I'm from Tennessee, and...I just don't know
May 2, 2014 3:47 PM   Subscribe

 
Perfect.
posted by Sophie1 at 3:56 PM on May 2, 2014


Would you buy clothes from one of these people ?

I would buy anything from one of those people.
posted by cilantro at 4:14 PM on May 2, 2014 [8 favorites]


GOD, MOM, I keep telling you... it's Fiorucci, not Fiorucci's. You don't know ANYTHING, you are JUST SO EMBARRASSING.
posted by DarlingBri at 4:15 PM on May 2, 2014 [11 favorites]


I have dreams in which I'm shopping at Fiorucci again. Even though it has been decades, it was a magical experience that I think about on a fairly regular basis.
posted by 41swans at 4:24 PM on May 2, 2014 [3 favorites]


The self-described hillbilly from Tennessee bought something for his son. Love that.
posted by Sophie1 at 4:29 PM on May 2, 2014 [12 favorites]


New York in that period was so profoundly full of creativity and vigour. Can you imagine being being sold something by Klaus Fucking Nomi!! How awesome would that be?

It's awesome seeing it through the lens of a confused and bemused middle America. The sense of fun is great - and the guy from Tennessee was awesome - buying a pair of "something" for his son. These days the battle lines between left and right seem so much more sharply drawn.
posted by helmutdog at 5:51 PM on May 2, 2014 [2 favorites]


Jeez just now watching that it occurred to me that Fred Schneider sounds kinda like Lux Interior
posted by Hoopo at 5:57 PM on May 2, 2014 [1 favorite]


In 1981 I went to the Fiorucci in Tel Aviv. It was kind of like a surreal nightmare, partcularly because of my familiarity with the Beverly Hills store.
posted by janey47 at 6:09 PM on May 2, 2014


Yay for Joey Arias!
posted by ocherdraco at 6:27 PM on May 2, 2014 [3 favorites]


My favorite velvet jeans were from Fiorucci. I had a pair of black and a pair of purple. Hiphuggers. I will never see that size 30 waist again (or size 32, or....or...... etc.)

GREAT store.
posted by DMelanogaster at 6:53 PM on May 2, 2014


I was the busiest New Yorker and I have been staring at this Park avenue sign for about 25 years. They give food, I eat. They give drink, I drink. I think this was what was meant for me. I would rage and thrash in the early days. Now I am happy here, in the hustle and bustle. They said for my birthday they would remove the sign and thus free me. Two years later I don't even know. Every day I compose a secret poem. Those are for me and not anyone else.
posted by passerby at 7:03 PM on May 2, 2014 [3 favorites]


“No.” I smile, trying to integrate myself into the conversation. “Used Fiorucci.”
posted by evidenceofabsence at 7:27 PM on May 2, 2014


This struck me oddly as a wonderful, sweetly innocent time. Folks shocked by black lipstick! "Rock Lobster" used to underscore extreme weirdness! People dancing with attitude and stuff stuck to their faces! Won't play in Nashville, no sirreee...

Exactly what would it take to evoke this sort of reaction in New York now? I really cannot imagine.
posted by kinnakeet at 8:20 PM on May 2, 2014 [5 favorites]


I recall my friends and I watching this VHS tape, back in the day, called "URGH! A Music War", which, go ahead and click the link and imagine the colossal mind blowing that happens when a bunch of high school kids watch a concert with all of those bands play and in so doing learn about Punk Rock.

But the most memorable thing in it was Klaus Nomi. I mean, The Cramps, Dead Kennedys, Oingo Boingo, The Police, Devo, Joan Jett and the rest were fucking heart burstingly, mind erasingly awesome, obviously. But Klaus Nomi was something fucking else.

We straight up didn't get it. It started when my friend said "Hey, she's got nice legs" before the camera finished its pan up to reveal Klaus' face. It continued when said pan revealed the gigantic bowtie, the plastic suit, the makeup etc... We laughed and couldn't figure where this fit in the rest of the fucking show. Then the operatic singing began and we were fully in the midst of a convulsive fit of not-getting-it laughter. Nowadays, it makes perfect sense that Klaus Nomi was there with punk legendaries singing. Nowadays I get that nothing is more counter the established status quo than precisely what he was doing. But at the time we were stupid.

Ultimately, screaming a falsetto "TOOOOOOOTAL ECLIPSE!" became a byword for us, where whenever there was a silence in our conversations, one of us would bust it out and the silence would be ended. I like to think Klaus would have appreciated that.

And honestly, he did have nice legs.
posted by shmegegge at 9:24 PM on May 2, 2014 [7 favorites]


I've only recently discovered Klaus Nomi; after enjoying his version of Silent Night for a few years, I looked him up and listened to more - one of my favourite sixties' songa happens to be Log Christie's Lightning Strikes Twice, and his cover is just astonishing. I wish there was a biography of him or something out there.
posted by mippy at 3:11 AM on May 3, 2014


Wow - Urgh! A Music War was released in 1981 - that must have been one of XTC's last ever live performances. Andy Partridge developed crippling stage fright just as they had their first big hit in 1982 and so they never really crossed over into the mainstream.
posted by mippy at 3:14 AM on May 3, 2014


I think this is what you have to do to shock in NYC now.,.
posted by mippy at 3:21 AM on May 3, 2014


I remember seeing this on "Real People" (it was in 78, so I was 11) and thinking, "I have to go to New York!" These were the people I wanted to be around.
posted by xingcat at 6:16 AM on May 3, 2014 [2 favorites]


JOEY
posted by The Whelk at 8:25 AM on May 3, 2014 [2 favorites]


Boy "Real People." My family used to watch that all the time and I had completely forgotten about it.
posted by interplanetjanet at 9:00 AM on May 3, 2014


Porn star Jill Kelly appears at 1:10.
posted by charlie don't surf at 9:40 AM on May 3, 2014


I'm from Nashville, TN, and that was a hoot!
posted by harrietthespy at 9:56 AM on May 3, 2014


mippy - have you seen The Nomi Song?
posted by 41swans at 10:23 AM on May 3, 2014


Thanks for posting. Amazing
posted by mumimor at 1:54 PM on May 3, 2014


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