FOCUS ON THE GRAIN

At Groun Zero, 2004

2011-09-11T12:05:00.002-04:00

I didn't get to see the site of our worst disaster until 2004, and came away struck by the size of it all, and the solemn nature of my visit. Here is pix of Chapel that survived, wall postings at site, and after I took a ferry and it was raining, kind of a calming experience after seeing Ground Zero.

Allen Ginsberg - the poem America

2011-05-14T22:28:00.008-04:00

I've been working on this silkscreen for about 6 months. It is based on the poem America and I like the final result. It is 22" x 30" on Arches 88 paper. This is one of three variations of this piece.

The top image is America (Blue), the middle is Untitled, and the last piece (not shown) is America (Red). It's not easy to color correct these pieces, but I'm working on the digital repro so it's more accurate.

I have been invited to the Florence Biennale for 2011. It is an honor, of course, but very expensive to participate. Any sponsors out there? Any advice out there?

Patti Smith and Me

2010-12-13T17:45:00.008-05:00

I'm happy to say I got to meet Patti Smith at the Free Library in Philadelphia, on December 8, 2010. I had hoped to give her a photo silkscreen of Robert Mapplethorpe, an entire contact sheet I took in black and white back in 1985. I recently screened it with a layer of grey, and then black on top. She seemed happy to see the piece, and it was a pleasure to give it to her.

She read from her award winning book Just Kids, and was charming and funny. She sang a cappella, "Because The Night". The entire event can be heard at the Free Library of Philadelphia website, author events, and you can download the podcast.

It's the culmination of one year working with these negatives, which I am also making silkscreened portraits of, and Warhol influenced pieces. The next piece is a photo-silkscreen of an image of Allen Ginsberg I took back in l984. He is sitting on a floor, holding a camera. It's interesting that Patti Smith knew him well, so there is synchronicity in this work I have been doing.

Photograph courtesy of Christine Dreyfus

Keep Your Fair Use Fingers Out of My Copyright Pie

2010-11-15T11:27:00.006-05:00

I use my own original images in my work, whether it be silkscreen, non-silver processes or photographs. It's a bit disconcerting to see some around me use images that are not their own, or if questioned, say they don't know where they got the image. I'd be pretty upset if I came upon one of my own images in use by another. It's bad enough that shows charge an artist to enter, then award to the 'best of'' with that money. Very little art funding gets to working artists out there, at least those like me who have to work a job and keep time for art work. There does not appear to be any guidelines for protecting visual artists, and very little support for them.

I would prefer that artists never enter a competition that charges money. Stop the exploitation.
Demand that a large percentage of 'art funding' goes to having an open call exhibition that does not cost the artist a fee.

I've been finishing two silkscreen pieces on Thom Yorke (Radiohead) from my photograph. The first one is an edition of 8, with three pieces already gone and one I shall keep for myself. The other 4 I will put up for sale. The color can vary a bit from one to the other, and a bit of stray paint can hit part of the paper (Arches 88) it is screened on. I believe that I have Johnny Greenwood in the corner, a bit darker in the image. As I always say, I pray at the church of Radiohead.

I saw a film recently titled "Everlasting Moments", a Swedish film by Jan Troell (watch the extra footage about him, and with him revealing much about his inspiration). Like the great film Seraphine, the film addresses that spark that an artist feels that brings him or her into the realm of inspiration. There is a line in the film about 'one who sees' and once you see, you cannot unsee. Beautiful piece.

New Silkscreen - Michael Moore

2010-08-25T21:51:00.004-04:00

I'll get back to more of the Mapplethorpe silkscreens, but I just did this silkscreen using an image of Michael Moore (in Philadelphia, around l995 0 l996). It's a very simple image in a way, and for me symbolic of many things about Michael Moore.

The Title is: More Michael Moore. 22' x 30". To me he is a great modern Statesman. He wears the same hat (varies in color) most of the time, a working/playing mans hat. An ordinary mans hat. He is a smart man who speaks freely. We could use many More Michael Moores around this nation. I am sick of the politic-speak, the huge gap between everyman (woman) and the powers that be.

**Note - there is a hue over the white paper in this photo; can't seem to get rid of it.

New silkscreen = Silver Mapplethorpe

2010-08-11T13:34:00.003-04:00

This piece is unique, 30" x 22" on BFK

lst Piece: Mapplethorpe Double

2010-08-01T21:12:00.006-04:00

15" x 22" BFK Rives Paper Silkscreen: acrylic and watercolor.
First set of these (about six unique pieces) are finished.

Silkscreen - Robert Mapplethorpe

2010-07-02T09:42:00.006-04:00

Don't expect a high-quality digital file to ever be uploaded here. I have problems with the 'fair use' issues and like artists in other mediums, I think my work should be protected.

This is one of the second set of silkscreens I have hand-pulled, using my own negatives of Mapplethorpe, back in l985. I like the Warhol-like style, and go a bit farther with that idea. This one has color, but most don't.

I think you would agree with me that Robert Mapplethorpe himself is/was an object of beauty and desire. He would probably like these pieces. I'd like to think so. I am drawn to the power of his 'gaze' in this image. Here is one of the smaller ones.

Robert Mapplethorpe and Me

2010-05-30T13:01:00.010-04:00

It was the Fall of l985. Our Senior Seminar in Photography class had an assignment: Go see this fashion photographer speak at Moore. The exhibition titled Memento Mori: All Art Is A Revolt Against Man's Fate was up in the gallery and in a small auditorium I saw Robert Mapplethorpe for the first time. He was classically tall, dark and very handsome. I was told he was also gay. I had recently become aware of such men, with a super-real beauty, that existed in Philadelphia. I was dating a fellow photography student and I had taken him to see my best friend sing in a well known Mens Choir. Not long after, my date confessed to me that he had cheated on me with a man in the choir, a large bear of a fellow whose wide smile and great humor charmed all about him, including me. So I was confused. I broke up with this guy, of course. I was not in love with him. He was a delicate bird, truly. In mulling it over, I think my date needed the positive attention of many, he was just so emotionally frail. And his artwork was lovely.

So I'm thinking about this group of men. Being a country girl in the Big City, I was taken to a restaurant by my best friend, a straight guy, with a group from the choir. This place was on South Street, where the alternate people go, and in this place were some of the most beautiful men, well-dressed. I was told that many made a good living, many were rich. I began to notice them whenever I was out, a certain group in tailored suits, and what could have been make up, distinctive and apart, as if the mythical Gods had come to play in modern times. Competition. It was the first time in my life that I saw a male as competition. They were more elegantly groomed and dressed then I would ever be. So sitting in that auditorium, I had some baggage. I didn't like fashion, or photography in fashion, and those that knew me understood that I was the Contrarian.

Mapplethorpe sat in an auditorium chair as he was introduced. I watched him, he seemed a bit nervous, turning in his seat. I had my 35mm camera and started taking photographs, mostly of him. I got the feeling he didn't like my doing that. He looked at me several times, his large, elegant, porcelain spider hand stretched toward me across a seat. I took more photos. As I listened to the intro, I began to understand that he was not 'just' a fashion photographer. His work was what I call the 'best' that any artist can do, severely personal. As the images began to roll by, I got an impression of him. The thing I look for in my students, as well as artists I admire, is that willingness to be who you are through your own eyes. It takes great courage, especially when the public comes down on you. I am a great fan of said people. No matter the medium, either, as I think of great writers who ended up in jail for having followed the truth, or had their work banned.

So Mr. Mapplethorpe spoke softly and smiled often. After his S&M photographs were up on the screen, I was a bit disgusted. Later I raised my hand and asked something like this: How can you call that art? I wish I could remember what he said to me. I do remember his gaze which seemed to hold the pain, peril and pleasure from an excavated life. His lips broke a tolerant smile of ten thousand answered questions. It sticks in my mind that he smiled often. I went up later and said hi. My thoughts had already turned to admiration. I didn't have to like the work to understand that this man put it all out there and took the criticism, and yes, the fame as well. I was beginning to compose the paper I had to write for my teacher, who was a New York art critic and spending this one semester in Philadelphia. I will spell out the paper for you in the next post. I seem a bit naive in my paper, but was able to see the work in it's own unique way.

I didn't think much about him until after I graduated in 1986. I worked for an art dealer who bought and sold photographic works around the world, and I got to view and hold and matt and frame many original works and send them off in the mail to museums and collectors. I found out Mapplethorpe was a collector of works himself, and I was influenced by some of those great early masters and it changed my own artwork. In December l988 I saw The Perfect Moment exhibit at ICA in Philadelphia. It was wonderful to see much of his great work in one space. I loved that he loved the beauty he saw in objects and people. The separate room for the S&M work was not so great to me, but I did get that this was his expression and I liked that he did it anyway, that he created what he saw as remarkable, whatever the subject may be. I believe sometime around then I heard he had AIDS.

Then I got a job at ICA in January. I was there a couple of weeks when The Perfect Moment Exhibition was packed up and sent to tour. I believe the first stop was Washington DC, and from there on it's history, what happened. Every day we would hear something that shook us. Nothing less than a revolt against art. I heard the name Jesse Helms. I saw the work of Andres Serrano. Then the Mapplethorpe exhibit traveled on and a curator or director got arrested. Now there was a pall upon the community. I half-expected to have a swat team come into ICA and arrest us. I had a series of what I considered lovely male nudes. Now I wanted to hide them in a closet. So, once again, Robert Mapplethorpe (and Andres Serrano-whose work I love-even as a girl raised Catholic) had a large impact on me, and this time a negative impact on my own artwork. More later...

The Ease of Days

2010-05-17T12:25:00.005-04:00

So I went to Paris and kept up with my young niece. She is a fireball of energy, and me, I take things a bit slower, and my mind races with ideas.

My niece thinks that I have ADD. I had to look at why she said that, and the reason is: a memoir that needs re-writing, a screenplay that needs re-writing, a set of short stories (mostly complete), a new novel about a group of survivors, etc. I am currently teaching darkroom photo classes, but also taking a class in Silkscreen, which I have on my list of 'must do' and finally, I am in it. I love it. I am taking images from Robert Mapplethorpe that I took way back in l985, as the negatives are weak and they render well in silkscreen. This all explains why my niece thinks, as when she asks me what I'm doing, all of the above comes out, with updates.

What she doesn't realize is that for the first time in my life, I see that there is a tunnel. Maybe I don't see the tunnel yet and surely not the end of it, but I am aware that it is there. I cared for my mother as she died from Alzheimers and it changed the very essence of what living is for me. So since I sense the tunnel, I am gauging the distance and suddenly, I am in a hurry. Time has a different feel. It's more precious. I have so much to say.

I don't care for the pressure I feel to get it all done. I remember very well the ease of days, the endless, casual lack of time. No artist has a day off, it's all part of the work. I have to make time just to be in time. I envy her time-sense.

Thanks for the support recently, and the feedback to all.

Snowed In...... Again

2010-02-10T08:25:00.003-05:00

Shifts of shoveling snow to keep it at bay. Can't settle enough to write, so I'm reading screenplays for new films.

Snow, snow and more snow

2010-02-06T11:20:00.005-05:00

Am doing shifts of shoveling with one one lone aluminum shovel, a trusted ten year old simple tool. My neighbors start up their gas powered blowers, or small tractors and I hate the noise of their machine beasts, which ruin the tranquil beauty of the l8' snowscape.

I took this photo last week before the new blizzard. I'll get back there to do the snow version. Once again Mother Nature reminds us we are just little molecules.

Listening to a lovely album by Melody Gardot. It's not lost on me that she was hit by a car in Philadelphia while attending the Art Institute for fashion design. A few years later, with her permanent injuries, she is a darling in Paris for her vocal beauty. It's a wonderful listen and I actually bought this one to keep. The rest of my time is spent with the characters who occupy my mind, one book on teaching art that I am writing (fiction), and a book of short stories. Also, what I hope will turn into a screenplay after it's come out in a fiction form.

Neighbors

2009-10-29T13:31:00.002-04:00

Ah. Always trouble with neighbors. I prefer the birds who watch quietly from above, occasionally swooping into my garden. My little Yug pup likes to chase the birds, and they seems to enjoy the chase, barking back at the dog.

Type 55 Polaroid

2009-08-27T11:54:00.004-04:00

I am in denial that Polaroid discontinued Type 55 film for large format. For about l2 years I shot many images in large format, and of those last few years it was all Type 55. This positive/negative film produced the most exquisite thin, dense negative. This delicate negative produced lovely large photographic prints onto graded Agfa Portriga paper, which was also discontinued. Seems that products are made for the masses, and not for small consumer concentrations, such as darkroom photographers. I guess we are lucky that film is still being made, and silver gelatin paper is available (and costly).

This image is a Type 55 with the positive still inset inside. Me, I love the whole process of image making and am glad I saved about 5 full pieces of the original pull-apart Type 55. This happens to be on the grounds of the Philadelphia Musem of Art, circa l995 or so, before the new construction tore up the hillside in back. I loved the rustic, overgrown grounds. You can see the back edge of the roof of the Museum on the far left on the image.

The Kennedy Era

2009-08-26T15:59:00.007-04:00

My Irish Catholic parents took me and my older sister aboard a great ship from Ireland to Canada around l960. I was very young and the parents were optimistic about leaving 'the auld sod' and coming to a new country. I believe John F. Kennedy was a primary reason, and that the U.S. of A, as they called it, held the hope of possibility and freedom from the restrictions of the old land.

My Father loved taking 8mm films and photographs. Mostly he shot with Kodachrome, which has recently been discontinued. The quality of the images he took is so good, the colors still saturated and lovely in a way that I don't see much anymore, but for an altered digital file. Recently going through what remains of his slides, I scanned many and remembered his telling me a few things that stood out in his mind. One in particular is the devastation in the days following the shooting of President Kennedy. I could go on about the personal impact on my parents, and my memories of them crying (which I had never seen before) in front of a television (which we never had before) and the repeat of the shooting. Tears and television. I have maybe eight slides I found of a trip our parents took to Virginia in l964, carrying along their toddlers to Arlington Cemetery. It was a very important event, like going to Church.

I mark the passing of Edward Kennedy today as a great statesman with many personal tragedies and some bad choices.

Here are two never-before-seen images of that day when the grave was new and the eternal flame burned on top of a mound, with various military hats on the grave, and onlookers. The other I will post here is of a woman, probably a Kennedy, on a carpeted walkway with two guards as she looks at the grave. If anyone recognizes this woman, could you write?

**I removed these images. I will be printing an edition of five of each image in pigment inks on archival paper, and offering them for sale. $200 each. Size: l9 x 13 paper, image area to be determined. Email if you want one. #1 Graveside, 1964 - #2 Woman & Guards, 1964.

On the Schuylkill River/Paddle Boats

2009-08-16T12:38:00.003-04:00

It is a particularly lovely spot at the Philadelphia Museum of Art along the banks of the Schuylkill River. On this day small paddle boats were about, and a few fishermen.

This Photographic Life

2009-08-05T20:29:00.002-04:00

A short piece about making a photograph, and when some people got into my image unexpectedly.

Under The Eiffel Tower

2009-07-09T12:45:00.006-04:00

It's my birthday in a few days, so I bought myself a camera: Mamiya 645j. The body is beat up, true, but the camera has good karma, and that matters to me. I ran a role (Freudian slip, no doubt - roll) through it and it came up solid. It's always good for the work; get a new camera (format) and see things a bit different. I've been mourning the demise of Silverprint, and now have found a product by Rollei that so far is working just as well. Fantastic! I took a widelux shot I made in Paris a few years ago, and exposed it onto BFK Rives sheet and it looks good. This negative has a long story I won't go into. I recall the day under the Tower, it was crowded and cloudy as I reached the top of the Tower. I have images from there as well I will expose onto a large sheet with the hand-applied silver.

Imogen Cunningham

2009-07-08T10:16:00.003-04:00

I stumbled upon what looks like a photographic print mounted on archival mat, with printing below: 9 American Masters of Photography...San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. l980-1981. I thought it was just a poster of some sort, but it actually may be a print. Two Callas. I'm reluctant to take it apart, but peeking inside I see it is actually a mat. It is a beautiful quality of print, and Imogen Cunningham is an influence of me personally. I found these great recordings of her on YouTube. You can find just about anything and anyone on YouTube these days, even old boyfriends. Who knew?

I love to search old junk stores and garage sales. I worked for a photographic art dealer for years, and that training helped me with what to look for in old photographs. I'm not always right, but sometimes I'm just lucky.

Some Things Are A Mystery

2009-06-03T10:31:00.006-04:00

c.2009 Mo Wrestles The Spirit

I've been saying for years that Cindy Sherman is an interesting photographer, but it felt like her admission into the history of photography was more about the culture and less about the artist. Maybe true, or not. It felt accidental. She was a mystery, however. I was fortunate to see the film Guest of Cindy Sherman recently, made by Paul HO and I am grateful to him. I laughed. He is a very funny man, and he gave me an insight into what has happened in the arts, in that like stock traders or high flying groups where money is involved, this is a level in art that disturbs. The money flying around is no joke. If you get up there, you are in. It's sad, really. I don't think that Alfred Stieglitz would like what is going on. It's like a secret club, and to me as an artist, kind of disgusting. Not only does the public have little connection, but artists are not part of the scene anymore. Thank you Paul HO. Would love to see more of you. You were my stand-in observer in the obscene high-art world. I don't think it's pretty there, and I don't think our Museums do much to support artists in their areas. I've been saying that for years. All that funding, where does it go? Until museums begin programs for working artists, I think all gov. funding should be stopped.

Ah, wait! There are many great groups that support the artist directly. I'm just asking for museums to reconnect with artists in their region, and offer non-fee exhibitions to artists. That is what part of funding should go to.

Photographer versus technology

2009-01-13T19:36:00.006-05:00

In my days of training for photography, it was clear that the machine was dependent on the trained photographer. Aperture, shutter, film speed, depth of field, all terms critical to getting the image you want in just the way you want it. That was then. With digital imagery, the photographer is dependent of the ability of the camera (much like the ones in the old day), it's software, and the way it is programmed. Any fool can take a photograph. It can most often be a good photograph. Not really a challenge...I am in constant debate with my friend who just bought a good digital Nikon. We fight about what a 'real' photograph is, and he insists that he can mimic anything I can do with a black and white SLR film camera. I disagree.

I teach photography with film cameras, and those abilities are what is most missing with the digital field. If you know nothing about photography or art, it will show in your images. But it does bug me, greatly, that a digital camera can render so clearly, crisply and show you that image immediately. That is the advantage. It's making me a lazy image-maker.

Digital can't do shallow depth of field, at least without the photographer knowing what that is. If your battery dies, you are stuck. I went to Paris, and both digital cameras died on me, but my trusty manual SLR film camera worked just fine.

Image: Imaginary Stonehenge, Chester County, Pennsylvania

World Series Parade, Philadelphia, PA

2008-11-02T15:29:00.003-05:00

Came upon the "Hope" image of Obama near Broad Street in Philadelphia during the World Series Parade for the Philadelphia Phillies. All the more reason to celebrate.

THE SUN'S SOUVENIR

2008-10-12T16:54:00.007-04:00

I often get lyrics wrong, and London Calling is no exception. I always hear 'the sun's souvenir' and not the sun zooming in. It actually makes more sense to me, the ice age can't come if the sun is zooming in. This song does underscore the current economy for me, however, and I think the wrong people are being 'bailed out'. It's one more disgust on the long list of disgust I keep with people in power. No one has bailed out my market losses. And I was not stupid enough to take a mortgage I could not afford. I wonder what would happen if we let these companies go out of business, as they should. Clearly they are not good at what they do, and in things like cars that have not been practical for quite some time now, why give them any government money to keep building cars that are not good? Who is friends with who that keep getting money. Me, I don't like sending money to other countries, especially because we clearly need it.

This photograph of the crowd and empty podium at a recent Obama rally sums things up for me. I'm left in the gymnasium in the quiet aftermath wondering if anything will really change. Obama is the only sign of hope I see in the future, and I like him. I don't trust any of the other people in Washington, and why can't we fire all of them? At least take away all of their health insurance if they can't get a plan for health going for the rest of us. And outright fire the incompetent and corrupt.

This photograph is of people with hope on their faces.

Shyamalan's The Happening Review

2008-06-16T14:43:00.004-04:00

Since I was an extra, I looked forward to seeing the Happening in a theater. I loved the beginning, in Philadelphia. Course I am one of the blurs in 3oth Street Station. I thought the fear and tension at the beginning was right on, and men hurling themselves off buildings was pretty cool and unforgettable. I looked forward to what would happen next and was never bored. It did evoke the classic Hitchcock film The Birds. Perhaps the greatest scene of all time, the phone booth, remains the best. I didn't understand the lawn mower scene (trite), Nothing that new in the Happening, but liked the window-shattering craziness at the end.

It all made me look back to my first films in film school. I recently had them transferred and put them to the music in Final Cut Express, which I am now competent in. My very first film in 8mm surprised me. I haven't seen it in twenty years, and the imagery was better than I recalled. In those days it was all image. This last year I wrote my first feature, which is all words and I am just now connecting to imagery once again. Here are some still frames from that first movie.

King of the Lovely Bones - Director Peter Jackson

2008-05-30T17:42:00.005-04:00

As a young girl, my sister, her friend and I would walk in the moonlight down our long driveway and along Sugartown Road miles and miles to the friends' house. It was dark and brooding and warm, and as we pass a particular lane with a large open field, the friend would point and say "That's the field, where they found the dead girl". I was ll years old, never got the details, but the imagery of the marble shadows and ominous site stayed with me all these years. Watching the filming on a nearby street for the Lovey Bones, I wondered about that girl. At one point, as an extra for one day, I watched Peter Jackson directing. He is meticulous in the look of the film, and he took more takes of complex scenes than any other director I have worked under so far in My Year As A Movie Extra. I loved watching him work. My scene is the adorable teenage boy sitting in the gazebo with the old shopping mall activity behind him as he talks with a girl. I am directly behind them talking with another woman on a bench, and most likely I will be in the film. I didn't dare take pictures on the set for fear of being thrown off. I loved every minute of it. Can't help but think about Susie and the field where they found the dead girl here in my home town.

Making little movies

2008-05-17T18:56:00.009-04:00

Been awhile since I posted here. You'll see me in the film The Happening in June (just an extra), yeah that's me with a faux husband walking behind Mark Wahlberg at 30th St Station. Seems I keep ending up in movies with Mark Walhberg (was looking forward to Ryan Gosling in The Lovely Bones, but he was replaced by, guess who...). Have been shooting little movies myself, and finished 2nd draft of my first feature screenplay. I submitted to Sandance for the screenwriter lab, so I have been busy. I also have work in upcoming The Artful Nude exhibition at The Center for Fine Art Photography in Colorado, opens this summer. I'll be traveling out for the opening and some time to wander in the mountains.

I'm teaching myself Final Cut on my new mac laptop. I miss the days I could hold the celluloid and cut it, join it and add the soundtrack. Digital editing may be easier once you figure it out, but so far it is daunting. I am putting together a piece I'd like to submit to Ira Glass, whose This American Life I look forward to each week. I've shot the footage; this still image of a corn crib is part of the footage which will tell the story...

Movie set - The Lovely Bones

2007-10-27T13:55:00.001-04:00

Fun to have a movie shooting literally in your own back yard. Me and a friend, a dedicated Peter Jackson fan, spent a few days watching the beginning scenes. Before I got yelled at, I managed a few images of the actions. Blue car has house location just behind it. Set has now moved out into cow country....

The best scene was lovely Susan Sarandon running from the house, jumping into a car and peeling away.

Eastern State Penitentiary

2007-08-02T13:40:00.002-04:00

Here is a video of visit in July 2007. See others at Youtube.com.

Working on a movie

2007-06-22T16:19:00.001-04:00

Been real busy, working on getting my photographs organized, teaching a new class, and then out of the blue I got offered a part in a movie, as a Nun. Long days on the set, but how fun it has been. Writing first feature film screenplay as well, and it is going good.

I am resurrecting images I made of the Eastern State Penitentiary in l988. It was undecided if the prison would be sold, or kept as a historic landmark, and I worked for the Library Compay of Philadelphia, who set me and 6 other photographers loose in the site to document the eerie buildings. A few weeks ago the Travel Channel broadcast their The Haunted show live for 8 hours at the prison. What I remember most about the 1988 shoot was the Psychology wing. When I went in there I felt much discomfort, and real bad vibes...

Leon Russell, Colonial Theater, Phoenixville, PA ll/18/2006

2007-05-27T18:23:00.001-04:00

First time I have uploaded this one, with Leon talking about touring on the road with other famous people, and sings a few songs as well

Blessing of the Restaurants, Chinatown-Philadelphia

2007-02-19T15:34:00.002-05:00

Leon Russell, Colonial Theater, Phoenixville, PA ll/18/2006

2006-11-22T17:16:00.000-05:00

Legend plays at the Colonial. See my videos at youtube.com as well. I will post a link later.
Good concert! Love the man whose music got me through the late sixties/seventies.

Radiohead/videos/Tower Theater

2006-06-20T07:35:00.000-04:00

See both videos at youtube.com (shutterrelease).
Videos shot at Tower Theater on 6/l/06. Radiohead opening night.
Great concert. Rough pix, great audio! See pix below of same night.

Radiohead @ Tower Theater, Upper Darby, PA 6/1/06

2006-06-02T16:18:00.001-04:00

When I heard Radiohead was coming to the US, I wanted to see them. It has been a long time desire, and I was looking to get tickets to Bonaroo. Then I heard they would be in Philly, and not just in Philly, but in my lovely Tower Theatre. Past the age of willingness to sweat in the mud, camp under the stars, share toothbrushes and soap with my tent neighbors and calm the drunk that follows me around, I opted for the Tower.

I saw Lou Reed there twice, and Laurie Anderson once (United States). I went with my young niece and despite an attempt to get there early, it was jammed with traffic at 7:45. My niece knows it won't start until later, but my seasoned anxiety gets me passing the traffic, down a half mile and up into the side street parking. I am thinking of neighbors who lose their spots when a big act is in town, who put up with people like me jamming the streets and causing noise and more pollution, the kind of widom and empathy that only comes with age. I understand because of the bike race in Philly, where at my old house people just parked wherever they wanted, cops shut my street down and made me show id to get home. It was always great fun anyway, but a hassle when you had to get somewhere. We parked across from a huge open fenced field where teenagers were rapping and playing ball. I hoped that they would take pity on my car, understand the once in a lifetime need to see Radiohead, see all band members at one with their instruments, which makes me think of Phillip Glass and Relache, groups that do the same thing.

We walk a long way, past the tickets beggers. I don't think I heard one offer of tickets for sale, just begging for any extra ticket. People littering the revived 69th Street hillside. New shops and clubs and eateries. Years ago it was the prime shopping distict, and had a Woolworths that was priceless, with a food cafe bar. We pushed in through the crowd, me in fear of my camera being discovered. I had it under a sweater, and the guard searched my canvas backpack with particular guile and savage paranoia. We were in. It was loud and steamy as we pushed past the beer bar. The air had a persistant cloud of smoke. Soon we were at our numbered seats, right on the aisle. I listened to conversations around me. I wonder why at a concert we all feel like we own the band, know more about the band, as if we live with the band and in some cases, are willing to fight over the band. My niece and I laugh at this, and I cannot get over the fact that Radiohead are right here, right now and within easy sight. I am smitten. I am a Yorkeie. Instead of lit lighters, radiating cameraphones criss-crossed the crowd in the dark arena.

Not the smoke, nor the smell of skunk cabbage and body odors, nor the howling and spitting and the guy in front of me smoking cigarettes the whole time would dampen my great bliss.
Although I drank nothing, today I feel hungover. Couldn't sleep last night with the excitement of it all. I took two videos of the encore performances, one of No Surpises and the other...
Not sure if I can upload here or if it violates any laws if I do.