This is a strange account of my life of late… nothing but the creative foment of destruction and upheaval leading one hopes to some greater clarity, order and good. My ex went down to Mexico and let, or asked me to watch her place, move the car, sign for packages, etc. I ended up quite sick and bed ridden in a midnight fever sweat of memories good and bad and the crazy sense that the dead dog was following me around the apartment. Haunting. Meanwhile the studio is nearly as broke up as my love life. Still I know the new year will come with order and a biting cold. Pax
Category Archives: melville
Collective Unconscious
I spent the afternoon with Will Croxton of the Royal Wylds and his beatiful baby and we watched some old vids of the band at Magnetic Fields and talked about scoring the Let It Be Taciturn turn turn movie and the upcoming shoot for Kimbo single and finished off with watching Paul Simon rock Little Surfer Girl from the Brian Wilson Tribute concert at Radio City that Queen Sylvie got moi roi ticks for a past B. Day. The evening turned into a Future Book romp with the Institute gang and entourage going toThe Animal Collective show at South Street Seaport. Let’s face it. Mos Def had it right: Brooklyn Rocks the best and it’s fun when it rocks Manhattan and then you spill into Chinatown and blind delirious laughter.
Pittsburgh Going Ashore – Pittsburgh Coming Aboard
ABC is as easy as 1 2 3 as easy as Do Ray Me, you see?
Once I saw the changing of command on the USS Pittsburgh at Grotton, CT with my brother from a Bolex mother. When The Captain leaves the ship they blow a dog whistle and say: “Pittsburgh going Ashore.” It is as if the soul of the boat has left the boat. When The new Captain walks the gangplank, the dog whistle is blown in opposite progression and the Ensign speaks these magic jazz hand words: “Pittsburgh Coming Aboard!” and it is as if the boat is born again.
Me and Pat call melady Young Pas (or green onion in Korean, or Sly to the Midwesterners or Sylvie to you… etc.): Pittsburgh. She is the Captain my Captain. She is the queen of that little steel Swiss, but rusting Town in the middle of the Eastern Sea Board. I was throwing out all my old clothes yesterday and getting rid of all the wire and plastic hangers… nothing but wood is good quoath Pittsburgh and I concurred while wearing the buddhist Stettson and the silk guns and the Star Wars blasters still in the a tiny casket to be burried by the IRA somwhere beside the river Liffey. I tripped and fell upon a Bazooka shell full of old memories of Pittsburgh’s youth and there were steller shots of her as Stella amongst the stars and my street car named desire and some calling cards from old beaux and a shot of her leaning away from a dire wolf… him stealling kisses and trying to eat her heart out and I realize it is good to walk with pax but always have silk guns in a silk casket somewhere… the silent big stick as the Church on the Hill said, or was it The Mac daddy Author, or Ike? Yes Ike who I like if only because he said, “Beware the military industrial complex”… The king can speak the truth, but the wolves are still there… stealing kisses, and hearts, and gold, and souls.
I became quite green with jealousy looking at the explosive contents of the shell… and then I found a receipt for the first futon we ever shared and a letter I wrote to fair Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh when I was in the Tower of Pain and hats and song. It was not the most regal of things… a manic all night scrawl on yellow legal paper… but you know what? It was really a very romantic letter. It brought a single tear to my eye that dropped into the vast Atlantic… How can a shell hold such wealth I thought? For in that moment I realized that this was a contract signed thirteen years ago… So Why has it taken me so long to honor it and honor fair Pittsburgh?
… Because you see, I have been hiding in plain sight, playing the fool on the hill. Now it is time to wear the purple robes and take the crown that is mine. Today Pittsburgh. Tomorrow the world. It is my job to be her knight in shining armor coming to her emotional rescue on a fine Arab charger. It is my job to keep the dire wolves at bay. Hail Pittsburgh hail the Queen.
I was at Freddy’s the night Sly Fox left for Las Vegas and I gave two guys my moleskin and said, “Make me a drawing, buy me a beer…sort of as a joke…and I went outside to smoke… when I got back they had drawn this and bought me a magic hat #9… it is names of the superbowl champion (two years in a row) Steelers from the seventies when I used to wear the black and gold slicker to protect me from the hard rain…. Coin see dances coincidences…. They were Pittsburgher… friends from many moons ago… reunited in the city on a drunkes Spree… fiddle di di.
Drunken Boat
Oh the honey and the wine and women and song did pour fourth from the mouth of a yellow whale, where I crashed upon the shore of some magnificent island populated by circe and her two sisters yin and yang. It was like the crystal noise from Zimmerman’s lyre and moaning of monica. There were the hebrews and the Romans and Celtic tribe as well, but I walked with silk guns and white arab charger to unite the world on one great drunken boat
or: I went eating and wine tasting at Tribecca festival. If you want to be treated well in life, I suggest you roll with beautiful Korean women, you’d be surprised what people will give you for free, just because of those lovely smiling eyes. Then off to the temple on the mount for Noahs Barmitzvah… havanagela and MORE wine and food and dancing of the horah and on and on. You cant make this sort of stuff up. It is just wild eyed JOY…. Be Attitude and Beat Less.
This is Harry Twep… an Id character that I drew on a retreat when I was maybe thirteen years old, or so… ironic…. My mom scanned it for a my fortieth birthday card. She’s some kind of witch or something… I mean that in a good way.
The Epic Quest (Or My Life As A Bee In The Steel and Glass Garden)
city scape by Brian Raszka, Xfactor stencil was sent by CMIII
spent the weeks and days mixing potions and notions in Venetian glass bottles where Jean Jeanie crickets once lived and the the small icecream cone of lead and lusterous jewels were stored. I waved my jazz hands and tapped three times with the torah reading stick of Elder and Larch and Low and behold the scream rainbow burst forth and landed on my members only and I became very large and then later very small where in I went into the earch beyond the shadow cave to a great rank garden and in the dirt there I found shiny rocks and precious metals. I believe these were treasures that Dennis Wilson had thrown off his yacht in drunken fits of paranoia. His ghost told me once: “No man is poor, if he has a half a million dollars in gold and silver sitting in the sand and choral beneath his yacht… you just dive down and retrieve you treasure… he never cam back, but who can blame him… on the other side, he was whole and the band was still together and brian and him wrote a whole album together called Silver Surfer, or something, but I digress. With the above mentioned treasures, I made a fetsh in the rank garden. I am casting my spell. A Wizard at work.
Meanwhile, back in the real real world I am going to Tribecca food and wine walk and then back up the mountain to break bread in the Temple and dance the Horah and drink the wine and form a quarum around Noah who will build an arc some day.
Orson Whales
This is more or less a birthday gift to myself. I’ve been drawing it on every page of Moby Dick (using two books to get both sides of each page) for months. The soundtrack is built from searching “moby dick” on You Tube (I was looking for Orson’s Preacher from the the John Huston film), I couldn’t find the preacer, but you find tons of Led Zep and drummers doing Bonzo and a little Orson reading from the Novel for a failed Italian T.V. film…… makes for a nice Melville in the end.
Cinqo de Mayo I turn Forty. Ahhhhhhh the French Champagne.
Another Green World
Another vlog while I scan and scan. This remix has a lot of Goddard clips and a Brian Eno mash up. The drawing is a finish of a Carloine VK start from The Library Project. Stangely today Moby Dick came on TCM. I missed, however, Orson’s Sermon.
Reading Aloud
