MIKE JEKNAVORIAN Local Interviews

MICHAEL TRONN – PART 2

In a two-part exclusive, founding club kid, artist and promoter Michael Tronn tells us why he’d like to travel into the future, and how reanimating evil could help save the world

PHOTOGRAPH BY NATALIE CAROL

What Los Angeles venue do you miss that’s gone?  “Osko’s,” a.k.a., “The Zoo.”  I never made it there, but the film Thank God It’s Friday was shot there, and it looks amazing!  What’s the best event that you produced in Los Angeles, and why?  Halloween at Avalon was incredible.  I transformed the old theater into a haunted house, complete with a castle façade.  We also had gruesome acts of dismemberment in the lobby and dozens of chandeliers made of skeleton bones hanging over the dancefloor.  What opportunity did Miami miss out on?  Developing an industry other than tourism and retail.  The worst offense is the missed opportunity to have The Whitney Museum from New York open a Miami branch.  What project are you the proudest of?  I’d like to think it hasn’t happened yet.  However, I’m very proud of my two major solo art shows in Miami.  How would you like to be remembered?  As a good person who helped heal the world.  Will you ever retire?  That’s unlikely, but I’ll take long sabbaticals to travel and create art.  What’s the last thing that you looked at online?  The Studio 54 book by Ian Schrager.

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What’s the best place that you’ve visited, and why?  Petra, in Jordan.  To have seen firsthand this city from 312 BC, which was carved into a mountain, was awesome and awe-inspiring.  It’s an incredible feat of designing and engineering.  What did you learn from your parents?  Love, tenacity and creativity.  What performer do you admire, and why?  As cheesy as it is to say, the greatest showman of our time is Madonna.
Obviously, it’s not innovative to cite her, but nobody else has so many facets, and nobody else has done it the same way.  Most people don’t see all the hidden meaning—the subconscious—that’s in her art.  This is especially true with the Music album, which is laden with numerical, color, and geometrical symbolism, and the video for “What It Feels Like for a Girl,” where every shot contains a visual riddle about spirituality and Kabbalah.  What are your best characteristics?  Creativity, empathy and spiritual understanding.  How do you enjoy spending your time?  Creating art and literature, plotting my mission out, meditating in the sun, and swimming in the clear ocean when it’s like bathwater.  What celebrity do you have a crush on?  Matt Bomer and James Franco.

Who do you admire, and why?  Everyone who’s courageous enough to be unique who’s brave enough to think both deeply and critically.  Specifically, Jesus, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Buddha, Albert Einstein, Helen Keller, Rumi and Carl Sagan.  If you could bring one person back from the dead, who would it be, and why?  The worst person in the world—and you can fill in the blank there—and Jesus.  I believe that after we leave this body, we’re able to see ourselves in hindsight clearly.  If I brought back a malevolent spirt, with everything that’s going on in the world right now, he or she could teach all of the prejudiced, hateful, scared-shitless people how wrong being that way is.  And, hopefully, they would listen.  As far as Jesus goes, I’d expect that the bigots who think they’re very “Christian” would deny Jesus if He told them to stop acting that way, which is pathetic and tragic.

PHOTOGRAPH BY MICHAEL TRONN

Where would you go in a time machine, and why?  I’d travel to the future—and I’d go as far as I’d have to go—when there’s peace on earth.  I’d go there because I want to see what I want the world “to be.”  What would your last meal be?  As reprehensible as it is to admit it, I love the taste and texture of fois gras.  I learned about it as a child, way before I knew how it was made. I feel very bad for the geese, but I can’t say that it’s not delicious.  What do you worry about?  How I can be a catalyst to help cure the ignorance of mankind.  If you were a musical instrument, what would you be, and why?  I can’t be just one; I have too many sides.  I’d be the flute, the electric guitar, the Theremin, a giant gong, a crystal singing bowl, an organ, and a sitar.  Are you more like a sheep or a wolf?  I’m a sheep in wolf’s clothing.  I’m soft and sweet on the inside, but I have to be strong on the outside to get things done. Who depends on you, and for what?  My friends and family.  I give them love, support, unconditional loyalty, and I help them make decisions (when they ask for it).

PHOTOGRAPH BY DALE STINE

Who are you closest with?  My immediate family.  What would your autobiography be called?  Probably Fuck Shame.  Strip Fear.  Do you ever put music on when you’re upset?  Yes.  I listen to lots of downtempo electronica, plus, my go-to’s—Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of The Moon, Tracy Chapman’s New Beginnings, Audioslave, Moby, Deva Premal, meditation music and Creed.  What’s on your bucket list?  To accomplish all of my artistic goals.  That way, I’ll leave a legacy that helps transform mass ignorance and fear into mass understanding, wisdom, acceptance, love and enlightenment for every soul in the entire universe.  Also, I’d like to publish the children’s book that I’ve been working on, which is about the universe.  What’s your greatest regret in life?  That I can’t stay younger, longer.  But it’s not for vanity.  I need more time to accomplish my goal.  Can you tell me something that you never told anyone else?  Maybe one day.  Where can we see you?  At michaeltronn.com and michaeltronnfineart.com.  And, always, at the Bareback Follies at El Tucan.

MIKE JEKNAVORIAN Local Interviews

MICHAEL TRONN – PART 1

In a two-part exclusive, founding club kid, artist and promoter Michael Tronn tells us what South Beach was like before the Versace era, before letting us into the elite world of some of New York’s and Miami’s hottest clubs

PHOTOGRAPH BY NATALIE CAROLE

Where did you grow up?  In New York, across the street from The Metropolitan Museum of Art.  How long have you lived in South Florida?  I moved here in 1997, but I was visiting here since about 90’ or 91’.  What was South Beach like then?  My first trip was fairly spontaneous, and I knew nothing about South Beach except that it was a cool, secret spot for New Yorkers and fashion people.  This was before Versace, before Lincoln Road—the place was virtually a ghost town.  Back then, the Versace mansion was a run-down apartment building for seniors.  Ocean Drive was lined with elderly people in plastic chairs sunning themselves with reflectors under their chins.  The only things that were going on then were photo shoots and some very hedonistic nightclubs, such as Warsaw and Paragon.  Why did you move here?  I decided that if I could get a good job at one of five companies that I was interested in, then I would move permanently—and I did.  Liquid hired me to be the new creative and marketing director, and I stayed in Miami from then on.  What part of South Florida do you live in?  When I’m in Miami, I live in South Beach.

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What do you like most about living here?  The ocean, the air, and the amazing memories that I have of South Beach’s heyday, such as the beginning of Wynwood.  Where do you hang out in South Florida, and why?  I don’t hang out at any one spot like I did in the past, but I find that Wynwood is the most interesting neighborhood.  In some ways, Churchill’s is my favorite.  What’s your claim-to-fame?  I was one of the co-creators of the “Club Kid” scene in New York.  That was in 1987.  I also promoted and/or launched many notable clubs in New York such as Tunnel, The World, the Red Zone, Mars, The Saint, Studio 54, Roxy and MK.  In Miami, I’m known as the director of Liquid, building and launching the Ice Palace Film Studios, launching Crobar and promoting ANTHEM Sundays there, opening the restaurants Rumi and Studio, and for having my own art space in Wynwood.  How did you come up with your name?  People think I made my last name up, but Tronn is an old Russian family name.  Whose fashion look do you admire, and why?  I much prefer style over designer clothes, and I always have.  My favorite style idol is Iris Apfel.  She’s 100 percent unique and real, and she dresses only for herself.

What’s your favorite place that you’ve lived?  It’s a tie between Miami from 1991 to 2006—there was never anything as amazing as that, and I don’t think there ever will be again—and New York in the 70s and 80s.  That period was New York’s golden age in so many ways.  What New York venues do you miss that are gone?  Palladium, The World, Area, Danceteria, Mother and Studio 54.  What are your favorite events that you’ve produced in New York, and why?  Well, I’ve produced over 1,000 events, but three New York events stand out: one, a hair-sculpture completion at Tunnel (we had salon tables in the basement… the creations were amazing).  Two, the opening night of the “It” party at The World (I had the entire first floor done in tin foil as a tribute to The Factory, the entire stairwell—including the floor—was painted with the sky and clouds as a tribute to Magritte, the top floor was designed and decorated red as a tribute to Diana Vreeland, and I had mountain climbers rappel down the face of the building while the crowd waited for the doors to open).  And, three, the opening Night of Crobar New York (the production was over-the-top, and we had 15,000 people).

PHOTOGRAPH BY TIM SCULLY

What South Florida venues do you miss that are gone?  Warsaw and Paragon.  Warsaw is a heartbreaking loss.  At least the site of the original Paragon became Level, and then Mansion [it closed in 2016].  But Paragon really is the best venue in Miami.  What are your favorite events that you’ve produced in Miami, and why?  Once again, there are three major standouts: the Grand Opening of Crobar, which was insane.  I had a $70,000 budget, and I staged a car wreck out in front with live models—people still talk about it today.  The “White Starz” party at The Coconut Grove Convention Center, where I not only transformed the entire space, but I had Yoko Ono perform in between the sets of Junior Vasquez and Tony Moran.  And “GUIDO” on Fridays at Liquid, which was in the VIP lounge.  We had immersive themes there each week, such as a “Bollywood” wedding, and it became the place for major fashion launches.

Stay tuned for PART 2 next week…