J.U. St. Michael at Red House, circa 1971.
Hoaxes & Happenings
Richard Dawson, Phillip Grant, EJ Gold, Ron Matthies on Tempo TV show, circa 1969, presenting their views about the Great California Earthquake and other current issues.
Back in the 1960s, many artists were staging “Happenings”, art events of various kinds, which today might be classified under the category “performance art”, but it went way beyond that into socio-anthro issues, such as the fear that California was about to sink into the Pacific Ocean, as predicted by a local psychic. The Fellowship “unpredicted” the earthquake and said “The Big One is not scheduled for a while yet … we’ll let you know.” The story generated millions of words in print and hundreds of media hours.
To Act or Not to Act
Acting is a great teacher; you can learn what you’re putting out, projecting outward, to others. It’s rare that someone knows exactly what it feels like to smile just exactly that way. EJ Gold, left, directs troupe.
I’ve Got No One To Pull My Strings…
No strings attached; these are six-foot tall “Bunraku” puppets, each with its own set of three humanoid operators. It’s a back-breaking, gut-wrenching experience to haul a six foot 100 pound creature around, but rewarding beyond belief — it’s like learning to operate your own body from outside.
My Life as a Writer
Frank Herbert, author of Dune, on the left, EJ Gold, author of RetroVisions, SlimeWars and Suaron v. Baggins, on right, at 1976 Westercon.
Writer, proofreader, editor, publisher, illustrator, designer, storyteller, publicist, marketer. Those are the skills I bring to my writing. If you don’t have all those skills, you can’t be an interdimensional author like myself; how many writers do you know who’ve had book-signings at Maskull’s Books & Tapes on Arcturus. On Vega IV, SlimeWars has gone viral, but then, they’ve never been to Urth.
My Life as a Hollywood Screenwriter
I co-starred several times with my longtime friend Jose Ferrer, and in one case, he starred in one of my “Happening Productions” in Hollywood. This was an artist event in which the “Happening” was an orchestrated eruption of argument in Musso & Frank’s Grill on Hollywood Boulevard in 1969, when this photo was taken by my girlfriend Samantha. The costumes we’re in are relative to the production, not our own clothes.
My Life as a Chef
Here I am at the Kung-Fu Natural Foods restaurant that I set up along lines decided by David Carradine; he had to drop out when the studio refused to let him take part. The paintings that month were by Schwaderer and Hirschfeld.
Within one month, Kung-Fu was in the black. Cost to set up, including licenses, inspections, equipment and supplies, $9,000 flat. I couldn’t do the same today for under $150,000.
Babylonian Radio Discovered
Claude and I are currently examining and testing a Babylonian Radio. Technically speaking, it’s roughly equivalent to the GI Foxhole Radio of WW II. We’re thinking there’s a matching spark-gap transmitter, although this was clearly built as an interdimensional religious artifact, used for alpha/theta wave induction and Schumann Harmonics effects, similar to a Brane-Power amulet. Potentially, there’s no reason why we should not someday find an ancient SuperBeacon somewhere in the ancient ruins of Babylon.
Sing, Sing, Sing!!!
Singing a duet with Ron Matthies, RCA Studios 1972, Al Schmidt Producer, Ritchie Schmidt & Dick Bogert, engineers. Album: RCA Live.
When I was a kid growing up in New York City during the 1940s and 50s, I went to Downtown Community School, a small private school that had, as its music teacher, Pete Seeger. I sang with Pete for 11 years both there and at Camp Woodland. I have published a book on it. Singing is a very important part of life, and if you don’t sing, you’re not getting everything out of life that you should be able to. Continue reading
My Bogus Cold War Spy Adventure
I started my photography and darkroom training at Fort Devens, the primary training center for Army Security Agency operatives. We were at that time the most secret agency in the intelligence network — even the letters “ASA” were classified. Today, it’s all different; ASA doesn’t even exist anymore, nor the technology that made it necessary.