Robert Mapplethorpe

Above is the Powerpoint I presented for Robert Mapplethorpe, along with little notes in the description boxes for some slides.

it includes: Pictures of their stay at Chelsea Hotel, samples of Mapplethorpe’s work and his controversy involving his fascination with sadomasochism.

it is impossible to talk about the greatness of both Patti and Robert without mentioning the mutual influence they had on each others’ characters and careers.

Smith and Mapplethorpe started out as incidental friends, then lovers; and their relationship grew to something beyond and more intricate.

Patti was the one who pushed Mapplethorpe into photography, and when he picked it up, he focused on capturing a different standard of beauty at the time including female bodybuilders and explicit images of the human body.

Mapplethorpe founded the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation in 1988 to promote photography, support museums that exhibit photographic art, and to fund medical research in the fight against AIDS and HIV-related infection.

He later died in 1989 from AIDS.

Patti promised Mapplethorpe (the day before he died) that she would write a novel about their valuable relationship. 20 years later, here it is, in the form of “Just Kids.”

CBGB was founded on the Bowery in New York City  in 1973 by  a man named Hilly Kristal. Originally, the space was meant for performances of Country Bluegrass Blues music, which explains the name CBGB. But later on, it became the home of street rock or Punk music. On with the name is OMFUG, which stands for Other Music For Uplifting Gourmandizers. Punk bands came out of CBGB, such as the Ramones, Blondie, Joan Jett and the Patti Smith Group.

The club was a very disgusting place. There were writings all over the wall, and the place just looked like a mess. Below are some photographs of the space.

CBGB closed in October 2006, with a final performance by Patti Smith. Today, CBGB produces free large concerts in Times Square and Central Park. The CBGB was added to the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Bowery Historic District.

Hilly Kristal only booked musicians that played their own music, and didn’t copy others. He felt that orginiality was number one, and technique was second.

There is  a CBGB movie, CBGB festival, and CBGB is looking to reopen soon as well.

CBGB is the place where Patti Smith first started to perform her music. She would go there all the time and it became a ritual. CBGB is where Patti unofficially created her band, the Patti Smith Group.

Sources:

CBGB & OMFUG Home of Underground Rock. (n.d.). Retrieved from www.cbgb.com

The first moon landing was loosely scheduled in 1961 when President John F. Kennedy challenged NASA to put a man on the moon before the end of the decade. [1] The realization of this challenge was the final installment in the Space Race with the USSR, a challenge between the two countries born of the Cold War era. Kennedy hoped to make it to the moon before the Soviet Union to demonstrate the strength of the United States to the Communist threat of the east. When Neil Armstrong took his first steps on the moon’s surface on July 20, 1969, approximately 600 million people were transfixed by the event on television and radio. Armstrong’s famous “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” line became instantly famous, and the Apollo 11 mission soon found itself well represented in popular culture.[2]

The first moon landing was the pinnacle of excitement in the United States’ space explorations. The New York Times front page from July 21 was completely taken up by headlines about the first men on the moon and photographs from Outer Space. Sadly, while the excitement about the mission was enormous, subsequent moon landings failed to capture the country’s imagination and attention in the same way.[3]

[1] nasa.gov

[2] history.nasa.gov

[3] history.nasa.gov

Charles Manson, born in 1937, became the cult leader of the “Manson Family” that carried out a series of Hollywood murders that twisted the 60’s ideals of freedom, expression, free love and peace. After much influence from The Beatles’ White Album songs, Manson believed in Helter Skeltor, an impending race war between whites and blacks. Hoping to initiate the war, he started to form a spiritual “family” of followers established by free love and drugs. He had convinced them that after the Blacks would kill off all the whites, while the “family” hid in a bottomless pit, they wouldn’t know what to do so they would seek out Manson and his followers and have them govern the world.

In August of 1969 Manson instructed a number of his followers to go to a specified house and destroy everyone in it, including actress Sharon Tate and four others who were murdered and tormented with multiple stabs, gunshots and rope. The next night, members of the family murdered Leno and Rosemary LaBianca. After these horrifying murders, the family left bloody marks on walls such as “Death to pigs” and Helter Skelter.” These murders were supposed to be pinned on random ethnic people, triggering the Helter Skeltor war.

Martin Luther King was a civil rights activist during the 1960’s, a time where America was ridden with racism and prejudice, that most people considered moral and normal. African Americans were not treated the same as white people, and were discriminated against in all aspects of life including job attainment and even service when eating in a restaurant. King was an African American man who attempted to call attention to this inequality and tried to bring about change by organizing peaceful protests and rallies. Unlike other civil rights activists at the time, King did not support violent protests. Many people are familiar with King’s famous “I Have A Dream” speech, which he delivered on August 28, 1963. It advocated a world in which people of all races could coexist peacefully and equally. Unfortunately, the racial tension in America was extreme and there was a lot of opposition to King’s views. King was assassinated on April 4^th, 1968 by James Earl Ray, who happened to be an escaped fugitive. Riots broke out in over 100 U.S. cities after his assassination, and many civil rights activists became disillusioned with the fight for civil rights after King’s death and others felt that if this was the result of nonviolent protests, that protestors should resort to violence. King’s efforts played a major role in he passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which enforced the 14^th amendment right to equal protection under the law and forbade discrimination.

King’s assassination was important to Patti Smith, because after King’s death, riots broke out, mostly in big cities like New York where Patti lived. The struggle for equality was a major influence in the lives of people in the 60’s like Patti, and King’s death was shocking and influenced more people to join the fight for civil rights for all.

Janis Joplin was not only a female singer in the 1960’s but an icon that influenced music, fashion, women and the overall mark of the 60’s on American culture. Her website describes her as “She claimed the blues, soul, gospel, country and rock with unquestionable authority and verve, fearlessly inhabiting psychedelic guitar jams, back-porch roots and everything in between.” (http://www.janisjoplin.com/janis.php#sthash.d8gH6Oxl.dpuf) Her fluid mix of genres and edgy, psychedelic and passionate performances alongside her unique sense of style , later marked “rock mama” (mix of flower child style, extravagance, burlesque, and odd accessories ex. “granny” glasses”) drew audiences to her.

She came to her fame in the late 60’s as the lead in Big Brother in the Holding Company but later on found a new fame in solo work.

She was the main attraction for Big Brother in the Holding Company and landed them a record deal and fame with her performance at Monterey Pop Festival in which she empressed the audience and music community alike. The song “Piece of my Heart” hit number one and soon after she broke free and landed huge performances like Woodstock. Fame grew into the 1970’s

Famous Songs:

“Down on Me“, “Summertime“, “Piece of My Heart“, “Ball ‘n’ Chain“, “Maybe“, “To Love Somebody“, “Kozmic Blues“, “Work Me, Lord“, “Cry Baby“, “Mercedes Benz“, “Me and Bobby McGee“. (challenge bc country)

Back up Bands:

Kozmic Blues Band and The Full Tilt Boogie Band.

Performed with bands like:

Grateful Dead; Jimi Hendrix

Role Models:

Bessie Smith, Lead Belly and Big Mama Thornton

Effect On Culture:

-One of the first women in rock SOMETHING NEW

• White and singing Jazz

• oozed confidence and  paved this for women
• pushed for freedom of expression (hippie movement)
• Joplin brought the voice of the outcast to San Francisco’s protest culture, says biographer Echols.”Janis in some sense was the great unrecognized protest singer of the 1960s,” she says. “No, Janis was not singing explicit protest songs. But in her voice, what people heard was somebody who was refusing the status quo.” (http://www.npr.org/2010/06/07/127483124/janis-joplin-the-queen-of-rock)
• Death influence the view of drugs.