Trump used Jesus, the Military, and the Police to create images that he hoped would win him another term. Captain Victim has sparked outrage among true Christians and Real Church Leaders. I predicted this was coming. I was made out to be insane! It is uncanny that my computer froze right after I posted on the Sunset Strip Riot on May 12. Is ‘The Son of Man’ holding the Bible upside down? So full of wisdom – NOT!
Is Trump replicating the scene his favorite artist rendered? He gives a nod to neo-Confederate Gun Grunts that he sees as his Pretorian Guard.
Breaking: Pentagon chief says he does not support the use of active-duty military forces to quell unrest, breaking with Trump
In response to unrest related to the death of George Floyd, President Trump threatened to use active-duty military on U.S. streets, which would require the invocation of the Insurrection Act to give U.S. troops arrest powers and other law-enforcement authorities.“The option to use active-duty forces in a law enforcement role should only be used as a matter of last resort and only in the most urgent and dire of situations,” Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Wednesday. “We are not in one of those situations now. I do not support invoking the Insurrection Act.”
After a week of increasingly violent unrest in the United States, peace largely prevailed on Tuesday night. Brutal clashes between police and the public seemed to subside, and there were only sporadic reports of looting and other mayhem across the nation.
Still, the night was filled with tension in major cities where tens of thousands of protesters defied curfews to express outrage over racism and police brutality following the death of yet another a black man in police custody.
In Los Angeles, demonstrators massed outside the mayor’s residence and demanded the firing of the city’s police chief. And in New York, which is under curfew for the first time in 77 years, hundreds of protesters walked across the Manhattan Bridge and were met by a police blockade.
Here are some significant developments:
President Trump disputed reports that he was rushed to an underground bunker during protests outside the White House on Friday night, asserting he went down earlier in the day “more for an inspection.”
Pope Francis urged people not to “tolerate or turn a blind eye to racism and exclusion in any form” and called for “national reconciliation and peace.”
The monument to a notorious Philadelphia mayor and top cop, which became a flash point of the city’s protests, was quietly removed before the sun rose Wednesday.
The mother of George Floyd’s daughter said she explained his death by telling the 6-year-old that her father couldn’t breathe.
Former president Barack Obama is scheduled Wednesday to make his first on-camera comments about the death of Floyd and the nationwide protests.
Less than 24 hours after Los Angeles police chief Michel Moore sparked outrage by saying that Goerge Floyd’s blood is on rioters’ hands “as it is on those officers,’” he faced unanimously angry, and often profane criticism from residents at an online meeting of the L.A. Police Commission.
Of the incident that sparked the protests, the death of Floyd after his arrest by Minneapolis police, Moore said of rioters on Monday, “His death is on their hands, as much as it is on those officers.’”
“I misspoke when I said his blood was on their hands,” said Moore, “but certainly their actions do not serve the enormity of his loss. After the press conference, as outrage mounted, the chief issued a cascade of new apologies, at least three in the next few hours.
I have never been able to discover what the title ‘Son of Man’ meant. Perhaps our President should call for a Great Tribunal so that we may know the answer to this and other riddles.
John
Matthew 12:38-42, Mark 8:11-13, Luke 11:29-32
Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.” But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here. The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here.
WASHINGTON — In the past 24 hours, President Donald Trump has made two visits to Christian religious sites. On Monday, Trump visited an historic church near the White House, and on Tuesday he laid a wreath at a shrine in honor of Saint Pope John Paul II.
Both events offered Trump an opportunity to highlight his administration’s support for Christians in the United States and around the world, long a priority for the president, who won 81% of white evangelical Protestant voters in the 2016 presidential election.
Trump’s 2020 reelection effort has already created at least two campaign advisory boards specifically aimed at shoring up Trump’s support among Christians: Evangelicals for Trump launched on Jan. 3, and Catholics for Trump on Apr. 2.
Nonetheless, both of Trump’s visits to Christian sites this week were fraught with controversy.
Rather than garner praise from prominent Christians, both events drew condemnation from the leaders of their respective denominations. They accused Trump of using holy spaces as political props.
They also objected to Trump’s demand that police and soldiers crack down on protests that have erupted across the nation in response to the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25.
St. John’s Church
The more controversial of Trump’s two visits was on Monday night. At around 6:30 p.m., riot police and military police abruptly and violently cleared out a peaceful crowd of protesters near the White House with pepper spray and rubber bullets, more than a half-hour before the start of a citywide curfew in Washington.
While this was happening, Trump was giving a hastily arranged public address inside the White House Rose Garden, where he threatened to deploy active-duty troops to U.S. cities if local leaders did not succeed in quelling the protests, some of which have turned violent.
At first it was unclear why police outside the White House were suddenly firing rubber bullets and throwing pepper spray canisters at protesters.
But moments after Trump finished his address, the president and a retinue of staffers emerged from the White House gates, crossed the cleared-out square on foot, and arrived at St. John’s Church. The historic Episcopal Church had suffered minor damage in protests the night before.
Standing in front of the church, Trump held aloft a Bible that his daughter Ivanka Trump had reportedly brought with her from the White House. Brandishing the Bible like a sword, Trump posed for photographs with staff and said, “We have the greatest country in the world, we’ll keep it nice and safe.”
The White House group included top military officers dressed in battle fatigues, Cabinet secretaries, Secret Service snipers and West Wing aides. After the photos, they all walked back to the White House through a phalanx of riot police.
Protestors hold up signs as President Donald Trump’s motorcade passes the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception (at rear) and Catholic University on the way to the nearby Saint John Paul II National Shrine while protests continue against the death in Minneapolis police custody of George Floyd, in Washington, U.S., June 2, 2020.
Kevin Lemarque | Reuters
The Park Police later said that the escalation in tactics at Lafayette Park was triggered by protesters throwing things at the police, and was unrelated to Trump’s walk moments later.
In a statement to CNBC about the event, the Trump campaign said the president “made a powerful statement that God will always prevail by standing before the burned church, Bible in hand.”
But at St. John’s Church, the clergy and parishioners said they were shocked. No one had told them the president would be visiting their church, and it soon emerged that some of the people who were forcibly removed to clear the square for were clergy members affiliated with St. John’s.
“The symbolism of him holding a Bible … as a prop and standing in front of our church as a backdrop when everything that he has said is antithetical to the teachings of our traditions and what we stand for as a church — I was horrified,” she said.
The Rt. Rev. Michael Curry, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church, said in a statement: “This evening, the President of the United States stood in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church, lifted up a Bible, and had pictures of himself taken. In so doing, he used a church building and the Holy Bible for partisan political purposes. This was done in a time of deep hurt and pain in our country, and his action did nothing to help us or to heal us.”
On Capitol Hill Tuesday, even loyal Republicans struggled to defend Trump’s apparent photo op.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been to an event where I’ve stood outside a building and held up a Bible like that before, and I’m a person who reads the Bible every day,” Oklahoma Republican Sen. James Lankford told reporters.
“I don’t think I’ve ever done that, so it didn’t make sense in that context. Visiting that site, I thought was significant,” Lankford said. “The time, I didn’t think was helpful. If [Trump had] gone the next morning, when there weren’t folks out there, that would have been a better time.”
Any suggestion of a schism between the White House and faith communities right now comes at a particularly fraught time for Trump’s reelection campaign. A series of recent polls show the president losing ground among Christian voters, and they have reportedly triggered alarm bells within the Trump 2020 campaign.
Christians have long been a pillar of Trump’s political base, with white evangelical Christians making up a major slice of the U.S. electorate, roughly one-quarter of all voters in 2016.
But this year Christians may be especially important to Trump because his challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden, is currently leading in both national polls and in most battleground state polls.
Biden has also shown that, as a candidate, he can cut into Trump’s support among white, working-class voters, making voters who reliably vote Republican, like evangelical Christians, all the more important in Trump’s path to victory.
“The President has an extraordinary record on conservative and faith issues,” said Trump campaign spokeswoman Sarah Matthews. “He has appointed over 190 solid, conservative federal judges, including two exemplary Supreme Court justices. He has defended religious freedoms and stood as the most pro-life president we’ve ever had.”
Ahead of November, said Matthews, “Our faith-based coalitions will engage and mobilize voters for whom these issues are important.”
Catholic shrine
After his controversial trip to St. John’s on Monday, Trump had two more scheduled events on Tuesday designed to highlight his administration’s support for Christians.
U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump pose during a visit to the Saint John Paul II National Shrine in Washington, U.S., June 2, 2020.
Tom Brenner | Reuters
First, Trump and first lady Melania Trump visited a shrine in Northeast Washington, erected to honor the late Pope John Paul II. The shrine is not operated directly by the Catholic Church, but by the Knights of Columbus, a fraternal organization known for its conservative political bent.
But just as Trump was arriving at the shrine, Washington’s Catholic Archbishop, Wilton Gregory, slammed Trump’s visit in a statement to the press.
“I find it baffling and reprehensible that any Catholic facility would allow itself to be so egregiously misused and manipulated in a fashion that violates our religious principles, which call us to defend the rights of all people, even those with whom we might disagree,” Gregory said.
“Saint Pope John Paul II was an ardent defender of the rights and dignity of human beings. His legacy bears vivid witness to that truth,” Gregory said. “He certainly would not condone the use of tear gas and other deterrents to silence, scatter or intimidate them for a photo opportunity in front of a place of worship and peace.”
Later in the day, Trump signed an Executive Order at the White House directing the Secretary of State to dedicate taxpayer funds to protecting and promoting “religious freedom” abroad.
“Religious freedom” is a phrase and an issue that has been embraced by evangelical Christians in the United States. In practice, it usually refers to protecting Christian minorities in majority Muslim nations.
Trump’s history of stumbles
This week is not the first time that Trump has seemingly struggled to hit the right note with Christian leaders and voters.
During his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump marketed himself as a devout Christian. But he frequently revealed his own unfamiliarity with the practice and teachings of the Christian faith.
During a speech at conservative Liberty University in January of 2016, Trump fumbled as he tried to cite Scripture.
“Two Corinthians 3:17, that’s the whole ballgame. … Is that the one you like?” Trump asked the crowd of students. “Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”
The audience snickered, acutely aware that the chapter Trump was trying to quote is known as “Second Corinthians” — not “Two Corinthians.”
At other points in the 2016 campaign, Trump said that he had never asked God for forgiveness, effectively revealing that he had never practiced a basic pillar of Christian faith.
“I have great relationship with God. I have great relationship with the Evangelicals,” Trump said in an interview with CNN shortly before the 2016 Iowa caucuses.
“I like to be good. I don’t like to have to ask for forgiveness. And I am good. I don’t do a lot of things that are bad. I try to do nothing that is bad,” Trump said.
If 2016 is any indication, Trump’s stumbles are unlikely to seriously harm his support among evangelical Christians in November. An April survey by the Public Religion Research Institute found that Trump’s favorability rating among evangelical Protestants still exceeds his overall approval rating by more than 20 points.
Gregory Prescott picked up his daughter he did not know he had at Billion Air Jet, a private airport that catered to members of the Billionaire Club who flew their own Lear Jets. His patron owned a Lear and flew it to Santa Rosa to fetch Dezmerelda Delpiano so she could meet her father for the first time. At sixteen Greg’s daughter had red hair like his mother, Mary Rosamunde, who was one of Errol Flynn’s young lovers.
“And, what do you want to be when you grow up?” Greg asked, breaking the ice in the back of the limo that took them to Prescotts humble Carmel cottage that used to belong to George Sterling ‘The King of the Bohemians’.
“I am grown up, Daddy. Do you mind if I call you Dad? I am a ballerina. Here are some pics of me performing.”
Three hours later, Dez, is showing her Dad the drawing she did of fmous ballerina she did when she was fourteen.
“You should become an artist. You have talent. Has your mother seen these?”
“No. I did them in the closet because my mother hates artists. She said you were cruel to her and you abandoned her when you locked yourself in your studio and rendered another of those somber ‘I Stand Alone’ paintings that no one wanted but a few retired Generals in Pacific Grove. However, she loves my aunts images of happy, flowery, women. They remind her of her hippie days when she was the Acid Queen of Telegraph Avenue.”
Gregory felt rage, because he already detected the most passive aggressive woman in California had done her thing on their daughter. It was evident she was a Stage Mother out for revenge. When Dez showed her father pics of the ballerina costumes her mother made, the Last Bohemian considered plan B, which was to give his only child the Tourist Treatment, and send her packing with souvineers and a bag of Carmel Taffy.
“Do you know the story of The Red Shoes?” Gregory asked, knowing he was jumping off The Cliff of Commitment.
“Yes. I read it when I was eleven.”
“Your mother has put those shoes on your feet. It is my job to take them off. I want to give you art lessons like I did my sister. But, she was compromised and sold out. Your mother has put you on the path of the Red Shoes. She owns dark ambitions. I can teach you how to free your soul and be true to yourself.”
I Found Marian Salyer
This morning around 7:30 A.M. I found my late sister’s sponsor in AA. It had been over ten years since I looked for her. Tom Snyder says she purchased Dunkin The Frog after seeing Christine Rosamond working on it at the Rosamond Gallery. Snyder quotes Marian who claims it is above her bathtub in Palm Springs. Marian…is dead. If not for her obituary, and her son being convicted of criminal fraud and Racketeering, then I would not have found The Missing Link in my story…Capturing Beauty.
The Tomato King meets Dunkin The Frog
Scott Salyer was The Tomato King. He owne’sd the Ryan Ranch. I suspect Christine met Scott. I titled our father ‘The Spud King’. Mark and I went into a tomato field to glean tomatos with our father who employed us in his produce market, Acme Produce. The artist, Thomas Hart Benton,illustrated John Steinbeck’s ‘Grapes of Wrath’. Did Scott see Dunkin at his moms house when he went to relieve himself. He needs to cooperated with the DA. Christine’s favorite movie is ‘Chinatown’. There is a Fresno connection. The DA needs to talk to Scott Hale who knew of the lawsuit against Ira Kaplan who broke free on this gallery owner who exploited several artists. Did Scott take out a life insurance policy on Rosamond?
Dashiell Hammett had his Maltese Falcon. I have my Dunkin The Frog. There was a huge fight over the Salyer estate. I might take the train to Monterey. Here is the Ranch that Rena was the rightful Queen Cowgirl of. I am going t render images of Rena for my series I am going to sell to HBO or Netflix.
The Boswells and the Salyers, two of the richest and most powerful farming families in America, have ended decades of rivalry and rancor over their San Joaquin Valley empires with a huge land deal in which one colossus will swallow the other.
Fred Salyer, 72, has agreed to sell his cotton and grain empire–about 25,000 acres of fertile San Joaquin Valley soil–to J. G. Boswell for tens of millions of dollars, according to business associates and employees.
The two men themselves are not talking about the deal that would end one of the most protracted and colorful family feuds in California history. Salyer, a stickler for privacy, waved off a reporter in front of his modest ranch house here: “I’ve got no comment.”
He confirmed the sale, effective March 1, in a terse letter to city and county officials that gave no hint of its symbolic importance. The Boswells and the Salyers have been fighting over land and water and control of this part of the state since their forebears–“the Colonel” and “the Cockeye”–first squared off in the early 1920s.
In this two-company cotton town along California 43, where almost everyone’s bread is buttered by Boswell or Salyer but rarely by both, it was always thought that too much venom and pride stood between the two clans for any deal to be struck. But over the last decade, as his fortunes waned, Salyer grew more open to overtures.
Last week, on the heels of another disappointing crop for Salyer, James G. Boswell II, the largest cotton grower in the world, traveled to Corcoran from his headquarters in Downtown Los Angeles to sit down face-to-face with Salyer.
Salyer initially wanted to sell only part of his empire, sources said, but soon everything was on the table. Boswell sealed the deal with a check that, by some accounts, exceeded $26 million.
“It’s the end of a long chapter,” Corcoran Mayor Jon Rachford said.
The deal is the talk in diners, hardware stores and barbershops in this town of about 10,000, but only in private.
“We’ve got the state prison now, but this is still a town divided down the middle by Boswell and Salyer,” said one reticent old-timer wearing a seed company hat and munching on a hamburger at Tolbert’s cafe.
He said he had done more than $2 million worth of work on cotton gins belonging to both giants in recent years. “I’d be kind of foolish to say anything,” he smiled tightly. “I don’t want to be tarred and feathered and run out of town.”
At the Brunswick barbershop, where photos of deceased patriarch Clarence (Cockeye) Salyer and his two famous dove-hunting partners, Clark Gable and John Wayne, stare down at customers, barber Jim Cook said he hadn’t seen Fred Salyer in almost two weeks.
“He usually comes in once or twice a week for a trim but since all this came out maybe he feels uncomfortable coming downtown,” Cook said. “Anyhow, he doesn’t tell me a thing. He’s a very private man.”
Salyer work crews in their green hats and mud-caked white Chevy pickups seemed to be everywhere, warning strangers not to set foot on the boss’s far-ranging lands. “I wouldn’t be snooping around here if I was you,” snapped one young, grim-faced foreman.
A bad mood had gripped the entire company, he said, ever since Salyer broke the word to employees last week that he was selling “lock, stock and barrel” to rival Boswell–the men in blue. Salyer could not guarantee that his 136 full-time and 220 seasonal workers would find jobs with Boswell.
“He drove field to field in his gray Fleetwood,” the foreman said. “It was a sad day.”
The fear is that Boswell, known as a picky boss, will become even pickier now that workers have lost their one card–the ability to walk a hundred yards across the Santa Fe railroad tracks and sign up with the competition.
Rachford, a real estate man who spent 18 years on Boswell’s payroll as a self-described gofer, said there was little reason to be grim. “The land is still here, the crops are still going to be grown and harvested and ginned. And it’s going to require people to do it.”
*
Even by San Joaquin Valley standards, Corcoran is a strange place. Few small towns in the country boast so many millions with so little flaunting of wealth. Perhaps that shyness has something to do with the federally subsidized water that for decades has flowed the cotton giants’ way, and the paper games that both land barons have played to get around the law that limits acreage of farmers who get that water.
The town itself has nothing but pride, proclaiming to visitors in bold letters: “Welcome to the Farming Capital of California.” It is no idle boast.
Boswell is not only the largest cotton grower in the world but also the largest grower of wheat and seed alfalfa in America. In California alone, the crop value on 129,000 acres of Boswell land was estimated at more than $100 million in 1993. Salyer was 14th on the list of the state’s largest farms, with an estimated crop value of $40 million on 33,000 acres.
Bales of the finest cotton stand row upon row as far as the eye can see, waiting to be turned into Jockey underwear, Fieldcrest towels and L.L. Bean shirts.
Such abundance is a testament to the vision and guile of two pioneers of California agriculture: Col. James G. Boswell, a military and cotton man driven out of Georgia by the boll weevil, and a Virginia hillbilly named Salyer, who skinned mules and carried the cruel moniker Cockeye on account of a fake eye that wandered so far to the left that the glass iris was barely visible.
Vision was needed because this land, in wet years, was at the bottom of the largest body of fresh water west of the Mississippi–Tulare Lake. In dry years, when the four rivers ran low, the land could sustain any and all row crops.
Scott Salyer stepped into the federal courtroom in Sacramento, his trim frame swimming in an orange prisoner jumpsuit, his legs shackled, his wrists restrained.
It was a humiliating moment in February for the 54-year-old agribusiness mogul, the last prince of one of California’s cotton farming dynasties. The tomato processing outfit he started with his father, Fred Salyer, was in bankruptcy. Scott was being blamed for running SK Foods into the ground — and far worse.
Salyer clenched his jaw as the prosecutor reeled off the allegations: that he and SK Foods tricked supermarkets and big food companies into buying substandard tomato products to put into brands found in almost every American cupboard.
Scott and SK Foods, the government said, conspired to inflate prices on millions of pounds of processed tomatoes sold to 55 companies in 22 states. It was an alleged scheme that ripped off consumers and reaped big profits for Salyer.
Behind him, in the crowded spectator seats, attorneys for angry creditors slapped high-fives. Fred, 86, was not there. Neither was any of the rest of the Salyer clan.
From humble Southern roots, the Salyers became one of the most powerful agricultural families in the West. And Scott’s legal woes are rooted in a litigious family tradition.
For three generations, the Salyers fought one another in court to control multimillion-dollar corporations and, at its peak, oversaw a land empire three times the size of San Francisco. Yet the dynasty ultimately couldn’t withstand the infighting, particularly the falling-out between Scott and Fred.
Fred declined to be interviewed for this story. So did Scott, who pleaded not guilty in May to 12 counts of corruption, including racketeering, wire fraud, obstruction of justice and violating federal antitrust laws. He remains in jail because he can’t make his $6.3-million bail.
It’s the latest chapter in a family saga that’s unfolding through court documents, public records and interviews with colleagues, former workers and others.
No one has suggested Fred is complicit in the tomato debacle. If anything, investigators say, the real trouble started after he left.
Long before produce tore the family apart, the Salyers were known as one of the best cotton growers in the Central Valley. From the family’s dusty ranch home in Corcoran, about 50 miles south of Fresno, they snapped up marginal land with access to water and pushed it to yield crops. Their cotton gins cranked out fibers used in products as varied as car tires and designer T-shirts.
Along with his brother Everette, Fred ran the business that their father built from nothing. Fred was a farmer’s farmer, a tall, balding and bespectacled man who spent more time in the fields than behind a desk. A child of the Great Depression, he possessed frugal sensibilities that shaped his views from national politics to family affairs.
Scott was born Frederick Scott Salyer. He grew into an outgoing man with a movie-star smile and a penchant for racing cars and flying planes.
After Scott came home to Corcoran in 1977 with a degree in agribusiness from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Fred groomed him to take over the family business. At school, Scott had learned that success was achieved through growth, and growth came by leveraging what you own to borrow money.
By the early 1980s, Scott took the lead at Salyer American.
“There’s an old saying: You give a horse its head,” said Thomas Foley Jr., Fred’s attorney. “Fred gave Scott his head.”
Scott borrowed money from banks, using the family farmland as collateral, Foley said. Costs mounted as floods battered the Central Valley and oversupply sent cotton prices plummeting.
Fred tried to step back in, Foley said, but by 1987, Salyer American was more than $100 million in debt. Father and son turned over more than half of the family’s farmland — 40,000 acres — to its main lender, Bank of America, to clear the debt.
Tensions grew. A business consultant was hired to be a buffer between Fred and Scott. Together, they agreed to get into the tomato business.
The plan started simply: Grow tomatoes on Salyer land, broker deals with other farmers to ensure plenty of supply, and build factories to process it all.
By the summer of 1990, the first SK Foods plant was running in Lemoore, Calif., said Richard Jennings, a former president of SK Foods. “We only used the best produce and the best equipment,” Jennings said.
But, he added, “Scott was always asking, ‘Why are we going to all this trouble? Who’s going to know the difference?’”
The strain between Fred and Scott continued. At board meetings, Scott would scream and belittle anyone who disagreed with him, Jennings said, while Fred would stew quietly.
Scott wanted to run SK Foods, so he bought out his family’s interest in 1996, Foley said. But he still had ties to Salyer American Fresh Foods, the family’s produce-growing and -selling firm.
By the early 1990s, production costs were mounting once again. Father and son fought over how quickly to grow the various businesses. In 1995, Fredcontacted boyhood friend and longtime rival James G. Boswell II and asked him to buy the majority of the family’s farmland. Boswell agreed.
Years passed and the family feud roiled. In 1998, Scott took Fred, his mother, Marian, and his sister Linda Salyer Lee to court to force the dissolution of Salyer American Fresh Foods.
He accused Fred and Linda of trying to ousthim and called his father selfish, according to a complaint filed in Monterey County Superior Court. His father and sister countersued, accusing Scott of using at least $833,000 in corporate funds for personal use, including a 10th-wedding-anniversary party.
“As a result of Fred’s belief that Scott had misappropriated funds … he continually referred to Scott as a ‘liar and thief.’ Scott referred to Fred as ‘dumb’ or a ‘stupid old man,’ ” according to a 2000 court filing submitted by Scott’s then-attorney, Charles G. Warner.
Judge Richard M. Silver ordered that Scott be reinstated as treasurer but denied his bid to involuntarily dissolve Salyer American Fresh Foods. The same judge, Foley said, later ordered the Salyers to record their meetings to try to keep the peace.
The legal wrangling continued, however, and in 2005, Scott filed suit in federal court in San Jose accusing his father and sister of racketeering, fraudulent accounting practices and demonstrating “unrelenting hostility.” When Scott was fired — again — he said they called the local sheriff’s department to kick him out of a board meeting, according to court documents.
The federal case was dismissed in 2007, as part of a settlement: Scott bought Fred and Linda out of the business for an undisclosed sum.
By then, the FBI was well underway in its probe of Scott and SK Foods. Investigators called it Operation Rotten Tomato.
It started with a tip the FBI got in 2005 from Morning Star Co., the nation’s largest tomato packer: Former executive Anthony Ray Manuel, it was alleged, had embezzled money from the Woodland, Calif., firm.
The FBI raided Manuel’s home. According to court documents, Manuel told investigators that the corruption happening at his then-current employer — SK Foods — was far worse. Manuel agreed to wear a wire in exchange for consideration during his sentencing. (Manuel, 58, later pleaded guilty to embezzling $975,000 from Morning Star. He could not be reached for comment.)
Investigators also obtained court orders for wiretaps on a company broker’s phones. In the spring of 2008, federal agents raided SK Foods’ offices in Monterey, Scott’s $6-million mansion in Pebble Beach and several other locations.
What they found, prosecutors say, was that SK Foods was having trouble keeping up with demand. When the firm ran short of the tomato paste customers wanted, Scott had employees relabel poorer-quality tomatoes to fill the order, the government said.
SK Foods sold its customers organic paste that wasn’t organic, changed production dates to make the product seem fresher than it was and altered quality-control documents to hawk paste with mold content that was higher than levels permitted by the FDA, according to court documents.
“You can solve all your problems with a label printer,” Scott told Glen McClaran, a former SK Foods president, in 2007, according to court documents.
To ensure that the companies would buy SK Foods’ tomato paste, Scott allegedly directed his subordinates to bribe purchasing managers to make sure the inflated deals were signed.
By the time creditors forced SK Foods into bankruptcy protection in May 2009, the banks alone were owed about $195 million. Bankruptcy trustee Bradley D. Sharp said he discovered that SK Foods funds were used to buy a $1.5-million lot in Maui and a $2.6-million Lake Tahoe condo and to operate a $1.5-million jet, among other things.
The Bankruptcy Court found there was evidence that, after federal agents raided Scott’s home, he liquidated business assets worth $3 million to $7 million and transferred the money to overseas banks, according to court documents. Then last year, he left the country and went to Europe.
On Feb. 4, Scott flew back to the U.S. to meet with Sharp about the SK Foods bankruptcy. FBI agents arrested him at John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Eleven people have been charged in connection with the SK Foods case. All but Scott have pleaded guilty.
SK Foods’ plants were sold for $39 million to a Singapore firm. Salyer American Fresh Foods, which was debt-free when Scott bought it, is now in receivership.
Scott sits in a solitary cell on the Sacramento County Main Jail’s seventh floor, awaiting trial. Back in Corcoran, Fred lives on the same ranch where Scott grew up. He has not visited his son.
After a failed marriage and the birth of her daughter Shannon, Christine fell in love with Scott Hale, an ambitious and demanding lighting designer. Recognizing Christine’s talent, Scott invited her to move in with him so that she could concentrate on her art. Feeling encouraged for the first time, Christine was able to paint with a bold new energy. A year later, at Scott’s insistence, Christine showed a number of these portraits at the 1972 Westwood Art Fair. Recognizing a fresh voice, art dealer Ira Kaplan bought out the collection and commissioned Christine to create an additional painting for him every week thereafter.
“She had me cornered. I was trying to reason with her and get away before things got out of hand. She kept coming at me, and the bed was right there, so I finally whapped her. And it was like Bozo the clown. She bounced off the bed as if nothing had happened, and just kept right on coming. I was finally able to get around and out of the room, and years laterI asked her if she remembered me slapping her during that episode.She had no memory of it whatever.”
If you invite someone to stay the night in your home, and there is a accidental death, then, you show up at the funeral. As far as I know Alan Fox was not at Christine’s funeral. Alan is a very wealthy man. Did he call his attorney after Christine drowned? Who set up his foundation? Was/is Robert Brevoort Buck Alan’s attorney?
The University of Arizona recently announced a $20 million gift to its School of Music by Alan C. Fox, president of ACF Property Management, a real-estate investment company in Studio City, California, and his wife Daveen. A fifth of that money will be used to create three endowed chairs at the school, and $2 million will establish the Fox Scholarship Fund. The school will also be renamed the Fox School of Music.
When I took the train to Rhode Island in 1970, I stopped in Lincoln Nebraska to see Rena Christensen. I had a vision of renting an old farm house and I would have a studio in the barn where I would render large canvases of the most beautiful woman in the world who was attending the University of Nebraska. I did see doing images of us….Lovers! I do not recall seeing the work of Aldo Luongo who Ira Roberts promoted at the same time as Christine Rosamond. Three days ago I read he was friendly with Christine.
“Aldo remembers first seeing Rosamond’s work. “I had never seen anyone utilize negative space so well as Christine.”
At shows my sister was questioned as to whether or not she was a Lesbian because all her images were of women. Below is a image of me in Rosamond’s studio. I was going to be her first male subject. Yesterday I googled Aldo and was shocked to see we look alike. Christine was aware of this, and knew her friend would see this also. Aldo and Rosamond influenced each other’s work. Rosamond knew I was a heterosexual and had witnessed my love affair with Marilyn Godfrey who did some modeling. Melinda and I were lovers, and Raphael had the hots for me. We went to Lacienaga with Bryan McLean who was my friend, and then Christine’s lover. We inspired the song the song ‘Alone Again, or’. Bryan and my friend, Mark Owen, became Rosamond’s lover, and his father was going to marry Rosemary. Bryan sand at my wedding to Mary Ann Tharaldsen who was Thomas Pynchon’s lover. My ex did a life-size painting of her friend, Mimi Farina who I think is very beautiful. I got to dance with her.
Due to the coronavirus artists are selling on the internet. I believe folks with money are investing in – The Art Market! I now see how easily Christine and I were derailed due to the low self-esteem we suffered from. Our parent glommed on to all our creations, our beauty, even our lovers. I and done with my daughter who along with her family worked me, put me on the defensive. For the last twenty years I should have been painting. I did a quick watercolor of Heather when she was sixteen and intended to do more. I wanted my daughter to be a muse. Aldo did paintings of he and his daughter. I was hoping Rena would send me copies of her photographs so I could do paintings from them.
This morning I awoke and felt the horrible truth I have evaded for months:
“My sisters and mother……are dead!”
Above is a frog drawn by Sandra Faulkner who claimed she interviewed my late sister for her biography ‘When You Close Your Eyes’ that was completed by Tom Snyder, the second ghost writer Stacey Pierrot hired to tell the story of a world famous female artist – who authored 270 pages of a autobiography – that has been disappeared. This is FRAUD – ART FRAUD! This is the tip of the iceberg. My newfound daughter was lured away from me because her Stage Mother wanted our daughter in our family story. The Hansons never met Rosamond.
Last night I watched the English version of the movie ‘Gaslight’. In Snyder’s book Christine is severely gaslighted by several men in her life, and by Snyder. I suspect Heather’s mother writes most of her posts on her Women’s Empowerment facebook page. This is more fraud because Heather solicits money from people for her advice. I believe it was THE MOTHER who googled for a fake diagnosis of the man who gave her daughter life.
I rescued Patrice Hnson from her insane husband who was brutalizing her young sons in 1984. When she told me she was thinking of going back with him after he appeared in front of my abode – with a baseball bat – threatening to UNBORN me, I asked her to leave because even the police get killed coming between such a dangerous relationships. Randall Delpiano was a San Quinton convict convicted twice of impersonating Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead. Heather Hanson was Heather Delpiano. I did not know I had a daughter until Randy’s daughter came into my life in 2000 when she was sixteen. She and her mother were very interested in getting in Christine Rosamond’s biography.
My sister was a world famous artist who signed her work ‘Rosamond’ a name that means ‘Rose of the World’. I told my daughter and her mother an outsider ending up being sold Rosamond’s legacy and had hired a ghost writer to author her biography. I told this Mother & Child there was Art Fraud going on in regards to the first ghost writer being the illustrator of Dunkin the Frog, and not my sister. I told them to stay away from Vicki. Instead, they disappeared from my life for two years in what was a illegal kidnapping.
Art Lessons For My Daughter – One
Here is the first video I made of four. When I finished making them I realized I had tried to give Heather something very valuable…..INTEGRITY! I offered this to Christine, but her insane success came about by selling herself short. She betrayed my principles of art. She gave me credit for her success that she wanted me to assist her with. She made me an offer – that I refused! Last night we had a faint conversation, the first since her death in 1994. We used to have psychic conversations all the time. Those who knew us compared us to a beautiful husband and wife. We were very close. Rosamond was getting over the deep shame she felt for putting the real artist of our family in the shadow of her fraudulent success. I use the her fraudulent biography to begin my lessons to Heather Hanson.
In law, fraud is intentionaldeception to secure unfair or unlawful gain, or to deprive a victim of a legal right. Fraud can violate civil law (i.e., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud or recover monetary compensation), a criminal law (i.e., a fraud perpetrator may be prosecuted and imprisoned by governmental authorities), or it may cause no loss of money, property or legal right but still be an element of another civil or criminal wrong.[1] The purpose of fraud may be monetary gain or other benefits, for example by obtaining a passport, travel document, or driver’s license, or mortgage fraud, where the perpetrator may attempt to qualify for a mortgage by way of false statements.[2]
A hoax is a distinct concept that involves deliberate deception without the intention of gain or of materially damaging or depriving a victim.
Pregnant mommas all over the world are rising up and feeling empowered by the contrast Covid-19 is presenting.
This photo embodies how I am choosing to perceive this pandemic. As an opportunity to practice resiliency.
Mommas who can embrace the gift of this unique and uncertain circumstance are doing something very powerful.
💗 They are becoming greater than their circumstance.
💗 They are harnessing their inner power.
💗 They are strengthening the immune system for themselves and their babies.
💗 They are not sweating the small stuff and honoring what really matters.
💗 They are becoming present and resilient in the face of adversity.
I believe that this new challenge is happening for us mommas as it is pushing us to bring new babies into the world from this empowered state of presence and inner strength.
There are no mistakes! We are powerful! We got this mommas!
As you can see, things are really rounding out around here 🤰
When I first started my journey to improve my well-being, getting pregnant was one of my main motives.
It took loosing 45lbs, two years of trying and one miscarriage. Now it looks like this one is sticking with me. Yay!
I know that this is all Devine right timing and I am over the moon excited about this new life but…….why am I sleepless tonight and feeling so heart broken?
This is actually a feeling that I have had for a few months now but I have not felt like it was safe to share. I have tried sharing a couple of times but fear would stop me and I would delete the post.
I know there is healing to be done here and I am uncertain about posting even still but this is where my heart is and holding it in has kept me from posting at all.
Sharing my authentic truth has been extremely healing for me and others but this truth I am about to share has been the most difficult thus far.
You see, my father, whom I have been estranged from for 8 years, recently discovered my FB page and reached out to me.
He said he said he was proud of the healing work I was doing and sympathized about my miscarriage.
My dad is a daily blogger and he shared with me a blog he had wrote about forgiving me. I did not know that I needed to be forgiven but I was touched by his kind words and excited to see this gentle side of him.
I wanted to respond right away and rekindle our relationship. This is something that I had prayed for and I felt like I could possibly have my Dad back. But something inside me told me to give it a few days and so I did.
A few days later I opened my Dads blog site to see if he had made any more efforts and I was disappointed to say the least.
It is very abnormal for my Dad to say positive things about family in his blog and when I checked to see where he was at on his forgiveness journey, I saw that he had taken it all back. He was right back to being suspicious about my motives and acussing me and my mom of doing terrible things.
Now, as I post this I have made every effort to block him but I somehow think he will still find it and that is ok with me.
I have a lot of love and compassion for my dad even though he has made me, my mom, and anyone who is close to me out to be a monster I still have so much love and compassion for him.
You see, I am pretty sure my Dad suffers from a very rare mental illness call Paranoid Personality Disorder. In looking for a better understanding, I discovered this disorder and it fits my dad to a T.
*Doubt the commitment, loyalty, or trustworthiness of others, believing others are exploiting or deceiving them.
*Are reluctant to confide in others or reveal personal information because they are afraid the information will be used against them.
*Are unforgiving and hold grudges.
Are hypersensitive and take criticism poorly.
*Read hidden meanings in the innocent remarks or casual looks of others.
*Perceive attacks on their character that are not apparent to others; they generally react with anger and are quick to retaliate.
*Have persistent suspicions, without reason, that their spouses or lovers are being unfaithful.
*Are generally cold and distant in their relationships with others, and might become controlling and jealous to avoid being betrayed.
*Cannot see their role in problems or conflicts, believing they are always right.
*Have difficulty relaxing.
*Are hostile, stubborn, and argumentative.
*Tend to develop negative stereotypes of others, especially those from different cultural groups.
This illness is very hard to treat because the paranoid person does not even trust the doctors.
So here I am, feeling heartbroken after many years of thinking I had this under control but I am grateful for these feelings. I see that there is healing for myself to do here and this sharing is my first step.
Leave me a heart if you have ever felt heartbroken over a family member with a mental illness? 💗
My friend Laurie, is a beautiful writer. I am so happy that she has started this blog.
Her message came to me at a perfect time. It is funny how the Universe always brings you what you need.
Today I have been feeling a lot of anger towards a certain difficult person in my life. For the most part I have been able to feel compassion towards this persons behavior but today I have been seriously angry. I had moments of wanting to seek revenge and exploit this person in the same way he has done to me. Yeah, I was so angry, the thoughts of a lawsuit even came to mind.
Instead of acting on this anger I asked myself, “What good would come from acting out my anger”? I played it out in my head and realized that nothing good would come from it. I would just be dishonoring myself by playing a game in the dark that no one can win.
Then I asked my higher self, “What is in this for me”? This is what flowed onto the paper. It felt like it came from a higher place and compassion flowed back into my heart but this time it was for me…….
This is an opportunity to see the light in a dark place. I made a commitment to align myself with the highest good and place my attention on what is working so that I can attract more of what I want in my life. If I choose to let someone else’s actions make me angry and revengeful, then I am giving my power away. The truth is that no one is responsible for my anger or my joy accept for me. From this moment I choose to only give my attention towards people who love and support me just as I am because that is what I deserve. This is an opportunity to exercise my alignment with the truth of who I am, a compassionate, loving and totally worthy woman who is committed to being a light in the world. This is my gift!
So there! That is my story and I am sticking to it.
Resenting difficult people is not the answer.
Thank you Laurie for helping me see this today.
My Mom often quotes A Course In Miracles and this is one she uses all the time. It sure is coming in handy right now.
I recently shared my experience about having a Dad who has paranoid personality disorder. Apparently he had responded to that post but because I had blocked him, I could not see his messages.
A complete stranger reached out and informed me of this and shared that his words were very hurtful. So I took further steps to block him but in doing so I was able to see a few of his comments.
I was not surprised to see that his words were angry and full of wrongful accusations.
I wanted to defend myself and set the story straight but then I remembered these words.
The truth is that there is nothing to defend. I know the truth about who I am and if he can’t see me for the kind loving persona that I am, than that is his loss.
It is not easy knowing that my Dad is my worse critic but I continue to find the blessings in disguise.
The gift is that despite my Dads behavior I still love him. He is teaching me how to have compassion and not take things personally. He is teaching me how important it is to love myself regardless of what anyone else says or does and how to not judge others. He is teaching me how we create our own reality through our perceptions. We can create our own heaven or hell based on what we focus upon.
Abraham Hicks says that if you want to know who your soul mate is look to the one who is giving you the most trouble. Your soul mate will show you the most contrast so that you can learn about yourself.
I am willing to set fear aside and let love guide me. There is no need to defend when love is the leader.
Here is another gem I found today. I awoke feeling some more dread. Bad energy was being directed at me. I got on my phone and discovered I was unfriended by We Love Arthur Lee, a facebook group. I posted on Melinda who I said was my sixteen year old lover. I almost corrected this and took out the word “lover” because I could detect the owners were gunning for me. I had solicited info from a guy who went to Hollywood High on the racey seventeen year old girls who went to see Bryan on The Strip – that was not carding them. There were major busts that made the paper.
My ex-friend, Jeff Pasternak is trying to sell a movie about his life. The Hollywood Survivor is about a rich producer’s son who starts a band ‘The Mustard Greens’ and plays on the strip. He tries to get his famous father to put The Doors in his movie. Jeff and I went to Uni High with Bryan McClean. He was in love with my girlfriend, Marilyn Reed, who he took to France after we broke up. I think he lured her away from me again – with a movie offer.
Last night I had an epiphany. I saw how hard everyone I was close with to make me out to be A NOBODY. I was a real Hippie who took LSD in order to experience Ego Loss and be a Blissful Nobody who found nirvana. Everyone elese wanted to making a killing as a Rock Star.
Twenty songs, written by Grammy nominated songwriter Jeff Pasternak, drive this tongue-in-cheek musical of a young, talented musician’s search for stardom. THE HOLLYWOOD SURVIVOR is a magical ride with a cast of eclectic characters, and full of twists and turns every step of the way.
A whimsical, supernatural tale of a young songwriter pursuing his dream, breaking away from his wealthy family only to learn the guarded secret tearing the family apart. The songs will keep you rocking, laughing, and crying on a beautiful, emotional ride. A unique happy ending with a twist allows the audience to draw their own conclusion for the future of THE HOLLYWOOD SURVIVOR
Rock ‘n’ roll’s Last Stand In Hollywood (Revised Edition)
Description
On the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles in 1965 and 1966 an electrifying scene appeared out of nowhere, exploded into creativity, and then, just as suddenly, vanished. So much remarkable music, art, and social revolution came from one place at one time, it’s difficult now to grasp how it all happened.
This book tells the story of the astonishing time when rock ‘n’ roll displaced movies as the centre of action in Hollywood. From the moment The Byrds debuted at Ciro’s on March 26th 1965–with Bob Dylan joining them onstage–right up to the demonstrations of November 1966, Sunset Strip nightclubs nurtured and broke The Doors, Love, Buffalo Springfield (featuring Neil Young and Stephen Stills), Frank Zappa’s Mothers Of Invention, Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band, The Turtles, The Mamas & The Papas, and many others. The Strip was a hotbed for garage punk bands such as The Standells, The Electric Prunes, and The Leaves. Folk-rock and psychedelia were born there, while it was also a favourite hangout and inspiration for The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and The Velvet Underground.
Republished to coincide with the 50th anniversary of these incredible times, Riot On Sunset Strip: Rock ‘n’ Roll’s Last Stand In Hollywood captures the excitement of this great artistic awakening, telling how the scene came together and then fell apart at the Monterey Pop festival, the tragic grand finale of the Summer of Love. It serves as a startling evocation of the social and artistic revolution that was the 60s.
The author
Domenic Priore is a writer and television producer specialising in pop culture and music. He is the author of Beatsville (with Martin McIntosh) and Smile: The Story of Brian Wilson’s Lost Masterpiece (with forewords by Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks), and was the main writer on the AMC documentaries Hollywood Rocks The Movies: The Early Years 1955-1970 (hosted by Ringo Starr) and Hollywood Rocks The Movies: The 1970s (hosted by David Bowie). A native of Los Angeles, Priore has now returned there after living in New York City and San Francisco.
Widely hailed as a genius, Arthur Lee was a character every bit as colorful and unique as his music. In 1966, he was Prince of the Sunset Strip, busy with his pioneering racially-mixed band Love, and accelerating the evolution of California folk-rock by infusing it with jazz and orchestral influences–a process that would climax in a timeless masterpiece, the Love album Forever Changes.
Obituaries are claiming Michael McClure and other Beat Poets began the Summer of Love. They were the invited guests of the owners of The Oracle. Michael Bowen appears to be the creator of this vision – that did not elect leaders of our Hippie Movement! We were not in need of leaders. McClure has been guilty of feathering his own nest. That the College of Arts and Crafts was founded by Frederick Meyer who was inspired by the Pre-Raphaelite artist and writer, William Morris, changes the Genesis of the Hippie and Bohemian scene in the Bay Area, and is more inclusive of Artists. J.R. Tolkien was inspired by Morris as was Joaquin Miller who I have depicted as Gandalf. The Hobbits inspired the lifestyle of the Hippies – who I renamed. The establishment newspaper put that name on us, and put their own ignorant spin on our new cultural movement.
McClure was of the previous era as was Ginsberg and Leary. Bowan had to know he too was on the way out, and thus he did not protest. He had to know of BEAF that held shows around the corner of McClure’s classroom. I lived down the street on Broadway. Up Broadway were camped the Temescal Group of Artists and writers, including George Sterling, the ‘King of the Bohemians’ and co-founder of the Bohemian Club. The Great White Brotherhood proceeds the Beat poets – who should have know about seventeen year old Thelma Reid. My late friend was a good friend of McClure, Jim Morrison, and the Stackpole family. He went to CCAC.
In 1927, 17-year-old Thelma Reid had just begun her first year of college at UC Berkeley. She was living on 45th street in Oakland’s Rockridge district with her family and did many of the typical things a college coed did—went to class, helped around the house and did her homework. She never expected her studies would spawn one of the biggest scandals in Rockridge history. But then again, it wasn’t ordinary homework.
The collection of poems that would eventually set into motion police raids, arrests and a full-blown media circus was assigned to Reid not by any of her UC Berkeley professors, but by a neighbor, Gertrude Wright. Wright’s home, a few blocks away from Reid’s at 468 Forest Street, served as the international headquarters for a mystical society—called the “Great White Brotherhood”—that blended aspects of Eastern religion with notions of Christian love, racial harmony and communing with God through sexual acts. Reid had been attending one of Wright’s “Sacred Schools”—classes where Wright delivered her unconventional teachings and handed out writings advocating “sacred phallic laws” and “mystical marriages” in which both parties had absolute freedom to explore love in all its exotic forms. Reid’s mother discovered the poems in the family’s home, and referred them to the Oakland Police Department.
CCA was founded in 1907 by Frederick Meyer in Berkeley as the School of the California Guild of Arts and Crafts during the height of the Arts and Crafts movement. The Arts and Crafts movement originated in Europe during the late 19th century as a response to the industrial aesthetics of the machine age. Followers of the movement advocated an integrated approach to art, design, and craft. Today, Frederick Meyer’s “practical art school” is an internationally known and respected institution, drawing students from around the world.[2]
In 1908 the school was renamed California School of Arts and Crafts, and in 1936 it became the California College of Arts and Crafts (CCAC).[3]
Michael Bowen (December 8, 1937 – March 7, 2009) was an American fine artist known as one of the co-founders of the late 20th and 21st century Visionary art movements.[1] His works include paintings on canvas and paper,[2] 92 intaglio etchings based on Jungian psychology, assemblage, bronze sculpture, collage, and handmade art books.[3]
An icon of the American Beat Generation and the 1960s counterculture, Bowen is also known for his role in inspiring and organizing the first Human Be-In in San Francisco.[4] Chronicled in books and periodicals reflecting on the turbulent 1960s, Bowen’s historical impact on both the literary and visual art worlds is well documented.[5] He remains influential among avant-garde art circles around the world.[6]
Michael Bowen was born December 8, 1937 in Beverly Hills to Grace and Sterling Bowen. His father was a dentist.[7] His mother’s lover was Benjamin (Bugsy) Siegel, affectionately known as “Uncle Benjie”, who would often take the youthful Bowen to not only the Flamingo Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada that he created, but also to the Sir Francis Drake Hotel near Union Square in downtown San Francisco. Bowen’s early romance with San Francisco established this city as his home base from which he would frequently travel to other places in the world.[8]
He started his art career at age 17, when he joined the American installation artist Ed Kienholz in his Los Angeles studio. There he met and joined with other influential Beat Generation artists including Wallace Berman, John Altoon, and Dennis Hopper. Bowen participated in the construction of the Ferus Gallery and Now Gallery created by Ed Kienholz[9] and curated by Walter Hopps.[10] Bowen attended the Chouinard Art Institute for several years during his formative artistic experiences in Los Angeles.[11]
Michael Bowen moved to San Francisco in the late 1950s, and along with fellow artist comrades[16] Arthur Monroe[17] and Michael McCracken,[18] lived and worked out of 72 Commercial Street. Painting spontaneous, impromptu, hectic canvases, along with assemblage and collage, Bowen became an integral part of the San Francisco Renaissance.[citation needed]
The Norwegian art patron and physician Reidar Wennesland[19] befriended Bowen and many of his bohemian artist friends and collected their artwork.[20] Bowen’s work now makes up the majority of the paintings in the Wennesland Foundation Collection[21] located in Kristiansand, Norway, alongside many other important North Beach artists, such as Jay DeFeo.[22]
A 1963 painting of Janis Joplin by Bowen, along with his prophetic 1966 Love painting,[23] are examples of the Bowen works in the Wennesland collection.[24]
In 1963, police brutality and persecution drove many of the Beat Generation writers, musicians, and artists out of San Francisco.[citation needed] Michael Bowen, along with many of his artist friends moved to an old Abalone Factory in Princeton by the Sea, where they lived and painted for many months. Bowen’s singer friend, Janis Joplin was a frequent guest at the Princeton Abalone studio.[26]
In 1963, on one of Bowen’s visits to be with his mentor in Tepoztlan, he was initiated into an ancient Aztecshamanic ceremony that inspired his future work with world consciousness transformation.[citation needed] After his initiation, Bowen traveled to New York City, where he established a studio in the Lower East Side and met with many of the Beat Generation artists, writers, and musicians living on America’s East Coast. He often visited the two former Harvard professors Timothy Leary and Ram Dass, then Richard Alpert, in their mansion at Millbrook, New York, where a new variety of consciousness experimentations were being conducted.[27]
San Francisco Oracle and the Love Pageant Rally[edit]
In the summer of 1966, Bowen traveled back to San Francisco and established a studio/ashram in the middle of the newly burgeoning Haight-Ashbury neighborhood. Along with the poet Allen Cohen, Bowen co-founded the underground newspaper, San Francisco Oracle[28] that broadcast the 60s counterculture ideology. Bowen became the art director and let his studio become the offices for the Oracle,[29] while Cohen was the editor.[30]
As the S.F. Oracle guru, Bowen hosted the first underground press meeting at his studio at Stinson Beach.[31]
On October 6, 1966, Bowen and Cohen organized the Love Pageant Rally, a celebration against the new law criminalizing LSD in California. Because of Bowen’s friendship and invitation, Janis Joplin came to the event along with her band, Big Brother and the Holding Company, and played for free.[32] About 3,000 people attended the Love Pageant Rally, and towards the end, Ram Dass, Cohen, and Bowen discussed having another event, this time much bigger, to celebrate the newly developing hippie counterculture and consciousness expansion in San Francisco.[33][34]
The event the three counterculture leaders previously envisioned became the Human Be-In, which took place on January 14, 1967. The event was primarily organized by Bowen.[35][36] He created the poster promoting the event,[37] organized the city permit,[38] invited the Beat Generation speakers, including Allen Ginsberg, Gary Snyder, Lenore Kandel, Michael McClure, and Timothy Leary, and scheduled the San Francisco rock bands, including The Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane, who played for free at the event. The Hells Angels provided security, and a flatbed truck with amplification driven by a gas generator was donated to create a stage. The Human Be-In was a coming together of people for no other reason than to just “BE”; to make love, not war, to share and commune with new friends and to celebrate life.[39] The Human Be-In, sometimes referred to as a Love-In,[40] was specifically designed by Bowen to be imitated and to be remembered into the future.[41] As a lifelong fine artist, Bowen considers his creation of the Human Be-In to be performance art.[citation needed] This notion was confirmed by an Italian journalist, who calls Bowen “The father of performance art” for his Human Be-In creation.[42]
