"End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones" Screening: Co-starring The Tangerine Puppets!
Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the best damn Ramones film ever!
I’m juiced about the upcoming screening of End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones (EOC). I’ve seen it a bunch of times, and it holds up as the best film documentary about the Ramones. It’s great to be an (unofficial) co-sponsor of the event along with the movie’s co-directors Michael Gramaglia and Jim Fields. They will do a short Q&A after the film, and before the film screens, Michael plans to show a short trailer for a movie that he and I have been working on, as well as a clip of Joey Ramone with his pre-Ramones band (and maybe a few other oddities).
Hey, if you are a Ramones fan? You wanna be at this event.
There’s also going to be a panel discussion with Richie Adler and Robert Rowland, who were both in a band called The Tangerine Puppets. Now, maybe you’ve never heard of this band, but I have always been curious to learn more about them, ever since I published this letter in PUNK Magazine #14:
I am fairly certain that Steve Drellich was the brother of Hal Drellich, who was the Art Director of PUNK Magazine from 1977-78. (This even looks like Hal’s hand-lettering style.) I gotta tell you, it’s interesting how much talent came from that neighborhood. Here are just a few other famous graduates: Burt Bacharach, Jerry Seinfeld, Art Buchwald, Fred Silverman, Jonny Podell, Simon & Garfunkel, Jerry Springer… even Gary Kurfirst, who managed the Ramones for many years. So this film screening is meant to be a celebration of the neighborhood as well as a celebration of the EOC: Ramones flick.
I will be moderating the panel discussion and have a lot of questions to ask the “T. Pups,” and we will have other musicians who were involved with the Ramones before the band formed: Mickey Leigh, Noah Citron and Monte A. Melnick. We’ll be sharing a lot of stories about what it was like before CBGB and the punk rock scene.
Jim Fields and Michael Gramaglia also set up this film screening to mark the 50th anniversary of the Ramones’ first show at CBGB (which took place on August 16, 1974: by the way, I first saw the band in August 1975, when I decided then and there that they were the future of punk rock!). Unbeknownst to many people, both Jim and Michael worked in the accounting office that handled business matter for the Ramones for several years, which is how they became interested in the band.
There are still some tickets available at the Queens Theatre and I have room on my guest list if anyone out there wants to go. It’s a big room! There will be a shuttle bus available between 7-10:00 pm from the Mets-Willets Point subway station (The 7 train). If the shuttle isn’t available or if you like to walk, it’s less than a mile (and you’ll walk through the Flushing Meadows Corona Park and walk past The Unisphere).
LINK to the Queens Theatre:
https://queenstheatre.org/events
By the way, I have a new merch client: Destroy Art! Check it out and buy something if you’d like to support my newsletter:
https://destroyartinc.com/collections/john-holmstrom
See you soon!