Adventures in Nerdliness

Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi dir. Richard Marquand | 1983

Madonna

The rook with the big block

10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU (1999) Dir. Gil Junger

May 1985. 'Hot summer suits by Ocean Pacific'

Madonna photographed by Andrew Caulfield for her "Borderline" music video on February 9, 1984.

Born on this day: outrageous sewer-mouthed American glitter-punk chanteuse, transgender trailblazer, cult icon, filth elder and the Queen Mutha of us all – Miss Jayne County (13 July 1947)! Auntie Jayne’s career is like a defiant one-woman assault on good taste. In the seventies, backed by her band The Electric Chairs, County (then still billed as Wayne) was the undisputed drag queen of choice for hardened punks on both sides of the Atlantic, vomiting up ultra-raunchy diatribes like “Fuck Off” and “Cream in My Jeans”. After the band split, County relocated to relative obscurity in Berlin before transitioning and re-emerging with a solo career as self-made woman Jayne. In addition to music, County is a charismatic occasional screen presence in underground queer cinema (like Jubilee (1978) by Derek Jarman and City of Lost Souls (1983) by Rosa von Praunheim). All punk fans know “Fuck Off” but other Jayne-ified tracks to investigate include “Bad in Bed”, “Toilet Love”, “Mean Motherfucking Man,” “I’m in Love with Dusty Springfield” (County’s valentine to an early hairstyle role model) and the anthemic “Everyone’s an Asshole but Me”. I’d argue County’s best album is Rockn’Roll Resurrection (1980), a live recording of a New Year’s Eve gig at the Edge nightclub in Toronto. And her memoir Man Enough to Be a Woman (co-authored by Rupert Smith) is essential! Further reading: my 1995 interview with County for MAXIMUMROCKNROLL zine. Nice appreciation of County on the Filthy Dreams website here.

Clueless (1995)