Happy birthday, Lou Reed

Happy birthday, Lou Reed. I love this story and these pictures of Lou and Laurie Anderson’s encounter with Ice-T in 2005, via Reddit user BladeRunnerTHX.

"I worked on the television series SVU for about 5 seasons and ICE-T was definitely very cool and down to earth and had no problem either hanging with the crew or saying hi to fans. One day we were filming at a cafe in downtown Tribeca and we were about to break for lunch. While we were filming Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson were eating outside. Most of the crew didn't recognize them but I was pretty excited seeing them. Once we wrapped for lunch Ice walked out of the cafe in a rush to go eat. On set when lunch is called everyone pretty much scatters, minus the crew that are required to watch the set. As Ice walked out Lou recognizes him and yells out "Hey Ice!". Ice in a rush half turned his head and said "What's up" and kept walking. Lou was already behind Ice as he yelled for him but Ice just assumed it was a fan and kept walking.

I notice this happen so I stopped Ice as he was walking away and told him to turn around. Ice stopped turned around and immediately noticed who it was. When he saw Lou he was like oh shit, said "Oh whats up!" and walked back to greet Lou and gave him a warm hello. They talked for a few minutes and Lou introduced his wife Laurie.

This kind of stuff happened often but it was very unusual that I stopped to take photos of it. Hope you like."

Ministry, "Just One Fix"

William S. Burroughs would have turned 100 today (or last night, February 5.) His influence on music runs through collaborations with everyone from U2 to Kurt Cobain to Laurie Anderson to R.E.M. to Tom Waits. The band names Steely Dan, The Soft Machine and Clem Snide all come from his novels, as does the term "heavy metal." He appears on the cover of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. While he's no one's idea of an easy read (Nick Cave once wonderfully quipped that Edgar Rice Burroughs was "the superior Burroughs,") William Burroughs' inventiveness with language is still unparalleled today. Like a lyrical Jackson Pollock, his works often appear messy and spontaneous, but have inimitable flair and imagination.



My favorite of Burroughs' musical endeavors is his appearance on Ministry's "Just One Fix." For Ministry's full transformation to industrial metal pioneers (hell, inventors,) they enlisted the scariest old man in the world for their single and music video. Al Jourgensen wasn't as poetic about his addiction as Burroughs would have been, but those harsh buzzsaw guitars nail the point as deeply as any passage in Junkie.

30 years earlier, Burroughs wrote about "Uranian Willy the heavy metal Kid" in The Soft Machine, later elaborating in Nova Express, "With their diseases and orgasm drugs and their sexless parasite life forms - Heavy Metal People of Uranus wrapped in cool blue mist of vaporized bank notes - And the Insect People of Minraud with metal music." On "Just One Fix," he lived up to that description.