We visited Medithrive, 1933 Mission Street, between 15th & 16th, in search of better boo and were rewarded with a fine version of Jack Herer. Named after the well-known local grower, this sativa has the signature slow JH trajectory to high altitude, where it levels off for a long, active flight to the new world. Mr. Herer, obviously a visionary, is branding his well-tended herb in much the same manner as Mondavi and Rothschild label their superior nectar. Our compliments on a smart move.
The Year of Fast Living
By August of '64 the scene was accelerating. Pop art was emerging right along with rock, redefining fashion and philosophy. Don Defina had finished his work on Lilith and was already in London, hanging with Ben Carruthers. Lady Catherine had finished her run with her gangster lover and turned her light my way. Rick Lloyd was back from San Francisco with tales of something he called "the trips festivals", where large numbers of hippies would ingest acid and enjoy nights of music, dancing and light shows--the forerunners of Raves. Rick was hanging out with an intense blond lady named Diana Dew, who later invented the first "disco belt" featuring flashing lights. i also bumped into Suni, the Radcliffe beauty from Boston, on Lexington Avenue one day, while shopping.
Suni was blue. She was haggard, unkempt and unfocused. Turns out she'd been abusing her doctor dad's prescription pills back home in Pennsylvania, had gotten busted and was awaiting the outcome of her court case. Actually Suni had never experimented with pot or psychedelics back in Boston, high on her own legend. So in a way she was an amateur. From queen of Cambridge, in a white, retractable-top Ford Skyliner, studying Sanskrit at Radcliffe, while driving the boys mad--to matted hair, rambling speech and no direction home. Like a rolling stone...
There were other casualties. Earlier that year i had met a dancer named Fred Herko, an outrageous trans-artist from the Andy Warhol scene. He was wearing feathers at the time. We discussed his doing a stage performance, setting some of my poems to dance, combining jazz and psychedelic lighting. An advanced idea back then. A month or so passed and i was crossing Third Avenue, smoking a J, when i ran into Fred and a friend of his. The friend looked very familiar. He was introduced as Billy. As i passed him the joint i realized it was Billy Grey, the dutiful son on the long running TV show Father Knows Best. Two months later i heard Fred had jumped out of a window while on speed.
Thankfully, the news wasn't all bad. One of my clients, a British call girl named April, rang me up and referred me to what i thought was a new client. However he turned out to be a supplier. And this cat had some bad boo. He was holding significant weight of black African grass that to this day stands as memorable. It was expensive but the profit margin was better. No one minded paying extra for this extra-terrestial herb. It also did wonders for my rep.
Meanwhile Rick Llloyd met Niki, and the two of them connected. Rick was versed in Native American Shamanism, and Niki was into her Cuban voodoo. In fact there was an altar room in her Park Avenue bordello. Some time later, Rick confided that he had introduced Dylan to Niki. Afterwards, Rick asked Niki what happened. "What do you think happened?" she snapped. "I tied him to the bed and spanked his white ass."
Speaking of Dylan, while Don Defina and Ben were in France, hanging out at Nico's pad-Nico was a model, and founding member of The Velvet Underground-Dylan was also there, in the process of writing Hey Mr. Tambourine Man. Ever the film maker, Don grabbed his trusty Bolex and began shooting as Dylan continued to work on his song. A magic moment. Unfortunately, Nico's infant son managed to pull out the sound tape and destroy it. Then Ben borrowed the original-and only-print, and never returned it. Still, Don was out there in adventureland, and i wasn't. A primal urge to sail the ocean wide was gnawing. i started putting money aside.
My flirtation with Lady Catherine flared into a full-fledged, be all that you can burn, affair. At the same time civil disobedience, and Vietnam, were at the boiling point.
On November 4th of 1964, exactly one year after JFK's still unresolved assassination, Lyndon Baines Johnson used a phantom skirmish at the Gulf of Tonkin, to escalate the war in Asia. ("There's no such thing as coincidence"- William Burroughs)
America suddenly realized it had been had.
Next: The Road to Damascus
Suggested Viewing: The Hurt Locker
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