Embracing the DIY ethos of punk, fans and artists blurred boundaries as never before. Jaeger’s love of music brought her inside the scene, her encounters with luminaries like Lydia Lunch, Joe Strummer, and Sid Vicious giving way to her own dreams of stardom as a member of The Stare Kits.
“I was always fascinated by the idea of fame,” says Jaeger, who remembers going to see legends like Bette Davis and Joan Crawford speak about the golden age of Hollywood. And though punk was gritty and raw, it was no less flamboyant and glamorous to Jaeger’s downtown sensibilities. “When punk happened, we were all running around, from ’77 straight into the ’80s,” Jaeger says. “All my friends lived down there, and a couple still do, which is always heartwarming to go back and say: ‘We had a band and used to practice in your living room.’”
Jaeger notes that with the exception of artist Duncan Hannah’s 2018 memoir, Twentieth Century Boy, there is a notable lack of diaries of New York’s legendary punk scene. With I Feel Famous, she faithfully channels the rebellious charm of youthful insouciance befitting a “perky punk”, as the Dead Boys’ Cheetah Chrome dubbed Jaeger one night at CBGB back in June ’78.
