Martin Belk

  • • ABOUT, BIO & CONTACT
    • Bio: Martin Belk
    • Contact
  • • BOOKS
    • PRETTY BROKEN PUNKS: lipstick, leather jeans, a death of New York
    • SCOTS WHO ENLIGHTENED THE WORLD
    • 100 BEARDS 100 DAYS
  • • ARTICLES
    • GQ + Gap interview & campaign
    • Port Magazine • ICONIC NEW YORK
    • City AM Tribute to Iain Banks
    • Scottish Review of Books
      ‘A BALLAD OF READING IN GAOL’
    • Prague Writers’ Festival
      SILENCE = DEATH
  • • PROJECTS
    • BANKSOPHILIA
      Farewell website done with & for the late Iain Banks
    • Polmont Young Offender’s Prison Writing Programme
    • flashback ’96: Live @nd InConcert – the first NYC music webcast starring Debbie Harry from Squeezebox! & Don Hill’s
Playwright, Author, Editor
London • Glasgow
Paris • NYC
  • Email
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Martin Belk

June 17, 2014 by martinbelk

Filed Under: Wisdom Tagged With: Fuck things Up, NYC, provacateur, writer, Writing

Transition 1929

June 16, 2014 by martinbelk

Screen Shot 2014-06-16 at 15.37.01

Filed Under: M-L-BLOG:, Wisdom Tagged With: Paris, Transition Magazine

HEDWIG. TONYS. CONGRATS.

June 9, 2014 by martinbelk

Screen Shot 2014-06-09 at 10.52.01
John Cameron Mitchell 8 June 2014 enroute to Tony Awards.

“Wait a minute: Madonna came? Bowie came? all manner of folks came. The big musical debut at SqueezeBox!, circa 1997, had been a smash hit. Crowds went ape for the music and were going ape for it. And why wouldn’t they? It had a glam drag-queen transsexual, and a story that touched every generation from the Boomers on. By putting a band on stage with Greek myths, offering a new angle to the Berlin Wall, and floating the whole boy-becomes-girl meets boy-loses-boy who then becomes a redeemed rock god taking the entire audience on a glittering catharsis, Hedwig raised the bar. Who needed Vagina Monologues when Mitchell & Company tore the roof off with his Angry Inch? Over a decade later I entered the Jane Street Theatre from the front. [Read more…]

Filed Under: People to Know: Tagged With: Angry Inch, Hedwig, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, John Cameron Mitchell, Mike Potter, Neil Patrick Harris, New York City, NYC, Squeezebox!, Stephen Trask, Tony Awards

Happy Michael Alig Party Monster Lib-day. Where Were You on 3/15? (yawn)

May 5, 2014 by martinbelk

Screen Shot 2014-05-05 at 11.48.57May 5th, Alig’s liberation day. Lately I’ve seen more rah-rah stomach-turning web posts for Michael Alig to start some lame-assed revival party than I care to count. Please, for the love of all things not yet devoured by the corporate culture world, just say: NO.

The Alig murder story is akin to 9/11 for NYC culturists – we all had a connection, we all remember hearing the news, we all saw the various iterations to come like Disco Bloodbath. In the past few weeks Michael Musto sums up more than a few and also has some cautious comments on associated trends. Me? I was sitting at  the computer in 1996, working on the Squeezebox! invites when an email popped up that Freeze had been arrested and Angel was confirmed missing – which triggered a memory from months earlier which struck me strange. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Angel Melendez, Antony Hegarty, Cave Canem, Club USA, Culture, Disco 2000, Disco Bloodbath, Freeze, Kembra Phaler, Limelight, Mars, Meltdown Festival London, Michael Alig, murder, New York City, Palladium, Parole, Party Monster, Peter Gatien, Quentin Crisp, Squeezebox!

Dear Carmen & Co: Stop Dicking Jayne

April 18, 2014 by martinbelk

martin belk jayne county
Martin & Jayne @ Squeezebox! c. 1996

In defense of Jayne County and RuPaul, a Punk perspective. • 20 years ago this month a group of us started Squeezebox! which arguably became the latest incarnation of the Max’s Kansas City scene — and arguably one of the last interesting, autochthonous scenes New York City will see for a very long time. The roots actually go back even farther, to the era of the old Tenderloin or the 19th century Bowery. In a communal, collective effort with many voices and artistic angles, we successfully merged the essence of these eras, their performance genres and the existing culture for ten years — when many in the so-called ‘community’ sneered, dismissed and patronized.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: M-L-BLOG: Tagged With: Antony, Carmen Carerra, Culture, Debbie Harry, Drag Race, Jayne County, Justin Bond, New York City, Panty Bliss, Rupaul, Squeezebox!, Trans, Transexual

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