due to Details crediting it to Stephen DeMateo, who might have just supplied it to Details.  "Garden of Ashes" has no photo credit for it.

 

Anyway, it's wonderful to know that you actually took all those fantastic photographs. Thank you so much for sharing them on the Facebook page, "Provincetown in the 70s."

 

-Katsumi