“LA Weekly” Reviews the La Luz de Jesus Gallery Reading…

March 7th, 2010 | By admin

BLITZKRIEG BOOK
Bad-boy swagger was definitely a big part of the Ramones’ appeal, at least where Dee Dee and Johnny were concerned, but lead singer Joey (real name Jeffry Hyman) evoked something altogether different onstage: a dark and intriguing awkwardness that ultimately came to personify cool in a new way, a punk way. The book, “I Slept With Joey Ramone,” penned by his brother Mickey Leigh and N.Y. underground chronicler Legs McNeil, provides an enlightening look at Joey’s childhood, his early love of rock & roll (who’da thunk Richie Valens’ “La Bamba” was his first fave rave?), his struggles with OCD and the tempestuous love triangle that tore the band apart. At the L.A. Q&A/book signing at La Luz de Jesus Gallery Saturday, Leigh was joined by Rock ‘n’ Roll High School star P.J. Soles, director Alan Arkush and longtime Joey buddy Howie Pyro (a former bandmate of aforementioned Todd Youth in Danzig, D Generation and Chelsea Smiles). Leigh exposed some interesting tidbits at the event. (“We never, ever sniffed glue,” he said of his and his bro’s experimentations. “There was lots of other stuff, though.”) Perhaps the most exciting revelation was the news that he just signed “something with Fox Searchlight Films.” Leigh was vague about the deal, but he assured that in no more than 10 years, a Ramones movie based on his memoir is highly likely, something many fans have surely been hoping for ever since Entourage put the idea in the fictional movie-land universe (as a vehicle for its hero, Vinnie Chase) a couple seasons ago. Could art imitate life with actor Adrian Grenier starring?
http://www.laweekly.com/2010-02-26/music/lusty-for-life/