Donald Trump naked in Seattle, NYC, Cleveland, San Francisco, and L.A.

By Jack Brummet, Public Art Ed.

Photo via The Stranger  

A statue of a Donald J. Trump has been placed at the corner of 11th Avenue and Pike Street. The plaque reads: "The emperor has no balls."  

As it turns out, these statues now appear in San Francisco, Seattle, L.A., and Cleveland. The statues were created and deployed by the art activist group INDECLINE. Where next?

And when will the candidate freak out publicly about this?  Stay tuned. . .

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Happy Mother's Day by David Peele and the lower east side

By Jack Brummet, 70's Music Ed.

A probably less than uplifting view of Mother's Day.  A couple years later, David Peele became friends with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, and they performed together numerous times.

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New York! New York! New York!

From The Archives: The NYC Slides, Part 2

By Jack Brummet
Chief Archivist


A couple of months ago, I began scanning a box of slides we have from the years 1973 to around 1983. I posted them on Facebook because many of the surviving subjects/participants are on there. I always intended to also put them on All This Is That. And, now, I am finally getting around to it. This new batch is from the years we lived in Manhattan and Brooklyn (1977-1982). Coming next, Bellingham, Seattle, and Europe.

Click all photos to enlarge. Right click to download.

Jerry, Vicki, Kevin in the garden next doot yo 158 W. 84th St.

collaped lung/double pneumonia, 1977

Frances, 1978, in NYC

Jack, Cheryl, and Keelin outside a cabaret

Colin and Karen ??, NYC, 1977

Vicki and Jack on the subway

Pinky and Jack at work @ Carl Fischer, 62 Cooper Square

Keelin at a dairy restaurant in Chelsea?

Jack, Julius Caesar, and Kevin/Franco

Jack and Jack at 158 W 84th St

Colin Curran, 1966

Jack on the Brooklyn Promenade with WTC in the background

Keelin on our rooftop of our loft at 351 Jay Street

Vicki, Jack, and Jerry at 158

Jack and Mary Durkan-Jones outside our apartment on Chrystie Street near The Bowery

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Jack Brummet interviews Senator Jerry Melin, 1980, New York City

Of the literally hundreds of hours of recordings in The Archives, only one cassette tape has survived. That cassette, fortunately, contained numerous recordings of the late, greatly and dearly loved Jerry Melin. This is one of them. Thanks to Ian Rodia, who digitized the crumbling generic cassette tape. As you can hear, the cassette recorder itself generated a "bump" every few seconds, and the tape is filled with the ambient sounds of buses, semis, glasses tinkling, coughs, and mumbling. Nonetheless, it is good to hear Jerry's voice.

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Photo: Vicki Lenti on the Staten Island Ferry with Our Lady Of The Harbor A/K/A The Statue Of Liberty In The Distance

Click Victoria Lenti to enlarge

One thing we often did when we lived in New York City was hop on the Staten Island Ferry and go back and forth across the harbor to the forgotten borough. The ferry was especially great on those 95 degree 99% humidity days. In 1979, when this picture was taken [I think], the Staten Island Ferry still cost ten cents, and for that dime, you could ride back and forth all day long.
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Five Greatest Cities In The United States

This is my current list of the Five Greatest/Favorite Cities In The United States. In order. As with all of my lists here, I reserve the right to change my mind tomorrow. Let's debate!

1. Seattle.
2. New York City.
3. Austin.
4. SF/Berkeley-Oakland.
5. Los Angeles.

Five greatest cities not in the United States:

1. Bucerias, Nayarit, Mexico.
2. Rome.
3. Madrid.
4. Chora Sfokya, Crete, Greece.
5. Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

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Times Square, New York City

Partial view of Times Square at night--click to enlarge

Within two minutes of arrving at Port Authority on the bus from Massachusetts, I was walking in Times Square. I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed the frenzy that is Times Square--the massive crowds, the insane shops, and the lights and noise. As tawdry as it was and is, I've always loved the place. It's different than it was...when I lived here, there were no chain restaurants, no bubba gump shrimp company, no olive garden. What is mainly different is what is different in NYC in general: you no longer feel threatened, and there are far more people on the streets (which is true of the entire west side, from Times Square up to the Upper West Side). Today after a play on Broadway, we walked through Times Square and I was just stunned. The vibe is still frantic, but it's now tempered. . .they've cleaned it up, and it's now for everyone... not just the brave. Sure, Rudy had a lot to do with that...but that doesn't mean I think he should be President. Or even Mayor.
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Lovermusik on Broadway

Being in NYC the last while, I haven't had much time for the blog. We saw Lovemusic on Broadway today--an excellent show about a subject I didn't think would be that interesting... Kurt Weill, Bertolt Brecht, and Lotte Lenya. It was fascinating, and included a bit of old school stagecraft, and at least three great acting performances. The sets weren't extensive, but were excellent. . .including a Airstream trailer that Brecht lived in in Santa Monica. There was some great stage business around the rise of Adolph Hitler--more or less a shadow puppet dream sequence.

Michael Cerveris as Kurt Weill - Definitely not your typical Broadway leading man, but an acting powerhouse (my friend Kevin tells me he was great when he was last on Broadway in a revival of Sweeny Todd (which Keelin and I saw the first time on Broadway in about 1980. Cerveris won a 2004 Tony Awardas John Wilkes Booth in Assassins, and was nominated a Tony for his Sweeney Todd.

Donna Murphy - who really stole the show, plays Lotte Lenya. She in somking hot with the critics and won a Tony for her Fosca in Stephen Sondheim's Passion.

David Pittu was totally charming as the cranky and misanthropic Bertolt Brecht.

/jack reporting from the Upper West Side, NYC (Hotel Belleclaire)...
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