Gothamist Interviews
A baker’s dozen of my favorite Interviews conducted for Gothamist.com
#13 Reverend Billy, Street Preacher, The Church of Stop Shopping (with Mindy Bond) – The anti-globalist hood Reverend on Starbucks mermaids who want their nipples back, death by latte and the first amendment.
#12 Michelle Madge, Glassblower – Glory Holes and what Glassblowers do for kicks when no one’s around.
#11 Robert Margolis, Filmmaker – The Definition of Insanity writer, director and star reflects on psychoanalysis and his autobiographically inspired faux documentary following the trials and tribulations of the fictional Robert Margolis as he seeks fame and fortune.
#10 Queen Esther, Unemployed Superstar – Southern girl comes to the big Emerald city of Gotham to make good.
#9 Todd Solondz, Filmmaker (with Mindy Bond) – Infamous director of the weird, wacky and sick talks to Gothamist about his latest film Palindromes dealing with issues of child abuse, abortion and the Far Right.
#8 Mitch Borden, Small’s and Fat Cat Jazz Club “Owner” – Jazz as way of life and imagination. Mitch talks of turtles, magical deserts, Ken dolls and a Pizza world where Pizzas go to People Parlors where they can eat real people.
#7 Teresa Fabik, Swedish Filmmaker seeking Gotham inspiration – Scandinavian girl comes to the city to explore the blue spot in her aura, and to hang with Germans named Helga.
#6 “Tyme,” Writer, former inmate Attica Penitentiary – “Tyme,” reformed bad boy and writer, recounts much much darker days.
#5 James Rowe, DJ, Musician, Dreamer of Dreams – James, a self pronounced “surrealist motherfuckin’ devil,” holds forth on him, the other him, and Pataphysics.
#4 Ira Elliot, Drummer, Nada Surf – Golden ball and chains, and dreams of Conan and Pete Best. Ira on Ira.
#3 Leo Kowalski, 92, Retired Elevator Operator – Anti-misceginist views, watching Pearl Harbor on TV, the scourge of Williamsburg hipsters, and more.
#2 Ralph Baker, (refusing to be) Blind Photographer – Ralph talks of losing his vision and repeated jousts with the police and mental health authorities over the course of 40 years as a street photographer.
#1 Louis Alvarado, U.S. Citizen – Louis tells of a harrowing journey from El Salvador to the United States undertaken to escape conscription into a rebel movement.
COMPLETE INTERVIEW LIST
November 28, 2005 Raphie Frank, Interview Retrospective
October 25, 2005 Kerry Shapleigh, Foreign Service Brat, maybe Lifer
October 22, 2005 Thomas Yong, Producer Tie a Yellow Ribbon
October 18, 2005 David Yellen, Photographer
September 10, 2005 Ralph Baker, (refusing to be) Blind Photographer
September 08, 2005 Anthony Bregman, Producer Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
September 07, 2005 Andrew Kling, Seeking Katrina Relief Volunteers
September 06, 2005 Leo Kowalski, 92, Retired Elevator Operator
July 29, 2005 Ryan Curry, Model & Aspiring Actor
July 28, 2005 Michelle Madge, Glassblower
July 27, 2005 James Rowe, DJ, Musician, Dreamer of Dreams
July 25, 2005 Lisa Selin Davis, Author “Belly”
July 11, 2005 Leonard Abrams, Documentary Filmmaker, Founder East Village Eye
June 16, 2005 Michael Carter, Poet, East Village Homesteader
June 15, 2005 Ira Elliot, Drummer, Nada Surf
June 14, 2005 Teresa Fabik, Swedish Filmmaker Seeking Gotham Inspiration
June 13, 2005 Lezly Ziering, Skate Teacher & Founder Central Park Dance Skater’s Association
May 06, 2005 Queen Esther, Unemployed Superstar
May 05, 2005 Mitch Borden, Small’s and Fat Cat Jazz Club “Owner”
May 04, 2005 Leslie Hawke, Outstanding U.S. Citizen
May 03, 2005 Elana Levin, Community Organizer & Williamsburg Warrior
May 02, 2005 Darrell Shines, Producer of Anything
April 13, 2005 Todd Solondz, Filmmaker
March 18, 2005 Melissa Caruso-Scott, Co-Owner Tonic
March 17, 2005 Guerrilla Girls On Tour
March 16, 2005 Murtaza Vali, Graduate Student
March 15, 2005 Erica Soehngen, Documentary Filmmaker
March 14, 2005 Louis Alvarado, U.S. Citizen
February 11, 2005 Noemie LaFrance, Site-Specific Choreographer
February 10, 2005 Piotr “Ski” Jagninski, Gaffer/Best Boy
February 09, 2005 Jamye Waxman, Sex Educator
February 08, 2005 The Duplass Brothers, Filmmakers
February 07, 2005 Rev. Stephen C. Robinson, Psychic Consultant and Executive Director, Holistic Studies Institute
January 07, 2005 Kevin So, Musician
January 06, 2005 Erica Payne, Political Strategist
January 05, 2005 Nava Lubelski, Artist and Author “The Starving Artist’s Way”
January 04, 2005 Eugene Hernandez, Editor-in-Chief, indieWIRE
January 03, 2005 “Tyme,” Writer, former inmate Attica Penitentiary
December 03, 2004 Tristan Eaton, Graffiti Artist, Illustrator & Toy Designer
December 02, 2004 Robert Margolis, Filmmaker
December 01, 2004 Ida Dupont, Professor of Criminal Justice, Women’s Advocate
November 30, 2004 Dave Gorman, Storyteller and Comedian
November 29, 2004 Ricardo Dominguez, Artist and Electronic Civil Disobedience Pioneer
October 29, 2004 Andrew Boyd, Cultural Activist and Founder, Billionaires for Bush
October 28, 2004 Michelle Collins, Director and Spokeswoman, Votergasm.org
October 27, 2004 Sharif Corinaldi, Political Activist/Founder, SwingtheState.org
August 27, 2004 Sam Seder, Director, Writer, Comedian, Co-Host, “The Majority Report”
August 26, 2004 Kyp Malone, Guitarist, TV on the Radio
August 25, 2004 Adam Shore, General Manager, VICE Records
August 24, 2004 Reverend Billy, Street Preacher, The Church of Stop Shopping
August 23, 2004 Priscilla Grim, Membership & Advocacy Director AIVF
Past Gothamist Interview Team :: Special Thanks
Josh Abraham Yankee Pot Roast
Mindy Bond Friendster Profile
Aaron Dobbs Out of Focus
Nichelle Newsletter Nichelle Newsletter
Lily Oei Variety Bio
…and a grand nod to Mr. Andrew Krucoff who pioneered the entire Gothamist Interview (aka “Young Manhattanite”) Series.
Andrew Krucoff
Young Manhattanite
WITH SPECIAL THANKS TO:
Liz Black & Rina Raphael
…who graciously covered open interview slots on more than one occasion along with still current Gothamists Jen Chung & Tien Mao, who saved at least my a** on a couple occasions and sole remaining Interviewer, Rachel Kramer Bussel. Oh, and then, of course, there’s me Raphie Frank:: business artivist.
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ABOUT
Raphie Frank is a New York City- based interactive producer, writer, photographer and designer, with supplemental expertise in Usability & Online Marketing. Raphie helped found swandivedigital in 2000 after ten years of production, technical and design experience in the Visual and Performing Arts worlds. While at swandivedigital he oversaw multiple engagements for such organizations as the Markle Foundation, Referral Networks and the Shubert Foundation, before setting out on his own in 2005 as a freelance intermedia consultant.
Prior to his experience at swandivedigital, Raphie traversed the artistic globe as Culture House Director (“Asylum” theater/cafe/art gallery, Prague, 1992-1993), award-winning short-film Producer (Bacchus, Germany, 1998), Theatrical Lighting Designer and published photographer. Raphie graduated from Vassar in 1990 with degrees in Psychology and Dramatic Writing and has published 50 interviews with leading city blog Gothamist.com since August, 2004.
PORTFOLIOS ::::: producing ::::: writings ::::: photography ::::: design
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PERSONAL HISTORY
Planning Warhol in Prague: Part I: The Asylum Culture House & The Warholesquian Sensibility
excerpt
The Asylum of cultural myth, for those who were in Prague and in the sub-cultural know during that winter and spring of 1993, lingers in memory as a crazed Bacchanalian Warholesquian happening, even if, public nipple piercings and simulated urination aside, a generally less explicitly sexual version. One minute you might go into the café, a smallish cave-like hole-in-the-wall we always thought of as the Soul of Asylum, and there would be a bongo, guitar and violin foot-stomping Celtic jam. Ten minutes later there might be a cultural film about Rodin flickering across the wall, and another half hour after that you might find a wanna-Kerouac poet spouting Beat banalities or diamonds across the room and over the cheers or heckles of his temporarily captive audience. Read Essay
Planning Warhol in Prague: Part II: Kafka and The “Refounding” of the Asylum Culture House
excerpt
Look at an old 19th Century Italian landscape painting and you might think “Wow! What unique vision those Italians had! Look at the gem-like fragile clarity of the leaves and their sparkling translucence. Look at those elongated spidery trunks! ” Then you go to Italy and look at the actual landscapes and the actual trees and you realize those painters were simply painting what they saw. That’s what it looks like.
To read Kafka is a similar experience. “The Castle” and “The Trial” are not the twisted mad ravings of a genius, but simply faithful recordings of the daily Czech experience with authority. That day was the first, but certainly not last, day I think I truly understood that. Rik felt it too. And that understanding came upon us this time not in a twisted brow knowledge kind of way, but more in a brown coal smog, nowhere-to-get-away-from-it, kind of way. Except that instead of being everywhere all at once, it’s nowhere all at once which is so… Czech. So… passive aggressive. Read Essay
Yes, Virginia There is Still A Santa Claus
excerpt
Interestingly enough, I think that moment bothered me more than — sorry to blow the lid on this Virginia — finding out my parents were Santa Claus four years previous. On some level I already knew Santa was a fraud even before Brian Kux, my red-haired neighbor two doors down back in Washington D.C., cemented into eternity my collapsed North Pole house of card illusions one Christmas Day. Playing outside together with our new toys, he told me with an almost conspiratorial glee that he had seen his parents putting presents under the Christmas tree the night before. It didn’t come as much of a surprise and, although he was a full year older than me, I didn’t need his wizened input to immediately understand the exact implications of what that meant. The writing had already been on the wall for some time now.
After all, Santa looked different every time we met at the shopping mall and sometimes he was in two places at once; I would see him again on the way home from the mall collecting money for the Salvation Army on a street corner, the helicopter he’d come to the mall in nowhere in sight. And didn’t Santa use a sleigh anyway? I knew there was something fishy going on by the time I was four. Read Essay
Riven Hearts
excerpt
I said “no” a couple times, A little too loudly. Guess it made me mad, that unpaid electrician waking up at 3am to catch a train to an isolated Long Island train station the producers “forgot” to pick up. Guess it made me mad having shit bubble up the drain in the shower of the rooms they gave us. And we were told we’d made the choice. After all, we were offered a ride back to the City each night; eight hours between call times. Three hours home and three hours back. And the Assistant Camera Man with a child at home to support who said he was mad as hell cowered in fear when the time came to say “Yes” or “No” to the face of the Producer when I spoke for the crew at the request of the crew.I understood, but wished they had not said they would if they wouldn’t. Read Essay
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Raphie Frank :: business artivist 
[…] ADDL. WORK SAMPLES DESIGN EDITORIAL :::: Gothamist Interviews :::: Tomorrow’s Melody :::: Eyes Yet Wide Shut? :::: Riven Hearts (aka “Why I Write and Why I Fight”) :::: Planning Warhol in Prague: Asylum & The Warholesquian Sensibility PRODUCING […]
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Hey there! How are things?
Well, well Nichelle. How are you?!? I hope you don’t mind me linking to you. Things are good… I’ve this funny little notion of actually trying to make a difference and have spent six months or so working on ideas. Of any that are PUBLICLY available you can mostly find them or get to them from this blog.