Max’s Kansas City
Last Tuesday September 14th, New York celebrated the 45th anniversary of legendary music venue, Max’s Kansas City. The celebration kicked off at the Steven Kasher Gallery for the opening of an exhibition featuring over 150 vintage and limited edition photographs, sculptures and paintings by the inner circle of Max’s artists, including John Chamberlain, Forrest Myers, Larry Zox, Neil Williams, and Andy Warhol. The exhibition accompanies the launch of a new book from Abrams Image entitled Max’s Kansas City: Art, Glamour, Rock and Roll.
Edited by Steven Kasher, with luminous photographs by Bob Gruen, Anton Perich, Billy Name and more, and contributions by Lou, Lenny Kaye, Danny Fields, and Steven Watson, the book captures the exuberance and decadence of one of the coolest pop cultural institutions of all time.
Lou was among the Max’s regulars who came out last week to look back and remember the original downtown scene.
Master Ren Guang Yi, one of the foremost practitioners of traditional Tai Chi Chuan, stars in a new short martial arts film called, The Final Weapon. The 15-minute film is being screened at this year’s Action on Film International Film Festival in Pasadena, CA on Saturday July 24th.
Rock duo, the Kills, recently covered the Velvet Underground song, ‘Pale Blue Eyes’, as part of Levi’s Pioneer Sessions program. Levi’s invited 13 of today’s pioneering musicians from pop, rock, soul, and rap to re-craft the classic songs that inspired their sound. Listen to the Kills’ stunning take on the song 
Lou surprised fans at Glastonbury Festival in the UK this past Friday, June 25th with his unannounced appearance as a special guest of headlining band, the Gorillaz. Lou performed his Gorillaz collaboration, “Some Kind of Nature”, to over 120,000 cheering fans. “Some Kind of Nature” appears on the recent Gorillaz album, Plastic Beach.
On May 9th Lou’s film, Red Shirley, has its North American premiere at the Marfa Film Festival in Marfa, Texas. Lou and the film’s photographer, Ralph Gibson, traveled to Marfa for the festivities. While there, Lou and Ralph sat down with journalist Karen Bernstein to discuss the film. The interview has been posted to PRX (National Public Radio Exchange) web site. Please listen to it 
Last week Lou took over the island of Mallorca, Spain as a triple threat at this year’s Alternatilla Festival. On April 29th Lou’s Romanticism photography exhibit opened at the Es Baluard Museum to a mass of Spanish press and hundreds of eager fans. Later that evening, Lou’s film, Red Shirley, screened at the museum, and was followed by a question and answer session. 
Lou’s film, Red Shirley, premiered this week at the Visions de Reel Film Festival in Nyon, Switzerland. The film was warmly received and after the screening Lou answered questions from the audience and read selected song lyrics. Red Shirley will be screened again this Thursday, April 29th at the Alternatilla Festival in Mallorca, Spain. The North American premiere will then be held on May 9th in Marfa, Texas. 
Lou will be one of the curators for this year’s New York Photo Festival. The festival runs from May 12th – May 16th. NYPH’10 will feature the personal visions of Lou and fellow curators Vince Aletti, Erik Kessels, and Fred Ritchin. The main festival sites will return to the Brooklyn waterfront community of DUMBO for the third straight year, and the festival will also expand its programming and pre-festival activities, for the first time, into other parts of the city.