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I MARRIED HOWIE PYRO – PART TWO

2023-05-16T20:33:52+00:00May 13th, 2023|Essays, Featured, Music|

I was asked to write a remembrance of my former husband, Howie Pyro, and I didn’t realize how therapeutic it would be for me. As I write, the pending anniversary of his passing May 4, 2022 has brought up so many overwhelming feelings. Howie’s illness and death is the heaviest thing I’ve ever been through and I suppose I have done a lot of mourning in public posting pictures and memories on Facebook. I was devastated that I couldn’t get to LA for his funeral– finances and work schedule prevented it but I was able to go back to my hometown, NYC, for the Memorial there. I thought I’d try to share some of the stories I told at that intimate event at Bowery Electric.

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I MARRIED HOWIE PYRO – PART ONE

2023-04-20T11:55:06+00:00April 20th, 2023|Essays, Music|

Howie Pyro was the love of my life, my soulmate. It's hard to write about a person when you've had such an intense relationship. It's difficult to put into words exactly the impact of the lightning bolts that shot out of his eyes the first time we met. It was like the heaviest deja vu I have ever experienced. So forgive my gushing as I try to write a remembrance of my dear departed onetime hubby. Cool. That is the number one word that comes to mind when I think of Howie. He was the cool little kid with the extended fork chopper banana seat bike. He was the coolest pre-teen with the most monster magazines. He was an actual teenage runaway who ventured to NYC and started his own punk rock band. He shared stages and drugs with his idols in the late 70s Max's Kansas City scene where his group The Blessed were the underage darlings.

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PERSONALITY CRISIS: ONE NIGHT ONLY

2023-04-18T12:53:52+00:00April 17th, 2023|Essays|

Academy Award winner Martin Scorsese & David Tedeschi premiered their David Johansen documentary on Showtime this month. By Legs McNeil ©2023. It would be about 3:00 o’clock in the morning on the Bowery and I would’ve already spent all my money on beer, and Joey Ramone and Arturo Vega would be out of town with the Ramones, so I couldn’t crash at their loft, and I’d be walking back to the “Punk Dump” on 10th Avenue and 30th Street to the offices of Punk magazine in the basement of Hell’s Kitchen.

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SINEAD O’CONNOR: THE JOAN OF ARC SYNDROME

2023-03-29T14:31:49+00:00October 31st, 2022|Essays, Music|

It’s very rare that 34 years after you date someone, you get a chance to witness a documentary about what was going on in that person’s life at the time you were dating them. Remarkable, really, but I got the chance recently when Showtime premiered the documentary, “Nothing Compares,” about Sinead O’Connor by filmmaker Kathryn Ferguson.

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BAIL TALES (PART THREE): BIG HOMES AND FANCY CARS

2022-10-07T02:28:07+00:00October 5th, 2022|Essays, True Crime|

I was sitting home alone on a quiet Wednesday night when my phone rang. It was a bond call! A shot of adrenaline went straight to my brain whenever my phone rang. I answered eagerly with a million thoughts going through my head. Many people assume I had celebrity clients through nepotism. Not necessarily so… Here’s the true story of my first celebrity client.

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INTRODUCING LIZ HAND AND A PREVIEW OF HER WORK

2022-08-22T23:58:41+00:00August 22nd, 2022|Essays|

Liz Hand is one of my favorite contemporary writers, as well as being a friend. As her website (elizabethhand.com) tells it; “Her work has received multiple Shirley Jackson, World Fantasy and Nebula Award, among other honors, and several of her books have been New York Times and Washington Post Notable books.” My favorite books of Liz’s are her critically acclaimed novels featuring her fictional character, Cass Neary, a bisexual, alcoholic, speed freak, who published an acclaimed photo book in the 1970’s, but has faded into obscurity, supporting herself by authenticating photos for weirdo collectors around the world. This is where the fun begins-- as inevitably someone gets murdered-- and instead of wanting to solve the crime, Cass wants to get the fuck out of town!

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BAIL TALES: MEN’S CENTRAL JAIL

2022-08-14T18:19:17+00:00August 13th, 2022|Essays, True Crime|

I’m not going to lie, it was exciting for me to go to Men’s Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles. I’m not sure if it’s the “high power” inmates or just nervous energy. You see, in LA ex-cons are everywhere and they’re not embarrassed to tell you about it. Having been in Men’s Central Jail can earn you a pack of sycophants for the rest of your life. So yes, I’ll admit, on my first visit to MCJ I was genuinely giddy. I was there to interview a defendant in custody. I needed to feel him out and determine whether he was worth the risk of posting his bond. All my rookie enthusiasm changed very quickly.

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THE MYSTERY OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN TOOK TO HER GRAVE

2022-08-13T01:56:37+00:00August 11th, 2022|Essays|

We mourn the death of Olivia Newton-John. She was a pleasant singer and actress, an icon to a certain generation of fans who grew up with her, most after she made the transition from British-born Aussie country singer to pop star, the little girls wanting to be her, young boys wanting to be with her – and even more boys wanting to be her. Now that she’s gone, after a long and valiant battle with cancer, Olivia Newton-John is receiving well-deserved honors, but she has left this plane with a mystery that dangles and clouds her legacy. It’s a mystery partially of her own making, a question left unanswered: WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO PATRICK MCDERMOTT?

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DUNCAN HANNAH: THE CARY GRANT OF PUNK ROCK (AUGUST 21, 1952 — JUNE 11, 2022)

2023-03-29T14:33:35+00:00June 17th, 2022|Essays|

Dunc had it all; the charm, the clothes, the looks, the brains, the talent, and more importantly, he was not an asshole. He didn’t need an entourage, he enjoyed going to see his friend’s work, and he enjoyed explaining why he liked something or did not like it. He was extremely accessible and his take on “the work” was inspiring. And his manner was classy, in an unpretentious way; more Mid-West down home. And his smile was infectious.

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SUNDAY! ONE NIGHT ONLY! THE MAN WHO KILLED JERRY LEWIS

2022-05-19T01:43:47+00:00May 18th, 2022|Comedy, Essays|

Bobcat Goldthwait comes out and introduces the clips that Jerry brought, and the clips are running. There's the famous dance down the stairs from Cinderfella. There’s him doing the incredibly famous boardroom bit from The Errand Boy. And I'm watching Jerry look at himself. He was seventy-six, overweight and nobody knows who he is anymore, and he's looking at the twenty-six-year-old version of himself when he was super-famous. And I see Jerry look out at the half-full crowd, and then Jerry fell to the ground. And I think he’s dead.

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ERIC CLAPTON IS A FIRST CLASS, GRADE A ASSHOLE!

2022-05-18T13:19:40+00:00May 18th, 2022|Essays, Music|

This article was originally published by Chris Zappa on Medium in 2021 under the title, “I Just Can’t Even With Eric Clapton Anymore.” Chris has graciously given Legsville permission to republish it, and I encourage other music lovers to read Chris’ work on Medium as well as sign up for Zappagram, the mother of all music newsletters, which he runs on Substack.

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AMBER HEARD BODY LANGUAGE

2022-05-15T15:45:01+00:00May 15th, 2022|Essays, True Crime|

©2022 By Lillian Glass – Director/ Producer, Body Language Expert, Communication Expert | "First of all, she is once again copying Johnny's style as she too is wearing a vest under a blazer just like Johnny is wearing and has been wearing throughout the trial."

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THE BALLAD OF CYNTHIA PLASTER CASTER

2023-03-29T14:28:54+00:00April 30th, 2022|Essays, Music|

Cynthia was truly an original thinker and a meticulous goofy artist who took the job of casting rock stars’ erect “rigs” extremely seriously while never losing her sense of humor about the job at hand. Join me now as we listen to Cynthia Plaster Caster’s story….

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APRIL 29-30, 1992: LET THE L.A. RIOTS BEGIN

2022-04-30T15:55:21+00:00April 29th, 2022|Essays|

On April 29, 1992, jurors in Simi Valley, California acquitted five Los Angeles police officers in the videotaped beating of Rodney King. Los Angeles citizens responded to the news with a display of widespread civil disobedience and destruction that became known as the Los Angeles Riots. The evening the violence began, Burt Kearns, a producer of the syndicated nightly tabloid magazine series, Hard Copy, was sharing a pizza with correspondent Rafael Abramovitz at Santopietro’s restaurant. Thirty years later, the following is adapted from his memoir, Tabloid Baby.

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JOHNNY DEPP TRIAL BODY LANGUAGE

2022-04-26T21:58:32+00:00April 26th, 2022|Essays|

Johnny’s body language is open and his tone is appealing. He is articulate and his drawing out his articulation and pacing time is engaging. He comes across as in control and level-headed in his delivery and appears to be credible. While many of the revelations are shocking, he openly describes his experiences with Amber and holds nothing back. He is also credible in the fact that he openly admits his flaws and embarrassing issues as well.

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PUNK ICON JORDAN MOONEY PASSES AWAY AT 66

2022-04-29T17:04:27+00:00April 6th, 2022|Essays, Fashion, Music|

The punk rock stylist and fashion icon has passed away in her home in Seaford on Sunday. Jordan styled the Sex Pistols, managed Adam and the Ants, worked at Vivienne Westwood’s famous store, Sex and starred in the film Jubilee by Derek Jarman. The actress, model, artist and vet has been mourned by the masses on social media.

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FEAR OF A BLACK NEW HAVEN

2022-03-04T20:45:01+00:00March 4th, 2022|Essays|

Years back I lived in New Haven. There I resided in Westville, a mile or two out from Yale Law School where I was a student. An Orthodox priest and his wife rented part of their basement to me, a comfortable enough pied a terre with arresting Greek icons and cruciforms lining the walls just outside it. Joe Lieberman lived a few blocks away. He was famous.

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THE RISE OF JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT

2022-01-26T01:04:31+00:00January 26th, 2022|Essays, Music, TV & Film|

"At age 20, artist Jean-Michel Basquiat emerged from the downtown scene with a budding sophistication equally rooted in abstract expressionism and the post-punk, no-wave, hip-hop, graffiti grit of the Mudd Club avant-garde." | ©2022 by Amanda Sheppard

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