~ANDREW SMITH . . .
ANDREW SMITH, the Brit who penned . . . ‘TOTALLY WIRED – ON THE TRAIL OF THE GREAT DOTCOM SWINDLE’
essentially the story of rise and fall of JOSH HARRIS and PSEUDO – and the DOTCOM BUBBLE impact on the world around them – leading up to where we are now !!
set foot on this lovely island of NEW YORK CITY, from his home base in London, back in OCTOBER of 2008.
The author of the critically acclaimed and international best seller: ‘MOONDUST’, he had come to research his next project – JOSH HARRIS and the glorious DOTCOM DAYS !!
perhaps as befitting someone who had just successfully documented and brought to life on paper – the lives of the last 9 remaining ‘moonwalkers’, the surviving astronauts who had gone to the moon and come back – he arrived from his tiny bit of over-ambitious island to land, set foot – on our over-reaching bit of water-surrounded island – on a very, very auspicious moment.
right off upon his contacting me, I told him to meet me at the corner of HOUSTON and BROADWAY, on the very fringes of SOHO, a very wired ‘corner’ with a lot of history, being the site of the original PSEUDO headquarters !! lo and behold, the building had just been bought and was going through commercial changes – but, there on the glass plate front door, for all to see – was a HUGE smearing of what looked like . . . sand and glue.
it looked quite awesome and deliberate . . . some sort of street ‘tag’ at worst, magic tantric Drune symbol – at best ?
yes, even ANDREW SMITH, who had interviewed the astronauts who had walked on the moon – was impressed !!
I had to contact JOSH – who was up on the FARM, at that time, and ask: what the F ?
turns out key Pseudo early player, CAL, aka JUDGECAL aka the KING of THE NYC VAMPIRES, for real dudes (!!) – had just expired under mysterious circumstances. a drug OD ? extreme auto-eroticism did pop-up on the inner ‘chat’ lines – or just a fatal failure . . . to be able adapt and move on, survive . . . the rock bottom collapse of PSEUDO ? these were the circumstances of his death. he was still quite young, and either out of deference to his defining star role at PSEUDO, or as an angry gesture against the place that had put him up, and then brought him down, in other words back at ya PSEUDO !!
and, of course the merry MJ LUVVY – the wizard of OZ himself: Josh Harris.
and we had just walked upon it – all unknowing – in that ‘exact’ sweet spot between it going up, and before it came down.
that’s the way things went at PSEUDO. and around JOSH HARRIS, it’s hard to put a word on that kind of cosmic harmonic – that we all felt over there – but photos, and ‘natural born’ timing, aka RADAR – speak louder than words.
PSEUDO – you can’t fake that !!
and, come to think on it, looking back now – maybe that group signage, vampire originated … was the hex that brought eventually brought Josh down, and I mean, really down – too.
conclusion: never fight with a Vampire.
see: ANDREW SMITH, INTERVIEW re: ‘MOONDUST – IN SEARCH OF THE MEN WHO FELL TO EARTH’.
oh, yeah.
after a bit of a chat … and a few drinks, seriously I don’t remember a word that transpired, but we were drinking Brazilian mojitos !! I took him to see some local ‘cutting edge’ art.
luckily, in another totally auspicious NYC minute !! – there was an opening reception, at the fly-by-night, now you see it, now you don’t, way under the mainstream radar – nearby ANONYMOUS GALLERY, which is now transplanted to MEXICO CITY . . bye the way. shout out to: JOSEPH !!
at any rate: we caught the work of some really bonafide street artists, in particular, the super awesome SP.One / GREG LAMARCHE, who I had followed intensely for a long time. and yes, I do believe, in my heart of hearts – that, that white ‘N’ is for NANCY !! I had just posted a real positive review of a more recent show, a street ‘container’ pop-up – for him.
ANDREW SMITH – beside a big, signature ANTHONY LISTER canvas, also in the OCT 2008 show at ANONYMOUS.
the evil rats. forget the Vampires. the rats – really spelled out the name of the mainstream art game – in this town.
and then – I took ANDREW SMITH over to the late night opening bash – for the – 2008 NY ART BOOK FAIR !!
that’s the money shot dudes, FOR THIS NY ART BOOK FAIR 2012 WEEKEND, or what !!
t-i-m-i-n-g is all !!
when it was still in Manhattan, still in its nascent state, and staged on 15th St. – in the former PHILLIPS de PURY AUCTION HOUSE.
ANDREW IS WITH . . . artist & musician – PHIL COTE of BOBO !! a great Indie band outta Philly, if there ever was a great band, outta PHILLY – this is it.
if you know anything – on this type of stuff, you know: BOBO rules !!
art wise, too.
well, that’s the way – we rolled at PSEUDO.
ALL PHOTOS BY & COPYRIGHT: NANCY SMITH. NYC OCT 26, 2008