There are more photos of Transformer on www.chrisgeary.com - look under 'london' clubbing & mardis gras
Your link didn't work so I added a picture of Transformer - thanks so much for posting this link - the Tuppy Owens obit is really incredible.
Thank you, Chi Chi - i'm hopeless with computers, sometimes.
In Loving Tribute To
Lt. Cmdr. Teresa Ellison
1971-2002
of the U.S.S. Northstar,
N.C.C.- 10462
Whenever something happens to one of our own, we feel sympathy. Rarely do we realize until they are no longer with us, just how much of an impact, a single being can have on our ives.......
Lieutenant Commander Teresa Ellison was a very special individual. She had a beautiful heart.
A very humble and proud New Yorker with lots of attitude. She was truly a Diva with a conscience.
Teresa was an outspoken advocate for the rights of Transgendered people, people with HIV/AIDS, as well as the Homeless.
Teresa was always a very direct and frank person. She always let people know exactly how she felt about anything. She treated everyone in the exact
same fashion, she wanted to be treated.
Whether it was on behalf of Housing Works or the AIDS Walk, Teresa was always able to stand up for herself as well as others. She demanded equal
treatment with justice and respect. She would never stand for anything less.
Teresa was born and raised as Theodore Ellison, Jr.to a very religious family in New Jersey in 1971. Her family and friends in church affectionally called her "Teddy." She was a member of the gospel choir.
Even during these early days, "Teddy" knew deep down she was really a woman.
Much like the proverbial Spock, she felt very conflicted with both her inner and outer selves.
It was not until she left her family and moved into the city in 1995, did she begin to evolve into her true self.
All along in the midst of sickness and adversity, as Teresa struggled to reconcile with her religious yet unaccepting family, she remained deeply committed to her spirituality as well as her faith.
Indeed she became very active in her newly adopted church.
Teresa had a great sense of humor. With her razor sharp wit and tongue to match, she was seldom unprepared for the ultimate comeback. We all have multiple recollections of barely surviving her verbal photon torpedo volleys.
With sheer determination, she lived with honor and courage. Within the Community of the U.S.S. Northstar, Teresa absolutely thrived.
Very Recently, Teresa was very weak and oxygen deprived. Without concern for herself, she dutifully left the safe confines of her nursing home bed and jumped onto her motorized wheelchair. She endured a long bus ride and braved an even longer ferry ride from Staten Island in order to represent her interests at the AIDS Walk.
She championed her beliefs to the bitter end. Teresa truly believed in the beauty and concept of the IDIC. As proud as she was to be an advocate for the truly down trodden, she proved that there is hope in strength through diversity and unity.
In short Lt. Cmdr. Teresa Ellison embodied the true spirit and ideals of Star Trek and the U.S.S. Northstar.
We all have lost a very powerful advocate for community and social change, but we will work very diligently to keep her legacy alive.
She will be sorely missed.....
Hailing Frequencies Open From Our Earth
We Will Always Miss And Love You Teresa.......
Hsie-Hsie, Tsai- Tien,Wa Aye Nee Teresa........
Namaste Lal, Namaste, Namaste, Namaste My- Friend, We Salute The Divinity In
You.
Vaya Con Dios Nuestra Hermana.........
Au Revoir Lieutenant Commandant...........
Sayonara Des, Ita Takimas TeresaSan...........
Spa-Cibo Teresa,Das Vadanya........................
Danke Teresa, Chus Leepschin.........................
Al Salaam Malakam Teresa..................................
Tresa, Ay Shay Penda Uhuru................................
From The Federation and Beyond
NANU-NANU Teresa.
Peldor Joy Teresa, May You Always Walk With The-Prophets in the
CelestialTemple........
Jo Lan Tru Teresa.
B'atath Stovo KOr,Q'opla!!!
Always Stand For Truth, Justice and the Star Trek Way.......
May The Force Be With You Always.......
Live Long And Prosper
In The Nexus Of Eternity......
Lt. Cmdr. Teresa Ellison
1971-2002
of the U.S.S. Northstar,
N.C.C.- 10462
Whenever something happens to one of our own, we feel sympathy. Rarely do we realize until they are no longer with us, just how much of an impact, a single being can have on our ives.......
Lieutenant Commander Teresa Ellison was a very special individual. She had a beautiful heart.
A very humble and proud New Yorker with lots of attitude. She was truly a Diva with a conscience.
Teresa was an outspoken advocate for the rights of Transgendered people, people with HIV/AIDS, as well as the Homeless.
Teresa was always a very direct and frank person. She always let people know exactly how she felt about anything. She treated everyone in the exact
same fashion, she wanted to be treated.
Whether it was on behalf of Housing Works or the AIDS Walk, Teresa was always able to stand up for herself as well as others. She demanded equal
treatment with justice and respect. She would never stand for anything less.
Teresa was born and raised as Theodore Ellison, Jr.to a very religious family in New Jersey in 1971. Her family and friends in church affectionally called her "Teddy." She was a member of the gospel choir.
Even during these early days, "Teddy" knew deep down she was really a woman.
Much like the proverbial Spock, she felt very conflicted with both her inner and outer selves.
It was not until she left her family and moved into the city in 1995, did she begin to evolve into her true self.
All along in the midst of sickness and adversity, as Teresa struggled to reconcile with her religious yet unaccepting family, she remained deeply committed to her spirituality as well as her faith.
Indeed she became very active in her newly adopted church.
Teresa had a great sense of humor. With her razor sharp wit and tongue to match, she was seldom unprepared for the ultimate comeback. We all have multiple recollections of barely surviving her verbal photon torpedo volleys.
With sheer determination, she lived with honor and courage. Within the Community of the U.S.S. Northstar, Teresa absolutely thrived.
Very Recently, Teresa was very weak and oxygen deprived. Without concern for herself, she dutifully left the safe confines of her nursing home bed and jumped onto her motorized wheelchair. She endured a long bus ride and braved an even longer ferry ride from Staten Island in order to represent her interests at the AIDS Walk.
She championed her beliefs to the bitter end. Teresa truly believed in the beauty and concept of the IDIC. As proud as she was to be an advocate for the truly down trodden, she proved that there is hope in strength through diversity and unity.
In short Lt. Cmdr. Teresa Ellison embodied the true spirit and ideals of Star Trek and the U.S.S. Northstar.
We all have lost a very powerful advocate for community and social change, but we will work very diligently to keep her legacy alive.
She will be sorely missed.....
Hailing Frequencies Open From Our Earth
We Will Always Miss And Love You Teresa.......
Hsie-Hsie, Tsai- Tien,Wa Aye Nee Teresa........
Namaste Lal, Namaste, Namaste, Namaste My- Friend, We Salute The Divinity In
You.
Vaya Con Dios Nuestra Hermana.........
Au Revoir Lieutenant Commandant...........
Sayonara Des, Ita Takimas TeresaSan...........
Spa-Cibo Teresa,Das Vadanya........................
Danke Teresa, Chus Leepschin.........................
Al Salaam Malakam Teresa..................................
Tresa, Ay Shay Penda Uhuru................................
From The Federation and Beyond
NANU-NANU Teresa.
Peldor Joy Teresa, May You Always Walk With The-Prophets in the
CelestialTemple........
Jo Lan Tru Teresa.
B'atath Stovo KOr,Q'opla!!!
Always Stand For Truth, Justice and the Star Trek Way.......
May The Force Be With You Always.......
Live Long And Prosper
In The Nexus Of Eternity......
I'm sad ....
quote:
December 23, 2002
A LEADER OF THE CLASH DIES AT 50
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Reuters
A Punk Rock Leader Dies
Joe Strummer, a founding member of the Clash, died on Sunday. He was 50.
Filed at 10:07 a.m. ET
LONDON (AP) -- Joe Strummer, lead singer of the legendary British punk band The Clash, has died, his record company said Monday. He was 50.
Strummer, who was the band's guitarist, vocalist and songwriter alongside Mick Jones, died on Sunday. The British Broadcasting Corp. quoted The Clash's video director Don Letts as saying Strummer died of a heart attack.
A statement released by his record label said Strummer ``died peacefully at his home'' in Broomfield in the southern county of Somerset.
It added that Strummer's wife Lucy, two daughters and stepdaughter ``request privacy at this harrowing time.''
Hein van der Rey, managing director of Epitaph Records, which had produced two albums for Strummer's latest band, The Mescaleros, said he learned of the death Monday morning.
``We do not know the circumstances. It is pretty devastating news,'' he said.
He said Strummer, who was born John Mellor, had been working on a third album with The Mescaleros.
Strummer's death was announced on his official Web site. ``Joe Strummer died yesterday,'' said the simple statement. ``Our condolences to Luce and the kids, family and friends.''
Strummer was born in Ankara, Turkey, the son of a British diplomat.
``The Clash'' were known for injecting left wing politics into punk. Their album ``London Calling'' was named the best album of the 1980s by Rolling Stone magazine, despite being released in 1979.
Between 1977 and 1982 Strummer and Jones composed, performed and recorded dozens of songs, using musical ideas from reggae and rockabilly as well as punk. With Jones's crisp guitar playing and Strummer's staccato, Cockney voice, the band, which also included Keith Levene, Paul Simonon, Terry Chimes Nicky ``Topper'' Headon, was hugely popular and gave electrifying stage performances.
``Their music is primitive and aggressive,'' reported the Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rock, ``but the chemistry is combustible. On stage they are a complete audiovisual experience, driven forward on a wave of passion and pure energy.''
In 1980, a fight erupted during a concert in Hamburg, Germany and Strummer was arrested after hitting a fan with his guitar.
In 1982, he disappeared for three weeks, forcing the band to cancel their tour of the United Kingdom. Strummer later explained that he had doubts about his career, so he went to Paris and had been ``living like a bum.''
The band signed with CBS Records for $200,000, and their first album ``Clash,'' was released in the United Kingdom in 1977. The record company considered the album too crude for U.S. release, however. It wasn't until 1979 that a compilation album would be released as ``The Clash'' in America.
The band split in the early 1980s after a dispute between Strummer and Jones, who subsequently formed the group Big Audio Dynamite (BAD).
Strummer recently collaborated with Bono of U2 and Dave Stewart of The Eurythmics to write a song in honor of former South African President Nelson Mandela. Titled ``48864,'' Mandela's number in prison, the song is to be played at a Feb. 2 AIDS benefit concert Mandela is sponsoring at his former prison on Robben Island.
I have GREAT admiration for Joe Stummer (and Mick Jones) they truly made their mark on music and society today.... at a time when music was less 'controlled', less contrived, less manufactured, BS - meaning Before Sylists! These blokes were the original take no prisoners intelligent, driven cos of the love of the music not the Benjamins... it wasn't about Ice or Lexus it was about the music and people ... back in the days when people cared more about their fellow man with socialist and rock against racism. And they really did care...it wasn't a Gruber-PR stunt you know.... Joe was a star, and very very funny bloke ... kind... a listener ...caring...honest..and intelligent. so sad... but now he can join Ian Dury and a few other greats that are up there!
Well, Joe Strummer has joined Sid Vicious and Joey Ramone... what a band!
Wow.... just catchin up on all the holiday news and saw in the obits that Herb Ritts died 12/28! I never knew he was sick..... how sad... he was will always be... a real talent...
Hey just read that that chick in the 70's who wrote and performed that Telephone Man song, Meri Wilson just died... -"Hey baby, I'm your telephone man, / Show me where you want it and I'll put it where I can","do lolly, lolly, chicka-do, chicka-do" - Meri Wilson.....
Loved that kitsch song....
Loved that kitsch song....
Never got to know this fella but he sounds like my kind of wheeler dealer:
(***nytimes pay per view link removed 5/23/03)
Colin de Land, a New York art dealer whose ambivalence about commercialism was reflected in an art gallery that sometimes resembled an anti-art gallery, if not a work of Conceptual Art, died on Sunday at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital. He was 47.
The cause was cancer, said Dennis Balk, an artist represented by Mr. de Land's gallery, American Fine Arts.
With little display of exertion or financial solvency, Mr. de Land oversaw galleries in different art neighborhoods for nearly 20 years. He was known for his relaxed work habits and even more relaxed art installations, which did not all open on time, as well as an insistent sartorial style that presaged the "white trash" look. At times he exhibited fictive artists, like John Dogg, whose work was widely assumed, but never confirmed, to have been made by Mr. de Land and the artist Richard Prince.
Mr. de Land was born in Union City, N.J. He attended New York University, studying philosophy and linguistics. He backed into art dealing when, while living on the Lower East Side, he offered to sell a Warhol painting for a neighbor who needed money for drugs.
In the heyday of the East Village art scene in the early 1980's, he had a gallery called Vox Populi in a former butcher shop on East Sixth Street. But he had his greatest impact after he relocated to the relatively quiet, southwest area of SoHo in 1988 and evolved American Fine Arts, a gallery that functioned as an art world laboratory, hangout and refuge.
In largely unrenovated spaces at 40 and then 22 Wooster Street, he gave shows of cutting-edge artists whose interests ranged from large-scale installation to institutional critique to video to abstract painting. They included Cady Noland, Jessica Stockholder, Mariko Mori, Alex Bag, Mr. Balk and Peter Fend. He also showed work by the filmmaker John Waters and by Art Club 2000, a collective formed by students at the School of Visual Arts that included Daniel McDonald, who became the gallery's director in 1993.
Once in the mid-90's when Mr. de Land's fortunes were at an usually low ebb, he held a benefit at and for the gallery. More than 200 artists donated work, including many who had no previous affiliation with him.
Mr. de Land took over the Chelsea space of his wife, Pat Hearn, after she died in 2000, also of cancer. The events he staged there included a raucous, decidedly non-Chelsean performance by the women from a band called the Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black, led by the performance artist Kembra Pfahler, his companion. In addition to Ms. Pfahler, he is survived by his mother, Aleta de Land Hamada of Union City.
Mr. de Land disdained consistency. He allowed one artist to close the gallery for a month to protest art commercialization, but he also taught a course for art collectors and helped found the New York Armory Show, which fills two piers on the Hudson River every year. His booth in this year's fair, which opens tomorrow, will feature walls that spell out his gallery's initials, A.F.A., mimicking the unaccountably restrained typography of his announcement cards.
rb//nyc//bronx//bohemia
[This message was edited by dreambot on 05-23-03 at 09:42 PM.]
(***nytimes pay per view link removed 5/23/03)
Colin de Land, a New York art dealer whose ambivalence about commercialism was reflected in an art gallery that sometimes resembled an anti-art gallery, if not a work of Conceptual Art, died on Sunday at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital. He was 47.
The cause was cancer, said Dennis Balk, an artist represented by Mr. de Land's gallery, American Fine Arts.
With little display of exertion or financial solvency, Mr. de Land oversaw galleries in different art neighborhoods for nearly 20 years. He was known for his relaxed work habits and even more relaxed art installations, which did not all open on time, as well as an insistent sartorial style that presaged the "white trash" look. At times he exhibited fictive artists, like John Dogg, whose work was widely assumed, but never confirmed, to have been made by Mr. de Land and the artist Richard Prince.
Mr. de Land was born in Union City, N.J. He attended New York University, studying philosophy and linguistics. He backed into art dealing when, while living on the Lower East Side, he offered to sell a Warhol painting for a neighbor who needed money for drugs.
In the heyday of the East Village art scene in the early 1980's, he had a gallery called Vox Populi in a former butcher shop on East Sixth Street. But he had his greatest impact after he relocated to the relatively quiet, southwest area of SoHo in 1988 and evolved American Fine Arts, a gallery that functioned as an art world laboratory, hangout and refuge.
In largely unrenovated spaces at 40 and then 22 Wooster Street, he gave shows of cutting-edge artists whose interests ranged from large-scale installation to institutional critique to video to abstract painting. They included Cady Noland, Jessica Stockholder, Mariko Mori, Alex Bag, Mr. Balk and Peter Fend. He also showed work by the filmmaker John Waters and by Art Club 2000, a collective formed by students at the School of Visual Arts that included Daniel McDonald, who became the gallery's director in 1993.
Once in the mid-90's when Mr. de Land's fortunes were at an usually low ebb, he held a benefit at and for the gallery. More than 200 artists donated work, including many who had no previous affiliation with him.
Mr. de Land took over the Chelsea space of his wife, Pat Hearn, after she died in 2000, also of cancer. The events he staged there included a raucous, decidedly non-Chelsean performance by the women from a band called the Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black, led by the performance artist Kembra Pfahler, his companion. In addition to Ms. Pfahler, he is survived by his mother, Aleta de Land Hamada of Union City.
Mr. de Land disdained consistency. He allowed one artist to close the gallery for a month to protest art commercialization, but he also taught a course for art collectors and helped found the New York Armory Show, which fills two piers on the Hudson River every year. His booth in this year's fair, which opens tomorrow, will feature walls that spell out his gallery's initials, A.F.A., mimicking the unaccountably restrained typography of his announcement cards.
rb//nyc//bronx//bohemia
[This message was edited by dreambot on 05-23-03 at 09:42 PM.]
From IndieWire:
"Stan Brakhage, widely considered the most important avant-garde filmmaker, has died. Brakhage made nearly 400 films during his life, starting at age 19. His works, experimental in their form, range from a few seconds to a few hours. Brakhage was also a film professor, author, and lecturer. He died on Sunday (March 8) at age 70 in Victoria, British Columbia after a battle with cancer."
I often sat in on Stan's lectures on film and film history at the Art Institute of Chicago in the 70s, and quite simply, he taught me how to see. Though I haven't heard him lecture in 25 years, I often find his words flooding back.
"Stan Brakhage, widely considered the most important avant-garde filmmaker, has died. Brakhage made nearly 400 films during his life, starting at age 19. His works, experimental in their form, range from a few seconds to a few hours. Brakhage was also a film professor, author, and lecturer. He died on Sunday (March 8) at age 70 in Victoria, British Columbia after a battle with cancer."
I often sat in on Stan's lectures on film and film history at the Art Institute of Chicago in the 70s, and quite simply, he taught me how to see. Though I haven't heard him lecture in 25 years, I often find his words flooding back.
Nina Simone, whose deep, raspy, forceful voice made her a unique figure in jazz and later helped chronicle the civil rights movement, died Monday at her home in France, according to her personal manager. She was 70.
- I don't know if you ever caught her live, but she defo invented the term DIVA... when i saw her she walked off the stage till the audience went wild with applause then she finally returned... this was after only one number!! Bless 'er! Amazing distinctive voice, a true legend
- I don't know if you ever caught her live, but she defo invented the term DIVA... when i saw her she walked off the stage till the audience went wild with applause then she finally returned... this was after only one number!! Bless 'er! Amazing distinctive voice, a true legend
A true Goddess Diva...I saw her in Wash DC in 1970 and she came out, sat at the piano, looked at the audience and left the stage saying she would return ONLY when there were more black people in the house. Ruler!
Her autobiography is remarkable. Try to find it on Amazon.com and be glad you did.
I'll miss that testy bitch.
Her autobiography is remarkable. Try to find it on Amazon.com and be glad you did.
I'll miss that testy bitch.
I am so wrecked about Nina's death. I caught her twice and kept hoping she may return despite her saying "This is the last time I'll come to New York...Africa is my home, baby" (even though she lived in France!). J'adore her - from shooting kids with a bb gun for trespassing, to reading Michael Jackson for turning "white", she defined "diva". Who else have you seen stop a show in middle of a song to have her assitant come out and fix her headwrap? Long live the high priestess of soul.s
Really well written obit on Nina Simone
http://news.independent.co.uk/people/obituaries/story.jsp?story=399557
http://news.independent.co.uk/people/obituaries/story.jsp?story=399557
Sandman Sims, 86, Tap Dancer and Fixture at the Apollo, Dies
By DOUGLAS MARTIN (text from The NYtimes accuracy under scrutiny)
Sandman Sims, the celebrated tap dancer and Apollo Theater legend, died on May 20 in the Bronx. He was 86, although he long maintained that his age was "a matter of opinion."
For decades he was "executioner" at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, chasing unpopular acts off the stage on amateur nights, sometimes with a toy gun. He told disconsolate losers about how he himself had to return 10 times before being allowed to finish his act. But then he danced up storm upon storm and won 25 straight contests, a record that led to the four-win limit now in effect.
The man born Howard Sims became famous and won his stage name for dancing on sprinkled sand, his deft feet brushing, scraping, rustling, seeming almost to whisper to the floor. His skill was suggested by his accomplished students Gregory Hines and Ben Vereen, as well as by the boxers to whom Sandman taught footwork, including Sugar Ray Robinson and Muhammad Ali.
In a review in The New York Times, the dance critic Anna Kisselgoff called him a "virtuoso among virtuosos "” in a class by himself."
When he won a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1984, Mr. Sims was more modest.
"I thought I was making noise all these years," he said. "Now they're calling it culture."
He used the $5,000 fellowship to teach dancing to children in a Harlem parking lot.
"I was born dancing," Mr. Sims said in a 1977 interview with The Times. That happened in Fort Smith, Ark., on Jan. 24, 1917. He grew up in Los Angeles.
Tap dancing was the street dance, the break dancing of his time. He would walk around with his tap shoes in his back pocket.
"People would throw down their shoes in front of you and say, `Challenge!' " he said in an interview with Newsday in 1989. He decided to pursue dancing as a career when he realized that he could not make it as a boxer.
In 1947 his friend Archie Moore, the prizefighter, drove him to New York. There Mr. Sims fell in with hoofers, practitioners of a dance style that characterized the Hoofers Club in Harlem. Unlike the heel-and-toe tap performed by Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, a hoofer's steps use the whole foot.
Dancing came from his boxing days when he would do "some fancy steps" in the rosin box before entering the ring, he told The Los Angeles Times in 1986. People liked the effect, so he tried dancing on sandpaper, but wore out his shoes. He tried gluing sandpaper to his shoes, but wore out the mat. Loose sand in a box was the solution.
He danced at the Apollo for 17 years, but could not support himself that way. He owned a cafe, taught tap and worked as a carpenter and mechanic, among other things. He was a regular on the vaudeville circuit.
Mr. Sims became the Apollo's executioner in the mid-1950's and continued off and on for more than three decades. He was also stage manager of the theater.
He is survived by his wife, Solange; his daughters Mercedes White and Diane Jones; his son, Howard Jr.; 9 grandchildren; and 12 great-grandchildren.
In 1986 the poet Sandra Hochman wrote a play in verse and dance about Mr. Sims called "The Sand Dancer." Ms. Hochman's language is whimsical: "I wanted my feet to sound like shooting stars," the Sandman character says.
Mr. Sims, who danced in that production, was good with words himself.
"I'm in show business not for a season, but a reason," he said in the Times interview in 1977. "The wine, women and song are gone. I want to just dance my way away at the end."
rb//nyc//bronx//bohemia
By DOUGLAS MARTIN (text from The NYtimes accuracy under scrutiny)
Sandman Sims, the celebrated tap dancer and Apollo Theater legend, died on May 20 in the Bronx. He was 86, although he long maintained that his age was "a matter of opinion."
For decades he was "executioner" at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, chasing unpopular acts off the stage on amateur nights, sometimes with a toy gun. He told disconsolate losers about how he himself had to return 10 times before being allowed to finish his act. But then he danced up storm upon storm and won 25 straight contests, a record that led to the four-win limit now in effect.
The man born Howard Sims became famous and won his stage name for dancing on sprinkled sand, his deft feet brushing, scraping, rustling, seeming almost to whisper to the floor. His skill was suggested by his accomplished students Gregory Hines and Ben Vereen, as well as by the boxers to whom Sandman taught footwork, including Sugar Ray Robinson and Muhammad Ali.
In a review in The New York Times, the dance critic Anna Kisselgoff called him a "virtuoso among virtuosos "” in a class by himself."
When he won a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1984, Mr. Sims was more modest.
"I thought I was making noise all these years," he said. "Now they're calling it culture."
He used the $5,000 fellowship to teach dancing to children in a Harlem parking lot.
"I was born dancing," Mr. Sims said in a 1977 interview with The Times. That happened in Fort Smith, Ark., on Jan. 24, 1917. He grew up in Los Angeles.
Tap dancing was the street dance, the break dancing of his time. He would walk around with his tap shoes in his back pocket.
"People would throw down their shoes in front of you and say, `Challenge!' " he said in an interview with Newsday in 1989. He decided to pursue dancing as a career when he realized that he could not make it as a boxer.
In 1947 his friend Archie Moore, the prizefighter, drove him to New York. There Mr. Sims fell in with hoofers, practitioners of a dance style that characterized the Hoofers Club in Harlem. Unlike the heel-and-toe tap performed by Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly, a hoofer's steps use the whole foot.
Dancing came from his boxing days when he would do "some fancy steps" in the rosin box before entering the ring, he told The Los Angeles Times in 1986. People liked the effect, so he tried dancing on sandpaper, but wore out his shoes. He tried gluing sandpaper to his shoes, but wore out the mat. Loose sand in a box was the solution.
He danced at the Apollo for 17 years, but could not support himself that way. He owned a cafe, taught tap and worked as a carpenter and mechanic, among other things. He was a regular on the vaudeville circuit.
Mr. Sims became the Apollo's executioner in the mid-1950's and continued off and on for more than three decades. He was also stage manager of the theater.
He is survived by his wife, Solange; his daughters Mercedes White and Diane Jones; his son, Howard Jr.; 9 grandchildren; and 12 great-grandchildren.
In 1986 the poet Sandra Hochman wrote a play in verse and dance about Mr. Sims called "The Sand Dancer." Ms. Hochman's language is whimsical: "I wanted my feet to sound like shooting stars," the Sandman character says.
Mr. Sims, who danced in that production, was good with words himself.
"I'm in show business not for a season, but a reason," he said in the Times interview in 1977. "The wine, women and song are gone. I want to just dance my way away at the end."
rb//nyc//bronx//bohemia
with Sandman gone, it marks an official end of an era at The Apollo.
...he is unreplacable.
R.I.P. Sandman Sims
...& look at the bitch NOW!
Rupaul
"Wigstock:The Movie"
...he is unreplacable.
R.I.P. Sandman Sims
...& look at the bitch NOW!
Rupaul
"Wigstock:The Movie"
quote:
This is a message from Little Annie's List!
NICK BOHN
1973 - 2003
Nick Bohn my beloved friend and often collaborator passed away this week. Artist, photographer. filmaker, musician, beauty and visionary, his huge talent was only matched
by his huge kind heart. He is so loved, and will be missed, by so many.
There will be a gathering to celebrate Nicky's life and work here in New York on
Sunday June 29th
2pm till 5pm
at MARQUEE
356 Bowery (btw 3rd and 4th street)
Any VHS tapes of Nicks films or performances, artwork, or photos would be greatly welcome, as are you all, at this event.
May God keep him close, and bless you all.
Bob, who first called us about this, asked me to let people know that this is a sober memorial - no alcohol.