Met Carolee Schneeman and the group she is forming. She seems a collage-maker, mixing people and a little technology. She led us through a few exorcises, mostly to get us comfortable with each other, and to feel safe. Touching, wrestling, and blind-fold walking around her apartment. I expect to do more work with her.

Carolee’s workshop was interesting, and strenuous. I think the exorcises are designed to get us used to feeling each other’s bodies. I bet Carolee can tell what our psychological status, their troubles, etc., just by the way we react to the problems she presents.

Carolee’s class was held in a huge loft on Broadway.
A good class.

Hitch hike to Boston. Hitching was my customary, as well as often necessary, transportation mode. After an hour-and-a-half wait in the cold, my first ride was with an attentive, non-conformist, stock broker. He was interested in my photography and movie making, and the fact that I was going, at Carolee Schneeman’s request, to shoot her “happening” event in Boston.

He asked why I’d not taken public transport, rather than walk from my storefront home, a mile or so north, and then east across the George Washington Bridge. I told him that there were better hitching spots on the Bridge, and I had no money to get to Boston. He drove out of his way to give me a good hitching spot on the New England Through-way, and surprised me when he gave me a $20 bill.

Then got a ride in a big car with a fellow hiker to Waltham. Then with a drunk to route 128, Then with a guy, who sounded like a traveling salesman, to Copley Square. From there, I walked to Kenmore Square.

Found Carolee, and her troupe, at the The Ark Media Palace (Inter-Media Inc.), not ready to put on her “Illinois Central Transposed” show. Everyone looked depressed and exhausted.

Before I showed up, they’d experienced one catastrophe after another. Among them, Cam was ill (coming down from speed), his apartment was broken into, and that the girlfriend of Julie (his roommate) had been raped. So, Cam just disappeared.

At the Ark, the air in the tires on the troupe’s rented truck had been released. To top it off, the tech crew at the Ark was uncooperative.

With all the catastrophes, two replacement performers, me and a couple of others shooting stills, and a movie maker, the atmosphere was filled with all kinds of tension-filled undercurrents. Make that “over-currents.”

In spite of my weariness from traveling, I was ready to photograph, with four rolls of film. That’s about 144 still frames, with which to capture a taste of Carolee’s event.

The show begins, and, much to my surprise, it is beautiful.

At first, the audience doesn’t know how to react. The performers appear, totally covered, with large rolls of craft paper wrapped around them. Sort of like the old ads of large packs of cigarettes dancing, with human legs seen below. In this case, not even the performer’s legs can be seen.

While the music, and sound mix, gets very loud, movies are projected on a wall. The performers, in the paper tubes, force their hands through the sides of the paper. They begin to tear themselves out of the tubes, sometimes encouraging the audience to help with the extraction.

The performers appear in their underwear, and, with large paintbrushes, swab themselves with what looks like diluted oatmeal. Then, they roll around in the piles of paper confetti.

By this time, many audience members join in “oat painting,” and “paper feathering” the performers. Many audience members strip to underwear themselves, gleefully getting brushed, and confetti covered.

Altogether, the Boston audience is appreciative and responsive. The event has great energy, and the time seems to run quickly. By the end, everyone’s spirits are buoyant and joyous.

Carolee’s lover, Tom, who is very bright and talented, does beautiful movements throughout the show. He and Carolee had a fight last Saturday, when she tried to stop a strange, self-destructive bout he was working on. They soon made up.

After the performance ended, the beautiful Mitzoo, the dramatic Ella and Ellen, humorous Jeff, Carolee, and me went to Amy’s apartment on Jay St., in Cambridge. While the intention was to get some shuteye, everyone was hyper-energetic from the show. I tried to sleep as soon as we arrived, however, there was too much noise.

Dream last night of taking pics with a very strange camera, riding on a roller coaster-like vehicle. I see a woman is convicted of something she didn’t do, and is condemned to burn. The coaster stops, me and many others come to suffer with her. We loose consciousness, and emerge in a beautiful village, as if purged, and forgiven.

Went to the Elgin Theater to see Tom Brakhage’s work-in-progress “Under Childhood” (1967-1970), and also saw Carolee Schneeman’s “Fuses” (1967).

Curiously, while the two movies have very similar quick cutting rhythms, multilayered image styles, and abuse of the film stock, they are, emotionally, vastly different.

Tom B’s movie captures his wife and children, visualize the psychological interior of a child, as it matures from birth to adulthood.

Carolee’s movie has a lot of sensual lovemaking, that she captured of herself, and her then partner James Tenney, sometimes viewed under layers of other images. A sort of a visual, erotic, report collage. It’s different than the way men usually photograph women, and not at all pornographic.

When After the movie ended, Carolee came over to me to say “Hi.” She looked stressed. I asked, “What’s wrong?” She began to cry, and then told me that Tom had left her, and she was depressed. I didn’t interrupt, just witnessing her crying.

Later, wandering around through the East Village, I ran into Carolee, who was with Ellen, Phil and Clayton. I joined them in a crępe restaurant. Carolee was still feeling miserable, and Clay couldn’t get her to eat. I asked if she would like an apple, left and came back with two, with some cheese, which we all shared.

I walked downtown with Clay, who lives not far from my place, and talked over what was happening. I told him I was stunned by the similarity of my latest dream, and today’s events.

Later called Carolee to see how she was. She sounded much better.

Clay had told her about my dream. I asked if she thought it silly. She said “No,” and that she saw how it related. She also said that Clay told her I was an “amazing man.”

I thought that Carolee was amazing, working in multiple media, and enlisting many others to shape her visions of physical and emotional liberation; and, in the process, totally connecting with her audience.

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