July 10, 2010
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Dick Head at Tremont Art Walk – foto by Smith
I finally heard myself on our local National Public Radio station on its “Around Noon” program hosted by Dee Perry — I listened in the online archives to the Wednesday, July 7, 2010 episode titled “Matt Gallagher, Tift Merritt, and Tremont Art Walk”. The station is 90.3 WCPN.
The half-hour broadcast can be heard online at wcpn.org/WCPN/an/31252
The”How-the-Jeff-Chiplis-shooting-might-adversely-affect-the-Tremont-Art-Walk” portion hosted by David C. Barnett is 22 minutes into the show in his regular segment called “Idea Stream.”
The four folk quoted in Idea Stream are neon artist Jeff Chiplis; Councilman Joe Cimperman; friend, lawyer, and owner of Brandt Gallery Jean Brandt; and myself. Who’da thunk I’d be a voice of the community, what with my checkered past and present. I sounded like a semi-wise gravelly-voiced old-coot come down from the hills to see what the fancy folk are doing. It was a good show – didn’t tear down the community or try to frighten folk away, and included our positive quotes without glossing over the real problems any urban community faces. And none of the four of us sounded like idiots. A good day for the artists.
Last night was the first Art Walk since artist Jeff Chiplis was shot hours after last month’s ArtWalk, and local folk were worried the streets would be empty because people would stay away in fear — but the streets were packed with people and the restaurants all full, possibility even more so than last month, so no cultural art/restaurant/bar traffic loss occurred due to the robbery shooting. Tremont has the longest running monthly Art Walk in town and it’s a source of neighborhood energy, synergy and pride – we also have the most avant-garde art around, a bit of an edge in among the acceptable.
How to be a ladder without getting stepped on
by Doug Meyer, $200
The show I was in last night was a good one – Fear & Love diptychs curated by Shawn Mishak (of the punk band Kid Tested). Interesting work in a variety of styles and mediums. One diptych I liked a lot was a barbed-wire shadow ladder angling off a metal ladder.
Read more: http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=170006737&blogId=536954215#ixzz0tOFnMiEr
Dick Head outside the Doubting Thomas gallery – foto by Lady K
Outside the Doubting Thomas gallery I came across Dick Head aka Robert Ritchie and bought an art t-shirt from him. Gave him $10 for the t-shirt, and $10 for signed permission to use his poem “I Only Eat Dead Frogs When I Have To” in my memoir.
Dick Head, Smith, and tee-shirt outside Doubting Thomas gallery – fotos by Lady K and Smith
Lady K and her mother Jerie were also interviewed this week by The News-Herald for an article titled “Small-business owners will be busy with Entrepreneurship Academy at Lakeland“. She and her mother have a small web designing business, and the news article includes a minute twenty-one second video of Lady and her mom.
news-herald.com/articles/2010/07/09/news/nh2749484.txt.
What are the odds of the two of us being interviewed by two different agencies in two different mediums and having them broadcast within two days of each other?
Are we stars yet? Where’s the gropies, the cookiecaine, the sweatmeats, the rollers of big cigars?
The man who interviewed me – David C. Barnett – reminded me he and I and Melissa Jay Craig had gone to the Euclid Tavern in the early 1980s to hear a band, then stumbled through the Donald Gray Gardens in back of the stadium until finally ending up at my 4th floor warehouse studio that I was paying $300 rent on for 3,000 square feet — with four 12-foot windows facing Lake Erie and nine more 12-foot windows facing downtown Cleveland. Those five years in the warehouse were my equivalent of Hemingway’s Paris in the 1920s – most every artist I know now I met then. Barnett had a collage in ArtCrimes #5 in 1988. He said an interesting thing as he left last week after the interview. Told me he was much younger than Melissa and I and that the amount of alcohol and the way we drank that night “frightened” him. The man has good instincts because those were leaving earth orbit via alcohol and drugs times, and Melissa and I were always lucky we made it back without hurting ourselves or others.
If you try long enough to be good, eventually you become better – or just older, slower, wiser and more tired – and then you stop frightening the youngsters.
Here’s David C Barnett’s piece in ArtCrimes #5 which was edited by Melissa Jay Craig.
David C. Barnett’s piece in ArtCrimes #5, 1988 – foto by Smith
My Fear & Love in Los Cleveland piece in the Doubting Thomas gallery diptych show was the smallest and oddest piece there, rather like it had snuck in at the end without invite or proper attire. But it was a good show, a lot of interesting art in various styles and philosophies and all the artists probably less than half my age. I’m glad the youngsters accepted me, if they did. Who knows, no feedback yet.
my piece in show – fotos by Smith
I asked Dick Head what he wanted for his tee-shirt and he said $10. Lady cried out “But that’s much too cheap!” Dick Head said “Yes I know but I like you guys so it’s $10 dollars.” So I told Dick Head I was going to make him a deal – I’d give him $10 for the shirt and another $10 if he’d sign a permission statement saying I could use his poem “I Only Eat Dead Frogs When I Have To” in my memoir for free. He said I could use any of his poems anytime because they were not copyrighted. So he signed, got the $20, and my mind is free. The poem has appeared in a couple ArtCrimes already.
Excerpt from Criminal –
Dick Head’s highlight was when he read poetry at the Old Brooklyn Inn wearing nothing but an octopus wrapped around his waist. The tentacles hung down, and so did Dick Head’s dick. He held a large stuffed green felt frog in his left hand, a butcher knife in his right hand, and stood on a plastic drop cloth as he shouted:
I only eat dead frogs
when I have to
lifes a bitch not a bore
Im a slut not a whore
live for lust
loves a drag
I only eat dead frogs
when I have to
Art is free
but paint cost money
The galleries are full
of commies faggots & more
I dont let it get me sore
Cus I only eat dead frogs
When I have to
Then he gut-stabbed the stuffed frog with the knife, and the cow entrails he’d sewn into it the previous night spilled out on the floor. One of the finest poetry moments I recall. Even the college kids sat up.
my fine legal document with Robert “Dick Head” Ritchie allowing me to use his poem “I only eat dead frogs when I have to” in my memoir – foto by Smith