I visited Michael Alig at the place of his incarceration: Elmira, N.Y. It's about a four-hour drive unless you stop at Friendly's or Dobb's Country Kitchen to commiserate with locals. On the way, I stop a lot. I get gas. I buy cigarettes. I buy Redbulls, coffee, water… mixed nuts too. I pause to watch the rapid waters of the Susquehanna roll by. If I had seen roses on the way...I'd have stopped to smell them too. 

This Sunday, I'm DJing with fellow 4AM DJ Dalton at an off-the-record, on the QT, very hush-hush party with a secret location. Just to make sure I was in the general vicinity at the right time, I wangled out of them that it is in Meatpacking and not "somewhere over the rainbow." The event is called Resurrec...

So now I'm obssessed. It isn't enough that I am quickly covering my entire body with random tattoos, but now I almost only find happiness when surrounded by others who are obsessed with covering their entire body with tattoos. Last night I went to The Gutter, 200 N. 14th St. (Brooklyn), my new favorite place to get some ink from, to celebrate the life of Sailor Jerry Collins from Sailor Jerry. The crowd, the tattoos, the music, the Sailor Jerry Rum. and the hot dogs (even the vegan ones) were all wonderful. People threw darts at a dartboard and got the tattoo that was posted up on it. Todd Weinberger, the creative director of Inked, got a hammerhead shark just ahead of me. Matt Van Cura of Invisible NYC did mine. He's great and I'm heading to him next week to get myself a Ramones logo in memory of my pal Arturo Vega who just passed. A young lady who I was chatting up wore the famous logo t-shirt last night in Arturo's honor. She said she didn't know him but wanted to show respect. The gesture jolted me from depression over his passing into thinking how well he spent the time he had.  Sadly, I must report the passing of yet another dear friend: Elizabeth Connor Bursis died in San Francisco after a courageous fight with cancer. Some remember her as a Danceteria bartender or from the Eulenspiegel Society - the largest BDSM society in the U.S. - or just being their looking marvelous. She was one of my mentors, and talked to me in her calm voice and open mind about the journey I was taking. Until recently we kept involved on Facebook, but then she drifted away. I didn't know why until yesterday. I had been meaning to connect with her just as the news came.

Tiana Reeves a fixture on the NYC scene, an imp, a problem child, has been missing. As it turns out (and we all know she can turn it out), she has been spending her time back and forth between London and Toronto. Our world has been a little darker, a little quieter, a bit boring, and definitely bland since she has been gone. Now she comes at us again with a track, a single, a song... "Money (That's What I Want)," written by Berry Gordy and Janie Bradford. It was Motown's first hit, and later was covered by many others including The Beatles and The Flying Lizards.

A Saturday afternoon text told me about the passing of my old friend Arturo Vega. You may not know the name, but you know his work. He designed and produced all those Ramones t-shirts. He helped begin the band and was involved with their legacy through the website and merchandizing, long after three of the fabulous four or more had also shuffled off this mortal coil.