Hi, We Lost the War on AIDS
When confronted with a drug that’s bombarding it, a smart virus gets out of the way, and the drug stops working. Most drugs don’t last more than three years on a person. You become resistant. And then there are the side effects. There’s a newer drug called Sustiva, which is supposed to be one of the best, and it makes you go crazy. You have nightmares, you fall out of bed, and you get paranoid. I was on it for a while.
You’ve got 7,000 new cases of AIDS in Africa a day. I was talking to Dr. David Kessler, head of UCF Medical School, and he said, “We’ve got this terrific problem going on in Africa, but we’ve got drugs in a thousand people that are working.” A thousand people? And he’s so happy about it. David, get real. You’ve got 70 million people, 45 million people need it. I don’t want to say they’re not facing reality, but that’s the fact of the matter.
LARRY KRAMER
In his new book, Larry laments the fact that while AIDS rates rise and the disease gets stronger, the majority of gays keep snorting up crystal meth and barebacking. Can you guys fucking chill, please?
Kern on G.G.
This is a photo I took of G.G. Allin in an apartment on Avenue B, between 2nd and 3rd, on the day he died. He was playing a show that night at this venue called the Gas Station on the corner of B and 2nd. It had actually been a gas station until these squatters had taken it over. They built big metal walls all around it and had punk shows in there. We were across the street, in some rich kid’s apartment who was letting G.G. and his band crash there for the show. I used to play in a band with G.G. in San Francisco. It was the best band I ever played in. We were called G.G. Allin and the Drug Whores. This was how G.G. prepared: doing a ton of drugs and drinking a ton of beer. I think they were snorting dope in this photo, but they were snorting everything, they had all kinds of stuff. The girl was someone he had met in Milwaukee, who had run away with him. She had two black eyes from their lovemaking the night before, so she was wearing those sunglasses.
By this point, G.G. would show up in a city with nothing but his jockstrap and a box of Ex-Lax. So the show they played after this photo was taken was great. It ended with him getting thrown out at the end, naked. There’s a video of it, of him just walking around the streets naked, trying to hail a cab. And then the next morning I looked in the paper and there was an article about how G.G. OD’d later that night. They found him passed out against a wall, blue and dead.
RICHARD KERN
See more photos from GG's last day here
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