I have been conducting interviews with Marilyn Reed, the wife of Kenny Reed, whose band ‘Stone Cold Jazz’ conducted poetry readings at the Granary for three years. I and Izzy Whetstein read there. Izzy is a original Merry Prankster who was in the movie ‘Animal House’. He and Kenny were in a follow up movie about a frat house that the city of Eugene – tore down! Why? It would have made a great tourist attraction that would have generated much money for the Kenites’. I say Kenites, because years after Kesey died, no one can do anything, or be anyone, or resemble Ken in any manner. We are the City of The Half Dead’. We lost our stadium, our bowling alley, Ken’s cottage, Animal House, The Downtown, and now Kesey square. We are real? Compared to what?
An hour after I posted this, I watched our President talk about DIVERSITY. Kenny and Izzy will be doing a benefit for Bernie Sanders at Tsunami Book Store.
Thursday. http://www.tsunamibooks.org/events-calendar/2015/12/17/concert-artists-and-writers-for-bernie
https://www.facebook.com/events/1506155806354002/
I am a Underground Newspaper that picks up where ‘The Augur’ left off. I have learned one thing as a newspaperman, if you write something about anyone, and while they read what you wrote, and this tune is not playing in the background – they are going to hate you and try to destroy your ass!
Stop! Enough! Bring on Love and the Bollywood Dancers! Play first two videos at the same time, and be taken back to pre-Christian Judaism and Paganism.
Only if you are a poor homeless drunk are you allowed to do almost anything in Eugene. If you want to take a dump in the square next to the food carts (that moved out)
“Be my guest!”
There is no connection between the homeless urchins, and Hippies – including Ken! Old Hippies are not responsible – not guilty! It is not our traditional style!
“Don’t lay your guilt trip one me – man!”
I have been on the bus and seen Kenny Reed play with Ken Babb’s on two occasions. Babbs has Kenny on this website. David Bowie spoke about the racism of MTV. I wonder if David was inspired by Arthur. I would love to read a dual-bio.
“As a songwriter, Lee composed the surf songs “White Caps” and “Ski Surfin’ Sanctuary”. “My Diary” is the first Lee composition that came near to being a hit. It was written when Arthur was a teenager, about his teenage sweetheart Anita Billings. Later it was the R&B singer Rosa Lee Brooks who performed and recorded it. This recording included Jimi Hendrix on electric guitar. Lee had seen Hendrix backing up the Isley Brothers.
http://www.skypilotclub.com/oldpages41.html
http://www.skypilotclub.com/index.html
This makes Kenny an honorary Prankster, and his wife, who is a good friend of Jazz great, Les McCann. Marilyn’s sister was married to Les’ drummer. She introduced me to Les when she was fifteen. He played and sang for us. Kenny played with Les in Portland.
The reason I am interviewing my first girlfriend, is, she lived in a multi-racial neighborhood, and, her family married people of several ethnic backgrounds, something that is lacking in the history of the Pranksters. Ken and his family are as white as can be. Loggers and Farmers high on LSD is the best way to describe them.
“Want some yogurt and cottage cheese? And, then we get down and do some clogging?”
Here is what went on at the Kesey Ranch that the world did not know about. We used to have a T.V. like the one in this bootleg film. The Kesey’s were raised on clogging!
Did you notice the woman on the couch was having a bad trip, while gramps has nodded off and gone to Nirvana Land where he is hearing a lecture by Timothy Leary?
I was thinking about founding the ‘Clog The Downtown’ event, where at sunrise every morning clogggers will clog the downtown and Kesey Square waking the lazy bums from their slumber.
“Look out for the human fecal matter!”
When I learned Belle was a dancer, and had gone to Lane to study English Literature, I told her she was the Heir to my Bohemian History, that due to my cancer, I wanted to close with a musical ‘My Big Beautiful Bicycle’ . It would feature the music of Love. Bryan was my good friend in High School, and after we dropped out. He sang at my wedding. I married Thomas Pynchon’s ex-wife. Thomas is a great Jazz Fan! Here is one of the first Beatnik movies made in 1956. It’s all here.
Here is the blue bicycle and the rear, that changed the world! This is our modern day Venus. BB is a Libra!
On New Years Day I bought a a used blue Schwinn. I gave another blue Schwinn to Marilyn’s daughter, who lived the history I gathered on her Bohemian kin, Rudolph Friml who compose the music ‘Rose-Marie’. The Blue Bohemian Dream – lives on! It’s all cool – of you let this Bohemian Newspaperman – do his thing!
Jon Presco
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Lee_(musician)
“Ken might be dead, but he keeps me up every night,” Babbs said. “I had too much to dream last night.”
Babbs said Kesey’s “dream state” is a busy place to be.
In his dreams, Babbs said, Kesey encourages him to promote events, such as the reading initiative.
“It’s a continuation of Kesey’s work, and a way of extending from him to the people his best wishes and his writing,” Babbs said after the event.
He said the Pranksters’ appearances will be more entertaining in the future as they have more time to practice their antics.
“We’ll look to do little acts like we did today,” he said. “By the end of this (initiative) we should have something down pretty good.”
https://rosamondpress.com/2014/02/01/can-she-be-my-muse-too/
I had a conversation Belle about the idea I had for a Broadway Musical called ‘Love Dance’. I had asked Belle, was, if she would like to choreograph ‘Love Dance’ because I learned she was a dancer. I suspect Belle sees herself as a orphan because she lost her mother nine years ago. This is why she become a street urchin and ragamuffin. Bardot plays a orphan named Juliette in And God Created Woman.
“Juliette (Brigitte Bardot) is an 18-year old orphan with a high level of sexual energy. She makes no effort to restrain her natural sensuality – lying nude in her yard, habitually kicking her shoes off and walking around barefoot, and disregarding many societal restraints and the opinions of others.”
Belle is the reluctant Muse of Jon after he caught her trying to apply his life story to her young lover, an anarchist who claims he is helping the homeless, but, this couple has ambitions to take over the counter-culture of those that came before them and rule the Bohemian World.
Taking his case to the old hippies in the Whiteaker, the wise ones rule Belle must fulflll her agreement she made, and accompany Jon on a cross country train ride that will take them to New York to visit Chris and Stefan who has just moved into the old Woodstock Hotel. On the top floor, Stefan finds a ballroom that has not been used in years. Earlier, Chris had said this hotel is where the Woodstock Nation folks have come to die.
After Belle and Jon board the train, Jon give Christine a call. She informs him Stefan has put together a song and dance routine ‘Putting on the Woodstock’ that is based upon ‘Putting on the Ritz’. Stefan found tails and top hat in a closet, and looks like Fred Astaire. Stefan was a master of the Viennese Waltz, and in no time has mastered Astaire’s famous Ritz dance.
“Yeah! You aughta see him.” says Chris. “He looks real sharp. We got the tenants to dress like Richie Havens, and Hendrix. The chorus line is called the ‘I want to take your higher dancers’. They are wearing white tasselled jackets like Sly did at Woodstick. We got ten drum sets doing Santana. He went insane, Greg. He told me I inspired this show. He wanted to bring back the Filmore and my friend Bill Graham. I wish you were here. Oh, the shows starting. Oh my God!”
“What’s wrong Chris?” Jon asks, sensing something is wrong.
“The ‘take you higher dancers’. They are women in mesh and white high-heel boots. These are his women, his dames he met in the art world. Listen to this!”
Have you seen the well-to-do hippie up and down 42nd. Avenue
On that famous thoroughfare, with their noses in the air
High hats and tie-dyed collars, white spats and lots of flowers
Spending every dime, for a wonderful time
If you’re a wanna-be Bohemian
and you don’t know where to go to
Why don’t you go where Boho fashion sits,
Puttin’ on the Woodstock!
Different types who wear day-glow pants with candy stripes
And cut away coat that really rocks
Puttin’ on the Woodstock.
Dressed up like a million dollar rock star
Trying hard to look like Alice Cooper (super duper)
Come let’s mix where aged Beatniks walk with sticks
Or Chinese umbrellas in their mitts
Puttin’ on the Woodstock!
* * *
As the Train heads south to Oakland, Jon tells Belle about the blue bicycle that the love of his life bought in France where she was taken by the son of Joseph Pasternak after Marilyn’s mother forbid Jon to see M again – after he failed to convert from Roman Catholocism to Southern Baptist……after she forced Jon to go to three Billy Graham Crusades. Jeff Pasternak being a Jew, was O.K. because the family had money. Jon was a poor artist.
Jeff would later form a rock group and meet Jim Morrison whom he tried to get in his father’s movie.
Marilyn’s sister was a radical in France who co-authored ‘Fela – this Bitch of a Life’ with Carlos Moore, who would claim he was not paid when Fela became a hit on off-Broadway.
It turns out Marilyn’s blue bike once belonged to Bridget Bardot. When M brought it back to the States, it was stolen at the airport, and ended up in Boston.
Jon Presco
Copyright 2014
Taken the Shitty Crosstown Shuttle
Every Sunday Christine takes the 42nd street shuttle in order to catch a train to Harlem where so she can hear her beloved Gospel Choir. Dressed like a Boston Blue Blood she ignores the sniggers and looks she get . She is wearing a cap, and has a big bow . She looks a like Little Lord Fauntleroy.
This shuttle is Christine’s hell-ride. The most unsavory, whacked out, smelly and rude folks in New York ride ‘The Dragon’ as Chris named it because it makes a hissing noise when it pulls into a station, as if the dragon is belching fire.
No one will get up and give Chris their seat.
“Well, that’s par for the course!” Chris moans. “How did I end up here? I used to be a hippie in San Francisco, with flowers in my hair. What became of my beloved Puff…..my Magic Dragon?”
Wandel’s Woeful Wail
Once upon a time I used to be so free
I danced in a park at the human be-in
to Ginsberg’s thumb cymbals
I even caught a psychedelic wink
from a dimpled Timothy Leary
Now I am being squeezed hard up against 400 pounds of blubber.
Hey, in this town
its hard to be any kind of lover!
(Man wearing tin foil on head, reads Christ, mind)
Hey, Blondie, I’m on your wave-length
You can be my bosom babe
as long as you can pick up signals from outer space
And if you don’t mind French kissing a dirty old man
born of an alien race!
In 1966 Jeff Pasternak, songwriter, artist and son of legendary film producer Joe Pasternak, was strongly advised by his father not to get involved in Show Business. However, after meeting Elvis Presley on an MGM soundstage Jeff quickly forgot that advice. Months later, out for a good time at the London Fog on Hollywood’s Sunset Strip, Jeff and a friend found their way to a sleazy backstreet bar and Jeff’s life changed forever.
The club was almost deserted as they waited for the new band they’d come to hear. Then, around 9:00 pm Jim Morrison and The Doors strolled onto the tiny dance floor. Jeff was captivated and mesmerized. He recalls that surreal night as one of The Doors‘ very best performances. “I knew after I left the club that night that this was the style of music I wanted to write, and the singer I wanted to sound like.”
Shortly after that evening Joe Pasternak approached Jeff, asking, “What rock and roll band would you recommend for my new movie, The Sweet Ride?” Jeff immediately told him about The Doors, whom Jeff had been following to about every gig they had around L.A. By then, Jeff says, “Their music and energy had saturated every part of my being.”
In a few more weeks Jeff had convinced his friend, John Branca (to later become one of the world’s top music attorneys) to experience The Doors. Two months later, Jeff and John had their own band, The Mustard Greens. “I was on top of the world,” Jeff says, “co-writing original material with John and waiting for my dad to sign The Doors. Who could ask for anything more?” Unfortunately for both the film’s success and music history, Joe Pasternak chose to sign Moby Grape, because they wanted $5,000 less. Shortly thereafter Light My Fire soared up the charts, racking up sales and fans. That’s Show Biz
https://rosamondpress.wordpress.com/2013/11/25/the-taylor-getty-and-rosamond-children/
Rosamond Press 
Reblogged this on rosamondpress and commented:
Several days ago, Marilyn Reed, told he her sister Shana loved the show she put on at the Hult Center, and wants her to co-author a book together. Shana co-authored ‘Fela – This Bitch of a Life’ that became a off-Broadway hit that I asked Belle Burch if she wanted to see with me. I had conducted an interview with Marilyn about my chapter ‘Sawtelle’ a neighborhood Shana and M grew up in. I am considering turning this chapter over to these beautiful sisters – if they help my vision come to fruition! We have been working on ‘Love Dance’ or ‘My Big Beautiful Bicycle’ on a level ‘The Muses’ created for us. Shana does not read by blog. It’s time she does. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fB0GepZMzKU