Yantra – Mandala - Pop-Up

In which I make a series of prints depicting the Sri Yantra to conduct cosmic energy, let Carl Jung make the connections, and do another pop-up show.

Sri Yantra 5, wood bock print, 12" x 12", Dieter Runge, 2013

I had to abandon the idea of the superordinate position of the ego. ... I saw that everything, all paths I had been following, all steps I had taken, were leading back to a single point -- namely, to the mid-point. It became increasingly plain to me that the mandala is the centre. It is the exponent of all paths. It is the path to the centre, to individuation.
... I knew that in finding the mandala as an expression of the self I had attained what was for me the ultimate. - C. G. Jung. Memories, Dreams, Reflections.

 

Sri Yantra 6, wood bock print, 12" x 12", Dieter Runge, 2013

Art has been motivated by sprititual concerns or practice since the beginning. Today though it is not always present, but the practice of art is an opportunity to connect to your higher self, sometimes unconscioulsly or in case of these yantras as the deliberate decision to connect through creating a set of prints.

1/2 "  thick plywood blocks 12" x12"

I came upon the Sri Yantra during my own yoga teacher training in the fall of 2010. My teacher Myra Lewin had a wonderful version woven in wool hanging in her house on Kauai. Upon completion of the course we were all presented with a small copper yantra to hang around our necks. From then on I had planned to recreate it as a woodblock print. To carve in wood and to print is a physical way of dealing with the sacred, another way of practice. In this case I carved two plates, one carving away certain parts and leave the rest standing, the part that receives the ink. For the second block I reversed the process, just to find out what would happen.  During printing I let the colors emerge without thinking about it too much.  The majority of prints were printed on top of a colored square.

16 Sri Yantras, Dieter Runge, 2013, artist studio.

“A mandala is a plan, chart or geometric pattern which represents the cosmos metaphysically or symbolically, a microcosm of the universe from the human perspective. A Sri Yantra is a type of mandala with geometric patterns. Sri Yantra literally means loom, instrument or machine. In actual practice, a yantra is a symbolic representation of aspects of divinity, the creative forces of the universe. It is an interlocking matrix of geometric figures, circles, triangles and floral patterns that form fractal patterns of elegance and beauty. These visual patterns can have a powerful effect on the mind. Just as primordial sounds, or mantras, can be useful in balancing our mind and body through hearing, primordial shapes can generate increased coherence in our brains, creating a balancing and calming influence. In cultures around the world, beautiful visual patterns are used to quiet a restless mind.” Chopra Center

16 Sri Yantras at Yoga Hawaii, one framed.

Yantras are cosmic conductors of energy. The Sri Yantra or sacred instrument radiates outward from the central point formed by 9 interlocking triangles, the junction between the pyiscal univers and its unmanifest source, a powerful equipment for harmony, good health, prosperity, success, meditation, and yoga. Sri yantras contain a group of geometrical patterns. The mind and eyes focus at its centre in order to achieve higher levels of realization and consciousness. Place the Sri Yantra facing the North or the East in a sacred and clean altar.

My Friend Caty Monnier-Shannon a healer and artist creates yantra-like cushions using needle-point. She doesn’t use any drawings or concepts before she starts, but just chooses a color and starts pushing in the needle in and pulling it out, letting the colors and patterns emerge from her sub conscious. The meditative quality of the slow process calms her being, with the result reflecting her emotional state at the time of the beginning of the process as well as the changes she is going through as the image unfolds.

Caty Monnier-Shannon, Mandala 1. Photo by artist.

Caty Monnier-Shannon, Mandala 2. Photo by artist.

Caty Monnier-Shannon, Mandala 3 (in progress). Photo by artist.

After writing the above, I went to my bookshelf and pulled out Carl Jung’s, Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, thinking this would be the book most likely to address yantras. Without thinking, my hands opened the book to this passage: “A mandala of this sort is known in ritual usage as a yantra, an instrument of contemplation.  They are meant to shut out the outside and hold the inside together (p. 356). The goal of contemplating the process depicted in the mandala is that the yogi shall become inwardly aware of the deity. Through contemplation, he recognizes himself as God again, and thus returns from the illusion of individual existence into the universal totality of the divine state (p.357).

C G Jung mandala

C G Jung mandala

C G Jung mandala

C G Jung mandala

According to Jung mandala means circle. I have been using mandala and yantra somewhat interchangeable in this context. Jung continues to describe the function of mandalas, “ Their basic motif is the premonition of a centre of personality, a kind of central point within the psyche, to which everything is related, by which everything is arranged, and which is itself a source of energy. The energy of the central point is manifested in the almost irresistible compulsion and urge to become what one is, just as every organism is driven to assume that form that is characteristic of its nature, no matter what the circumstances. This centre is not felt or thought of as the ego, but if one may so express it, as the self. Although the centre is represented by an innermost point, it is surrounded by a periphery containing everything that belongs to the self – the paired opposites that make up the total personality. This totality compromises consciousness first of all, then the personal unconscious, and finally an indefinitely large segment of the collective unconscious whose archetypes are common to all mankind (p.357).

Jung used mandalas in his work as well as in his personal explorations. He incorporated art in his healing work and some of his patients painted their own mandalas pulling them from their unconscious. Jung himself painted many mandalas as part of his years of deep emergence into his psyche, which resulted in the fully handwritten and illustrated Red Book, 17 years in the making. His family kept it in a safe until it was finally published in 2009.

4 Ganesh, wood block prints, Mike Nice, Dieter Runge, 2013, at Yoga Hawaii.

Ganesh, wood block prints, Mike Nice, Dieter Runge, 2013, at Yoga Hawaii

Last Friday Maya Siklai gave me the opportunity to show the yantras in her Yoga Hawaii studio for the Kaimuki’s third Friday Celebration, along with the large Ganesh prints and other yoga related pieces.  Kaimuki is the mellow, hipster and family neighborhood around Waialae Avenue, a real place to live, great to walk to your favorite stores, restaurant or yoga studio, without the party craziness of Chinatown, or the massive developer fueled hype of Kakaako. This third Friday did have street music and an appearance of Mrs Hawaii, everything a bit more quaint, but let's have no illusion, change is a coming.

Musician (forground), Jason & Jaimey (middle) and Yoga Hawaii (back).

Mrs. Hawaii at Coffee Talk.

Musician on Waialae Ave.

Girls with face-paint, Coffee Talk

  

Signs inside Coffee Talk

A video of the yantras, top and a fun little I-phone video two guests made (I am trying to find their names to give them credit). 

Sources/Links:

Caty Shannon homepage.

Sources: http://sriyantra.net/ , wipikedia, Chopra Center,

A youtube video on a huge Sri Yantra in Oregon.

C G Jung, The Red Book, W.W. Norton & Company, London, New York, 2009

C G Jung, The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, Bollingen Series XX, Princeton University Press, 1990

 Music:

I got two CD's for my birthday and been checking them out:

Paul Izaak & Seeds of Love, Everlasting Light.  Paul Izaak lives in Kailua where he puts on the aweseome yogarden events, farms, is involved in non GMO activities and can be found at the Sunday Kailua farnmer's market. His music is an uplifting mix of reaggae, folk, funk and rocksteady. Favorite tracks so far Dragonfly Lullaby and Makawaao Roots.

Pual Zaak & Seeds of Love, CD cover

Lucie Lynch, Here We Are. Lucy is a fellow German expat singer/songwriter and actress. On her CD she sings and plays guitar, sometimes accompanied by percussion. She has a beautiful voice of considerable range and reminds me sometimes of 60's British Folk. Favorite track, The Greencard Song. I relate and it cracks me up. Love the cover shot.

Lucy Lynch, Here We Are, CD cover.

Both Lucy and Paul practice yoga and completed their yoga teacher training. Next week I will probably write about my NY adventures again. If something else exciting happens I will let you know of course. 

Aloha, dieter

Imagine, woodblock, Dieter Runge, 2012, at Yoga Hawaii.

New York Niggers Pt 3 – End of the 70’s – Hang on to Your Dreams

in which we almost make it, but just like Ziggy Stardust, I have to break up the band, and hang on to my self.

Timeline as written in 1986

Hang on to your dreams is one of Leo’s lines in Headliner and hang on to my self is what I had to do once this chapter was finsihed. By X-mas of 79 my financial situation finally stabilized thanks to working full time at T&V. Back then, I could pay my rent with the salary of one week, which was $325 when I started at Trash. I decided to get a new guitar. Very much still inspired and influenced by Leo, I opted for a Gibson Les Paul Special, double cutaway in cherry red. I went up to 48^th St where all the music stores were on one block and traded in my 62 Telecaster. It did have some minor problems and I wanted to have the more powerful sounding P90 pickups which was more in line with the sound and visual esthetics that we were aiming for. The concept of vintage guitars didn’t exist in our heads back then. Now, of course I regret not having either one of those beauties.

The author with  62 Telecaster. Iolsta Hat (vocals) and George Darrow (drums). summer 79

 

Mattus, my former communarde, who accompanied me to Paris, visited in the summer of 79 and describes a gig at the ranch in the voice of his the alter-ego KWINI, published in Hollow Skai’s NO Fun fanzine and later in Wir waren Helden Fuer Einen Tag, the wild action during the second set around 3:00 AM, " the band jumped into the audience which eventually ended up on the floor in a wild heap". During my research for this blog I saw some pictures from a contact sheet in the No Fun zine and upon request I found out that Mattus still has about 300 negatives from his NY trip. We'll try to digitize them and show them in a special post. The Helden book also contains excerpts of my own letters back to Germany from that time, which I will have to translate for another post. Now we need to find some live recordings and film of the band, that do exist somewhere.

Cover of Wir Waren Helden fuer einen Tag

By x-mas Victor had left the band, maybe success didn't come fast enough or he wanted to return to his jazz roots. Different managers appeared and disappeared and in a last ditch effort we shortened the name to NYN. With Victor, a great musician and charismatic frontman we were highly energetic and had the most powerful line-up with considerable potential . We had good songs, a good following and we could've made it. Leo went back to become the main singer and I was also singing more since I was writing more and more songs. Eventually Jerry (bass) also left. We spend a quiet New Years eve at our place on 10th St drinking $5 Andre champagne with Iolsta Hat.

Polaroid, new years eve 1979/80, the author, Iolsta Hat, The Pope.

1980 on the dot.

In early 1980 we did a few photo shoots at Alex Kayser and Caty Monnier's loft and got ready for a flurry of shows.

Author, polaroid by Alex Kayser.

 NYN poster. Leo, Dieter, Jerry, Wolf 1. Photo Alex Kayser

Woodblock print, Dieter Runge 2006/12

Polaroid postcard. Pics Alex Kayser.

180 rotated

Selfportrait, oil on Velvet 2007.

The cigarette in this picture is probably one of the last I smoked. I got a heavy case of bronchitis in the heavy New York winter, after burning the candle on both ends for so long. After each drag I was coughing for five minutes. Since I had to sing for all these gigs that were coming up, I just had to stop. Besides smoking one or two cigarrettes late at night in a club for a year or so, I never went back and always considered stopping to be one of the best things in my life and the beginning of a big turnaround.

The show with the Cramps at Irving Plaza in fact was in February 1980, which I just discovered, looking at the date on the East Village Eye cover. The EVE was a more underground alternative to the Village Voice.

 East Village Eye cover March 80.

East Village Eye review.

By 1979 it became apparent across the globe that something was brewing in New York and magazines from all over the planet were reporting on the developping scene. Cult tried to establish itself as the German equivalent of Interview magazine. They published an article about me in their NY issue that included pictures and some of my writing. For the first time I discovered how the media distorts and blows up the truth for sensation, yes, quite lame when it happens to you.

Cult magazine cover, upper half.

Page in Cult Magazine.

Translation of headline: Manhattan High, or Dieter from Hannover survives in New York.
Oh, yeah, sometime in early 1980 I shaved my head after an experimental haircut didn't quite come out the way I had imagined. Now, it seems to me, that this represents a cut in my life and a new chapter was about to start.

T&V add. The author as mannequin.

This Trash & Vaudeville ad appeared in the Village Voice, Soho Weekly and East Village Eye for quite a while. I had come up with the idea to pose with one of our mannequins and Gene, a co-worker and photographer took the picture.

Leo wasn't crazy about me writing and wanting to sing more songs, even though they were generally liked and Dresden 45 was probably our most popular live song. I think he wanted to have control of the band, which I understood since he was the founding member. We had been good partners for almost year of intense music and living together. Yet, I was developping and slowly coming out from under Leo's wings and being in a band in which I couldn't express my self was not attractive. After deliberating for a while, I finally quit, which Leo was not too happy about. It was the end of the New York Niggers, a fantastic adventure, that had catapulted me into the heart of the NY scene. Leo and I never fought, it was just over. Leo eventually started another band, a three piece, that was probably the best for his personal ambitions, but never created the excitment of NYN. I had to move out of our shared appartment. We sometimes ran into each other but quickly drifted apart. Below a picture of our last gig at Max's. Classic, the bald white boy between two black dudes. It represents my first year crashcourse not only into New York, but also black American culture. I will always be grateful for everything Aid Haid and Leo Faison and everybody else enabled me to experience.

Last NYN show. Max's Kansas City, spring 1980. The author is bald wearing 50's sharkskin pants and vintage silk shirt. Working at T&V shows.

Funny, the tables in front of the stage. Sometimes they were moved. In the audience was the owner of T&V, Ray Goodman, with glasses  and Stephanie a co-worker, who not only turned me on to Hound Dog Taylor, but to Salsa and Afro Cuban music in general. She took me to see Hector Lavoe, Ray Barreto and many of the other of the hot Latin bands playing in New York at the time. My musical education was broadening and intensifying and more adventures were lurking around the corner.

News

Next Friday I will have a pop-up art show with my yoga inspired wood block prints at Yoga Hawaii. just scroll past the Mrs. Hawaii ad. Come if you can. From punk rock to yoga, as the story unfolds in my life and here in this blog. It is all connected.

Links/sources


While I was cooling down from my b-day party the other day, cruising the (you)tube I came across this fantastic early Ramones (1974 at CBGB's) clip.

In this one you can see the iconography already there just a year later, the banner in back, and Johnny switched sides with Dee Dee, as it was going to be from then on. Just amazing.

Another year later at Max's. Great quality. The Ramones were a quintessential American band combining a comic book sensibility, The Beach Boys with the realities of the late 70's from a Queens NY perspective, the only true New Yorkers of all the CB's bands. Just listen to Happy Family. The Ramones were pure bubblegum in their great songs, of which they had many. Their covers of Do You Wanna Dance and Let's Dance points to their own desire to create pop hits.

The New Year's eve show at London's Rainbow showed the Ramones at their peak. Just one song after the other. 

The documentary  End of the Century is on the tube too, but be forwarned, it gets really sad at the end. It is great though, especially the beginning, desolate 70's New York, CBGB's, etc.

Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers at Max's. This reperesents well the athmosphere and energy at the place and time.

A 2007 article in the New Yorker about then manager of Trash & Vaudeville Jimmy Web.

New York Latin Music, Fania All Stars, Tito Puente, Conjunto Classico.
This was also the music of the streets in the East Village.

New York Niggers Pt 2 – Vintage 79 – Just Like Dresden 45

In which we record a single, have to move, hang out with Yoko Ono and play with the Plasmatics on Halloween.

 

Klaus Nomi with Joey Arias right, and possibly Jean Michel Basquiat foreground.

This post is dedicated to the memory of Klaus Nomi, another German expat who died of AIDS 30 years ago today, one of the early aids victims. Klaus was a very nice guy and pure soul, a classically trained singer, a unique performance artist. Here he is in a video of his first performance at the original Club 57 on 57 St Mark’s Place, December 78. We would run into each other at clubs or parties and talk about trying to survive and make it in New York. Klaus was put into the limelight with Joey Arias backing David Bowie on Saturday Night Live in 1979. Interesting how some established artist have the knack of recognizing emerging artists and trends and appear to the mainstream like they created it (see also the Stones below) while others fight or ignore the new.

Timeline 2

Poster with quotes

Poster with magic marker added band.

In 79 Leo and I follow the course set the year before, with frequent changes in the band’s lineup. We host regular loft parties and played quite a bit. There was a competition between Max’s and CBGB’s, so a band that played more often at one of the two was considered a Max’s band or a CB’s band. CB’s was bigger and had a better sound system, but at Max’s you always got a sound check, your name in the Village Voice, your own dressing room and got paid. None of these were guaranteed at CB’s. If you didn’t play at CB’s for a while you had to play on a Monday (audition night) again, no pay, no name in the paper and often no sound check. NYN became more of a Max’s band, in fact once we played there twice in one week, headlining on a Tuesday and opening up for JohnnyThunders Heartbreakers on Friday. Max’s was the legendary place where the Warhol crowd hung out, and the VU played their last gig, a one-week stint, with Lou Reed just walking out on the band on the last night. This was recorded on a small cassette recorder by the Warhol denizen Bridged Berlin (Polk) and published as The Velvet Underground – Live at Max’s. Of course we had been listening to the LP in Germany and that’s how I new about Max’s. Here is an excellent short docu about the place and Sunday Morning from those shows.

From left, the author, Victor, Wolf, Leo, Jerry.

Max’s had three floors. The downstairs was a business bar during the day and had its daytime jukebox. Next to it was a different jukebox and during happy hour one was unplugged and the other plugged in. The downstairs backroom was were Andy and his crowd held court. Patti Smith describes the scene in her Just Kids. The bands played on the low ceiling second floor. The stage was also quite low, pretty small, but had curtains, which was awesome. You could get ready in private, counting off the first song and the curtains would open. First you had to walk trough the entire crowd though, an experience in itself, coming from the dressing rooms, which were on the third floor. Two dressing rooms, one for each band, wow. During those days Max’s as well as CB’s had two shows every night, opening band, headliner, opening, headliner. The second show tended to be quite loose, since what would you be doing, in between sound check, first show, and second show?

 

One night, at the end of our second show, as usual the Stooges Search& Destroy, The Pope walked out onto one of the narrow table rows in front of the stage, which was packed with people, bottles and glasses. I thought, cool, I’ll walk out onto the other one. That all went well until I decided to jump over the seated people onto the tables that Leo was playing on. The tables collapsed and people, bottles and glasses shattered in all directions. Louis Tooloose and the drummer kept playing and so did Leo and me once were back on stage, a fitting Stooges tribute. Months later a guy came up to me in a club and offered me a drink with the words that that was the coolest thing he had ever seen. Hahahaha!

More and more clubs opened, left and right, many short-lived dives. We were one of the first bands to play some of them, Tier 3 on West Broadway in the spring of 79, where I met Caty Monnier (see below) and her then husband photographer Alex Kayser. Almost 35 years later Caty is still one of my best friends. A week after our gig the Bad Brains played their first NY gig there. Another one of those was the St Mark’s Bar and Grill on St Marks and 1^st Ave, where the Stones shot their Waiting for a Friend video, in 80/1, I believe. To tell you the truth, this is the first time I really watched this video. It is kinda goofy but you can see the windows of the bar check out the inside. It was much funkier than it looks in the video. The scenes on the steps is a few doors down from the bar on the south side of St Marks place between 1^st Ave and Ave A. Aid Haid was supposed to be in the video, but I don’t think he is sitting on the steps. I do remember two of the guys though. Aid could be the one in yellow, but I’m not sure.

Dresden lyrics with guitar string & Photo in plastic, 1979.

I finished writing my first song called just like Dresden 45. The song was inspired by Iggy’s Lust For Life. My opening line became: ‘I was thrown into this world by chance, now I got to stick around.’ Which in turn came from a question I posed my father about what he was thinking when I was conceived. This is another story that I actually have written, but am not ready to publish yet. I wrote the chord sequence and most first verse still in Germany and the bridge and the rock’n roll rhythm guitar came from what I had picked up since coming to NY. Leo never considered NYN punk, he coined us a high energy decadent rock'n roll band. That was fine with me.

The original 45 worth about $ 500 today.

In March 79 we recorded Just Like Dresden 45  and the Leo penned Headliner. By this time we had added Victor Godsey as lead singer and Jerry (sorry I forgot your last name) on bass. Ed Steinberg who lived upstairs just sat in on drums and nailed it (see also the post New York, rookie year). Victor auditioned with Dresden 45, which we had given to him on a cassette. Not only did he nail the song, but during the guitar solo, he whipped out his belt and started pounding the stage. We stopped the song and just told him that he was in the band. Victor was an accomplished musician and later recorded and toured with many jazz greats playing keyboards. I didn't add a link for victor because they are all dis-satisfying, but he later played with the likes of Al Di Meola and Bill Frisell.

We printed 1 000 copies, just a white dust jacket, no sleeve. We put it in various jukeboxes in downtown Manhattan, record stores etc. It didn’t get too much airplay, except some college stations. John Peel plays it on his BBC show and it gets favorable reviews in various magazines (for more details see the image timeline2, above). Over the years I have received various requests to reissue the 45, but made it always contingent on Leo’s agreement, which nobody ever got. Calls to him were not answered. Rumor has it that he is back in Upstate New York were he lives as a Christian priest. The single has been bootlegged apparently sells for up to $ 500 by now. In December 2012 Eric Cecil published an article on the band based on interviews with Louis Tooloose and me. It has a few mistakes, but is the most extensively researched article on this band whose single 45 rpm output contains the favorite songs of the period for quite a few people (Human Being Lawnmower # 3) The songs can always be found on youtube and I have posted Dresden 45 on soundcloud for free downloads, In 2008 I decided the reissue the single with a picture sleeve based on a painting of the bombing of Dresden and a collage of the various band members on the other side as part of my MFA thesis exhibition (see the posts thesis exhibition 1 and 2). 250 numbered copies are available with picture sleeve and I have another 250 in plain white dust-jacket. I am working on a video for Dresden 45.

Cover of reissue, printed by letterpress after an oil painting by the author.

Cover of reissue, other side, after collage by the author.

Some of the gigs I remember:  outside on Greenwich St, right in front of the house, the only time we played The Who’s My Generation, but since you know the Who's version, here is Patti Smith with John Cale on bass. On Halloween 1979 we opened for the emerging Plasmatics at My Father’s Place on Long Island. there is a two hour documentary on Wendy O'Williams if you are interested. We also opened for the Cramps at Club 57 Irving Plaza, a big old dance hall, where it had moved to, NYN one night and The Misfits the other. Cramps had mics placed in front of the stage were their core fans were yelling and screaming and played it back through the PA augmenting the excitement. We also played a transvestite run after hours club called Stickballs at 84 E 4th St in which Ron Wood later opened a club. The first show was scheduled at 3:00 AM with the second to follow at 5:00. The first show starting around 5:00 AM was more like what happened.

Poster for NYN loft party with 5 bands.The original color is pink.

We were friends with the all girl band Cheap Perfume and I had a short intense with their lead singer Lynn O'Dell as you might infer from the pics below. a video of their 2009 reunion gig at Kenny's Castaways.

...with Lynn, the lead singer of  Cheap Perfume,

the kiss and the (Leo on the left)

subsequent show. The look, decadent ragtag elegance.

Leo was a friend of Richie Stotts, the original guitarist for the Plasmatics, so we saw their early shows at CB’s. Richie plays the Flying V and Wendy the chainsaw. One of those times Leo & I went to a bar between sets with the band and an Asian woman and sat around a table drinking beer and talking. On our way back to the club Leo asked me if I knew who that woman was. Yoko Ono. I never found out about the connection between her and the Plasmatics, but I always saw them as more of performance art than music, so that might have been it. What is the difference you might ask? I think the one you must see and the other must be able to stand on its own when you put it on the turntable.

In early 79 I finally found a steady job at Canal Jean, the original location on the amazing funky and busy Canal Street, which went from the exit of the Holland Tunnel, the NYN loft across lower Manhattan through  Chinatown ending on the Manhattan Bridge connecting New Jersey with Brooklyn. Canal Jean was interesting because of its diverse clientele and employees. To keep peace there was a strict policy to play the rock'n roll station in the morning and the disco station in the afternoon. While going with the trend and rejecting disco in the beginning I soon learned how cool some of it was, especially Chic. 

Watching the bins outside Canal Jeans with a German friend.

The shop had $2 bins outside. I found a white see-through jumpsuit that I wore for one gig, also on the street and for work, which almost got me fired, since there happened to be no underwear. Here is another good one from that time. The pic above is another slide to color xerox, great esthetic but not very stable over time.

By the fall I graduated to Trash & Vaudeville on St Mark's Place, the premier Rock'n Roll clothing store. Trash & Vaudeville had an all punk downstairs with all the newest stuff from London and great vintage stuff upstairs from Aloha Shirts to 50's sharkskin suits. T&V was the very first place to have black jeans, skinny and without a label. It was the standard uniform of all New York Rockers and every band's first stop in NY was the T&V store. I shook Johnny Cash's hands (huge) and sold clothes to Bob Dylan, Keith Richards, Prince, Paulina Porizkowa...., but this is a whole other story.

Posters next to T&V's downstairs entrance. David Johanson.

 Oh, I almost forgot. Leo and I put up all the money for the single instead of paying rent. So eventually we had to move out. Leo and I found a 2 bedroom apartment on 10th St between 2nd and 1st Avenues.  This was the end of the era of the NYN loft and the beginning of my complete immersion into the East Village. I heard that the rent for the loft was raised to $ 10 000 from $ 375. Times were a changing.

Here is a shot on the roof of our 10th St place, taken by Angela Seifert, who recently reconnected to an old friend of hers who also lives here and landed at Honolulu International last Saturday.

The author on the 10th St roof. Pic Angela Seifert, 1979.

 Am I looking to the post NYN future in this shot? You might find out in one of the next installments of the festivalofpatience.

Sources/links

BBC once upon a time in New York covers and contextualizes the  birth of Hip Hop, Disco and Punk in four parts. Excellent. The second part has some great shots of the Dolls, the beginning of CBGB's and when Patti comes on at 10:30 chills still run down my spine. Later the members of Talking Heads talk. In part four we learn what Blondie's # 1 Rapture did for hip hop. true or not.

And the fantastic second installment of William Kelley's How to Train Squirrel Martial Artists “Lesson #2 - Lower Body Strike” . 29 sec. For more about William Kelly check his 2008 post on this blog.

and in case you missed the first one. 48 sec.

Patti Smith, Just Kids, Harper Collins, 2010, national book prize must read.

My friend Caty Monnier, re Shannon still lives in New York, has three sons and works as a healer.

 News

Last Friday was the opening of HI Tides at the arts at Mark's, which shows my 8' x 12' painting 'Water'. A quick run through the opening focuses on the painting.

On Friday August 16th I will have a pop-up art show at Yoga Hawaii as part of Honolulu's Kaimuki neighborhood's third Friday.

Last Saturday I put on a pre b-day party at my house. A short clip of Alice Neel performing Can't Fool the Music shows the good time to be had.