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