By the way, those plastic green water bucket tree stands? -- collapsable, and nothing says Bunuellian Christmas better than an evergreen toppling on santa's elves as they're giftwrapping. Tim-bur. Resurrect it, redecorate it and tie it to a picture hook on the wall. It is beautiful again, even more so away from the radiator.

This wake a week pattern has got to break. Richard Pretzer, Deceased as of December 18th, 2002.

Christmas trees that are identified as Frazier Firs are very traditional looking. In fact, they have that artificial tree look, but they are real. Put 7-Up in the stand. They'll drink it up. Oh to have a clipped tree, seperated from its undergrowth, vicegripped into a plastic green platform. It smells great and gives the apartment that home feeling. It's right next to the iron curlicued morrocan daybed. Now all we need is the HO train set circling the little town at the base, and a glowing embered fireplace.

Rosebud.

Finally, a new post to put into the past the CD burner problem. However, this post is a followup to a post of the past regarding "two in one through the subway turnstyle." I think it was Abbey Hoffman in Steal This Book who first suggested it and I referred to it as common practice by John and Sally in the novel, The Resurrection.

Maki is 8 months pregnant. She went with her husband together through the turnstyles, and, as it was their second offense, they were HANDCUFFED AND TAKEN TO PRISON. Members of the New York City Police Department kept her safely off the streets and in jail for over three hours. Her husband was in jail for nearly 24 hours. Dear Members of the New York City Police Department, does it help jaywalkers to run over them for crossing the street against a red light?

My 8/19/2001 post includes, deep within it, my two-in-one-turnstyle experience.

(Aha. Note that Blogger's archive does not work for me, nor for you, perhaps. I have a michaeldouglas.blogspot mirror site at http://www.cinemavii.com/MichaelDouglas.htm.)

Here's the rest of the CeQuadrat CD maker correspondence.

Subj: RE: CeQuadrat
Date:10/30/2002 2:29:11 PM Eastern Standard Time
From:Kathie.Upton@roxio.com
To:Dizozza600@cs.com
Peter,
With the problem you are describing you will need to contact Windows Media. I am sorry but the CeQuadrat can not help you.
Good Luck

Subj: Re: CeQuadrat
Date: 10/30/2002 3:08:13 PM Eastern Standard Time
From: Dizozza600
To: Kathie.Upton@roxio.com
Dear Ms. Upton, Please, you can help me if you can tell the computer my pre-installed program is OK. Windows Media Player is not doing shutting down my CeQuadrat program unless you told them to do it. Someone in your programming area came up with this unregistered shutdown device. Peter Dizozza

Subj: RE: CeQuadrat
Date: 10/31/2002 8:02:58 AM Eastern Standard Time
From: Kathie.Upton@roxio.com
To: Dizozza600@cs.com
I am sorry this is not something I can do for you. If you need technical support for the version of software you will need to pay for support. It is a $35.00 per incident charge. When calling in we will get your information and arrange for a call back. Please call 408-934-7283, for the support on this software. You could also check the web site for your product at http://www.cequadrat.de/english/support/top5.php3 , this site has all the updates along with trouble shooting tips. I am sorry but I do not have any knowledge about this product. Again your best resource for the assistant you are asking for would come from Windows Medias Player.

Subj: Re: CeQuadrat
Date: 10/31/2002 10:08:13 AM Eastern Standard Time
From: Dizozza600
To: Kathie.Upton@roxio.com
Someone at your office must know what I am talking about. Please ask. Peter

RE: CeQuadrat Date:10/31/2002
10:38:55 AM Eastern Standard Time
From:Kathie.Upton@roxio.com
To:Dizozza600@cs.com
NO I do not have anyone I can ask. I am sorry I can not assist you. I have given you your support options. Sorry.

Subj: Re: CeQuadrat
Date: 10/31/2002 11:12:35 AM Eastern Standard Time
From: Dizozza600
To: Kathie.Upton@roxio.com
Oops, sorry. Roxio is responsible for the identification of an unregistered version of CeQuadrat's CD burning software on an old computer that came with the software. Congratulations on a piracy device that also causes planned obsolesence. How silly of me to think I have a right to software that came preinstalled on my computer. Either someone there knows what I'm writing about or I am not really corresponding with anyone at Roxio. Some support.

Ah, I see this is the blogger where I referred to the CD burning capabilities lost upon downloading windows media player beta 9x.

Here's today's correspondence from Roxio, the microsoft media player affiliated company which coincidentally bought the German cd burning program, CeQuadrat, which compaq included on my machine back in 1999.

"Thank you for your letter, my name is Kathie and I have been assigned to provide you with the information you need to get help with the issues you addressed in your letter.

"When CeQuadrant is preloaded the support that you may be entitled to on complimentary bases would come directly from the company that furnished you with the software. In your case the support would come from Compaq. There phone number is 800-652-6672.

"You can also go to http://www.cequadrat.de/english/support/top5.php3 , this has all updates that are available for the software along with trouble shooting tips. This is a free update.

"If you would like to speak to one of our Technicians it would be at a $35.00 per incident charge and we would have to arrange for a call back. To speak to Technical Support you will need to call 408-934-7283.

"Again I want to thank you for taking the time to write us.

"Best regards,

"Kathie Upton
Customer Service Representative
roxio
The Digital Media Company
6900 Wedgwood Road Suite 200
Maple Grove, MN 55311 USA
Customer Service: 408-946-4949
Fax: 763-494-7303
kathie.upton@roxio.com
www.roxio.com
NASDAQ:"ROXI"
Featuring the Best-Selling CD-Recording Software in the World"

I wrote back as follows:

Dear Kathie,

Thank you for your response!

You actually may be able to help me from where you are because I downloaded Windows Media Player 9 Beta and that notified you, meaning Roxio, of the existence on my computer of the old CeQuadrat software. My compaq computer is over three years old and I suppose it is to your software's credit that it continues to run well and usefully. I just need your permission, now, to run it. Please provide the information I need to assure my computer that it is OK to run the program. Please send my computer something (the way it obviously sent something to you through the media player and then you sent something back to it) to let my computer know that I have the software legally and that it doesn't have to arrest itself or me as a result of my purchase of a computer.

I hope that this proiblem I am having is not the result of roxio/CeQuadrats dissatisfaction with compaq, in that you feel they have not fairly compensated you for including your software in their computer. In that case I don't know what to do. I will notify them of your position and how it affects their customers.

Sincerely,

Peter Dizozza

I'm typing in the words of Beck Hansen which appear on my Visor.
"I don't want to be in a situation like some of these musicians who might as well not have a front door -- anybody can walk in and see everything. I'm about making art and music and performing. I'm not a big believer in the everything's-on-the-table philosphy. I don't understand these people who overexpose themselves. What kind of a life is that?" uh.

"I'm about making art and music and performing" is a good reminder for one's life purpose. Is it in answer to the question, Who are you? No, it answers, "What are you about?" About face!

Right now, my life is about playing piano and teaching everyone their singing parts for Salad Days!

This is while other things go on about me.

By the way, I lost all CD burner capabilities by downloading Windows Media Player Beta 9x...

And why doesn't timewarnercable carry the UN channel (78 in Manhattan)?

Is the woman on the phone arguing with her errant marginal lover who keeps getting in trouble with the law, or with her errant 6 year old son, who keeps stealing the other child's pokeman?

Spike Lee re-earns his reputation as a filmmaker with his short subject, "We Wuz Robbed," a spectacular construct of interviews/portraits and photos. I was most affected, previously, by his biography of Malcom X, a man who, during my schooling which embraced Martin Luther King, simply did not exist. The depiction of Muslim rigor in contrast to the post slavery malaise was inspiring and disturbing, as is any facist neatening and ordering in our lives. I also enjoyed a scene, a descent into a crack building, from one of his films, was it the Malcom X one? using Stevie Wonder's Living for the Ci-tay... Uh, actually Stevie Wonder (remember Gangster's Paradise?) is simply too great a composer not to enhance anything that draws upon his source material...

Definitely NOT Bush, yet neither Gore, nor Lieberman, really wanted to win. They were conceding. They were forced to put on an opposition. Lieberman likes Connecticut. Gore enjoys writing knowingly about subjects he wants to learn more about. With unfinished business, continuity is important, referring to the son of a former president becoming president in time to strengthen his family's oil business. We Wuz Robbed discusses events from a few days prior to the election up until the US Supreme Court denial. One is left simply flabergasted anew.

The Palestinian film, Divine Intervention, was at least moderately budgeted. I asked, were those real border checkpoints? No, he built them within Jerusalem. "Oh my, what am I doing in Hizballah?" asked some tourists who drove upon the set. Mr. Pena's description in the program defines the film as "a provication, but one rooted in a reasoned expectation of both justice and peace." Upon seeing the film I ask, what is going on there? and want to issue a blanket apology.

With the pit and the pendulum, bullies victimize, and enoble-ize and enable-ize.

And have uncentered everything else.

Ah, and now I have centered the little button.

Oh my, can you imagine. I'm inserting a little paypal button!

I attended a screening at The New York Film Festival. What fun. Divine Intervention, plus a Spike Lee rolled Joint.

Ah, the grammatical incoherencies of the October 2nd post. Comments have ranged from sympathy for Marc's father, apparently a very generous and much revered gentleman, to questioning my statement about calling an escort service with the expectations of being robbed. It should not be an expectation. Marc was not running a sting operation. Escort agencies don't want any trouble. The next step will be a civil action, against the escort agency, for negligent hiring.

I already covered this story in my 1988 musical, Kingdom Come.

Jury duty happens but once every four years, and perhaps after a fifth adjournment it will be more like five years. Last time I was there it was as an alternate, one who sits, listens and eats lunch at the Odeon with the other jurors including the man who made my tuxedo, Flusser, but does not ultimately deliberate, in a civil case in supreme (before Lorraine Miller) claiming damages for boyscout child molestation, regarding incidents that occurred well over 10 years prior to the date of trial. Can't we just forget about it? The jury did after spending five days considering the brushing of genitals in the swimming pool and other suggestive incidents.

And now, here we are, five years later (and that case went on appeal to be affirmed)... I am in the criminal jury pool. 100 centre, the place where you're guaranteed a tourist's visit of entertainment. My friend from Germany had it in her tour guide. NIGHT Court. 2AM, Can't sleep? Get downtown to 100 Centre and sit in the back.

So let's review, September 30th, Monday, a fresh batch of jurors, the cream of the crop, for Judge Herbert Altman. 64 from the 100 in the waiting room go to his beautiful wireless amplified courtroom on the 11th floor. I'm among them. Of the 16 called to sit in the box, three are lawyers. Tell us about yourself, he actually asks each and they pass down the wireless mike. Lawyer, what school, Harvard, next lawyer, what school, Harvard, one at Cravath, one at Straub's Wilkie, the other one, not employed, from Fordham, and quite a few of the professionals up there were seeking new employment. Also among them was a cardiologist from Canada employed by Mount Sinai... And a bond trader who actually made it onto the jury.

After the judge let us meet the panel, the first question from the DA raised the term, Escort service? Would you give credence to the testimony of a man who called upon, who invoked, to use my own term, Escorts? What if he was a former SUBSTANCE ABUSER? Substances? Oh, please. What if a stripper was a defendant? Would you believe her? That's it, I'm back there tomorrow. It's my duty as a juror.

I was not chosen on Monday. I went with another panel to a case in a smaller courtroom before Judge A. Kirke Bartley. His question, if I may paraphrase rightly, began, would you take issue regarding matters concerning gypsy people or as they are commonly called, gypsies? Do any of you know Duke Stevens? Jack Goldman? Nick Johns? Come back tomorrow morning.

Me: Hey guys, I have a motion to attend to in the morning.
Professional courtesy (like the shark joke), permitted me to be excused and return to the jury pool which I did after the motion the next day, October 1st, signing in and out to check out Judge Altman's part. It was 11:30 AM, just in time for the jury to enter for the first time that morning.

Opening statement highlight, "and that my client will spend his 22nd birthday free of these charges." Objection, sustained, defense counsel gathers his notes and sits down.

I'm thinking, what? Ian, the coconspirator to this charge of robbery, assault with a deadly weapon and attempted extortion is 21! Kerry, the big breasted mini-faced blond woman with the swishy moves, is certainly in her thirties. I'm reminded of Judge Altman's words to the jurors, willing accomplices are equally guilty.

Witness takes the stand. 45, slender, dark hair kinda wild. DA"Okay, what do you do,"
"I'm self employed now. I'm a hedge fund manager." What is that?
"Someone who manages hedge funds."
Defense attorney (probably stifling a laugh), "Could you read that back please."
I guess further clarification is that a hedge fund hedges funds (I think it's a daily bet on whether the stock market goes up or down.)

Former DEA FBI employee, Robert Stang, also appeared, hired by the family and aware of witness victim's problems. He put some men on the job and stung Ian after Ian picked up his 50,000 check from the house. Marc slipped it through the mailslot.

Earlier testimony from Marc established that Marc had required the services of 50 to 75 escorts during that year. He's divorced, you see.

What are we considering here?

I must ask, Mr. Weill, what are you doing, running a sting operation? You called an escort service, that's like saying, rob me if you can. The good news is that Marc's father, Sandy, Citigroup's chairman, no longer employs Marc there.

What did you do with Kerry? Partied. Did the relationship become personal? Yes, in that I spoke to her about personal matters. I lent her money, over 8thousand including 5 for her landlord so that she and her child could move (Ian?) Supposedly she was bringing Ian over to set up a repayment schedule...

Apparently, after Ian's arrest a search of Kerry's apartment found the gun allegedly used to point out Marc's face.

Last but not least, I was called to consider a case on Broadway by Leonard, an alleged robbery of memorabilia from an eccentric older man (40) by a cute lanky long strawberry blond haired wire rimmed glasses wearing fellow with big healed black sneakers.

One of the jurors also dealt in high end baseball card memorabilia. I would have said, but saw earlier on that neither ADA Scheidt, nor the soft spoken defense counsel woman were seriously considering me, that I collect what might be considered memorabilia but not to sell. Thank you, for the glimpse of the photos of the witness victim's messy apartment.

5:15, come back tomorrow, which is today. Released! Catch Private Detective Stang retained by the family's testimony.
I haven't billed them for a while but I'll probably for today.
Why were you retained by them objection sustained.

It is over a month since my last die-ray ent-ray. We had a splendid run of The Golf Wars, I'm onto the next project which is the sequel of my collaboration with Tom Nondorf who chose, for the St. Jean's Auditorium Players, to revive Salad Days, a show that includes a magic piano in the park, and a flying saucer to help them find it when it's lost. The music reminds me of British Music Hall routines, simple but fast (the challenge is in getting them up to speed). Then there's dancing. The piano has to unleash the cast. Hey, it's fun. And The Golf Wars was fun. I was unavoidably flattered when one of the cast members thanked me for writing it. I can paint a happy picture, let's see, I can simply quote Kenny Davidsen. I'm making money and loving every minute of it and the album will be done in a few months. That's his quote but I can adopt it.

Oh, one of songs is downloadable at http://www.olivejuicemusic.com/poetry.html

This post appeared on the Olive Juice Message Board regarding the new Olive Juice Call it What You Want, This is Antifolk Compilation and three songs that appear on it.

Olive Juice Music
[ Post a Response | Olive Juice Music ]
http://members.boardhost.com/olivejuicemusic/

Re: Hurt me! Please!!!!!
Posted by Peter Dizozza Annonymous on 8/19/2002, 5:40 pm , in reply to "Hurt me! Please!!!!!"

Thank you for recording, mixing and mastering such a wonderfully varied and legendary compilation. The layout is clear and easy to follow and it's full of interesting sounds.
Oops, what about being a cryptic wiseass? OK, that's easy, I mean,

Why is your song on it so apocalyptic? Who could guess that we marry to be free and that if we find ourselves we'll be enslaved worse than ever? Thanks. It is consoling, though, to know that the world itself is not actually falling apart.

It sounds good saying it, but can someone please identify "the ####." How can we get it out of "my town" if we don't know what it is?

Onto another topic. Ignorant about the origin of pretzels, which I ate just the other day, I asked that special someone who said, and I paraphrase:

Ballentine Monks rewarded prayer novitiates with pretzels. See them praying with their arms crossed over their chests? That baker's treat really took off, yes?

Swastikas, on the other hand must have been an ancient sanskrit symbol out of India because Kipling used the swastika symbol on the cover of his 1902 book, Kim. In the 1930s, Nazis revived and reversed the design, turning it into their symbol.

Thus, unlike monks with the pretzel and its combos*, nazis poisoned the market for baked swastikas and combos like the mozerella swastika. Yours truly,
General Foods.

* Combos are pretzel bits stuffed with cheddar. The proper spelling for the title of Adam Green's song is "mozzarella swastika."

Sometimes the right doesn't know what the left is doing so I'm jumping to the left, which means rather than write here I'm writing at http://www.888.blogspot.com.

Oh, I see. Marry to be free because the heart only peaks out its little paws) feels free when it is in a place of emotional safety.

Goethe puts into the words of Werther, by way of Victor Lange's English translation, "He is so exceedingly anxious to justify himself that if he thinks he has said anything too precipitous or too general or only half true, he never stops qualifying, modifying and extenuating, till at last it appears he has said nothing at all."

It is time to revise a performance script of The Golf Wars.

(from an email)
Diane Cluck is so imaginative and self-disciplined. My head is spinning.

"We spend 3/4s of the time apologising for the 1/4 of the time we're thoughtless..."

Monte Carlo creates a clarity moment in the midst of SUFFOCATING VACATION,

people acting like they own their companions during the time they are renting them,

clarity shared by everyone through an expressive act of communication.

At one point in the song she describes what she sees in real time.

From Matt I learned,
You can not heal what you cannot feel.
& Marry to be free, find yourself to be enslaved.

Am I mistaken or are the first words out of Elvis Costello, "Welcome to my working week. I know it don't thrill you. I hope it don't kill you. Welcome to my working week. you better do it 'til you're through it, so you better get to it." (?) It is good advice. Thank you, EC.

I dreamt I jumped from a plane into the water, and I broke my fall by intentionally riding the wind.

(The jawdroppingly colorful surfer movie from 1958, Slippery When Wet, gave some meaning to the comment, I have cable, because it was on last night and during a break from the surfing, the guys dove!)

Anyway, I landed and, once I was walking around my arms kept floating up above my shoulders, 'cause I was lighter than air.

I also dreamt of a drought that became apparent at the upper end of a lake, an inlet, that was grassy instead of watery.
I viewed it from a screened in porch attached to a ranch resort cabana that I was crashing for the food. ("Do you want any food?" Reaching for a paper towel, I dropped the paper towel dispenser that was over the sink which was adjacent to the bed. I dropped the paper towel dispenser on the bed!)
The porch was ancient and unused since its view was of a depressing reminder of the vital stream that once flowed there.
I attempted to open a window which crashed off its hinges onto the ground.
What was a window doing in a screened in porch?
Up above us was the hole of a mountain lake. It once held the water that overflowed through the stream that led to the valley lake.

I also dreamt I was driving nine people, two of whom were in the trunk, those two nearly forgotten as we collected ourselves following my driving the car off a bridge onto the embankment. When we finally remembered to open the trunk they were disheveled and drenched in sweat. I was attempting to drive everyone home...

This has been an odd night of irritation. "I'm dying of hunger and I'm dressed in shorts," yelled a passerby into a cellphone. The woman at the 2nd Ave. liquor store was losing her head arguing into the phone and at the fellow running the store with her. "I don't give a fuck about spending time with you and your friends." Has everyone decided to quit smoking at the same time?

I went to a private cardiologist for a check-up, 'cause since age 13 I've had an arrhytmia named after Woff, Parkinson & White. That misshapen ekg beat permits a short circuit within the heart so that a rapid mini beat occurs. During these palpitations, the blood circulates minimally; I'm sure it's much easier for the heart to enter into this little selfish beat, it's just that the rest of the body doesn't get the blood. The heart contains within itself the blood as it (merrily?) beats 240 the minute.

This is an old odd story to me, and, amidst the lessons we are learning daily, consider the following.

After a prescription renewal mix-up on the part of the (inefficiently run?) office of Dr. Mayer Ballas, in Forest Hills, renewing one prescription and not the other, and as a result of it, Dr. Ballas refused to speak with me, rejected his doctor patient relationship and withdrew as my doctor when I attempted to make an appointment with him.

He has been my doctor for 25 years.

His behaviour has impressed me. I forgive him on both a professional and personal level.

So I saw another cardiologist. One of the medications really doesn't need to be renewed. It causes arrhytmia. It's called Quinaglute. I've stopped taking it.

Once again, my only ailments are mental.

The Park Fests are progressing well.

Progress... My creative work exists under the name, Cinema VII, simply because it is exists apart from me, contained within a preserved medium. I am the source, yet I see myself as not always the source. In fact, I want my work to exist apart from me so that I can move on. I love the technology that permits us to be regenerated. Is there something missing in the regeneration?

I preserve what I've done and move on. Forgetting what we learned we keep learning.

Merce Cunningham, 50 Years of Forward Motion...

What a stupid post from July 11th! Regarding one's financial decisions, if I sold then the money I would have received would be 7,500 more than now. Oh, Roberta just brought in an email regarding bottle deposit return on Budweiser. A thousand dollar investment would have returned a coupl'a'hunerd.

What else is new, please?

I spent so far this year over thirty thousand dollars and if I sell the stocks and funds I own I will have lost another thirty thousand or nearly half their value. Boy, I had no idea I had that much money!

Prepare to Meet Your Maker, the surrealist musical mystery play, had its 29th performance, its history documented elsewhere on the cinemavii.com site. We performed the fifth of its six performances at the WAH Center, last night.

The Twenty-Ninth Performance of Prepare to Meet Your Maker went well. I participated with Drew Blood; we had taken over for Josh and Jason who dropped out last week, and that is when the phallus in Orin’s display went missing. The whole point of the story is the missing phallus; I mean the Isis Osiris story incorporated into ours.

Audience members included Bruce Brown and Enid, his wife, and Marc Baron and Cinti and her friend Candida, and two Hasidic boys, well garbed, in time for sundown since we began at 8:30.

We’re in the longest days of the year, so sunset couldn’t have been much later here in New York, along the same latitudinal meridian as Barcelona.

Our next performance features me at the piano. Tonight Kenny and Brian performed beautifully, with amazing dynamic variation, with that $200 Yamaha Keyboard, the best around. Please, it’s a quite unreasonably good sounding keyboard. Yamaha electronics have a superior musicality, my prior experience being with the QY10 and the original DX7.

Tony Hightower continues to achieve new heights of drama and entertainment, along with his splendid singing voice, this time as Quasimodo with Meghan Elizabeth Burns. The miracle here is that for the past four performances the originator of the role, Lisa Dery, returned to the role with some perspective and great charm. They both do wonderful unique interpretations.

Lisa Sredniawski (Lisa Shred) took over as Mathilda for Linda Kobylinski (who was needed in Sharon's Putnam which had its run extended at a new theatre.) I was backstage throughout our performance and it was always a pleasure to see Lisa smiling and enjoying herself. Kimberly Mossel continues to keep the show running, and doing a wonderful job as she improves her presentation skills and adjusts to the echo-ey surroundings. Seeing a performance by Laurel Hoffman simply sells you on Laurel Hoffman. Drew Blood, well, I directed the torment of his restlessness upon myself and he was helpful and dynamically unique, as Tyr Throne, the director, could not be there this evening.

Petris came by this evening; he's the Finnish director with plans to do a play about a boy named Lionheart. We look forward to seeing more from him.

The WAH Center third floor is resonant, wet, I believe, is the term, and naturally so, so it sounds great. The cast has learned to adjust. Rene Moreno, the artist who is often there at the Center, ran lights and even held a beautiful umbrella over Laurel and Lisa as they performed the Pokida/Samama scene.

July, 1938. Winston Churchill, in his speech on Civilization, defined it as a society based upon the opinion of civilians. In its soil grow continuously freedom comfort and culture! It is there that the traditions of the past are cherished and the inheritance bequeathed to us by former wise or valient men becomes a rich estate to be enjoyed and used by all. Unite to defend civilization, freedom and peace. Show yourself possessed of a constabulary power before which barbaric and atavistic forces will stand in awe.

Sharon Fogarty's play, "Putnam," considers the excesses of fame, providing its cast with the opportunity to portray the famous. There is a crossover between achieving fame and providing the world with valuable personal offerings. The untimely death element follows closely along the path to fame. Perhaps untimely death follows along all our paths, particularly those on the paths less travelled. In "Putnam" Sharon rejects the connection between fame and untimely death (Note: I have replaced the word "disaster" with the term "untimely death."). Her view was that the death was a ruse and that the "famous" faked their deaths to continue pursuing their life's purpose, whatever that might be. She considers the charged careers of Marilyn Monroe, Billie Holiday, Elvis Presley, John Lennon and Janis Joplin.

I will jump immediately to the pleasures of the play. John Lennon, the composer, the songwriter, was inspired. His work inspired others, and I mean that in a nearly technical way. There is a school of composition arising from his inspiration and Sharon furthered it by writing a beautiful song in his style. Al Quagliata gave a very pleasant performance seated with the fictitious Mr. Putnam as they drew with crayons on paper plates. The cast offstage did the "Ahhh" back-up vocals so typical of the dreamy side of John Lennon. Lennon did a beautiful job expressing love as a universal state of being and Sharon furthered it. This scene is a beautiful theatrical moment.

Rather than approach head-on the dramatic material put forth by Sharon, I will now list some John-Lennon-inspired breakthroughs, those of which I am aware, and these are highlights for the artists who did them. Billy Joel's "Laura," and ELO Adrian Lynn's "My Shangrila has gone away.... fading like the beatles on hey jude??? Judy Judy Judy..."

Putnam's Lennon moment followed a psychedelic Janis Joplin moment, convincingly created by Linda Kobylinski (She sings as Mathilda and Samamama in the Prepare to Meet Your Maker Soundtrack.). The feeling of nostalgia it created may simply be of the Strawberry Alarmclock cameo in the film "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls" (to some of you this reference will not be obscure). More recently, I attended a party in an abandoned building next to the Williamsburg Bridge, which means I have a real psychedelic '60's nostalgia that dates from a mere two months ago. Anyway, Mike Meyers has made this nostalgia his niche so for a dose of it you know where to go.

Hey, Mike Meyers is famous.

So riding on the wings of fame can provide the boost needed to fly on your own.

Sharon's play rides on the wings of the famous while providing a fictional character who lacks the iconographic mannerisms of the celebrity. Maybe if she assigned a real person, I don't know, like Bono -- who is actually one step away from nonentity in my mind, replaced by impressions of Brian Pilten covering Bono's amazing "One Love One Life Love is a something or other..., an ember, ... a temple?" It sounded like Bono's answer to Sting's "Every Breath... Every Move ... I'll be Watching..."

Bono. He's surely famous. Give Putnam Bono's iconographic mannerisms... Bono must have some magnetism, I mean, Werner Herzog attended to him, I think... In fact, seeing someone immitate Bono will increase one's appreciation of Bono.

The pleasure of the play is to see how well the cast's personal magnetism filtered through their "immitation" of the stars...

As for the folks they immitated, good thing they are famous because they can continue to inspire us. They inspired the cast...

I saw the Sunday performance of June 2nd, 2002.

Lach was back running the antihoot at SideWalk, NYC, last Monday, singing "Smokin' Again" and "Drinkin' Beers with Mom." People packed the place. Last Up Larry was first up at the open mike with help from blues wailer Amos Simplesoma Elpmis, singing something like "the last time I took acid I went insane," but that's the Jeff Lewis version. Jon Berger ran the Leisure sUit Larry slide show that accompanied Larry's dreamy effect-enhanced brilliant guitar playing. There was a movie screen mounted on the stage. That was what brought me into the lobster booth close to the stage. It's an enclosed red booth. I was sitting with Charles Herold, The New York Times Computer Game Critic. Already int the booth were Eric, a playwright who had signed up to play, & Lindsay, a young lady and pure audience member who intends to sign up next time, both of whom were attending the antihoot for the first time. The slides were striking transparencies of Larry's hallucinatory artwork, such as a lady witch and a masculine wingless dodo bird over a caldron on the land's edge, surrounded by water, the bird sqeezing the contents of a toothpaste tube into the cauldron. The landscapes are spectacular, usually involving some body of water, rivers from mountains, ponds, spindly christmas trees populated by spindly figures, spindly santa clauses, astronauts, monstors. The colors are brilliantly combined with a sophistication worthy of the Disney staff. Quite the imagination stimulant. Last Up Larry plays SideWalk Sunday (5/26/2002) at 10 after my Golf Wars at 8 and Helen Strattford at 9.
Next up, Aaron Brady sang about phoning or being phoned and knowing both want it and if she says no he'll find someone else instead, perhaps not without a bit of sardonic bitterness. Maybe it was without irony and simply a song of accurate reporting. He also sang about a beautiful thing.
Charlotte had a big out of tune voice, meaning she stretched the notes or contracted them in revolt against the guitar accompaniment. Lyric ending the first song was "Hold my head up high and see what life brings." In the second she sang, "I will web you and drink your blood," I think. "Fly away from here" was also among the sentiments she expressed. People who do not find Grace Slick irritating may also enjoy Charlotte.
Casey, Jen Lindsay's collaborator, sang on an electric guitar, Thin Air and Carousel on the Moon.
Helen Strattford continues to confront people with her zonked leachy used abused woman routine in "Me." "No more sleaze, just a hug" is the ending plea, which tempers and touches. Well, now I've had enough to confront the possibility that she is simply being clever and contrived. The rhymes arising from the list of drugs is more cole porter than lou reed -- this is fine. Then she sings, beat me or something... "I deserve punitive damages and by the way can I hit you up for a sandwich?" The audience loved it. She's a real German chanteuse like Deitrich and Lemperer. It's growing on me again to write about it, but I was beginning to feel, yech. I suppose -- and forgive the graphic suggestions for they are worth considering -- predators, men in particular, are manipulating such a woman to become the way she is for purposes of turning her into a sex object and should confront the reality of her after they've through her been satiated. The predator's actions arising from his or her fear of intimacy produces a victim far more cloying. Predators? Victims? Become more goal oriented... Someday you'll meet your equal.
Nino, who is, I believe, Argentinian, played next. The amazing sound system picked up every click of his guitar. It's a percussive instrument. He introduced his second song as being "about one night stands." "I was born to tell this story." "How's my hair?" he asked, an inquiry that betrays being self conscious about one's basically handsome appearance.
Julian Ballard took to the piano singing all right with you. If it's all right. Julian has a nice low voice. His performance was not without snaz, and it was almost a challenge to like him. The music demands to be liked. His technique and quirky material win out in the end. See him there Saturday at 8.

Publication Notice: A new AntiFolk MagaZine centering around SideWalk artists who also play the RaVen is now available. What was formerly called AntiMatters is now AU Base and its editor in chief is none other than the amazing Patsy Grace.

By the way, regarding Rick Shapiro, like Lach says, he's "The Only Comedian That Matters."

Sometimes I feel sad and dissolute, in a state of suspension.

Anu cut my hair last night. She did so in gratitude for the Anu Hair Graduation pages at http://www.cinemavii.com/Events/13Feb2002Anu.htm.

My hair looks good!

Then I attended the SideWalk performances of Toby Goodshank and Kimya Dawson. Theirs is a style in stark contrast to the antifolk history of histrionics (a subchapter). The intensity remains. The delusion of a relaxation aura permeates. They are acting like wheel cogs performing their assigned function. They are highly observable. They are honest and confrontational and yet pleasing to the eye. Their material is outrageously humorous. I will take them up on their performance suggestions, I who was always the piano pounder, singing above my natural register... A parallel to their progression (Through "Hammel on Trial" into "Major Matt Mason, USA") may be traced in the performance of Hoagy Carmichael. He seemed to get slower, from the bix band days into the lazy river days. He didn't deintensify his performance, he only made it sound like he did.

I ran into Rick Shapiro. He had read something I wrote about him that I think you will find in these archives, around July 2001. It was a wonderful moment to see him look back at me with some inkling of recognition.

The Prepare to Meet Your Maker Soundtrack will be mixed on Saturday.

The Association of the Bar of the City of New York hosted a scotch tasting evening last night. Clunk on the floor. My favorite was that 19 year old dark one with the smokey aftertaste, but please, at one point my throat was emulating the Strept Condition. Barley and malt ferment. Single malt? The Scotland Highlands. The problem with a promotion like that is afterward you can't remember a thing. Last night my innards were burning. That's a hearty crew. Later on I ran into Turner Cody, Brer Brian, Spencer Chakidis, Monica, Turner went back to tip the bartender, our anti-hoot friend George Levy, hey, the Cinema Place on East 11th got its liquor license. I walked with him to discover all this.

Brer helped improve the Cinema VII collective with some worthwhile links to be found on his star galaxy page, and I note here his info about Surf Reality (open mikes Sunday hosted by Face boy) and Collective Unconsciousness (open mikes Wednesday hosted by Rev. Jen) <- that's the info. I saw him twice yesterday, once in the morning and once in the evening.

Hey, tonight the moon is very full.

Dear Terry and Yuko, I include in this email an informative, if completely outrageous, speach given during one of the early runs of Prepare to Meet Your Maker.

Here's an announcement:

The theatrical centerpiece of the WAH Center's Apocalypse '99 returns to the stage June 2nd, 7, 8 & 9 & 14, 15 & 16.

Celebrating the release of the WAH Center's first musical theatre soundtrack album, the WAH Center Theatre Wing will present seven encore performances of Prepare to Meet Your Maker.

For your consideration: The Essay: Prepare to Meet Your Maker and the Issue of Consent (Please note that, herein, kiss may be substituted for all terms of passion.)

Good evening, Ladies and Gentlemen. Allow me to introduce to you Prepare to Meet Your Maker, the heavenly musical mystery play by Peter DIzozza (celebrating the release of its soundtrack album with seven performances at the Williamsburg Art & Historical Center.)

This surrealist masterwork depicts the meeting of a corpse, Cementeria, and a gravedigger, Quasimodo, who, through contact with one another, are both invigorated and revitalized.

The action takes place in and around a pearly-gated community, called the Ordered World. Only people who have been to the baptist may enter this exclusive enclave.

Cementeria (an unwashed cindergirl) takes drastic, and some may say offensive, steps to be with the baptist -- in doing so she follows in the footsteps of Salome.

By beheading the baptist, she gains entrance to the Ordered World, but, once inside, she meets her maker, dies and is promptly removed by Quasimodo and other hunchbacked gravediggers, who treat her lifeless body like so much after-dinner garbage.

The male romantic lead in this work, Quasimodo, initially sees himself as repellent and solitary, certainly not above administering rohypnol, the "date/rape drug," if such were available. Instead, he satisfies himself with the dead. Therefore, the only Ordered World residents he embraces are corpses.

The discarded Cementeria offers much to those with whom she comes in contact, and Quasimodo is the first to discover this.

When Quasimodo's graveyard lovemaking awakens Cementeria, her first order of business is to improve his health and posture "I don't like you hunched over like that. Stand up straight."). Then, applying lessons in personal hygene learned from her experience with the baptist, she and Quasimodo return to the pearly gated community of the ordered world (through a side entrance) and present themselves as a proud couple that the ordered world residents wish to embrace and include among the best of them.

All goes well for a time until Quasimodo reveals their secret, "She's dead and my fucking her is what's keeping her alive."

Upon learning this, a strong-arm coalition of necrophiliac-bashers force them to separate.

The rest of the story portrays their reunion and subsequent rehabilitation as participants in an ancient Egyptian tale of resurrection, the legend of Isis and Osiris.

(Kerrigan Webb as Cementeria and Charles Herold as Quasimodo)

Along with the dead, many issues are raised within the breathtaking scope of this work, not the least of which is the issue of preservation or disposal of the dead, currently an issue of cryonics or cremation. Furthermore, as a surrealist work, Prepare to Meet Your Maker defies explanation, yet one issue does reoccur which is worth considering during the Dawn of the Age of Romantic Enlightenment announced within the work, and that is why, I suggest we consider Prepare to Meet Your Maker and the issue of consent.

"'At the moment of consent I say, 'It wasn't what I meant.' It only takes an instant to be cured of a forfeiture.'"

That quote from one of the 12 songs in the show (The Cage is Chilly) is important because both Quasimodo and Cementeria act in ignorance of consent at some point early in the story,

Cementeria in kissing the baptist,

and Quasimodo in kissing (fucking) Cementeria;

both actions occur at times when the object of their affection is unable to refuse,

the baptist, because he has been beheaded

and Cementeria because she is dead.

There is little more to be said on the subject except that Cementeria does come to appreciate and instruct Quasimodo on the importance of consent for mutual satisfaction in long-lasting growth relationships. It is she who advises him, "a woman should be conscious before you start getting excited about her."

Here is yet another example of how Prepare to Meet Your Maker contributes to the greater goal of Romantic Enlightenment for all. Go forth in a state of exuberance. Thank you.

And thank you, for wading through this. Perhaps it will be of some assistance in promoting the show.

We can sell the soundtrack CD at the performances and on the WAHCenter.org site to raise money for theatre development there...

Yours truly, Peter

I'm moving Part Two of the April 8, 2002 antihoot to the end of part one.

Wow! Welcome to Wowtown! It's the April 8th, 2002, Antihoot at SideWalk and I'm deciphering my memo notes. Thomas Tumax played a great song about the groundhog that passed (it peaked out its nose into the path of a passing meteor). "It's a Full Moon Over Wowtown." See him Friday at Sidewalk with David Dragov opening the night.

Chris, wearing a Ramones T and playing a nylon string guitar, and Dan, on bass, played a great first song and the second, a two chord walk on the wild side song.

Joe Bendik's opened with an open tuning steel slide of a song with the lyric,"My Landlord Not Feeling What I Mean." He's always up against The Man, and frankly, I think he can handle it. Next song, a list song with a gospel blare repeated that "It's a a fine Line between," well, a list of things, most memorable being, as Lach quoted throughout the night, a blow job and getting sucked... I think there was a female reference contained in the line.

Robin, like Chris, was also in nylons (nylon guitar strings, originally catgut??? more easily obtained than wire... Smithsonians? History lesson please.) She sang about the Blackstar Cowboy with buddhist tendencies.

Casey Holfet back from California with Jenn Lindsay talked about riding in the back middle seat of the car, riding bitch, and an audience member corrected him, saying the term referred to the passenger on a motorcycle. Casey played a 12 string, filling the room with it, and his voice, during the chorus climax of his great second song, one of his earlier songs.

Sonia, in love with the pencil bearded silent bob (yes, the man with a view askew), but respectful of his marriage vows, (it's the innovative filmmaker/writer/actor/auctioneer, Kevin Smith -- she confessed her fondness when Lach asked about the cartoon graphic sticker of him and his blonder counterpart on her guitar.), Sonia, at eighteen, is one powerhouse vocalist and simply the coolest of the coverers. I am so grateful for her performance of Look how they shine for you, referring to the stars; it's a strong song by Cold Play. Good thingI was sitting with musicologist tv personality Dave of Dave's Place. She also referred to that good feeling when they knocked out the Death Star, a Star Wars reference, thank you Joseph Cambell for at least making such info available, again I owe understanding the reference to The Dave of Dave's. The reason for the reference being the parallel in movie history heights achieved with the ending flames of The Fight Club. Then she played the Pixies song that plays under The Fight Club end credits, "Where is My Mind," beautifully performed. Pixie guys, you'll love her. (Before her I only knew "Is she weird? Is she white? Is she promised to the night? -- and her head has no room -- is she...").

Lach observed that the Sinking of the Bismark was, like the destruction of the death star, a turning point, this one for England v. Germany. He just saw the Christopher Lee film version. He also described a Real World documentary about a cosmonaut stuck up in the Mir Space Station during the Soviet/Russia transition. You're going next week, right? AntiHoot Open Mike hosted by Lach every Monday at SideWalk, 94 Ave A, NYC's East Village.

Next stop, the Nemo conference performer presenting a cliche ridden specifics aversion song for the Poor Little Rich Girl and all the kings horses couldn't put richie together again. (Noel Coward wrote to her, "don't drop a stitch too soon." Did he coin the PLRG phrase? Brikell well caught the gist when she songwrote to the iconic Edie Sedgwick)

During the second song ("clone me" inspired by the pet cloners' press release), I started critiquing the steak wrap I was eating. Dave pointed to the salt & pepper shakers and I started critiquing them until his definitive "vintage" left nothing more to be said on the subject. Anyway, and obviously, the performer's two songs were quite strong in that they made identifiable marks upon the memory. .

Chris Taylor started off slow and ended big with what is the very big "Come Over Here My Love," and followed with the not too dissimilar sounding "I'm Sorry." He brings to mind the later set of James Levy. Both have strong realistic rock ballad voices and songs that grow.

Lach with the elegant Chuck on Sax performed "I Always Love the Girl Who Lives in a Private World, and I Become a Jester Just to Get Her To Smile at Me," and with regard to the statement contained therein, SO DO I, although I'd love to temper "Always" with "when I think she on to something," or is that, "when we discover the near spiritual connection that has ALWAYS existed between the two of us?" Dream on.

He followed with his hilariously unique brand of the blues riff, "Drinking Beers with Mom."

Jordan Corbin performed the indelible Halfway Dingbat Halfway Smart Halfway Science Halfway Art. And the Bird on a Painting song which some say refers to female orgasm. Dave observed that vocally she bears resemblence to Jil Sobel. I forgot to ask who that is. Could it be the woman I know as Just Jill?

Nell Baliban, with "Just No Forcing Love" followed by the beautiful jazz chorded "Wallow," provided a Joni Mitchell moment or two.

Next played a fellow wearing a parks department shirt; I meant to ask, does he play guitar for the NYC Parks Dept? He'd pasted his ID on the guitar. I think Sean was his name. Parks permits are essential during the summer.

James Levy played Cementeria or, rather, something about cemeteries, and was joined by Dina Dean for Smoking in my Window. There's a girl at my window.... "Who on earth is tapping at the window?" asked Elvis Costello. "She Came In Through The Bathroom Window," was a refreshing moment during the mordant second side of the Abbey Road album with the funeral march cover. Was Paul Dead Or Not? Not in that song. (added note: I'm just remembering how depressingly horrifying that album was. Can an audience really make entertainers THAT weird?)

Yuka played and sang one outrageously controlled simple single note sounding ukeleili song, followed by and joined by Joe Driscoll for the beautiful Yes Yes Yes! Joe provides beats -- tasteful mouth percussion. Joe runs Artland on Grand Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Do you think I keep up with this detail? I played next joined by J.T. Casaubon. Maybe more later. See you there Sunday April 14th at 10! This is a continuation of the blogger entry that precedes it.

Last night I played "Cul de Sac" and, with Josh (J.T. Casaubon) singing, "Don't Leave Me Behind (Prisoners of War)," then went downstairs to speak with Jenn about California venues. She likes Javanikan in Pacific Beach and Zodiak Cafe in La Mesa, both locations suburbs of San Diego. In San Francisco she likes Coffee House at Stanford University, The Hotel Utah Saloon and Cafe Du Nord.

Regarding Jamie Litt I have The Dave of Dave's note, nice hair, longer than ever.

Earl Pickens did his cowboy routine with open shirt revealing a T that read "Don't Fuck with New York." Let's all add the poetic follow-up line together, "'Cause New York will fucking kill you." He plays Saturday with his Black Mountain Maurauders.

Magicomic Asi bent spoons with his eyes. Jordan Corbin tried to afterward. He asked Jordan to sign his mailing list and she promptly took his sharpy and traced over her police acadamy sweat shirt, actually only over the "po" part...

Of Thee I sing, Baby.
The Thee of which I Sing is You!
The thee of whom I sing is you?
Eric McFadden of Funkadelik introduced the above word ideas with intricate guitar interplay.

Dave provided these names for while I was occupied: James Levy, we remember him. Lorraine Leckie, Timothy Dark, oh, I was back for Pre-War Yardsale. Their next stop is London!

Mary Gatchell played a song to help us recover from the inadequate Titanic Ballad, quite an inspiration to hear.

Anika played, oh, and it's anika that rhymes with Monica, her second song being an earlier one, "fuck with me. She sang, if you do, then do it right. Lach managed to offend a woman from England when he regretted missing the premier to Spiderman. Apparently, he'll be n England where they're just getting premiers of Planet of the Apes.

Atoosa combined Karma, Hades, Isees and Pythons in her first song. Her second song, a new one, quite beautiful and simply accompanied, was called sun yellow reversal. Was she wearing a sun yellow reversal at the time? We get spliced from circles into triangles.

Leaving I saw Adam Green, Joie DBG and Cockroach in the restaurant area, Cockroach being particularly well shaved. Apparently the way to go is a woman's bic with aloe. Sidewalk resumes serving its breakfast special after midnight. No one with three dollars shall go hungry there! Before the eggs arrived, I left.

And that's all I have to say about the latest in popular music as of last night.

The Golf Wars first concert reading, at La MaMa e.t.c.! April 5th, 2002, with Nadja Stokes, Beth Benjamin, Helen Senechal, J. T. Casaubon, Peter Dizozza & John Seroff. It returns to the stage May 26th at SideWalk! http://www.cinemavii.com/projects/thegolfwars.htm

At The New York City Bar Association's Bar All-Star Revue organized by Havona Madama I performed "Let Me Be," "Don't Leave Me Behind" (from The Golf Wars) and Tu Pac's "I Get Around." I had the pleasure of welcoming Maria Guccione back to the stage with her singing "I'm a Stranger Here Myself" and "Buddie Beware." Other performances by Jonathan Perkel, Ondine Darcyl, Ellen and Frank Estes, Elizabeth Keitel, Jennifer Shafer, Erik Hanson and Tyrone Mark Powell. I played piano for Erik's performances of Flanders and Swann's "Have Some Madiera, My Dear." (Forget the Rohypnol. A swig of this and she awakens with a smile on her face and his beard against her cheek.)

"Welcome to my Inner World. ... There are no flies on me!" -- no, not here.
Last night Steve Espinola and I wrote a song for collaboration night at Sidewalk. Steve Shiffman on guitar joined us in our presentation of it, which followed immediately thereafter. It was another instance of spontaneous combustion during an evening that began with The 48 Hour Spontaneous Combustion Production at Manhattan Theatre Source. There may be a stillness to the inner world, but in the collective outer world it's like we're living fifty years in a day.

The parallel in Sweet Smell of Success between the leads and Ike and Tricky, Eisenhower and Nixon, is humorous to say the least. Where Sunset Boulevard the musical merely stimulates yearning for the film, The Sweet Smell of Success may actually supplement and stand on its own.

A new version of my ghost story, "The Eleventh Hour," opened Friday the 15th at the WAH Center to a warm response. Congratulations to John Seroff and all involved. The date also marked my grandmother's 97th birthday.

"In the stillness of suspension, as the suspense continues, onto other matters including tending to the matters of the day." (The utterance of that line ended the 1999 version.)

Kurt Kobain would have been thirtyfive on the day the zeroes were bookened between the twos. Covering Nirvana songs can reveal limitations, even though Nirvana songs sound like anyone can sing them. Certainly anyone can feel them.

Last night at SideWalk I received the reminder of where the innovative songwriters go.
I heard cool music coming from the system. It was Joe Bendik's new CD.
Testosterone Kills opened with a Korg Moog accompaniment.
Then Jen sang about the "can of sleep" that I'd like to open and pour into my aluminum stovepot.
Prewar Yardsale took the stage with I am the Life of the Party. I am Alone at my party. All my friends left, or were clumsy to fall through a trap door. A great song. They played a rhythmic version of the Nirvana song with the line, "with (your) eyes so dilated, I become your pupil."
I thought the line was theirs, but there's a 35th birthday event that they're participating in at the Knitting Factory, playing the whole well-recorded album, "nevermind," apparently that pupil song's on it. Hey, that album returned my attention to popular music. The Olive Juice crowd participating may have picked up a few songwriting pointers and you'll see them if you, like I, plan to go to the Nirvana Knitting Factory evening this Wednesday.
Steve Schiffman asked, How come everyone's getting married (song one), then played his hit song, "I don't want to spend a day..."
Jeff Lewis with his decorated although not exceptionally crafted in appearance guitar performed Living in the Graveyard. It's an unbelievably favorite song of mine, fitting into a Lenny Molatov favorite category because of the unique sounding tuning guitar twang. I miss Jeff's mother's little brown Martin, but this guitar sounds great. What a fun song!
Tamany reintroduced herself, she was arrested in Seattle with Seashepard, a group that rams boats, and I mistook the boyfriend influence element to be reference to Sam Shepard, and she said he can ram into her anytime. Sugar pills and peroxide seemed to be part of her first song's prescription. In the second, for the lesbians, she acknowledged someone as being "so down for me."
November Rain, Don't Cry, these are favorite guns and roses songs. The subject of G&R came up when Joie DBG appeared in a Tumbling Dice at Vegas Guns and Roses t-shirt. He sang Rock Star Junkyard with audience yelps, connecting with the brilliant Lach crowd control. We remembered a guns and roses blue and red double cd, "Illusions, Use them or lose them"
The "Down" lyric ("so down for me") continued with Major Matt's double, "Come on Down" and "The Whole Way Down" followed by Cockroach's "Calm Me Down." There was some variance when Cockroach's next song featured the line "Hold Me In."
Dave of Dave's place popped in with a reminder of grammar school classmate of mine that he met.
I was sitting with Brer Brian and Baby Skins.
Dave Deporis sang, "Watch as my country goes to war again." He prepared a guitar and sang possessedly. He also had a line about Onion Breath. He drew the longest applause of the night.
Dina sang, "No that ain't tea in Grandma's cup" in Hold up the Night, a great song with the I II IV progression strummed in a new rhythmic way. Her voice and that song are exceptional. What natural ease! I miss the Flowers is another note I have in my little memo book, what do you think? I remembered any of this? I'm just typing out my notes in a semblance of sentences. Actually, I remember it as I write it, not otherwise, though. Our sensory perceptions stay in the brain as memory but we need stimulation to access them.
"Why you sitting over there when you got a warm place to share IN THE PRINCE'S BED" asked Adam Green. Uh, well, a memorable new song.
Jordan overwhelmed the blues wailers of the past, my favorite of her lines being "Go get the nipple of your goddess moon."
Kimya played two beautiful songs, and yes, by not writing memory lines and simply gushing with acknowledgement over how wonderful her set was, I'm left commentless... Her brother's coming back. She had an evolving pattern in the chorus, her strumming fingers worked like a centerpede upon the strings.
Pab, the Argentinian Cellist singer songwriter, sang I don't cry for Argentina, but for my family living over there!
It was president's day and Lach was asking who's your favorite, and with regard to Argentina, being that the terms there have run in the weeks, we reached a funny new awareness of the differences in the world. His second song had a great rhythm.
I played at some point in the night, Take Me Love, and the song I'd recorded that day with Major Matt entitled "Don't Leave me Behind," which by now you'd think I'd know. "Unlawful combatants, Unwilling Detainees, just call us Prisoners of War." Maybe next time I'll actually sing that. Lach dispelled my notion of the kinder than Guilliani Bloomberg with 30 tickets for postings on public property of a gig at The Sidewalk. He didn't have the number of the artist who posted (or who had directed his lackey's to do so for him) so SideWalk gets the tickets. Major Matt sings eloquently on this subject, a flyer upon a flyer upon a flyer, and everyone represents a dream.. to paraphrase...

I've met again Donna Ong, who I know from the second Witchfinders Production in 1997. Her website is www.athena-music.com. I must include her in the Star Galaxy. We're at Lisa Dery's apartment in Englewood right now.

It's "whom," isn't it...

Ah. Another opinion just in, Polly Paulusma, singer songwriter from London, with whom Major Matt Mason USA and I shared the bill at Spice of Life. "Peter, I LOVE Pro-Choice on Mental Health. You get me at that crying/laughing cusp."

Ah, returning to the office this morning after our London trip I found the following on my desk, the first review of the Pro-Choice on Mental Health CD and it's terrible. It's so bad that I must put it on the website, linked to the PConMH project page, and here it also is:

It's the 4th of February, 2002. The following criticism leaves the reader with no doubt that it is a negative review of the Pro-Choice on Mental Health CD.  
Applause! Applause! Volume VIII, Issue 2 Dr. Thomas Robert Stevens Editor in Chief, Tel/Fax: 718-357.7075 A subscription publication
John Patrick Schutz
Pro-Choice on Mental Health - Peter Dizozza
CD Review (CVII Recordings)
As the album cover states, "Pro-Choice On Mental Health - A Seven Song Cycle with Monologues and Mini-Play" originated on a Strange Folk Sunday at Lach's Fort at SideWalk in January of 1996. Somehow though only thirty-seven minutes and twenty seconds long, the piece seemed to me to take at least two or three geological ages of the world. Then I actually had to listen to it AGAIN in order to review it properly. I would love to sue to get that hour and a half of my life back. To be fair, I am unsure whether this performance art piece is to be taken seriously or considered a satire of the mental health system in this country. If seriously, I am very frightened for the artist, and suggest that he get a new therapist and get off the medication he claims on the album they are prescribing for him. If this is indeed satire, I failed to find the humor. Yes, our mental health system leaves much to be desired, and yes, the "magic pill" for every problem in your life may have created a generation of insecure neurotics who think peace of mind can only be found through chemicals. Unfortunately, this piece doesn't find any recognizable humor in these foibles. The monologues are abrupt and lacking in focus, and the songs are recorded with the singer off-key against a sythesized score with a mechanical rhythm device. Again, extremely unfortunate if serious and extremely annoying if purposeful.
The song lyrics are simplistic and without clear direction; "Thank you doctor, you heard all of it, and your pills they do not hurt a bit. I have been caught in time, to sit with dreams benign. But come the clear sign, I lash out like lions - in their prime." And so on, and so on. If you care to listen to someone else's therapy, perhaps this album is for you. As for me, in ten years of reviewing, I have always strived to find something positive to say about any work I review, no matter how unpolished or incomplete. It hurts me to do so, but unfortunately, the only positive thing I can find about "Pro-Choice On Mental Health is that having listened to it twice, I will never have to listen to it again. The album appears to be available through www.cinemavii.com. 
Peter Dizozza comment: It appears from a web search that John Patrick Schutz is a 2 time MAC nominee Cabaret Performer (The Manhattan Association of Cabarets & Clubs gives out MAC awards.). He has worked with Neil Burg, a songwriter music director whom I know from the BMI Music Theatre Workshop. Although his review is dismissive, I find no fault in it. I question whether the literal meaning of the word "listen" applies when he uses it, since it is my position that if he had listened he would have enjoyed the album. His quote from The Song of Laughter and Forgetting is representative of my lyric writing. I do not claim to take medication in the album. Although he states it as obvious, his well-worded statement, "Yes, our mental health system..., Yes, the 'magic pill'...." accurately summarizes the album's intent.   

Here's you're chance to get a copy of your very own. (The new edition is enhanced with an MPEG scene from The Last Dodo and bonus tracks, alternate takes of songs from other CVII recordings, featuring my controversial vocals.)

While in London, I bought Time Out London's number 1640 & 1641.
Here are their Dizozza descriptions.

Number 1640
Friday 25, * Peter Dizzoza + Conrad Vingo + Overwater + Liam Moore + Andi Neat Up All Night at Spice Of Life W1. Unsigned talent showcase, headlined by funny anti-folk fella Dizzoza, who plays keyboards for Major Matt Mason USA and here promotes his new CD, 'Pro-Choice On Mental Health'.

Number 1641
Wednesday 30 * Peter Dizzoza + Amy Thomas + James Henry + Toph Up All Night at River Bar & Brasserie S#1, Dizzoza is the latest (and possibly strangest) star of downtown NYC's anti-folk scene to make it across the pond. Imagine a nerdy John Turturro playing Woody Allen and chanelling Harry Nilsson and you're half way to grasping the Sondheim meets Burroughs vicissitudes of new CD, 'Pro-Choice On Mental Health'. Maybe he'll perform his sublime, hysterical 'miniplay', 'Self Rape Among Tubing'.

Heroes is Marvel comics contribution to the World Trade Center Disastor Relief Fund, the Twin Towers Fund, and the comic may even mention the idea of someone organizing an auction of the original drawings. Thanks to Mr. Kay, (first name?) the auction took place this evening at Club 101 at 101 Park Avenue. I piled four country's food atop a plate and took my seat by Coleen Delaney and there I remet my friend, John Sturner, who has moved from his DuRona studios (he made children's comercials in the Yonkers terrytoons studio) into collecting, and his collecting includes comics. The auction was beautifully conducted by filmmaker Kevin Smith who bid against the audience for the last piece and went home with it, THEY DIDN'T EVEN give him a bag, actually there were bags there, he was just carrying it out to show people its splendor. It's of a firefighter appearing out of the carnage THANK YOU to save us (The artist is Brian Stelfreeze). You may know Kevin's alter ego, Silent Bob, who conducted the silent auction, one of the items there being a Mercedes Mountain Bike. I wonder who got that.

I spent the past week at the New York City Bar Association with other members of the Entertainment Committee preparing for this past evening's presentation of Scaling The Heights: The Life and Times of Betty Ellerin. I learned that she was the presiding justice on the Appelate Division, and now Judge Nardelli is acting justice. The governor appoints the head of this appelate court. The group of people working together became, rather quickly, a family where people were genuinely interested in talking and getting to know one another. These times when there is a project with a due date, a performance project, these are quite the happiest times. It's also great and expanding, in this ever expanding universe, to meet new people and to rediscover the world through them.