| 27th January 2007 07:56 AM |
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| Ten Thousand Motels |
Sat, Jan. 27, 2007
Age with Grace
’60s music icon Slick cherishes past, present art
By Sue Kovach Shuman
Washington Post
“I’m a 67-year-old fat, white-haired, liver-spotted woman,” Grace Slick says.
Grace Slick says she can’t remember a lot of things, which is perhaps no surprise given how much she drank and drugged herself into oblivion during her reign as a rock ’n’ roll queen. But she knows who she is today: “I’m a 67-year-old fat, white-haired, liver-spotted woman.”
Of her body, she says, “It’s all lumpy stuff with lines.”
Ahem. Anything else?
“I think old people are scary,” says the former hippie vixen. “They remind you of your own death. People don’t like to tell you that.”
This is where Grace Slick likes to be: in your face, her blue eyes holding you hostage, unleashing verbal assaults. As lead singer for the Jefferson Airplane in the 1960s and the group it begat in the ’70s, Jefferson Starship, she was a voice of countercultural transgression. Now she’s an artist holding court at a gallery in a suburban shopping mall, where some 150 people have come to see her paintings and drawings. But mostly it is a chance for them to set their eyes on a legend, the woman who did all those bad things that horrified parents – and survived.
Polka-dotted teacups are set on a table at the Wentworth Gallery in Fashion Centre at Pentagon City in Arlington, Va., in a tribute to Slick, whose work revolves around “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” nudes and rock musicians.
Near the gallery’s entrance, a poster of a young woman stares hard into you, eyes peeking out from under thick brown bangs: It’s an iconic 1968 photo of Slick, then about 28, wearing a green Girl Scouts USA shirt.
Today Slick’s thick white hair is in a ponytail that cascades to her waist; she wears silver hoop earrings the diameter of a small yogurt container. Her black-fringed sweater poncho is paired with pencil-cut black jeans; a deep red chenille scarf drapes her shoulders. When she smiles, which isn’t often, she is radiant.
Before taking the first of several cigarette breaks, she pops out a false incisor, then shoves it back in.
What happened to her tooth? “It fell out,” she barks. “I’m old.”
Back in 1970, Grace Slick came to Washington for a very different purpose: a White House reception hosted by Tricia Nixon. The event’s organizers weren’t aware that her song “Mexico” was a scathing critique of President Nixon’s anti-drug policy. Nonetheless, she was denied entrance because she’d brought along Abbie Hoffman, whose name was synonymous with radical. Slick said afterward she would have spiked Nixon’s tea with LSD if she’d gotten in.
She was a hero of her generation for such bold provocations. At Wentworth Gallery they want to hear about her glory days, about the Summer of Love and Woodstock. And to share their memories.
“I saw you in March 1970 at the Spectrum in Philadelphia,” Jamison Hawkins tells her. “It was my first case of rock ’n’ roll ecstasy.”
“I saw you the first time in Atlantic City,” chimes in retired accountant Tom Wilson. Like others, he is carrying the Airplane’s 1967 vinyl LP, “Surrealistic Pillow,” hoping for Slick’s autograph.
Slick doesn’t sing anymore, but her songs are still heard on classic rock radio stations. “I’m not a genius, but I don’t suck” at songwriting, she says. “White Rabbit” is her most commercially popular song – and royalties still roll in, which, combined with art sales, is enough to sustain her in a stucco-and-tile house on two acres in Malibu, Calif. She describes the song as “a slap to parents.” Very loosely based on Lewis Carroll’s works, it’s all about drugs.
The White Rabbit, Mad Hatter, hookah-smoking caterpillar and other Carroll characters inhabit much of Slick’s art. Slick’s art includes acrylics, sketches and scratchboard; they range from $1,200 to $19,000. Art critics have panned her work. Slick says she took one art class at the University of Miami (but adds that she went there to party and to date football players). She creates about 120 pieces a year.
On the wall, the White Rabbit print is accompanied by one of Slick’s musings: “If we had a good time, we can look at youthful indiscretions with quiet amusement.”
A year ago, Slick was struggling for life. It wasn’t the drugs, or her battles with alcoholism, that nearly did her in. In an interview, she described her case of diverticulitis more colorfully than a doctor might: “It started with lower gut pain and the doctor screwed around with my intestines and sewed me back up.” Complications led to two more surgeries and a tracheotomy, and a medically induced coma for two months while she healed. She says she went into rehab and had to learn to walk again. Scott Hann, her manager, says Slick might be making up for lost time; she plans 35 exhibits this year. “She works all the time,” he says.
Has a near-death experience tamed her or made her religious? She says she rises at 4 a.m. and paints. She’ll throw on sweats and sit in her favorite chair, look out at the Pacific Ocean or her lush garden for inspiration.
She philosophizes, formulating her aphorisms. Like: “Old people should be heard but not seen. Young people should be seen, not heard.”
And: “You don’t stop your life because of some unpleasantness.”
And: “Old people are rotting. I’m rotting. You’re rotting.”
We all will.
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| 28th January 2007 11:42 AM |
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| mickmask |
Now that's my kinda lady.
Didn't know she could paint...thanks for the article.
mm. |
| 29th January 2007 07:53 AM |
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| Ten Thousand Motels |
Monday, January 29, 2007
The Rcok Eadio
Jefferson Starship to help Microsoft launch Vista
Microsoft has hired Jefferson Starship to help launch their new Vista operating system. The Starship will play on the back of a special Microsoft flatbed truck in four cities in the coming weeks -- Los Angeles on Tuesday (January 30th); San Francisco on February 7th; New Orleans on February 13th; and Austin, Texas, on March 14th.
All shows will be on the Microsoft/T-Mobile "Airship" Stage, and according to a message from the band's manager on the official Jefferson Starship website, "They are providing a revolutionary, dynamic portable stage that opens like a lotus from a flatbed. The truck itself is decorated with our name and the dates and can be seen cruising around the streets of the cities we are to perform in, several days in advance of the concerts." There's also a website for the Starship/Microsoft/T-Mobile project at skysurprise.com.
Microsoft's new Vista software goes on sale to consumers on Tuesday (January 30th).
Microsoft has a bit of history with new operating systems and classic rock bands -- the company reportedly gave the Rolling Stones several million dollars for the rights to use "Start Me Up" in the ad campaign for Windows 95.
The Rock Radio online
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| 30th January 2007 12:42 AM |
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| Brainbell Jangler |
Flatbed truck? Lotus stage? What year did you say this was? |
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