Welcome To the Jungle Pleasant Gehman's L.A. rock'n'roll memories
by Chris Parcellin
It's no exaggeration to say Pleasant Gehman has seen (and done) it all in her years chronicling the Hollywood rock scene and the street life that accompanies it. As a teen she hooked-up with Germs guitarist Pat Smear and had a front row seat for the wild ride the Runaways took with wacky manager Kim Fowley at the helm. She also started her own fanzine, as well as writing for the seminal Slash punk zine. In the meantime, she was hanging out with the likes of X, the Go-Go's, Joan Jett and soaking up all the trashy ambiance of the burgeoning L.A. punk scene.

Gehman has gone on to be a singer, actress, screenwriter, belly dancer and author of books like "Princess of Hollywood, "Senorita Sin" and "The Underground Guide to Los Angeles." She's also featured in an upcoming movie called "Firecracker" that also stars Dennis Hopper and Karen Black. In short, Gehman is still right in the thick of things in good, old Hollywood and we were lucky enough to chat with her about it all.

You started your own fanzine at 17. What was it like?
My fanzine was called Lobotomy (The Brainless Magazine) and it published from 1977 to 1981…it was 'almost" a monthly publication. It was a total cut 'n' paste fanzine, put together on my living room floor. We interviewed everyone from The Damned, Siouxsie, The Clash, Blondie, 999, the Go-Go's, Germs, Cramps, The Jam, Lydia Lunch to cult figures like Vampira and director David Lynch, who'd just had an underground hit with "Eraserhead". Usually, the Lobotomy "Staff" and the interviewees would just get totally drunk, and we'd let the tape roll. It was fun, silly and sarcastic, some of it was typed, some handwritten. We'd do reviews of like, Elvis Costello, The Sex Pistols and The Village People and Leif Garrett all on the same page!

And then you also wrote for Slash magazine. What are your memories of those days?
I'd already been doing my own fanzine, and when the first issue of Slash came out, I met with them and told thenm I wanted to write for them. I was like 17. My first interviews for them were the Mumps and The Germs, who I'd already known from high school- I'd met George (Pat Smear) and Paul (Darby Crash) at a Tubes concert at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium and we'd cut school together. The staff of Slash was older than the people I was hanging out with- but they were fun. They used to throw great parties at their big huge loft, all the guests would get completely smashed and be dancing. they had one for Devo when they first came to California that was outta control. There are pictures of me, Joan Jett and Exene rolling on the floor and getting soaked in the shower at the party that still surface every so often!

Pat Smear was your first boyfriend in L.A.? Was he playing in punk bands at that point?
When I first met Pat and Darby, they weren't in bands yet- but we were all way into music, and the earliest inklings of punk rock. We'd go to the beach and stuff- they were both West LA surfer/stoner boys, really crazy and fun.

I have to ask you: What was it like hanging out with the Runaways?
I met the Runaways when I was in high school-or rather, cutting high school, as well. My friends Randy Kaye and Lisa Curland knew Joan Jett from Rodney's- Lisa was actually Joan's girlfriend--and we'd cut school to spend the afternoon watching the Runaways practice at S.I.R. in Hollywood. The Motels and Quiet Riot would be practicing down the hall- but back then, no one was signed, it was just like local bands. When the Runaways got signed, we were all so proud and happy for them. Joan was pretty much the first person from LA to have experienced English punk first hand. We were all into Patti Smith and The Ramones, then the Runaways went on tour in the UK and Joan came back wearing Malcom McLaren T-shirts and safety pins and carrying on about the Sex Pistols and we were all a-gog.

Your latest book is "The Underground Guide to Los Angeles". What kind of stuff can you find in it?
In "The Underground Guide To LA" you can find all the usual stuff- like theme parks and landmarks and famous restaurants, but there's also all this insider stuff that no tourist books would ever mention… like the best car-wash taco stands, places rock stars died, weird architecture, underground art galleries, Charles Bukowski's grave, cool swap meets, tranny hooker dive bars…whatever. Also, since it wasn't a corporately driven book, a lot of the chapters are all silly and crazy and more fun than a cut and dried tourist book. Actually a lot of locals buy it!

You have a rep for chronicling the seedy side of Tinseltown. How do you view your writing?
I write what I see, I write what I live. I didn't set out to chronicle the "dark underbelly of LA", it just happened that way. Believe me, sometimes I wish I was Jackie Collins, living in Bel Air!!!! There's beauty and dignity and pathos in everything. A lot of what I write about seems like it's about decadence, or drug addicts or scummy punks or whatever- and admittedly, a lot of it is- but there's also the fact that those people and circumstances and locations do in fact exist, and you can have a love story, or a funny vignette or moment of humanity in that mileue just as easily as you can in, like, suburbia.

"Escape from Houdini Mountain," your short story collection, is pretty much autobiographical stuff? The synopsis I read of it sounds pretty goddamn wild.
Yes, " Escape From Houdini Mountain" is all autobiographical. Only some of the names have been changed. When my editor was editing it she called and said, "I have just one more question for you: How are you still alive?!"

"Princess of Hollywood" was more of a poetry-oriented book?
"Princess of Hollywood," and my first book "Senorita Sin" are both poems and short stories, "Houdini" is all short stories.

I love that title "Senorita Sin." One reviewer said you personify "better living through chemistry." How do you like that book now in retrospect?
"Better Living Through Chemistry"- yeah, that was me. I did pretty much every drug known to mankind, and then some. …and I'm still alive, and look pretty good for my age! Actually, the title, in spanish, loosely means "Girl without"…like girl whose missing something, or lacking something. I was kind of into the double meaning of that the Spanish and English.

I like that book still- that was the only one of my books that was not written in a body, to be it's own wok- it was basically collected pieces from things I'd been writing over the years. Sometimes when I look back and read "Senorita" or "Princess", the things I went through kind of amaze me. I think I always wrote with a certain amount of humor- but people used to call my writing "harrowing" and I could never figure out why. Now, in hindsight, I can see a lot of pain in the writing. Back then, I was oblivious to it, cause I was going through it right at the time I was putting it on paper. It just seemed kind of normal to me, it was my life at that time.

You appeared in some Roger Corman flicks. What was he like to work with?
It wasn't like I really worked that closely with him, but I was honored to be on a set with him, in a Roger Corman film!. The first time in Hollywood Boulevard, I was fucking sixteen! I was cast as a "wet nubile" and got sprayed across the tits with a firehose! My mom worked at Twentieth Century Fox and a girl came up and asked if I wanted to be in a movie, and as soon as I found out it was Roger Corman, I was all gung-ho about it. The second time was for that women's prison flick "Vendetta", and my band The Screaming Sirens performed two songs.

Also, you've appeared in a lot of music videos, correct? What was that like? Do those pay well?
I've been in a lot of music video as- everything from Madonna and Ricky Martin videos to smaller, low budget videos. They're fun- the sets are fun- but everything has to be done about twice as fast as a movie or TV show. Some video sets are wild- like when I belly danced in the Truth Hurts video for "Addictive"- there were all these celebrity guests stars, like Dr. Dre, Snoop Dog, Rakim- everyone was basically partying, it was like a big private party- everyone knew each other and was making jokes and stuff. I won't be an extra on a music video anymore- the hours are too long, I did it for too many years, just being background.

I also see that you starred in a movie called "Firecracker" that's coming out later this year. What can you tell us about that?
"Firecracker" is being shot this Spring (2003). It's written and directed by Steve Balderson, who wrote and directed "Pep Squad", out I the US on video, but it was seen all over Europe in theaters and made the rounds of the festivals to rave reviews. "Firecracker" is based on a true Cain and Abel style murder that happened at a carnival in Kansas in the 1950's, on the Fourth Of July. It's an insane, dark story, totally twisted. The cast is amazing. Dennis Hopper and Karen Black are starring, James Russo is in it, there are cameos by everyone from Deborah harry of Blondie to Jane Weidlin of The Go-Go's. Karen Black is the star of the sideshow, I play a carnival burlesque dancer, her best friend. It's going to shoot on location in Kansas.

How do you like writing for film as opposed to writing short stories or poetry?
The only film I've ever written for I co-wrote with the director, Max Tash. It was called "The Runnin' Kind"--it was a rock comedy based on my real-life band The Screaming Sirens, and it was released on MGM in 1989. It just recently showed on VH-1….. I've written plays, but mostly I just do my own memoir-based writing….

You also showed up in that VH-1 "Behind the Music" on the Go-Go's. What did you think of how that came out?
I've been in so many documentaries and in so many books about the early punk scene, it's hard to keep track! I've been in documentaries on the Go-Go's, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, a movie on women in the punk scene called "Kiss My Grits", and in many, many books….

Are you doing any music these days?
I'm not really doing much music these days, concentrating more on writing and belly dancing, but I am in a jokey, fun project called "leather Mu-Mu, with iris Berry, who was in The Ringling Sisters with me.

What's your message for America's youth?
My message to America's youth is, I guess: do what you want to do. Be creative--pursue your dreams. Don't let anyone stop you!
© 2003 Chris Parcellin & D-Filed, All rights reserved.
All photographs © 2003 Pleasant Gehman, All rights reserved.