Dear Readers: I am exhausted...get these fits of exhaustion, started last year when I had to move under duress, total trauma not healed...but one miracle....Last December I filmed Giuseppe Logan playing Begin the Beguine and it rocked the jazz world because people thought he was dead. Giuseppe was in Virgina when a friend showed him that this was so on a computer and that gave him the drive to get to NYC where like magnets we found each other on a freezing cold day. Tim Madison, a writer and music lover immediately contacted me to explain the significance of my youtube and how deeply moved he was.Tim told me because of this renewed interest he has heard that GL's old label is going to re-release his albums maybe with some other tracks. The article that Peter Gershon wrote is powerful and moving along with the photos of GL as a young man and all the people I have met or emailed along the way are soulful and moving especially Matt Lavelle who has dedicated loving energy Giuseppe Logan's way even giving him this instrument you see in the photo in need of repair.
I am not going to see The Solist right now -- I remember after Sept. 11 -- it was impossible to sit through a film and after the traumatic experience last year so traumatic but not 9-11, I sometimes feel this way -- the way I do now -- there is no way I can sit through The Solist but I love this magical New York experience and Giuseppe Logan tells me how generous New Yorkers have been to him.
There are people that call themselves real east villagers and they robbed me of my good feeling about the EV but Giuseppe Logan who lived here in the 1960's standing just a few feet from my hexagon in the park "miss you, miss the trees, the NYC idiosyncrasies" from The Going a short story I wrote about 9-11 dedicated to the NYPD detectives -- GL restored some of the feel good and love -- it was as if he and are ghosts revisiting this park compelled to return over and over and that is a theme of two short stories of mine -- the other is Murderville in the East Village -- a political statement about the murder of "the Village -- the community crushing development" but it is told through a modern day version of Laura so I was shocked when Giuseppe played the theme from Laura this morning in the park. I asked him if he had seen the film and he said no.
Haunting...and my ghost stories are haunting statements -- my art about the neighborhood I loved so much...that I do not recognize anymore....
GL's story is a mystery. He repeats often he did some things wrong -- bad choices -- in his quiet way. I nod when he tells and I express compassion. He is alive and that is a miracle, he now has instruments since he returned to NYC and he has connected with a world wide audience that thought he was dead and are happy he is alive and GL seems happy, very happy to be found.
I am too tired write now to post all my youtubes. I will start with one but you can find youtubes on GL including the original one from the 1960's in Tompkins that Pete Gershon talks about in his article Out from the shadow. I remember telling Tim Madison -- Tim I found this video from the 1960's! Same park, do you think that is GL's son...he is holding his son's hand in a tight loving embrace! I have made a series and will put up more footage today and Matt Lavelle has some moving video of him and GL playing with other talented artists that clearly love GL and have embraced him.
I feel heart broken about what happen to my beloved neighborhood. I loved in the Village non-stop for 25 years, much has left me feeling angry and sad and the 2 ghost stories have even greater significance considering what I went through and also the hexagon from The Going being a couple of feet from GL and me when "I found him" as if he was a ghost and I returning to haunt Tompkins....The love and out pouring for Giuseppe Logan and the kindness I felt from Tim Madison and Peter Gershon and their acknowledgement of me as well has been salve on a bigger wound....I am sure GL could relate in some way...
