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6122 1/2 Santa Monica Blvd

That image above this paragraph is a screenshot I took from a 1987 Los Angeles Street Address Directory, available online at the Los Angeles Public Library's website if you know where to look (I knew where to look; I first found that Directory in 2015 or so; it's one of my prime sources as an investigator of 1980s L.A. street history).

I took this screenshot on August 6th, 2017 at 1:44 pm, seven months before Matthew Dike passed away on March 13th, 2018 (R.I.P. to him, that was surprising news).

At the time, no one had publicized online (nor in any book or article as far as I know; or anywhere else, as far as I know) the location of Matt Dike's apartment; where he often had Jean Michel Basquiat as a visitor, and where early recording for the Beastie Boys second album, Paul's Boutique, was done in 1988.

In August 2017, I was trying to find out the location of that apartment, having found out from Dan LeRoy's book on Paul's Boutique that the apartment was located in/near my part of Hollywood (I live in East Hollywood), and on Santa Monica Blvd (I live near Santa Monica Blvd). So even though no available source was saying the exact address (no cross street was given, and no local landmark to narrow down the location; they weren't even specifying East Hollywood, but from their description I deduced they were referring to a location in or near East Hollywood; the apartment is actually located a little west of East Hollywood, in south Hollywood), that was enough for me to try to find his name and apartment listed in the 1987 Los Angeles Street Address Directory (which Directory I had used for other investigations previously). And on August 6th, 2017, I found his name listed there, showing the address of the apartment, and I took this screenshot, which a check will show it was indeed taken 08/06/2017.

I had planned to do a blog post about my discovery immediately, but first I wanted to go there to the building as it is now and take some current pics of the place. I did that later in 2017 or early 2018. Then because I wasn't sure about whether I really wanted to do the blog post, I procrastinated and put it off, did a bunch of other stuff, and almost forgot about the blog post I had planned; then in 2019, Peter Relic publishes his book on the relationship and working relationship of Basquiat and Matt Dike, and in that book and/or in a 2019 article about the book, which I'll link to, he publicises the address of that same apartment, before I do my blog post. I had almost two years before the publication of Relic's book to do that, but I procrastinated and wasn't sure whether I wanted to do it. Yeah so he publicized it before I did, unless texting my brother about it in 2017 can be considered publicising. Maybe so! ☺

So even though the discovery got scooped due to my hesitation, I'm doing this blog post about it anyway, which though is coming out different from the one I had planned, because the original version wouldn't have had all this explanation about how the discovery got scooped. This is another example of why I have to blog at a quicker pace, as I was saying in my previous post from yesterday. Notice though that I am the first to publicize his phone number that he used at the time ☺ 👍 I'm also the first one to publicize this entry from the 1987 Los Angeles Street Address Directory, which shows his 1987 address and phone number. I think it's pretty cool.

The apartment was located at 6122 1/2 Santa Monica Blvd; above Rapid Brake Service, which was located downstairs at 6122 Santa Monica Blvd during 1987 and 1988 and 1989, and likely since the early 80s, perhaps even earlier. But as you can see below, in the photos I took, in 2018 a psychic has his or her business where the Brake Service used to be; and that psychic is located directly below 6122 1/2 Santa Monica Blvd; next to the psychic, there is a curio, art and furniture store called The White Buffalo Furniture. These photos which follow were taken by me in December 2018, well over one year after I had already decided to blog about the place. But I think I also have an earlier set of photos that I took of the place. If I find those, I'll post them as well.

The 8th picture in this set of 10 shows a studio ("Studio 9"; it's been there and with that same "superhero holding a guitar" mural since 1997! That's crazy long for a mural to last; the reason that mural has survived so long is because it was commisioned by Studio 9 specifically to decorate their studio front; but it's still unusual that it's lasted so long there; note though that that mural wasn't there in the 1980s or early 1990s) that is located at 6110 Santa Monica Blvd, just a few businesses to the east of Matt Dike's former apartment. I've seen no mention that the Beastie Boys ever recorded there or in whatever studio was there in 87 and 88 and 89 (the 1987 street address directory indicates that there was at least one audio recording studio there in 1987, see the listings for 6110 Santa Monica Blvd); but as mentioned above, the Beastie Boys did do some recording in Matt Dike's apartment, Mario Caldato and Mark Nishita having been hired to build a little recording studio inside the apartment some time before they began working with the Beastie Boys, and before they began the talks with the Beasties.

I've also posted a pic (which I took from the Beastie Boys Book by Mike D and Adrock, published in late 2018, and which I received as a Christmas gift from my brother in December 2018, over a year after I had decided to do this blog post, and over a year after I found out the exact address of Matt Dike's apartment) of MCA standing on top of a car, parked directly across the street from the small building housing Matt Dike's apartment; next to it, to the east of the 6122/6124 building where the apartment was located, you can see two businesses: one dealing with used appliances (listed as "Warehouse Used Appliances" in 1987; in 2018 there was still a used appliance business there, called "Pete's & Aguero's Appliances", very probably the same owners/the same business that was there since the 1980s, but with a name change; that business might still be there now in September 2020) and one dealing with leather (listed as "Leather By Leather" in 1987; this business is no longer there; a glass business is there now, "A & S Glass Service"; check my pics and you'll see that).

Both of those businesses seen in the MCA/Run-D.M.C. photo (the leather retailer and the used appliance store) are listed in the screenshot taken from the 1987 directory, and coincidentally (and I think it's kinda funny), one gentleman (is that Run from Run-D.M.C. wearing that jacket? I think one of the other two guys next to the car is D.M.C.) in the photo is wearing a jacket that says "Tougher than Leather" (on the backside of the jacket, facing the camera; "Tougher Than Leather" is the title of Run-D.M.C.'s fourth studio album, released May 17, 1988); coinciding of course with the leather business which was located there ("Leather By Leather"), and whose signage can be seen in the photograph (I took a photo of the photo in a lighting that wasn't bright, so maybe I'll retake the photo soon; meanwhile, if you have the book, you'll be able to see the signage on those two businesses as well as what it says on that jacket; the photo is on page 269).

It was great to find out (in 2017) that Matt Dike's apartment (where the Beastie Boys hung out a lot and where Jean-Michel Basquiat hung out even more than they did; and where early recording was done for Paul's Boutique) was located less than ten blocks to the west of where I live. And less than 10 blocks to the northwest of where I grew up (I grew up about a minute's walk away/a 60 second walk away from Lemon Grove Park; counting city blocks is not my field of expertise, but it's less than 10 blocks from there to 6122 1/2 Santa Monica Blvd). And located in an area where as a kid I would be taken to go look for the latest series of Garbage Pail Kids---it's nice to picture me walking by in 1988, seven or eight years old, with packs of Garbage Pail Kids in hand, while upstairs the Beastie Boys or Jean-Michel Basquiat were maxing and relaxing in there.

I first heard Paul's Boutique in October of 1993, when I was 13 years old. I loved the Check Your Head album, which I bought in 1992 soon after it came out, and I also loved the Licensed to Ill album, which I didn't own until after I bought Paul's Boutique. Though I had heard most (or all?) of Licensed to Ill back in the 1980s, unlike many people of the time, I had no expectation for Paul's Boutique to sound like that album---Licensed to Ill was not ingrained on me, and I didn't own it till early in 1994. I loved Check Your Head, and when I first heard Paul's Boutique in October 1993, I thought it was one of the best albums ever made. And indeed it is.

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The GPK Days

Back in the 80s, Garbage Pail Kids used to be so great, with art by John Pound and Tom Bunk and James Warhola at their GPK best, as well as other artists involved, like Jay Lynch. All great gags as well, and almost all of those gags were conceived by the team of Mark Newgarden and Art Spiegelman, who were the art directors, editors and writers for the Series, with some additional GPK naming and concept ideas coming from other individuals involved. 25 cents a pack, unless an ice cream truck guy or mini-market guy jacked up the price to 35 cents or 40 cents...a stick of bubble gum also in the wax pack, and though it was often hard and brittle, we chewed it happily with plenty of gusto (gusto more from the imagination, on those occasions), so I remember... that fantastic mysterious atmosphere the 1980s GPKs had, which captured many of the great essences of the 1980s, especially maybe of Autumn days in Los Angeles and New York and elsewhere...good thing I collected almost a complete collection by 1990 or 1991...an Original Series collection which I completed in 2011...

It will be an enduring mystery for historians as to why Topps stopped making GPK in 1989, especially when they already had the 16th series already made and ready to go. Sure, they weren't selling like they were in 85 and 86 and 87, but I'm sure they would've still made a fat profit. The real reason that Topps discontinued GPK in 1989 is because the higher-ups (the bosses of the art directors/gag-writers) at Topps were morons; it was an early example of Topps going moron on us; more than declining sales, the reason they stopped making GPK seems to have been the bad PR and flak they were still getting from parents because of Garbage Pail Kids: they got worried that it would impact their sports cards sales, though it's beyond me why anyone would collect any of those *#%£!? baseball cards.

Then a few years after they discontinued GPK, a most perplexing thing happened: Topps put out the Trash Can Trolls set, a sticker release which few people/few kids/few youngsters were aware of at the time of its release/and in the year after its release/ or the year after that (most found out about that set many years after it was out of print). I don't recall it, though maybe I saw a few packs hanging inside an ice cream truck. Now, the Trash Can Trolls set is greatly made, by the original GPK team; and parodying something more current like those Trolls toys was not a bad idea; but discontinuing Garbage Pail Kids and thinking that Trash Can Trolls would sell better? Ha ha, stupid motherf**ers at the company, No (not referring to the great team that actually made Trash Can Trolls, I mean the higher ups). Didn't and couldn't happen. You should've continued making Garbage Pail Kids, on a smaller scale if need be. The early 90s and even the late 80s were full of card set releases that got by on modest sales and which weren't expected to be giant hits. So I don't know what the F was up with their discontinuing of GPK.

The new GPKs have only fractions of what the 80s ones had (aside from the occasional brilliantly executed new GPK; and by now also, most have realized that All-New Series 1 through 7 are better than most or all of the series made after 2011) , but that was enough for me to buy the new ones for awhile, as I did from 2011 to near the end of 2015. Though I didn't buy the new GPK to the extent that some do...even if I had the money I wouldn't...

For various reasons, though I knew about All-New Series I think as early as when they were first coming out, for various reasons no longer clear to me, I did not buy any All-New Series until years after they were no longer being printed (in 2011 I bought my first All-New Series GPK from eBay).

I may or may not resume buying the latest Garbage Pail Kids series releases. I stopped buying those towards the end of 2015. I suppose eventually I will resume buying some of the newer series, but I will begin with more recent ones, rather than with those that were put out from the last months of 2015 to late 2017 or so: the themed sets were/are a bad idea; the themed subsets were okay; but I stopped collecting as soon as I saw fully themed sets announced in late 2015; though towards the end they actually had a few good theme ideas (I'm thinking of the 80s homage/parody theme and the 90s homage/parody theme; those two are the ones I'm most interested in from the pre-New Art Director era).

I just found out (after I posted the earlier version of this post) that since sometime in July 2018, the GPK have a new art director, which is exciting news, the most exciting GPK news since the first GPK Abrams book was announced. There has been little GPK news to get excited about since the end of 2014 (a big exception being the GPK documentary from a years ago, which I almost forgot about!). But as I think about it more, seeing as how the great Original Series GPK artists are no longer contributing, and since the nature of collecting the new GPK is so different from the original series, and since the final product still doesn't look how it should look (it should look a lot more like the original Series!, or at least like the best of All-New Series), I'm not much excited. Just somewhat excited, imagining What If...I might even try to get my GPK work seen again (I haven't tried that since 2012) but I'm going to go about it in a different way this time, instead of going directly to Topps emails. Not that I did anything wrong the first time, they're the ones who messed up. I was trying to help them out! ☺