I awoke this morning reciting the poison scene from The Princess Bride. I had written something eloquent and used Iiocane as a means to explain the dilemma I have been ever sense Christine Wandel told me she was certain that Ruben Blades is Julie’s father. This was two days before she was going to have Thanksgiving Dinner with Ruben’s daughter. They were going to go to the Washington Square Diner, but, Julie canceled. Christine had me email Ruben, but, no response. I wanted to go with full disclosure – from the get – because I know Christine. We would end up at a round table with two goblets playing a guessing game……What is real? Compared to what?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sawtelle,_Los_Angeles
After several calls, where I was bid to change the dictated email, I posted the final version on Ruben’s Facebook – for the whole world to see! I took a cue from Ruben’s son, replicated what he went through to get his father to acknowledge he has sired a child!
“There! It’s done! The whole world will soon know the truth!”
“What did you do?” Christine asked. I told her.
“Remove it. You are invading my privacy!”
I told Cristine invading folk’s privacy – is unavoidable! You have to tell Julie. Leave a message on her phone. We now talked about – not hurting Blade’s daughter.
“Perhaps it’s better she doesn’t know?”
Night before last Christine gave me permission to write about Ruben Blades on this blog-newspaper. She told me that one of her grandsons looks like Ruben. This – changed everything. Do we all own the right to know who are people are? Ninety million people are obsessed with genealogies. Remember the series ‘Roots’ ? I have been looking at newspapers about Ruben, his son, and his daughter. Ruben says he does not want to make a big deal about it. He does not want to elaborate on the matter. However, he does talk about his Englich father. Christine heard this in 1975. She was not aware of Ruben’s Latino Race – as much as Ruben – is! It was no big deal.
What is a BIG DEAL….Ruben had an affair by a Saxon Woman, and, she became pregnant? Christine and I concluded Ruben had reasons to cover this up, and, Julie could get hurt by realizing how powerless she is. The truth would not set her free, but, imprison her. For this reason I am going to send this story to other newspapers that covered the other child of Ruben – Julies half-brother!
Millions of people can relate to being told to stay out of certain neighborhoods. West Side Story is a famous movie and play about this command. Today is the world premiere of Spielberg’s Story. I am going to purchase a ticket. The original Story was life-changing for me. Months after I saw Westside, I fell in love with a Mexican girl named, Maria, who was in my English class. Her friends knew I had a crush on her, but, I was incredibly shy to the point I admitted I was mentally ill. I wrote poems to other women in other classes. Maria may have heard me recite one of my poems. The last day of school, she approaches me. We are alone in the classroom. I want to kiss her. It is mutual. Our moment, gone, Maria hands me a paper with her address on it.
“Come to my birthday party!”
I almost fainted. My friend Bill drove me to the address that was in the Bad Part of Town. We stopped up the street. There were about ten Mexican teenagers standing on the steps to a Victorian. Some were wearing colorful shirts. I asked Bill of he would come with me, but, that could be trouble. Best I go alone. Being a visual artists and poet, I made several movies of me walking down the street – and up those stairs. How would I be received? A year later this would be a painting. Here is a photograph of my ex-wife, Mary Ann Tharaldsen, walking towards my neighbors in the Mexican neighborhood I lived in. Mary Ann lived with Thomas Pynchon in Mexico.
It was my adopted mother, June Rice, who told me not to go……into the Sawtelle. I detected there were racial reasons. My famiy had just moved to LA. What I heard next, was chillling.
“And don’t go into those theatres. A pervert will stick an icepick in your ear and molest you!”
I was a virgin. I wanted to lose my virginity to Maria. I did not go to her party. I know this morning she kept looking for me. She told her brothers to look out for me, and make sure nothing bad happens to me.
I was sixteen and a student at University High School in West Los Angeles, when a Mexican girl in my class handed me a folded note and asked me to give it to my friend, Mark Owen, who I met at his birthday party that Bryan MacLean took me to. It was Mark who noticed these two girls that were following us after school – that he said were interested in us.
“I want the blonde! You can have the other one!” Mark said. Mark got crazy drunk at his party, and his father gave him a prostitute to sleep with. I was still a virgin. I gave the note from Marilyn to my best friend, and off…….into the Sawtelle he went. I set up my easle, and began a new painting. An hour later Mark comes in the door, and hands me the note I handed him.
“This was meant for you!” Mark said.
I just now realize I dreamed about writing and reading this post. What had happened was, the girl who handed me the note was a good friend of Judy, the other girl walking with Marilyn. Judy wanted me, and heard about Marilyn’s note to me. She asked her friend to do a switch! Here is the scene from the Princess Bride that resembles Romeo and Juliet.
“She wants to see you – now!” And off I go into the Sawtelle.
Below is a photo of the son of Carlos Moore with his arm around me. Carlos wrote the biography of Fela that he later sold to producers who made it into a musical. He was married to Shawna, Marilyn’s half-sister, who lived with Les McCann’s drummer. Shawna gave my first girlfriend a black doll. M knew Bryan who formed the first mixed-race rock band. Peter Shapiro was a member of The Loading Zone who hired a black female singer. Peter was close with members of The Tower of Power, a mixed-race group. Love later became an all black band and celebrated Black is Beautiful.
Christine knew very little about Julie’s father, so I filled her in. She met Ruben at The Bottom Line where her friend, Bill Graham, took her to see The Tower of Power. She was not happy about the Nobel Prize article that seemed to do a switch, saying Ruben deserved that prize, and not Bob Dylan. Now, here is the bottom line that came to me – in a dream…..
One is not worthy of a Nobel Prize for how well you get along – with your race – but how well you get along – with other races!
There is no cure – for love!
John Presco
braskewitz@yahoo.com
Arthur Lee’s Love have lost masterpiece Black Beauty released for the first time – The Vinyl Factory
Carlos Moore (writer) – Wikipedia
Ruben Blades acknowledges 39-year old love child Newsroom Panama
PANAMANIAN salsa singer Ruben Blades, winner of multiple Grammy’s and a man with presidential ambitions has confirmed that he is the father of a 39-year-old Puerto Rican.
He made the acknowledgment that Joseph Verne is his biological son, on Facebook. Verne has a 13 year-old daughter, so Blades is also catapulted into the grandfather role.
On New Year’s Day Puerto Rican newspapers carried a statement released by Blades on his Facebook shortly before the end of 2014, which clarifies that biological tests conducted in February showed that Verne is his son.
“I want to make a necessary public statement that I am pleased and satisfied,” said Blades in the statement, recalling that a two years ago Verne publicly stated that there was a possibility that he was the son of the folk singer which Blades, had always rejected he acknowledged
“In May 2013, however, a relative of mine agreed to a DNA test for. Verne and although the results seemed to demonstrate a clear relationship of consanguinity between the two I was not notified of it. Six months later, in December 2013, a letter was received at my father’s home in Panama giving thr the fact, “says Blades in the statement.
The singer told his lawyers to locate Verne and arrangements were made for a DNA test be conducted with all three (his son, the mother and himself).
“Those tests were achieved in February 2014 and the results were conclusive. Joseph Verne, a man of 39 years old, is my biological son . Joseph’s conviction proved to be true and I, of course, was wrong to have considered that there was no such a possibility, ” says Blades.
“Although nothing can ever appease my shame with him and myself, we met in March 2014 and since then have maintained optimal communication including my granddaughter, a bright young 13- year-old,” said Blades in the statement.
The singer said he did not want to make a public announcement without first establishing the basis for a real relationship with his child.
“I do not plan to make any public statement on the matter. Joseph and I believe that this public notice is clear and sufficient” concludes the statement.
Blades was Minister of Tourism during the administration of Martin Torrijos (2004-2009.
Moore is widely recognized for his outspokenness against racism,[4] defense of pan-Africanism, his scholarly work and for writing the authorized biography of the Nigerian singer, saxophonist and activist Fela Kuti, Fela, Fela: This Bitch of a Life,[5] which inspired the stage musical Fela![6]
Moore’s first wife, Shawna, was from the US, and they had a son together, Kimathi. Moore’s second wife, Ayeola, whom he married in 1992, is from Guadeloupe.[7]
“The Red Telephone” is a song written by Arthur Lee and first released by Love on their 1967 album Forever Changes.
Lyrics and music[edit]
According to legend, the house that the members of Love lived in had a red telephone, although the song lyrics do not relate to this. “The Red Telephone” is built on a set of folk-inspired chords.[1] The song has been compared to Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd. Themes of the song include race, imprisonment, and death.[2] It contains a harpsichord and 12-string guitar, and has an ominous feel. “Sometimes my life is so eerie,” Lee sings, but then inverts the dark mood with “and if you think I’m happy / Paint me white.”[3]
Reception
Allmusic‘s Matthew Greenwald called “The Red Telephone” “exquisite” and wrote, “it’s one of the more engaging and interesting songs on Love’s Forever Changes album.”[1] Ken Barnes called it “bleakly philosophical” and “apocalyptic”.[4] Jim Bickhart of Rolling Stone gave it a mixed review, writing “it contains both excellent and mediocre portions.”[5]
Jocelyn Manchec listed the song among the 2000 songs for your MP3 Player.[6] In 2002 the Italian Rock Magazine “Il Mucchio Selvaggio” listed the song on its 17 Critics & Their Top 50 Songs.[7]
Yesterday I talked to Marilyn Reed about the Sawtelle, and her neighbor, John Lupton. Marilyn’s brother, Stanley, was married John’s wife’s sister, I believe. I was supposed to interview M at the Eugene Art Walk last night, but it was moved to next week due to New Years. She is a gold mine and there is no end to the information I capture, with patience, because Marilyn is a humble soul, and not a name dropper like me. I brought up John Lupton. She used to baby-sit his son, and I would come over to neck with my first girlfriend on the couch. I was impressed. M had already introduced me to Les McCann who played and sang a tune for us.
I asked M how this actor felt living in the Sawtelle, and how he got there. What I have been trying to do is establish the Sawtelle as a haven for the Beats, Folk Artists, and early Hippies. Our friend, Bryan MacLean played at a coffee house Marilyn and I found in 1962, when we were fifteen and sixteen. It was a tea house. After school we would sit by the fire and I would draw M. An hour ago I discovered John played a Beat Writer in the movie ‘The Rebel Set’. I struck the Mother Load, and arrived at the archetypal hub.
I told Marilyn we have been having the same conversation for forty-five years, we very interested in Beats and Bohemians. To discover that John played a Beatnik writer is “far out and floating”. Gloria Moreland plays a Bali Dancer. M’s daughter, Nisha, lived in Bali and studied Gamalin music. Nisha read Rena’s poem while her step-father played drums at the Granary poetry reading. In this movie a guy checks out Gloria’s ass, which she was famous for. When M was babysitting for Kathy down the street, Arnold Palmer checked out M’s sixteen year old ass as she walked out of the room. I caught him and gave him a hard stare. Kathy was dating his good friend who MCed a golf show. This was the start of our break-up. Kathy was a jet-setter who knew everyone in LA. She lived in the Sawtelle. Marilyn was also a Whiteaker Pioneer.
As a profound coincidence I was telling M about my FB friend, Ben Toney, and the movie Expresso Bongo also made in 1959 at the height of the Beatnik Craze. I have found my alter-ego, King Invader, a poet who reads in The Rebel Set.
Marilyn is still a good friend of Jazz great, Les McCann. After we broke up she went with Jeff Pasternak to France on a ocean liner. Here she is having dinner with Jeff onboard. Jeff founded a rock group ‘The Mustard Greens’ that played at the Whiskey A Go-Go, where he met ‘The Doors’ that he tried to get in his father’s movie.
“Bryan started playing guitar in 1963/64. He got a job at the Balladeer before it changed its name to the Troubadour Club, playing back-up blues guitar. It was here he met the pre Byrds Jet Set while dating Jackie De Shannon and he became ‘fast friends’ with David Crosby. He moved away from home and by early 1965 he became road manager for the Byrds on their first Californian tour with the Rolling Stones.”
Bryan was a roadie for the Byrds when he was seventeen. We were both on the brink of dropping out of high school that we had outgrown. Bryan told me he was going to got on tour with the Byrds in Europe, but because he was underage, then did not take him. Bryan went to live with the Beat Artist, Vito Paulekas
In 1966 I went with my friend Nancy Van Brasch to see ‘Love’ at the Filmore. Nancy and I lived in a famous commune in SF, and she dated Stanley Augustus Owsely. Christine Rosamond came to live with us, and she went on a date with Nick Sands. I later got to know members of ‘The Brotherhood of Eternal Love’ who bought me art supplies. I was the Artist in Residence when I lived with ‘The Loading Zone’.
I had my first art show at the New Balladeer that is on the corner of Massachusetts and Sawtelle. Bryan’s Beatnik friend slept in a cot in the store room, and was later murdered by my second girlfriend’s father. Bryan was invited to Sharon Tate’s home the night she was murdered by the Manson family, but, he had a previous engagement. Consider Tyler Shields and the Eastwoods.
Why are Beatniks getting involved in a bank heist? The star of Zabriskie Point was a Mel Lyman devotee. Mark Frechette held up a bank with another Lyman Family member after he made his movie. He had real-life interests. Mel Lyman is my kindred who created a network of Miscans, Actors, and Artists. He is in my family tree. He married Jessie Benton, a cousin of my ex-brother-in-law, muralist Garth Benton, who starred in movies, as did his first wife, Alli McBride.
Ray Miller might be the first Beat Writer depicted in a film. What was Ken Kesey up to in 1959? Was Jack Kerouac ever in a movie? My fictional author Don The Juan’ Roscoe is on his way to becoming a Beat Writer after Ray ‘The Bank’ Miller.
Rena Easton, the dancer, is foreseen in the Bali Dancer, played by Moreland. This is the blueprint…..the far-out groovy blues-print that has been floating around in Bohemian Lore waiting to come home to………….The Sawtelle!
Gloria Stuart was an Artist and Bonzai Master. She lived in the Bohemian Community of Carmel where my late sister, Christina Rosamond Benton, had two galleries. She married Blair Gordon Newell, a sculptor who helped Ralph Stackpole with his creative projects. Ralph was a good friend of the muralist Diego Rivera and his artistic wife. Ralph knew George Sterling who co-founded the Carmel Bohemian community, and the Bohemian Club. Gloria was friends with the Weston family of photographers of Carmel. Gloria’s offspring are making a documentary titled ‘The Secret Life of Old Rose’.
Gloria went to Santa Monica High School, and my kindred, Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor, went to University High in the Sawtelle where sprang a Creative Beat Musical scene at a Tea House located at 11271 Massachusetts Ave, Los Angeles. Here I drew my High School sweetheart, Marilyn Reed. We were fifteen and sixteen, and considered ourselves, Beats. My friend, Bryan McLean of ‘Love’ played here, as did David Cosby. Bryan was in love with my sister, who became the world famous artist ‘Rosamond’. Liz and Gloria were involved in the Arts. The muralist, Stanton McDonald Wright, placed Gloria next to the actor Leo Carrillo overlooking Santa Monica Bay. That is Gloria’s husband with his sculpture near Rocky Point. Stanton was a good friend of the artist and muralist, Thomas Hart Benton.
America needs a Peace Center where people can gather and look for ways to be peaceful. I am looking at the Sawtelle Asylum for Wounded Veterans where Ralph’s statue of Pacifica can be rebuilt. Unto this sanctuary all Seekers of Peace would be welcome.
Come! Put on your tapping shoes, and help make America great again!
I just talked to Marilyn and she told me she used to hop the fence and swim in the Tongva Springs all the time, starting when she was eight. She lived on Armacost near Brockton Elementary school located a few blocks from Uni High. Gloria and M look like the French Actress, Madeleine Sologne, who starred in Cocteau’s movie ‘L’Éternel Retour’ The movie ‘The Titanic’ returned to the theme of Eternal Love. Artists are immortalized. I have found a stellar group of creative souls that sprang from mural in Santa Monica where Marilyn and I went to swim in the sea. These are…………my people!
When I was fifteen my art teacher told me there was nothing he could teach me, and gave me a key to a gate that guarded these springs. He gave me a Artist’s Sanctuary that I could use whenever I attended his class. He took off his wristwatch and handed it to me so I could tell when his class was over. I fought back tears as I headed to these springs with a drawing board and paper. Years later Marilyn told me she used to climb the tall chain-link fence when she was thirteen, and swim in these sacred waters. She is part Meti.
Sawtelle used to be a city. After it was incorporated into the City of Los Angeles, a high school was built that was going to be named Sawtelle. Recently Sawtelle was renamed ‘Japantown’.
The Black Doll of Sawtell
Posted on June 22, 2020 by Royal Rosamond Press
Race Relations is difficult study, but it is our study.
Marilyn And The Sawtelle
Posted on June 6, 2016 by Royal Rosamond Press
Back in December, my childhood friend, Marilyn Reed agreed to make a video for a chapter I was writing for my autobiography ‘Capturing Beauty’. Marilyn and I met when we were fifteen and sixteen. She lived in the Sawtelle neighborhood which was going to be the title of a chapter. After our profound talk, and with more revelations, I told Marilyn ‘The Sawtelle’ might be a book. After the performance by the Inspirational Sounds Gospel Choir, Marilyn’s sister, Shana suggested she and Marilyn co-author a book, and tell their story. I consented to this, then rescinded my blessing, because I feel out story is more important. A week later Marilyn told me she had no time to write her story. I reminded her of the videos I made of her.
The Sawtelle will look at our mothers and their desperate poverty and struggle to raise their children. The story of Marie and Rosemary, is an amazing one. They never met. They came together in our bond. Our creative bond was an inspiration to my sister, who took up art when she was twenty-four and became world famous. Christine signed her beautiful images of women with her middle name, my mother’s maiden name ‘Rosamond’.
The videos of our interview are copyrighted, as are the videos I took at the Hult Center. This performance reminded me of my vision for my musical ‘My Big Beautiful Blue Bicycle’ that I posted on May 1, 2014. There is talk about going to New York and seeing ‘Fela’ a musical based on a story co-authored by Shana.
Jon Presco
President: Royal Rosamond Press Co.
Copyright 2016
Two Sawtelle Marilyns
Posted on June 18, 2016 by Royal Rosamond Press
Two hours ago I got a call from Marilyn Reed. She invited me to our friend Caroline Quinn’s art show. I told her I had just posted on Churchill and Marilyn Monroe, and told her I believed she lived near her in Santa Monica, and, I would google her to get an address. What I found out, has blown me away! Here is the synchronicity that I already applied to the Sawtelle, and the chapter – if not book – I plan to write about this neighbor – both Marilyn’s grew up in! They lived three and a half blocks from each other. Marilyn Godfrey Reed lived on Iowa, on the corner of Colby, next to the actor, John Lupton, who is in her family tree.
Here’s where we enter The Twilight Zone, Marilyn’s crypt is located on Glendon Avenue, about ten blocks from where my family lived on Glendon, two houses from La Grange, and about thirteen blocks from the Marilyns. Marilyn is forever residing on Glendon, as is my kindred, Francis Linn Taylor, who married Elizabeth Mary Rosemond, who Liz was named after. Francis was a art collector who owned several galleries.
For over a year I have been blogging on the Sawtelle. Marilyn looked a lot like Marilyn. We spent much time at each others homes. We were deeply in love. Our homes, and our hood, played such a big part of our growing up. identities are hard to come by in such a sprawling city. When the Prescos first moved to LA in August of 62, it was very hot. Here is a painting I did of the apartment we lived in on Midvale that I believe was once located in the Sawtelle.
In my musical I have Marilyn going to France, and coming back to the Sawtelle with Brigette Bardot’s blue bicycle. Bardot is France’s Monroe! How uncanny! This is part of the Synchronicity Art Movement I discovered. I may be kin to Sarah Churchhill. Rena was born in Nebraska and lived with her grandmother. There are many books written about the Sacred Feminine. The artist Rosamond, rendered beautiful women, and was inspired to take up art when she was twenty-four after seeing a photo of the large canvas I did of Rena. Christine was also inspired by the relataionship I had, and still have, with my muse.
When you look at this map you see that Marilyn came home again. She rests in our hood. Below is a photograph of the Rosamond Women taken on Glendon Avenue. That’s me on a skateboard. Marilyn and I just broke up after her mother forbade me to see her anymore because I did not go down and be SAVED. She saw Monroe as a Jezebel and Hussy. My mother and aunt Lillian dated Errol Flynn.
Jon Presco
Copyright 2016
Norma Jeane’s first appartment rented on her own downstairs from Ana Lower.
11348 Nebraska Avenue
11348 Nebraska Ave. Sawtelle, CA 1945-46
After Marilyn left the Los Angeles Orphans Home she bounced back and forth between different foster homes.
In 1937, 11-year-old Monroe found a home with Ana Lower, a relative of Marilyn’s guardian Grace McKee. Marilyn and Aunt Ana lived at 11348 Nebraska Avenue. It was the most stable home environment that Marilyn had known and she lived here until Lower developed health problems. Subsequently, McKee arranged a marriage between 16-year-old Marilyn and 21-year-old Jim Dougherty.
Monroe and Dougherty were married on June 19, 1942.
Marilyn Monroe (born Norma Jeane Mortenson, June 1, 1926 – August 5, 1962) was an American actress and model. Famous for playing “dumb blonde” characters, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1950s, emblematic of the era’s attitudes towards sexuality. Although she was a top-billed actress for only a decade, her films grossed $200 million by the time of her unexpected death in 1962.[1] She continues to be considered a major popular culture icon.[2]
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Monroe spent most of her childhood in foster homes and an orphanage and married for the first time at the age of sixteen. While working in a factory as part of the war effort in 1944, she met a photographer and began a successful pin-up modeling career.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marilyn_Monroe
Westwood Cemetery
1218 Glendon Avenue
No Marilyn tour would be complete without a visit to her crypt at Westwood. This small cemetery is hidden between tall buildings in a downtown area and is hard to find unless you know exactly where it is.
At the corner of Wilshire Blvd and Glendon Ave, there is a tall office building on the Southeast corner. Going south on Glendon, just past the office building there is a narrow driveway on the left. Turn in there, and go up the short hill. Where the driveway branches, go to the right, and you are there. The driveway circles around the cemetery. The chapel is near the Southwest corner. Marilyn’s crypt is near the Northeast corner. (Marked in the picture below)”
Here I am in 1963 on Glendon Avenue with my brother and Uncle Vinnie who gave me my first car, that 1957 Ford Fairlane in the background. The camera is point towards Marilyn’s crypt about twelve blocks away.
The Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery is a cemetery in the Westwood Village area of Los Angeles, California. It is located at 1218 Glendon Avenue in Westwood, with an entrance from Wilshire Boulevard.
Larry Sidle of the Sawtelle Sychornicity
Posted on December 10, 2016 by Royal Rosamond Press
Around 3:30 P.M. my ex-brother-in-law called me up on my computer. We talked for almost an hour. The last time we exchanged words, was in 1967. We are fathers, who sired two daughters. Larry Sidle told me for the last twenty years he was living near University High School. I told him I am writing about Marilyn Reed and the Sawtelle.
“She lived on Iowa, near Colby.”
“I live near Colby!”
“I’m getting chills. I have blogged on Synchronicity.”
Two hours later I look at my Sawtelle blogs, and found this one posted December 9, 2015, a year ago – exactly! There are springs blocks from Larry’s house. There is a Eternal Return. Thanks to the ‘Boy Next Door’ I have become unstuck in the telling of my story about OUR family! We can go home again, and tell the truth, which will…..set us free.
In the photo above, Christine Rosamond Presco, is pregnant with Shannon Sidle. Why isn’t our story included in the Strange Tales of Rosamond?
Jon Presco
Copyright 2016
Synchromism was founded by Stanton MacDonald Wright (Fig. 1) and Morgan Russell, while they were in Paris during 1912. Together they created the first official works, produced anywhere, which were considered ‘nonrepresentational’. Simply put, Synchromism was a method of painting that set itself apart by using fractured forms and rich colors ; based on using the color theories of Tudor Hart along with the sculptural qualities of Michelangelo.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchronicity
Synchronicity is a concept first explained by psychiatrist Carl Jung, which holds that events are “meaningful coincidences” if they occur with no causal relationship, yet seem to be meaningfully related.[1] During his career, Jung furnished several slightly different definitions of it.[2]
Jung variously defined synchronicity as an “acausal connecting (togetherness) principle,” “meaningful coincidence”, and “acausal parallelism.” He introduced the concept as early as the 1920s but gave a full statement of it only in 1951 in an Eranos lecture.[3]
Benton initially met Wright in the winter of 1909, and immersed himself in the Synchromistic methods. Unfortunately, the only way we can now examine the influence of this time period had on his work is by drawing conclusions from his later work, as much of the work created from 1914-1917 was destroyed in a fire at his home in Neosho Missouri in 1917.
Macdonald-Wright was one of the first of many muralists working in the 1930’s to slant his historical presentation to local achievements. He set noted Santa Monicans, actors Gloria Stuart (b. 1910) and Leo Carrillo (1880-1961), before a backdrop that is a glorious panorama of Santa Monica Bay. Motion pictures not only represented a hometown industry to Macdonald-Wright but also related to his life-long experiments with film and color. Other autobiographical elements appear in other panels. The lariat thrower is his friend, artist Thomas Hart Benton; the dog in the prologue is his own; and the painter at an easel is his father, to whom the mural is dedicated.
Sawtelle
Posted on December 9, 2015by Royal Rosamond Press
“Latino activist Oscar de la Torre declared war on the 74-year-old art work last week and vowed to launch a campaign to “take this mural down”
Calling it “the Santa Monica confederate flag,” De la Torre said the mural is an insult to Native Americans because it shows them “bowing down to the Spaniards who came and oppressed and murdered and committed genocide in the Americas.”
Two days ago I told Marilyn that I am committed to publishing my first book in one month. I told her it would be titled ‘Sawtelle’. Yesterday, Donald Trump said he would not allow Muslims into this country if he were President. Yesterday, was December 7th. and many American people paid respects to those who lost their life when Japan attacked Pear Harbor. This attack has been compared to 911. After this “sneak attack” University High School lost 20% percent of their graduating class due to the United States Government rounding up these students, along with their parents, and putting them in internment camps. Today, Trump defended his statements by referring to FDR’s action.
The mural was painted by a good friend of my kindred, Thomas Hart Benton, the cousin of the muralist, Garth Benton, the late father of my artistic niece, Drew Benton. Stanton MacDonald-Wright and Thomas lived in Paris, and it was from Stanton that Benton got his style. Senator Thomas Hart Benton authored ‘Manifest Destiny’. I, my family, and my autobiography are at the epicenter of a cultural maelstrom. Consider Alley Valkyrie and her demands for Ken Kesey Square. Look at the Kesey murals and the destiny I beheld.
https://stories.californiasunday.com/2014-12-07/pynchon-inherent-vice-los-angeles/
“The mural, painted by Wright, a Santa Monica native, when the historic structure was built in 1938-39, became a symbol of racism at last week’s demonstration to secure funding for PYFC. The demonstration was joined by members of the Indian American Movement’s L.A. Chapter, organizers said.”
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump defended his call to temporarily bar Muslims from entering the United States by comparing it to former President Roosevelt’s 1942 executive order that authorized the internment of 110,000 American citizens of Japanese descent.
“This is a president highly respected by all, he did the same thing,” Trump said on ABC’s “Good Morning America” Tuesday. “If you look at what he was doing, it was far worse.”
“We are now at war,” he added. “We have a president that doesn’t want to say that, but we are now at war.”
He shied away from the analogy during an earlier interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” when host Joe Scarborough asked whether the internment camps violated American values.
“I am not proposing that,” Trump said. “This is a whole different thing.”
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-defends-muslim-plan-by-comparing-himself-to-fdr/
“The springs shown in the mural still exist today, said Lehrer, “a sacred place restored and tended by descendants of Tongva/Gabrieleno Native Americans on the grounds of University High School.”
The Tongva indigenous American People could make a powerful case letting the white man come into their country – was a huge mistake!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tongva_people
When I was fifteen my art teacher told me there was nothing he could teach me, and gave me a key to a gate that guarded these springs. He gave me a Artist’s Sanctuary that I could use whenever I attended his class. He took off his wristwatch and handed it to me so I could tell when his class was over. I fought back tears as I headed to these springs with a drawing board and paper. Years later Marilyn told me she used to climb the tall chain-link fence when she was thirteen, and swim in these sacred waters. She is part Meti.
Sawtelle used to be a city. After it was incorporated into the City of Los Angeles, a high school was built that was going to be named Sawtelle. Recently Sawtelle was renamed ‘Japantown’. A boundary line was drawn that stops short of the Sawtelle Veterans Home, where World War Two Veterans lived after being wounded in the War of the Pacific. Most of those Vets have died of old age. How many would object to the Sawtelle being named after Japan, whose conservative imperial war machine committed hideous atrocities. Indeed, if you are looking for a historic role model for ISIS, look to the Japanese military, who installed a systematic rape of young girls taken as sex slaves.
“The Los Angeles City Council recently unanimously approved a community petition to name the area Sawtelle Japantown. It’s also traditionally known as Sawtelle, West Los Angeles and, to some, Little Osaka.”
I point this out, because the American people have forgiven Japan for its war crimes. However, Donald Trump has picked a fight with Japan. How about Germany? Donald wants to round up Mexicans and put them back in Mexico. Trump’s has infuriated our neighbors while his rabid supporters egg him on. History has proven this kind of talk leads to war, and thus, young men going to war. Our soldiers will die. Many will be wounded and scarred for life. How many white followers understand there will be bloodshed as Trump makes America great again? Japan’s warrior class set out to make Japan “great again”.
This quest for greatness usually entails seeing others as less than human, and thus it us permitted to treat people who are not like you as sub-humans, even like vermon and bugs. The greatness of Germany and Japan did not end by the a consensus of its leaders who committed War Crimes. They did not say; “We must change our evil ways!” Japan and Germany was changed by American, British, and Russian soldiers. They had no choice. We beat them into submission.
Today, Japan’s leaders continue to ignore the bulk of Japans war crimes. Is there some kind od dual citizenship? Women have sued the nation of Japan because these superior men put their seed in them after they were beaten, tortured, and humiliated. Juan Cabrillo and his soldiers did the same thing to the Native Americans of the Sawtelle, who showed them a spring where they could draw water. They quenched the thirst of men who came to conquer them.
One reason why Stanton depicted this scene, was his use of Leo Carillo in the murals at the Santa Monica Library. They could have been friends. Stanton put Leo next to the actress Gloria Stuart who played Rose in the movie ‘The Titanic’. Leo is kin to conquistadors the Tongva people befriended. Then, they were betrayed.
Today, a Veterans group is suing the Department of Veteran’s Affairs to get back the Sawtelle Veterans Refuge and use it for warriors who suffer from mental illness due to the battles they have been in.
At the edge of the Sawtelle there was a Tea House Marilyn and I found, and where I brought my drawing pad. We were fifteen and sixteen. I did her portrait by a table near the crackling fire. I was in love for the first time in my life. Together we constituted an anti-war movement. It was 1962.
Jon Presco
Copyright 2015
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/us-strategy-seeks-to-avoid-isis-prophecy/ar-AAg9gDg?li=BBnb7Kz
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Carrillo
Although he played many different ethnicities in his acting career, Leo Carrillo was Castillian Spanish and traced his ancestry in Spain to the year 1260.[1] His great-great grandfather José Raimundo Carrillo[3] (1749–1809), was a soldier in the Spanish Portolá expedition colonization of Las Californias, arriving in San Diego on July 1, 1769. Franciscan Friar Junípero Serra performed the marriage ceremony for Don Jose Raimundo and Tomasa Ignacia Lugo in 1781.[4][5] His great-grandfather Carlos Antonio Carrillo[3][6] (1783–1852) was Governor of Alta California[7] (1837–38). His great-uncle, José Antonio Carrillo, was a three-time mayor of Los Angeles and twice married to sisters of Governor Pío Pico.[8] His paternal grandfather, Pedro Carrillo, who was educated in Boston,[9] was a writer.
RUTH DE JONG, ART DIRECTOR: The Gaspar de Portolá painting in Pynchon’s book is just a small piece in a hallway. But we decided it would serve well as a backdrop to a scene in which the mysteries of Los Angeles unfold. We liked the idea of having Doc look completely out of place in a private club. When we didn’t find an existing location, we re-dressed the lower lobby of the Los Angeles Theatre in downtown L.A. The room had a combination of wood and plaster paneling, and we added the booths, tables, chairs, and drapes.
DAVID CRANK, PRODUCTION DESIGNER: Paul really wanted to include the painting described in the book. He liked the idea of magnifying this explorer who led an 18th-century expedition through what is now Los Angeles. We found a mural of Portolá at the Compton post office. It matched the book’s description, down to the vegetable crates. I went to the post office one day and hoisted up a ladder to photograph the thing. I reworked the center portion of the mural and had it reproduced on canvas.
By Hector Gonzalez
Staff Writer
June 30, 2015 — A local activist who attacked a mural at City Hall as a depiction of conquered Native Americans is misinterpreting what artist Stanton MacDonald-Wright meant by the scene, said a Santa Monica Conservancy official.
Pico Youth and Family Center (PYFC) founder and local Latino activist Oscar de la Torre declared war on the 74-year-old art work last week and vowed to launch a campaign to “take this mural down” during a rally protesting a funding cut for PYFC.
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I have claimed I am in touch with an angel, and, have been feeling out of touch, lately. I was feeling distracted from world events by Christine wanting to have her daughter and Ruben Blanes have a blood test to prove fraternity. I have spent months on The Roof Job, and Peter Shapiro was feeling left out of the loop in the last two weeks. We had talked about getting Star Power, but, was now afraid of intimidating my old friend with a Super Star. The Loading Zone was the only Fillmore band that didn’t make it big. Yesterday Peter threatened to quit the project.