Wednesday, August 19, 2020

A HOBO Theater Blast From The Past

















And so this blog post, this passage, happens to be about one of those blast from the past Facebook messages I got from Angel the other day, about HOBO Theater company and KITCHEN, a theater company consisting mostly of homeless and squatters, that I rehearsed and acted with back in my homeless days in New York City, about 30 years ago. And he found me from Stan Mack, who documented HOBO Theater in his Stan Mack’s Real Life Funnies in the late 80’s. And this was an era before the age of the internet, social media and the digital age, where one could document things more easily. And some of those I guess you can call it underground or progressive groups have become a forgotten part of time. Unforgotten Voices, a homeless artists group that I once participated in can be one of them. It was the era of the 80’s and 90’s, of  Tompkins Square Park and tent city, an era that Amy Starecheski documents in her Ours to Lose WHEN SQUATTERS BECAME HOMEOWNERS IN NEW YORK CITY book, it’s description that reads: “Though New York’s Lower East Side today is home to high-end condos and hip restaurants, it was for decades an infamous site of blight, open-air drug dealing, and class conflict—an emblematic example of the tattered state of 1970’s and ’80’s Manhattan……”. And it was also an era of when I met Bobby Fuller when he was recruiting people from Kochville, a 200 day encampment at New York City Hall Park in 1989, to be a part of his HOBO Theater Company. This City Hall Park encampment was something similar to the more recent Occupy City Hall. And so Angel wanted to get whoever was still around 30 years later after HOBO Theater had disappeared, together for a memorial for Bobby, for his wife’s Chea’s birthday, via a virtual zoom video conferencing meeting. And this email thread for the zoom meeting, titled “Merrie Melodies and the Toons that knew em”, consisted of myself, Stan Mack, Casey, Angel, Mary Beth, Dave, Jack and Liz. And it is Chea that I remember as an infant of 1 years old with her mother Mary Beth and dad Bobby at those HOBO Theater rehearsals and events, mostly at a squat in the Lower East Side, before her dad, Bobby, passed away of cancer in 1989 when she was 1 years old. And Chea is how I remember the passage of time, as she is now 31 years old, with her own family, 30 years after Bobby passed away. And I missed that zoom meeting as I attempted to vend that DecorForU Black Lives Matter jewelry at Washington Square Park the other day. Though Dave and Chea shared some really interesting blast from the past photos from HOBO Theater 30 years ago, including one of that Hare Krishna tree in Tompkins Square Park where Bobby’s ashes were scattered, that find themselves posted in those photos above. And I was able to add a couple of blast from the past photos to this blog post also. And so fast forward in time, to current events of the year 2020, 30 years later. These are now the days of that scary virus that came from out of nowhere earlier this year and Black Lives Matter protests seemingly on a daily basis, and both have gone global. And I guess because of this coronavirus panicdemic, old New York is back and everything old is new again. Babylon is falling as New York City slides back into the 70’s and 80’s with headlines of the day that read like: Escape From New York: Wealthy Residents Flee In Droves As The City Degenerates Into A Hellhole, Retail Chains Abandon Manhattan: ‘It’s Unsustainable’, NYC moms fleeing Upper West Side amid crime and chaos New York City may take YEARS to recover after mass exodusA mad rush for the exits as New York City goes down the tubesNew York has grappled with gentrification for years. Covid has brought it to a headEmpty apartments in Manhattan reach record high, topping 13,000, ATM ripped out of Manhattan deli as new crime ‘trend’ hits NYCNew York City is dead foreverNYC IS DEAD FOREVER. HERE'S WHYNew York City is a Sh*thole and  Hollywood’s Apocalypse NOW: Rich and famous are fleeing in droves as liberal politics and coronavirus turn City of Dreams into cesspit plagued by junkies and violent criminals. And I can’t really think of any way to end this blog post, that seems to be about theater, birth, life, death and the passage of time, except to say, the only thing constant is change and it is given to us all an appointment once to die, and one generation passes away and another one comes but the earth abides forever. Have a great HOBO Theater Company and KITCHEN blast from the past day. In Memory Of.

Sunday, August 16, 2020

Washington Square Park, NYC #blacklivesmatter






















Old New York is back and everything old is new again, so much that one almost doesn't go out at night anymore because of what I have been reading in the headline news lately, a crime wave, that seems to be global, at least in America. At least that's the way it's kind of looking on the subways, streets and parks of New York City after all the rich people have fled the cities and all the tourists are gone due to that scary virus that came from out of nowhere earlier this year and an International travel ban that has now resulted in headlines like Escape From New York: Wealthy Residents Flee In Droves As The City Degenerates Into A HellholeRetail Chains Abandon Manhattan: ‘It’s Unsustainable’NYC moms fleeing Upper West Side amid crime and chaosNew York City may take YEARS to recover after mass exodusA mad rush for the exits as New York City goes down the tubesNew York has grappled with gentrification for years. Covid has brought it to a headEmpty apartments in Manhattan reach record high, topping 13,000ATM ripped out of Manhattan deli as new crime ‘trend’ hits NYCNew York City is dead forever and Hollywood's Apocalypse NOW: Rich and famous are fleeing in droves as liberal politics and coronavirus turn City of Dreams into cesspit plagued by junkies and violent criminals.
And if I can web 2.0 user generated content say, back to the topic of this blog post, Washington Square Park. And so I found myself attempting to vend those DecorForU #blacklivesmatter, #S#!tJustGotReal, #notmypresident, #occupywallstret, #nopolicestate, #yoga, #brooklyn, #washingtonsquarepark and #iloveny necklaces, magnets, key chains and pins for $2 each at Washington Square Park again and wondering where to post all of those photos I took at that park again, and so I find myself posting them here on this blog, again....  And so the scene has changed at Washington Square Park in New York City, ever since the virus and now those Black Lives Matter protests have started, as there seems to be Black Live Matter protests in that park on a daily basis, as a couple of them, one, an Asians for Black Lives Matter protest was there yesterday as in those photos and videos that find themselves posted above. And from what I saw in that park yesterday, there are people and their DJ system who seem to be having a dance party there every Saturday night. And I came across Nikki, @thefabledpickle, whose arrest with the use of an unmarked van that drew parallels to Portland protests. there in that park with that skateboard one day, and also POWER TO US, who were handing out those Justice for Breonna Taylor postcards one day.  And times they are ever changing as the only thing constant is change. And this virus and now those Black Lives Matter protests that both seem to be global is enough to make me want to blagher say that we are living in crazy and historical times.  And what, if anything, does this have to do with a No Police State. Black Lives Matter. Occupy Wall Street Worldwide.

Monday, August 3, 2020

The Tompkins Square Park Concert That Almost Didn’t Happen

If I must blogger say on this Google blogger day, After ten or so years of using Blogger, blogspot as a blagh, I signed into blogger today to see a newly designed Blogger interface nightmare.This new default blogger interface design is a nightmare and does not work, the photos do not appear correctly and things that use to take one second to do on this platform, now take a day or more or not at all, and a host of other problems with this new "update". The simple classic blogger design has now become a completely unusable, unable to navigate nightmare. Thank goodness the option to "revert to legacy blogger", the old classic blogger simple design still exists and I am able to go back to the old classic blogger to create posts until August something when the new updated blogger version nightmare design will appear again where creating posts will become nearly impossible and classic Blogger will no longer be available. This new blogger design seems to be worser that Facebook and Twitter's recent interface design updates. At least their new nightmarish compose looking "update" designs are somewhat navigatable. It seems as if all of these social media platforms are updating themselves into myspaceland, though not many other social media user generated content platforms exist. except these few platforms. Dear Blogger, can you please keep the classic design as an option like Facebook did? It's called classic for a reason. A more comprehensive explanation on this topic can be found here.

And so back to my usual blagher post of the day.





















And so it was another day that I found myself attempting to vend those DecorForU jewelry, necklaces, magnets, key chains and pins for $2 each at Tompkins Square Park yesterday, and it was also another day that I found myself taking a bunch of photos of people holding those Fly Orr PANicDEMIC flyers again and taking a bunch of photos of DJ Spike PolitePinc Louds who has been playing at Tompkins Square Park and that  Tompkins Square Park Police Riot 32nd Anniversary (1988-2020) concert yesterday, with the text to that concert flyer reading like as follows:

“First Show of the Season ! Finally.. A 2 Day Special Acoustic Chapter .. First Ever Acoustic Show in over 30 years.. Acorn Slim Scott Newman and John Lane Dean Rane Gass Wild Rew Starr Dead Dean Chris Iconicide Spike Polite. And SEWAGE and Direct From Long Island.. The Beautiful Karen Bella.. Its Saturday and Sunday Friends.. ( This Weekend ) So Lets All Show Up.. Like we Always do, Support Our Locals. And have a Great Time ” …..
Taking Over- “OUR PARK “

Tompkins Square Park, August 1st-2nd, 1pm Both Daze ….”

And there was a moment before the concert began when someone from the New York City Parks department came from out of nowhere and tried to shut that concert down, though in the end, the concert was allowed to proceed. And there was a moment when Pinc Louds played at that Riot Reunion concert for one quick second, and then they went off to play at that Temperance Fountain during that Riot Reunion concert yesterday, as in some of those photos and videos that find themselves posted above. And there was a moment when @iamrandyluna shared this instagram story of my black lives matter jewelry on his instagram page. And there was music, music and more music again. And they played into the night at Tompkins Square Park. Bring your dancing shoes to Tompkins Square Park I guess. #blacklivesmatter