Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Music news R.I.P. shock artist Joe 'Christ' Linhart (1957-2009)
Posted by Web Editor on Wed, Jun 24, 2009 at 12:46 AM
By Jason Hatcher
Joe "Christ" Linhart
6/18/57 - 6/21/09
Underground filmmaker, musician and artist Joe Linhart (better known as Joe Christ) passed away on Father's Day during the evening hours of June 21 in his Dekalb County home. According to toxicology reports released to his family today, Linhart died of a heart attack in his sleep.
Born in Washington D.C., Linhart relocated to Atlanta during the late 1990s following a nomadic lifestyle of producing shock art that made him a respected regular within underground scenes New York, Philadelphia, Dallas, and such far away locales as Manila in the Philippines.
During his Atlanta years, Linhart regularly worked with the shock website Consumption Junction and was a former guest artist with the the Dragon*Con festival. All the while, he released a steady stream of independent films, including 2005's That's Just Wrong! co-starring Atlanta sex author and mistress Dolores French, and other rousing titles including Amy Strangled a Small Child (1998) and Acid Is Groovy Kill the Pigs (1993). In addition to his film and visual art productions, Linhart also produced an equally balanced collection of rock recordings with such acts as Joe Christ and the Healing Faith (see interview), and Los Reactors.
Famous for wearing black T-shirts and jeans accented by macho tattoos upon his forearms, Linhart may have appeared menacing at first glance but upon further inspection most people discovered a truly kind soul and passionate artist. He was a father and friend whose untimely death leaves countless people in shock. But would Joe Christ have had it any other way?
According to his eldest son Alan, he was famous for his dark sense of humor: "I was talking to my Dad's friend Roy and he told me as bad as I am feeling, Dad is probably laughing his ass off because what a better way to go than to die in your sleep of a heart attack on Father's Day."
Linhart had recently been living between Atlanta and Manila and was preparing for a return trip to the Philippines on July 2, where he had an art opening scheduled for July 3. Consumption Junction's relocation opened the door for Linhart's earlier travels to Manila where he'd begun to make an impression on yet another city's underground scene.
Not only was Linhart hosting regular art and film exhibits in the Philippines, he was in pre-production with a Filipino television show entitled "Hey Joe!" in which he would serve as the primary writer, producer and host.
Linhart's son Alan is currently producing a tribute album for Scrape Records in Baltimore. Artists and friends of Linhart are invited to send demos to Alan Linhart c/o Scrape Records, 1824 North Forest Court, Apt. A. Crofton, Md. 21114.
Joe "Christ" Linhart is survived by his parents Joseph and Marilyn of St. Petersburg, Fla., sons Alan Linhart (34, Baltimore), Eric Abner (23, Dallas, Texas.), 7-year-old granddaughter Zöe Linhart, along with four sisters and one brother. A private funeral will be held tomorrow in north Atlanta.
Note: Post edited for accuracy
Comments (25)
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The 2nd photo of Joe you have posted (at the Crystal Pistol) is mine, and was likely snagged from facebook (The group honoring Joe's memory), where I posted it for the first time today. (BTW, Joe was known as Joe Danger back then, not Christ) Of course I don't mind you using it, but please acknowledge that it is mine by stating photo 2 courtesy of Cynthia Hands. Thanks
I am very shocked and saddened to hear the news, Joe was a close friend and we talked regularly on FB. I will miss him.
A friend texted me today about Joe Christ dying. We lived in Dallas in the 1980s as SMU kids. Joe was very cool to us. I guess we got to know him seeing his band play, and I think I had a cassette that I used to listen to a lot. I remember going to his apartment one time for some reason. I had wondered at times over the years what happened to Joe Christ. May he rest in peace!
It was a delight re-mastering Joe's films for DVD, as well as getting to co-produce "That's Just Wrong!" with him... My condolences to Joe's family... It saddens me that there will be no more jolly editing sessions around the Macintosh, complete with Mu Shu Pork from the Golden Bowl (a restaurant name that our mutual fondness for 6th grade potty humor led to many a snicker regarding "golden" and "bowl." Pleasant journey, my friend... I will see you in time,
"Not only was Linhart hosting regular art and film exhibits in the Philippines" Not true. But He was a regular guest to art exhibit openings here and a friend of many artists in Cubao, Metro Manila
RIP Joe, I used to see Joe around Dallas back in the punk days. He seemed a good sort and was great at self promotion. Will have to check out some of his films again.
Joe is such a wonderful person people from his neighbor like him a whole lot, Joe always get a free beer from those guys sitting from the eatery were he lives...if he try to pay they will say "WALANG PROBLEMA KAMI BAHALA SAYO" witch means no problem we will take care of you. Joe is always ready to share his thoughts to every body make people laugh no dull moment if his around and plus Joe always give his dance move if I'm not in the mood... I'm going to miss everything about him i love him so much... people who know him here in manila specially from his neighbor still shock form this tragedy news about his sudden death... I will bring the memories that we shared I LOVE YOU SO MUCH JOE!
Don't even know what to say. Just that he was always a very good guy to me, his art and film is incredible.I wasn't around him as much as I would have liked but we did some shows together and I can honestly say I never remember him having a bad word for anyone. That's a rarity in today's world. R.I.P.
I had known Joe for 25 years. I scarcely ever saw him not in a good mood. Everyone remembers the vaguely Tex Avery - ish laugh that followed any "Dirty" joke or reference to something naughty. I still think the funniest story I recall was when he was booking shows at The Nairobi Room for a short time , sporting his new crown of thorns - even when he was'nt performing. He'd laid out several of his favorite sleazy scandal rags for patrons to read , like at the Dentist's office! He showed me the headline "Mother sells baby for two beers" . "Gee " , he said , "I hope they were IMPORTS!". The Clown Prince of The Dallas '80s Underground Scene" , and much more. The last time I saw him , two years ago , he seemed to be in a good place , but , I'm convinced he's in a better place , now. If there's a Heaven , the self - righteous "Christian " Right that he lampooned so well may have to go thru Joe to get to St. Peter (Huh huh , you said...) Best , John Battles , Chicago.
This is Sebastien, who was the female lead in That's Just Wrong. The info about his funeral is wrong. There was no Atlanta funeral, just a small memorial in Tampa for his family. He was cremated and taken there. Unfortunately, his friends and loved ones did not get such an opportunity to say goodbye to Joe in Atlanta.
Meanwhile, Creative Loafing's meticulously researched obit of Joe 'Christ' Linhart, and the factoid that Linhart was survived by "sons Alan Linhart (34, Baltimore), Eric Abner (23, Dallas)", inspired me to pull this archival clip--- published in the April, 90 issue of CHIC magazine: Quoth Linhart, "I had been arrested for assault.... I'd punched somebody. it was a girl...My ex-girlfriend had me by the hair and wouldn't let go; so I kept punching until she let go... She worked for the sheriff's department.... When the police came, she was sitting there in her sheriff's-department uniform, and I was there in my Charlie Manson t-shirt...." Closer analysis reveals that the hapless female punching bag was Stacie Abner, mother of Linhart's illegitimate offspring Eric Abner. Deputy Abner still works for Dallas County. Her dad is Dallas sherifff's department Captain Ray Abner, who was Jack Ruby's bodyguard in afermath of Oswald slaying. History is a mystery
At the time Joe "Christ" Linhart, was engaged in the aggravagted assault upon his youngest child Eric's mother, where was elder son Alan, then nine-- and the offspring of another Linhart impregnateee whose identity to this day is not a matter of public record? And where was young Eric Abner while his mother was being punched out by the prolifically fertile 'shock artist'. In vitro? Father knows best!!
Oh look "full disclosure", aka Mark Kramer is here??? Well, if this happened while I was 9, that would have been in 1984, well before Eric was born, let Stacie impregnated with him... Nice try. You should stick to writing about my dad's penis, since you are so fascinated with it. It amazes me that a straight man would be so obsessed with another man's penis for 20 years, but hey, whatever floats your boat, Mark. :)
The truth Joe Christ's shocking below-the-waist appearance in his video "Sex Blood and Mutilation" may be found in Body Modification Ezine http://www.bme.com/dib/01/
The actual dates upon which Alan Linhart's dad beat the crap out of Alan's step-brother's mom Stacie may be off, but his dad admits to the assault nonetheless in the above-mentioned issue of 'Chic' magazine. Meanwhile, back in the lie department--everyone reading these outpourings of grief and remembrance knows that Joe Christ repeatedly draped himself in the mantle of John Waters. But note that NOWHERE has there ever been a single endorsement or acknowledgment of Joe Christ by Waters. Not one. And not a single alt-weekly writer--in profiling Christ's life, times and 'ouvre'--has ever bothered to call the VERY accessible and loquacious John Waters for his opinion of Joe Christ. Assuming he had one. Which, of course, he didn't. Ditto 'The Cinema of Transgression'--which at least one alt-weekly writer has conflated with Joe Christ's literally and figuratively diarrheal 'films'. At various times I've addressed the topic of Joe Christ with Cinema of Transgression's central personae: Lydia Lunch, Richard Kern and Nick Zedd--the latter just this week--and they uniformly regard Joe Christ as a parasitic, arrivistic no-talent attached to the scene like a suckerfish or tick. If they haven't ever commented publicly on Joe Christ--it was cautionary in the sense that WHATEVER their words, no matter how disparagingly on-point, Joe Christ would find a way to exploit their quotes for his own publicidal purpose. But don't take my word for it: determined truth-seekers Lunch, Kern and Zedd are all reachable by via myspace, Facebook and other media. Ask 'em yourselves. Listen and learn! AS noted semiotician Ric Flair observed about the truth: "Whether you like it, or you don't like it--you're gonna learn to love it."
Well, Alan, I actually met your dad in Dallas in '82--several years before the cock-ring/amphetamine/gangrene episode that claimed his genital. Some time after he arrived in New York, I wrote an article on him, aptly entitled "Shaggy God Stories" for New York Press in summer, 1993 that made passing mention of the severed penis [no letters were written to the publication disputing this fact]. This, along with the fact that I porked his girlfriend Stacey M. [she appears in "Speed Freaks With Guns"]--who informed me of the fact that he was genitally mutilated--sent Joe, and later his wife Nancy A. Collins, into a frenzied publicidal campaign,much like the one in which you are presently engaged, to slag me as a liar and worse. It should be noted that Stacey was 18 at the time, a somewhat naive mudhoney whom your dad conned into believing that having no penis was 'normal'. Over the course of numerous encounters, I was instrumental in disabusing Stacey of this illusion. Evidently and understandingly your dad never recovered from the loss of the alluringly and oblivious Stacey. Meanwhile, the fact of your dad's penile amputation was confirmed by numerous personae on the Dallas/Deep Ellum scene. The stamp on the meatloaf, however, was the appearance of your dad's mangled pudendum in his video "Sex Blood and Mutilation". Which appeared years after the rumor that I, according to some accounts, supposedly started. Most importantly, take note also that not a single word was published in any New York medium mentioning that Joe 'Christ' Linhart had died. Proof positive that his marketshare consisted of several clueless alt-weekly journos, a gaggle of porn careerists, and a nationwide following of druggies and mental/cultural defectives. And it is obvious in your puerile attempt to discredit me, Alan LInhart, that the apple hasn't fallen far from the tree.
I love cock. Correction: I REALLY LOVE cock. I love to suck on it. I love it up my ass. I just fucking love cock so much. I wish Joe was not dead so I could suck his cock and have him fuck my ass. RIP Joe, the only man I ever loved. You will be missed.
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To the editors and legal counsel of CREATIVE LOAFING: What follows is a crash course in George libel statutes--in light of which I would strongly suggest you remove from this page statements, fraudulently attributed to me, posted October 17th, 2009 at 4:01. Take note that although the tort has already been committed, and that CREATIVE LOAFING is already liable, I am offering you a no-fault opportunity to avoid legal action. In terms of CREATIVE LOAFING's liability in this matter, the clock is already running, and by continuing to publish the malicious and false allegations of October 17th, 2009, CREATIVE LOAFING only deepens liability. I hope, in reviewing the statutes that follow, CREATIVE LOAFING will give serious consideration to the downside risks of continuing the libel against me. 51-5-1. (a) A libel is a false and malicious defamation of another, expressed in print, writing, pictures, or signs, tending to injure the reputation of the person and exposing him to public hatred, contempt, or ridicule. (b) The publication of the libelous matter is essential to recovery. 51-5-2. (a) Any false and malicious defamation of another in any newspaper, magazine, or periodical, tending to injure the reputation of the person and expose him to public hatred, contempt, or ridicule, shall constitute a newspaper libel. (b) The publication of the libelous matter is essential to recovery. 51-5-3. A libel is published as soon as it is communicated to any person other than the party libeled. 51-5-11. (a) In any civil action for libel which charges the publication of an erroneous statement alleged to be libelous, it shall be relevant and competent evidence for either party to prove that the plaintiff requested retraction in writing at least seven days prior to the filing of the action or omitted to request retraction in this manner. (b) In any such action, the defendant may allege and give proof of the following matters, as applicable: (1)(A) That the matter alleged to have been published and to be libelous was published without malice; (B) That the defendant, in a regular issue of the newspaper or other publication in question, within seven days after receiving written demand, or in the next regular issue of the newspaper or other publication following receipt of the demand if the next regular issue was not published within seven days after receiving the demand, corrected and retracted the allegedly libelous statement in as conspicuous and public a manner as that in which the alleged libelous statement was published; and (C) That, if the plaintiff so requested, the retraction and correction were accompanied, in the same issue, by an editorial in which the allegedly libelous statement was specifically repudiated; or (2) That no request for correction and retraction was made in writing by the plaintiff. (c) Upon proof of the facts specified in paragraph (1) or (2) of subsection (b) of this Code section, the plaintiff shall not be entitled to any punitive damages and the defendant shall be liable only to pay actual damages. The defendant may plead the publication of the correction, retraction, or explanation, including the editorial, if demanded, in mitigation of damages.
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