[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid: August 25, 2014]
One thing I can pretty much guarantee about August 2004 is that it was warmer than August 2014.
My main occupations were cultural, and I can hardly believe these things happened ten years ago. A bit of eating along the way.
Hirsch Grüner Veltliner, 2001
Mugar Rioja Gran Reserva, 1995
Auguste Clape Cornas, 1988
That last one is a $500 bottle, retail, these days--if you can find it.
We lined up sandwiches--meatloaf, BLT, grilled gruyère--at 'wichcraft, and avoided a mosh pit at Luna Lounge. We passed out on Sunday afternoon after a heavy brunch at Friend of a Farmer: corn bread with home-made apple sauce, "back country" eggs, crabcakes, home fries, and mulled cider. Zzzzzzz.
Then things turned pleasingly beatnik. I participated in a poetry reading, "Cool Beats," at the 6th & B community garden, voicing Lew Welch's "Chicago Poem" and the last section of Jack Spicer's "Imaginary Elegies." On the very next evening, the Bowery Poetry Club hosted a 65th birthday celebration for the poet, novelist, activist, publisher, editor, book-seller, and...oh, singer with The Fugs...Ed Sanders. The Fugs--with Sanders and the late Tuli Kupferberg--performed, and there were appearances by Ted Berrigan and Jeffrey Lewis, and birthday messages from Robert Creeley, who died the following year, and Michael Horowitz.
The following night, I saw one of Penny Arcade's all-in one woman performances--this time on the roof of the Two Boots Pioneer Theater (now a UCB venue) at Avenue A and 3rd Street. I'd first seen Penny in the legendary "Bitch! Dyke! Faghag! Whore!" on my first every visit to New York in 1990.
Closing the week (after a lunch at Landmarc--the burger, a half bottle of Domaine Ott), was a raucous edition of Loser's Lounge at CBGB's, featuring original Dictators bassist Andy Chernoff returning to the stage with Handsome Richard Manitoba, and the eternal Tish and Snookie.
And I guess it's about time to say, happy 75th birthday, Ed Sanders.
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