#073 : BEHIND THE GOSSIP ITEM / SALEM x PORNHUB IN CONEY ISLAND
Original publication date: Aug 22, 2023
IT WAS A RAINY NEW YORK NIGHT. I was at the Metropolitan Museum of Art with my friend, art director Chris Habib, looking at the Cecily Brown paintings.
They were terrific: cluttered and feminine and just dope. The art world is absolutely mad over Cecily. Chris knows her; her studio is in Union Square here in New York. (Fun fact: she’s married to a Pulitzer Prize-nominated architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff.)
Anyway, we were looking at the exhibit…
…and Chris mentioned that he was going to the Salem show that Friday.
“Who?” I—notorious amongst friends for knowing nothing about music, and keeping it that way—said.
“Salem,” he said.
“Is that a band?”
“Sort of,” Chris said. “It’s like…a collective.” I furrowed my brow. “They call it ‘Witch House'.”
“Witch house?” I said.
“They’re playing in the bumper cars ride at Coney Island. I have an extra ticket. Do you want to go?”
“Umm…” One the one hand, everything that Chris has ever taken me to—like a Black Metal Barbecue at Matthew Barney’s Long Island City compound, back when MB was still married to Bjork—has been killa; he is an elite brain. And I love Coney Island at night.
On the other, it sounded hot, and cigarette-smoky; lately, I’ve been a bit prissy. I don’t always love live music unless Pete Doherty is involved, and the whole ‘Witch House’ thing sounded extremely Goth.
“Someone else will want the ticket if you don’t,” Chris shrugged.
“Okay,” I said—as we exited the Met past my favorite set of Centaur abs. “I’ll think about it.”
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