After becoming a Odd Fellow, I took my infamous Old Man Nap. When I awoke I felt grounded and serene in the knowledge I was not alone, and, did not have to write one word about Lodge 70, and the people – beyond the door! I had made it up the – towering staircase – with ease. I made up my mind to take a taxi, and not bus it to Main Street with my walker. I did my intake interview out on the street, sitting at a cafe table. How – Bohemian of us! During my second intake – up the stairs, the woman who acted as our guide, said this – with a smile;
“John desribed himself as a Newspaperman!
Monday morning I looked at the pics I took with my phone, and noted the worry look on my face. Why me worry? Well, every time I have contact with my fellow human beings – the shit hits the fan! Every time I have tried to join a group, it is – HIGH DRAMA! Indeed, I can not avoid having the most dramatic life – no matter what I do! As I stood at the bottom of the stairs, I asked myself;
“John. Have you gone looking for more trouble? You should have stayed at hoome with Classy, your best friend. She loves you. Aint that the truth!“
Before I went down for my nap, I made a resolution to publish very little about the Odd Fellows. I needn’t add, or distract from their existence. They had been around for awhile, and my ancestors were members. Dr. William Stuttmeister was now my Spiritual Guide. We had done well to carry on the family tradition – that had been lost. Now, all I had to do, was go along with the flow.
Inside the hall, I believe I made a good friend. He read some of my blog. At the end of my initiation, I told him there was some outstanding serendipity going on. He agreed, and said the title Bohemians rang a bell – that had to transcend – mere coincidence! I came to believe my grandfather had become fully awake in his grandson, who no longer had to be as old as Rumple Silkin. But, what is this dread I fear? Where is this sense of pending danger coming from…..?. I did a psychic search. Nothing was on my radar.
Around 9:30 I am debating whether to turn off the show I am watching about ‘Americas Mayor’. They have just shown the terrors of 911, and my long distance calls to Christine in New York back them – are made fresh/ I hit power on my remote. I dial her number;
“Hello!” I hear C say, and am alarmed at how weak her voice is.
“Did I wake you? You sound like you were asleep.
“No. I’m feeling very weak, and I’m on the floor!”
“How did you get on the floor?”
“I don’t know!”
“Did you fall?
“I don’t recall!”
“Can you get up?”
“No!”
“You need help. I’m going to Pangy you!”
“No! Don’t do that. I don’t need help. I just want to go to sleep!”
“I’m going to call the police!”
“No! If you do that, you will betray our friendship! They will take me away, and I will never come home!”
For the next hour my dear friend and I played a cat and mouse game with Mr. Death. Chritine was famous for her isolation. She refuses to get a smart phone. I realize I am her only contact with the world, and, I alone can save her life……But she wont let me!
Above is the pic my young taxi cab driver took of me when I got out of her cab. She was wearing a hippie-like cap, and in minutes we are talking hippyese. I shared with her my Hippie History. I tell her about the commune we lived in with a rock band. To put a feathers in her cap, I tell her about ‘The Marbles’ who played at the first Acid Test ate Longshoreman’s Hall. I inform her – we are still friends! Eight hours later, one of The Friends – is going to be dead if I do not act. How to tell Christine – THIS TRUTH?
“Get off the floor Christine!” I ordered.
“O.K. But let me hang up while I do!”
“No! Put the phone on the bed so I can hear you get in your bed!”
“My phone is going dead. Let me hang up and recharge it.”
“Where is your charger?
“On the other side of the room.”
“Can you get to it?”
“No! Let me go to sleep!”
“Do you have a pillow and blanket on the floor?”
“I have a small pillow!”
You’re lying!”
I just texted and called our friend, Peter Shapiro.
To be continued.
At 1:48 P.M. I heard from Dr. Ricky Burns at Mount Saini Hospital. Christine – LIVES! I called 911 at 10:35 P.M. and the police went to her appartment – after going to the wrong appartment! They called me for the correct number. After an hour, I went to bed. Mount Sanai called me at 1:00 A.M. while I was asleep. I told the Doctor Christine is a famous recluse, and estranged from her family. I told him I’m going to ask Christine to be my wife, so, in the future I can say I am her Finance’. We have not seen each other since 1985. We had talked about me coming to New York for a reunion with Peter that I want videotaped. I would like my new friend Steven to be involved.
As for the term “Pangy”….when I got a new phone and forgot to tell Christine she called White Bird and they sent two men to my door to check on me.
“Knock knock! “
“Who’s there?”
“Pangy!”
“And Roy.”
“Your friend Christine is very concerned about you, and wanted us to check on you!”
“Pangy and Roy! Didn’t you two sing Folk at the Night Owl?”
I want to thank my new friends for being here for me.
John
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Marbles_(quartet)
Felix The Cat – Lives!
Posted on August 17, 2023 by Royal Rosamond Press
‘The LA artists were becoming singer-songwriters, hitmakers, whereas the San Francisco crew was not only not about that, they were against it’ … a photo of Tower of Power. Photograph: Bruce Steinberg/MGM+
Two days ago I discussed my old friend, Christine Wandel, with George Walker, one of the original Merry Pranksters. We talked about Bill Graham and the Pranksters that used to sneak into the Fillmore. I told him, Bill had a crush on Christine and took her to see The Tower of Power at the Bottom Line. Yesterday I find this article with a photo of Power above the lie Northern bands were against LA-like success. A documentary was made and will be available soon. Did the producers read this blog?
We talked about Rudy, Trump, the Mafia, and the Ricco Act.
“How the mighty have fallen!”
I suggested she is the Godmother of Greenwich Village – and is up! Is she more than the Hippie Godmother who was backstage with Janis Joplin? We talked about we hippie’s being terrorized by Mafia Max, and how we are lucky to be alive. She admired Vinnie The Chin. I gave her the moniker ‘Felix The Cat’. This part one of….The Rise of Felix The Cat’
John Presco
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_the_Cat
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_Moscoso
‘They thought they were immortal’: the rise and fall of San Francisco’s 60s music scene
A new docuseries explores the ‘untold stories’ of the musicians at the centre of a creative boom and what happened when tragedy struck
Charles Bramesco Wed 16 Aug 2023 07.16 EDT
Enough time has passed for the scene in 60s San Francisco to turn from memory to history, now understood predominantly as a set of ideas and signifiers: flower power, free love, fringe vests, infrequent showers, idealistic good vibes giving way to an inevitable comedown. If this pivotal moment in time threatens to become self-parody, reduced to a tie-dyed Halloween costume, it’s due in part to the hyperbolic terms used by the Boomers who lived through it. The Haight-Ashbury neighborhood was a paradise too edenic to last, as the record goes, where “the streets were paved with LSD”.
Rosamond Press 
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