My friend Phiam and I were enjoying lunch when he asked me about pickle surprise. “What is pickle surprise?” I asked him. He was so delighted to introduce me to the genius that is Tom Rubnitz.
A quintessential New York underground film/video artiste, the late Tom Rubnitz took a bite out of the Big Apple and spat it out in a wild kaleidoscope of unequivocal camp and hallucinogenic color. Ann Magnuson, the B-52s, The “Lady” Bunny, and the late John Sex are but a few of the stars that shine oh-so-brightly in Rubnitz’s glittering oeuvre. A genre artist par excellence, Rubnitz treated the sexy-druggy-wiggy-luscious-desserty qualities of the ’80s downtown club scene with the loving care only a true hedonist could show. Rubnitz died from an AIDS-related illness in 1992.
Pickle Surprise
Strawberry Shortcut
The Fairies
Hustle with my Muscle
Bump and Grind It
The Mother Show
It’s like I never left the East Village. Also? I may be visited by the ghost of John Sex in my dreams this evening.