TBT

Today is the day my sister, had she lived, would have beaten me to fifty. This is the last picture I ever took of her on my phone. It must have been in the hospital after I did my trademark joke of handing her something large like a bed remote and telling her it was her suppository. Always made her smile. Thought I lost this photo when things went pear-shaped with my iPhone last year. Wanted to put it here for safekeeping.

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James Van Looy, Ian Thal and Bill Barnum. This comes from James' personal collection. I believe this was taken back in 2004. It's hard to fathom looking at Bill from this time and thinking that this is his "young" face.

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Taken from inside the old bathroom at the Out of The Blue Art Gallery's last location in Cambridge, Stone Soup Poetry's home for years. See you at our new location tonight at St. Paul's Cathedral.

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Taken back in January. People are always trying to put a hat on my balding head. At least it's not a tam o'shanter.

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I used to help with set design for Cambridge Family Opera whenmy ex, the late Lynne Stickor, babysat for their son. This is from 2005's Space Opera, an unofficial adaptation of Star Wars: A New Hope. I went to all their shows for a few years.

Today's #TBT

In 2009, I had the pleasure of being invited as a guest to the first ever episode of The Steve Katsos show.In the ten years since, Mr. Katsos has featured a great number of musicians, a cavalcade of comics and...one poet (me). He ended up sneezing on me during our interview, and he soon discovered he was allergic to poets (or at least me, and he didn't want to take another chance).

Steve and I had worked on a number of projects in college, where my friends and I enjoyed watching VCR tapes of his public access show, "The Missing Tooth." It was a pleasure to take part in the launching of his now ten year old show and a privilege to be the opening act for his show's one year anniversary celebration.

Steve is hanging up his mic for now to focus on his family. I have no doubt he's making the right decision and that he'll also come back bigger than ever some day.

Congratulations on a great run, Steve. Big or small screen, stage or YouTube, I'm sure I'll see you back to entertain us. 

Today's #TBT

An old photo shoot back when I had more holiday spirit (really!) and more of a belief that memes made with Smokey's image would help me conquer the world.

Today's #TBT

Another throwback item from my summer of moving and rediscovering things. Just put this on my Stone Soup open mic clipboard. This is one of the many bumper stickers given out by Vermin Supreme, who has been running for imaginary positions that sound better than the actual ones we have. His platform is always related to better dentistry, so the message is fitting. Still, with the current administration's anti-free speech platform, this phrase might take on new meaning.

Today's #TBT

The prayer my father wrote up during his last Thanksgiving with the family eleven years ago. Found it this morning still folded up as if it was a speech he didn't want anyone to know he wrote ahead of time.

Today's #TBT

A wall of mixed messages. Another photo taken in Philadelphia during the 2000 Republican National Convention.

Today's #TBT

Me and my girlfriend posing in the Gardens of Versailles less than three months ago.

Today's #TBT

Once again, I'm posting recent pictures of throwback items found during my move. This one came from the second Beantown Zinetown from over almost two decades ago, where Duncan Wilder Johnson performed with his band Hillside 186. He had a guitar he tried to smash on stage, but he ended up having to jump off stage to get enough leverage to break it. I grabbed up a piece of the neck, and Duncan signed it for me.

Today's #TBT

I'm posting this one day late because it took me so long to fix the scans I made of these. Recently, I've been posting throwback items instead of photos. These are what used to be framed certificates of all the belts I earned at the karate schools I attended when I was older. They don't mean much now, but if I was ever proud of one of these, it was my orange belt certificate. Not only was it my first promotion, but I passed less than a month after being diagnosed with asthma, during a time in my life when my only go to was a humidifier and the over the coutner drug Primatene Mist, both of which sucked as treatments. Sadly, I never made it to black belt.

Today's #TBT

Last month I moved, which meant I had to throw a lot stuff out, including at my Mom's house, where I had to make room for stuff that won't fit in my new place. So the next couple of #TBT's are going to be not throwback photos but photos of throwback items before I got rid of them. What you see here are all the belts I ever earned during my karate school days (up to brown). Fred Villari's was just one of the schools I was part of (one school changed their name and sensei three times). Later, I'll scan my karate certificates documenting which belt I "graduated" to before they too go in the trash.

Today's #TBT

Another shot from outside the 2000 Republican National Convention in Philadelphia. Seems to sum up my feeling about where this country is going pretty well.

Today's #TBT

 

Here are two more pictures of the Goat With A Vote political theater group that performed many times over the 2000 election. The color photo is another shot of them in Philadelphia during the Republican National Convention. The black-and-white shot was taken in Boston during the UMass debate protest. Keep in mind that this was before cell phone cameras, so the black-and-white photo is taken from actual B&W film that cost me a fortune to have developed. I thought it would help me as a freelance writer, but I couldn't keep up with that for very long.

I clearly wanted to interview these performers But fell out of writing for the local small press when I had to buckle down and make money or be homeless, so I never got around to it. I wonder where they are now? Searches online don't reveal anything so far. 

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Taken during the Republican National Convention. I don't know where the quote "It's better to study the living fact than to analyze history," came from. A search reveals nothing. Probably something an ad writer came up with. I liked it's juxtaposition amidst the chaos on the streets, including the "Goat with a Vote" performers, who I saw perform here and  months later at the 2000 Debate protest at UMass Boston. 

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This was taken in Philadelphia during the 2000 Republican National Convention and the protests that surrounded it. The police were out in full force, the likes of which I never saw in Boston at that point. I'm not sure if I took the picture because of the Anarchy symbol beside the policemen, the Mumia Abu-Jamal sticker, or if it was just blind luck.

I've had to clean out my apartment recently, and I came across more photos like this (particularly this event) that I never had the chance to share with anyone. I'll be uploading them here in the coming weeks.