Interview with Benjamin Morgan
Director of "Quality of Life"

by Liberation Iannillo

"Quality of Life," a new independent film by director Benjamin Morgan, takes its title from the former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani who used the term to equate graffiti with murder as crimes on a "continuum of disorder.”

Set in San Francisco the film follows two graffiti writers, Mikey (Lane Garrison) and Curtis (Brian Burnam) housepainters by day, they spend their nights bombing their way through the neighborhood until they get arrested. The event is a turning point both in their friendship and their approach to their art. The two friends drift apart as they each redefine what their future will look like. Mikey entertains the idea of applying his skills to a career as a graphic artist while Curtis continues writing and indulges in a nasty drug habit that leads him to an inevitable end.

Director Benjamin Morgan, who co-wrote the film with lead star Brian Burnam, has been on both sides of the fence himself. A former at-risk kid, Morgan has spent over a decade as a government social worker. Together the two deliver a powerful, authentic, and thought provoking film which can be seen here in New York for a limited run at the Pioneer Theater where it has been selling out.

by Justin Quinn Pelegano
Photos by Rob Roth

Her Lunachicks days may be in the rearview, but Theo Kogan ain’t at all about resting on her punk-metal laurels. Not even close. As her (and husband Sean Pierce’s) new band Theo and the Skyscrapers gears up to release album number one, it’s go time all over again. Not that Theo had ever really stopped in the first place. She was just busy with…you know…claymation sex! Oooo, got your attention now? Excellent!

Interview by Liberation Iannillo
Photos by Carey Denniston

Liberation: Because you are not a mainstream artist do you feel that you have more creative freedom and the ability to experiment more with you work because you don’t have a huge record company to answer to?

J.G. Thirlwell: Anyone has that option should they choose it. I was on a major label, Columbia, and they were totally hands off. In fact my A&R guy suggested we do the song Mighty Whitey for a single which I thought would be too harsh for a single. There are artists that work in that stratosphere and simply do whatever the hell they want like Bjork or Radiohead. What I do as an artist comes first, marketing it comes second.

Interview by Mikal Saint George
Photos by Evan Sung

Penny Arcade is not an interview subject. Penny Arcade is a one-woman cultural prism. She bends and refracts the light of human experience and displays shades and colors of a shared spectrum we never knew existed and at times were afraid to look at. More than just entertainment or a hipster “happening” the Arcade experience is a journey through space, time and thought. Not everyone has appreciated this.

Interview by Liberation Iannillo

Liberation: I am a huge admirer of the author Stephen King and I often wonder how a man who lives a somewhat normal (I use the term loosely here) life in the woods of Maine gives birth to the most heinous stories imaginable. As a married man with children, I can't imagine you hanging out in the lurid worlds you create. Where do these hyper-sexual men and women come from and why is their environment so turbulent?

Aidan Hughes: Fucking good question, mate! I grew up in a rough neighborhood where my father ran a small pub catering mostly to seafaring alcoholics. Although my upbringing was pretty cultural, (my old man was a painter and musician), I saw my fair share of fights.

Interview by Liberation Iannillo
Photos by Evan Sung

Wooster Collective is a web site that celebrates and documents street art from around the world. Wooster Collective provides a venue for artists to share inspiration and connect with one another. Wooster Collective is Marc and Sara Schiller.

The Schillers founded the Wooster Collective web site in 2001. Walking their hyperactive Weimaraner, Hudson, throughout the streets of SoHo, they started noticing the artwork put up on buildings and city walls by vigilante artists who thought their message was equally as important as the ad space Calvin Klein would pay to overexpose Travis Fimmel’s hot ass.

Interview by Liberation Iannillo

The name Spalding Rockwell might conjure up images of the fat, old, corporate men who should be on their way to a minimum security prison for the Enron debacle, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Fronted by larger than life Nicole Lombardi and Marie Louise Platt, Spalding Rockwell bring their fusion of breathy-sleazy lyrics, dirty guitars and electronic fused rock n’ roll to the New York music scene as the latest incarnation of the downtown bombshell.

Interview by Mikal Saint George

Somewhere between quarter and mid life crisis we all realize that everything we believed in, everything that brought us to this moment in time, the very essence of our existence is a complete pile of crap. Only Paris Hilton can skip this moment, assuming she sees a shiny penny or a pretty bird.

Dan Witz is a prankster, a protagonist, an observant adult and gifted juvenile delinquent. One who can make his own bail and break curfew. Dan Witz is a home owner. Most of all Dan Witz is a painter. Regardless of brush stroke, paint, color, medium or canvas, Witz attempts to redistribute thoughts and reactions enabling one to experience a richer facet of their daily life than they had expected. Very often he succeeds.

Interview by Mikal Saint George
Photos by Evan Sung

For more than 18 years, Dixon Place has been a burgeoning artist’s fantasy playground. Part 19th Century Parisian salon, Part 20th Century bohemian, beatnik crash pad and now poised to be a 21st Century powerhouse, Dixon Place has managed to defy description while simultaneously defining the downtown theatre scene in its purest most elemental form. Dixon Place is a laboratory for artistic experimentation, a Petrie dish for creative ingenuity, a public microscope to study embryonic work and most importantly, an incubator to nurture the frailest of artistic endeavors, passions and creative visions.

Is that a knife in your neck or are you just happy to see me?

Interview by Mikal Saint George

How many times have I heard the rise and fall of the 80’s downtown/East Village scene described in some sort of romantic prose seemingly pulled from a Victorian gardening manual? “It bloomed, it blossomed, delicate petals of leather and lace gently opening to the adoring sunlight of paparazzi. Alas, it slowly wilted and majestically sailed into oblivion. Gasping it’s final elegant, anarchaic breath as social and economic winter took over.” Bullshit. It grew like glamorous, festering, sequined mold starting around ’81 and in one night it died. It was over. No funeral, no wake. I am almost positive it was a Thursday.

Interview by Liberation Iannillo
Photos by Evan Sung

Fronted by Miss Guy, The Toilet Boys were formed one night in the mid 90's as an opening act for Debby Harry. It was suppossed to be a one night gig. Now some 8 years later, having toured with Cher and The Red Hot Chili Peppers, the band goes on. Their song 'Another Day In The Life' found it's way to the American Pie 2 soundtrack and their new album, 'Early Years' has just been released. I recently sat down with the newly brunette and beautiful creature himself, Miss Guy, to discuss breakup rumors, the record industry and the "Archie Bunker" of our generation.