Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Yes!!
  

    
So anyway I'm back now.  We had a "Beatles in India" photo opening at
our Soho gallery.  Some shots are on my web site if you wanna take a
look...speakin' about a taste of the 60's.

I shall stand by in case some curious soul trolls or scrolls by, 
gettin' high, wonderin' why...Did anyone see "8 Mile" ( the Eminem
movie) ?  I loved the spontaneous raps in that movie, 
especially the ones without DJ's...sort of acoustic rapping.

           sitting here in limbo.....
  

    
Hello, Henry!
  

    
how did the movie look to you?
do you look ever watch for still shots when you see video?
  

    
Ya know, I never do look for still shots when I'm watching a movie or
a video.  I do pay attention to the cinematography...framing, angles,
camera movement, editing cuts...but I never relate it to still photos.
Funny I don't...I probably will now.

Hi David.  Just back from the club scene and it's 4 AM.  Art Bell
radio show is on...something about pole shifting...I'm not sure if I'm
going for it 
Saw Mike Stinson play some great roadhouse rock tonite and I didn't
take any photos...not much light.  A lot of interesting people there:
Chris from Billboard, Virginia Lee Hunter from LA Weekly, Erika from
Hits, Lucinda Williams, Don Heffington ( cool drummer ), and Asia,
budding photographer.  Drank some Coors Lights.

December 1st is starting...time marches on!
  

    
Those shots of the Beatles take me back to a whole other feeling about the 
world... do you know Paul Saltzman? Was he the official photographer for that 
trip?
  

    
I only know Paul Saltzman because I met him at my gallery last week.
Very nice Canadian chap...film maker now.

No, he was not the official photographer at all and he tells the story
of how he fell into the whole thing by chance.  Seems he was traveling
around India as a young man and received a "dear john" letter from his
girlfriend back home.  He was so broken hearted that someone along the
way suggested he try meditation and recomended he go visit the
Maharishi in the city of Rishikesh.  When he got there he was told they
were closed due to private visitors.  He was so determined to get help
that he camped outside the gate for a week and was finally allowed to
enter.  He was surprised to find not only the Beatles there, but Mike
Love, Mia Farrow and Donovan as well.

He says he easily fit in and was made to feel welcome, stayed for a
week and took pictures of everybody including a huge group shot of the
Maharishi and all of his assembled guests all dressed in white and
wearing flowered garlands.

Jon, I think I know what you mean by being taken "back to a whole
other feeling about the world."  Life didn't feel as dire back then,
plus we had new Beatle music every now and then to make us feel good. 
I'd love to hear how you would describe that "other feeling."  People
are always asking me about the 60's, when I started taking pictures,and
what made that such a special time.

Paul has a book with the photos and his story.  Maybe the easiest way
to get one is to call my DBA Gallery in NYC and ask the girls who work
there to send one or advise you how else to order a copy.  The phone #
is 212-941-8770.  Tell em I said to call. 
  

    
The best way I know to describe it is a sense of family, a sense of
intimate connection with people you'd never seen, and by inference a
connection with everybody you'd meet who'd been listening to the same
music, smoking the same dope, wearing the same clothes, reading the same
books, feeling the same sense of loss over shared tragedy ... a shared
culture, which we called 'counterculture' because it seemed to work in
opposition to other cultures that didn't have as many cultural reflectors
embedded everywhere. It was so open.

I'm trying to think where it ended for me. I think it was when I was living 
around a bunch of people I knew and the scene turned dark, really dark. All 
that weird shit we know so well by now started creeping in... jealousy, 
envy, ego. But it seems that was happening everywhere at once, too, and we 
were sharing the pain.

Somewhere the sharing stopped, though. 'Til we got online, that is!  *8^)
  

    
Your description brings back the feeling. That really was an amazing
cultural event. I would hope some of those shared values are still
alive in some people's lives, some of that feeling of family. We just
have to connect up again. 
  

    
I'm for that, not sure how we get there, though. <sigh>
  

    
Retirement communes?
  

    
Hey, Henry, do you have any specific reminiscences about Zal Yanovsky that
you'd like to share?
  

    
>Retirement communes?

Barb, you better patent that idea quick.
  

    <scribbled by divinea Tue 24 Dec 02 12:34>
  

    
oops. 

Merry Christmas, everyone. Let's keep this going into the new year.

And Barb, where do I send my deposit?
  

    
If I knew where you should send your deposit, I'd send one myself! Of
course the community would have to be nonprofit...
  

    

As I already mentioned in g beat, I saw a movie last night entitled "My
Dinner with Jimi" -- based on Howard Kaylon's reminiscences of his life as
a Turtle, right around the time Happy Together became a big hit -- in
which Henry Diltz appears as a character in one of the earliest scenes,
portrayed by John Corbett of Northern Exposure and My Big Fat Greek
Wedding.