River Phoenix

RIVER PHOENIX
 
 
River Phoenix  (born River Jude Bottom; August 23, 1970 – October 31, 1993) was an American actor, musician, and activist.  He was the older brother of Rain Phoenix, Joaquin Phoenix, Liberty Phoenix, and Summer Phoenix.  Phoenix’s work encompassed 24 films and television appearances and had his first notable role in 1986’s Stand by Me, a coming-of-age film based on the novella The Body by Stephen King.  Phoenix made a transition into more adult-oriented roles with Running on Empty (1988), playing the son of fugitive parents in a well-received performance that earned him a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, and My Own Private Idaho (1991), playing a gay hustler in search of his estranged mother.  For his performance in the latter, Phoenix garnered enormous praise and won a Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival, along with Best Actor from the National Society of Film Critics.  (More from Wikipedia)
 
 
Before Amanda Jones was formed, Amanda Brix and fellow Lame Flame Iris Berry started a band called Pink Sabbath.  A website called www.theeyeshadows.com says that they are not a Pink Floyd or Black Sabbath cover band; that might be true of another band called Pink Sabbath that is still active.  Other bandmembers were James McCrone (guitar), Dawn Laureen (bass), and Eric Blitz (drums).  They were one of the performers at the Hollygrove Orphanage Benefit at the Roxy, where they shared the stage with Henry Rollins and with River Phoenix (in his last acoustic performance before his untimely death). 
 
(December 2015)
 
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The follow-up single to “Rock Lobster” by the B-52’s was “Private Idaho”; both were dance club hits though neither made a major impact on the Billboard Hot 100. The latter song inspired the title of the River Phoenix/Keanu Reeves indie film, My Own Private Idaho that was directed by Gus Van Sant.
(March 2016)