This show was a double bill. John Eddie And The Front Street Runners opening for Mink DeVille at the Fast Lane in Asbury Park … some summer night in 1981. The exact date escapes my aging brain cells. Don’t remember if anyone went with me to see this show. But for those who might remember … you now what to do … write about it in the comments. Makes me wish I would have written in my journal a bit more back then. And so it goes ….

When I get my Mink DeVille negatives scanned … they will go up as a separate post.

Hope you enjoy the photos. Click the “Continue Reading” link below. And if you know anything about this show … leave a comment.

Thanks … Joe Continue Reading > > >

Okay! It’s official! I’ve become a doddering codger! One too many synapses have misfired & my prefrontal cortex is Pretty Vacant or so it seems. Maybe I’m being a little too hard on myself. Or maybe not.

I started attending CW Post Center of Long Island University in the spring of 1978. (Had to look that one up too!) I was twenty-one. Going back to school to get a degree. I was living in the dorms with Danny Laughlin. Through him I met Tom Quinlavin. Tom was a painter … as in fine artist. We hit it off right away. Somewhere in that first semester I met a girl, Brandy, or Candy, or Nancy, or Chuck … can’t remember her name. Don’t even remember how we met … memorable huh! I think the thing that interested me about her was she liked punk music. Music was always a good “bonding” agent for me. Always has been. Always will be.

The reason I remember her, was because there was a photo of her on the first exposure of the two rolls of film I shot at the Gang Of Four show. So I’m also thinking that we went to the show together. As in … on a date. But what kind of date could it have been? She was probably sitting alone at the table, for most of the night, while I was off shooting the band. Oh well. Continue Reading > > >

The question is … but is it art! It’s something I use to ask/say to my other “arty” friends back in Jr High back in the glorious(?) 70′s(?) … OMG! And so the question is raised today. I’m not trying to rekindle the age old battle about clay Art vs Craft. No! I’m saying it more tongue in cheek this time around.

I have to give a big shout out to Diana Fayt for turning me onto a very cool app called Hipstamatic for iPhone. She published a photo yesterday which I knew came from her iPhone, so I tweeted her asking what app. I knew there were billions an billions of apps it could have been. She was kind enough to tweet me back a reply. So of course I fire up iTunes and spent a whopping $1.99 and purchased a copy for myself. All I can say is WOW! It’s like my 1st gen iPhone dropped orange sunshine!

After meeting a downtown client this morning, (my day job is being a Mac computer consultant) I decided to take my new toy.app and re-explore the Pike Place Market. It’s been a long time since I had been or was inclined to take photos. One of the pitfalls of living in Seattle for so long is becoming apathetic to the innate beauty of the market. Tourists or not!
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In 1980 I was attending school at  CW Post Center of Long Island University. I was also sharing an apartment in Oyster Bay Long Island with 3 women: Cande Roth, Ellyn Solis, and Dorothy (Orant) Morrison. The night I moved into this insane asylum I ended three years of being a non-smoker. I purchased that pack of Newports … and torched up the first smoke, and didn’t quit again until the early 90′s.

In my years at Post I was a communications major and later film major. I also did radio shows on the college station WCWP 88.1 on the FM dial. I also was a photographer for an NYC club magazine called Non-LP B-Side. Those were some exciting times. Musicly there was the whole UK & US punk explosion that brought so much amazing and exciting music. I use to spend a lot of my extra cash either at Bleaker Bob’s in NYC or a few of the independent music stores on Long Island that specialized in British imports. Buying the latest import singles & LPs my radio shows were something to hear. I loved bands like The Clash, The Jam, The Sex Pistols, XTC, Elvis Costello, Ian Dury And The Blockheads, Fashion, Richard Hell And The Voidoids, Tom Verlaine with or without  Television, Graham Parker, The Undertones, Ultravox, The Ramones, Talking Heads, all the assorted Stiff and Two-Tone bands and so much more. And what money I didn’t spend there I was spending on photographing some of these bands and paying to have the film processed at professional color labs, in NYC or on “Lonkisland”.

Dorothy was also an avid musicologist and fan girl of so many of those bands. That was one of our many connections. She also turned me onto a lot of stuff that she loved too. We influenced each other. Hell … when I met this girl she was “sittin’ on the hood of a Dodge” in the parking lot at the Spectrum in Philadelphia. A friend of mine and I were waiting to buy Springsteen tickets. We drove in from southern NJ the night before and slept in  my car. Early the next morning, before “the line formed”, I was wandering around the parking lot and here was this beautiful blond wild child, sitting on the hood of that car (but no soft summer rain) and asking me … “hey you like Costello too?” I was wearing an Elvis Costello t-shirt at the time. And that was that. We talked and that started the long slow process of friendship … and years later … a bit more.

Dorothy and I were in L. O. V. E. with the Clash. There was always something about their music, attitude and politics that resonated with us, and the world. They were so much less nihilistic than the Pistols. Plus they had huge hearts. You could see it in the passion they showed onstage and off. Continue Reading > > >

“In the beginning the gods created the Pony (or the Poney to some) … they saw it was good. Maker and breaker of many a hopeful lot. Time passed and many a legend was born and sent out into the world to make good. Some did. Some didn’t. But time is a funny thing …. ha! Just when you expect just another R&B clone, fate deals you a joker. Enter … “The Human Element.” Why the Pony? And why such a place for their very first gig? These and many other questions can only be answered … in time!”

First entry in The Human Element scrapbook … Joe Streno 1986

Post Updated: 06/07/2009 added photo of The Human Element T-shirts.

Continue Reading > > >

It’s funny … I was searching my negative files for photos of my band, The Human Element. I’m working on a huge post about T.H.E. But while I was searching for group promo photos that my friend and artist Dorian LaPadura took, I stumbled upon black & white promo photos I took of the Junior Smoots band at the old Wall Township, NJ house. They even include new trombone player Tommy Meares.

To my amazement, I also found the few photos I took of the Smootsters, well at least Gary, Judy, Kenny (see Kenny I DID take photos of the drummer!) and the engineer/producer, who’s name escapes me right now, at the NYC recording studio where they recorded these three songs. I also don’t remember the studio name either. I’m sure someone out there will remeber those details. And I’m almost positive there might be more studio photos … but then again that could be my mind playing tricks again. Continue Reading > > >

I’m feeling horribly sad. Pain welling up. Like having the crusty brown crackling scab of a deep wound ripped from my flesh. Feeling the pain and discomfort, but realizing, I was only feeling a pea under the mattress of time, poking me in my minds eye. Hey you! Wake up! Wake the fuck up! Joe is gone. Joe? Joe who? Joe Streno? No! Joe Strummer.

I’m back stage at Bonds, NYC. It’s 1981. I’m seeing it though the eyes of another. Out of body? Am I still dreaming? I am the camera. I’m on one side of the curtain divider, tagged by others before me. He’s on the other side. They … are on the other side. Dorothy is next to me. “I’ll pull it back …” she said “… be ready.” Was I? Could I? Should I? Suddenly the curtain is drawn. He turns, looking into my eyes, dead on. There is a blinding flash. He doesn’t blink. He knows what is needed. He knows what is required. Focused like a laser. Peering into the elements of time, space and visual acuity. His essence has been received. His likeness captured. In a microsecond, the curtain returns to its place. Both of them. Light levels return to normal. Did that really happen? Continue Reading > > >