I’m still trying to figure out what it was that held Thursday night’s cultural mash-up together. Pat Thomas was in town on a short book tour. I’m not even sure what the most recent book is. Either the “Material Wealth: Allen Ginsberg” or “Did It! From Yippie To Yuppie: Jerry Rubin.” Larry Champoux, a former director of Pyramid Art Center, Writers & Books and Action for a Better Community, skillfully directed traffic.
Dick Storms, the owner of Record Archive, told his San Francisco stories. He went out there in ’67 and found the scene already over. He sold copies of a bogus underground newspaper to tourists and kept the profits, enough for a banana and a pack of Pall Malls. Mark Weinstein was sitting next to us. Dick’s wife Lucinda took a fantastic photo of Dick and Mark. Lucinda posted it to her IG page.
A poet named Anderson who works with Black Box Theatre on Joseph Avenue, read five poems, one a response to Nina Simone. This may have had a connection to Pat’s book, “LISTEN, WHITEY!: The Sounds of Black Power.” Pat played a track from a record he reissued from 1968 that sounded every bit as fresh as the Last Poets – a band called Watt’s Prophets, all vocals with no instrumentation. Stream them when you get a chance! And buy one of Pat’s books!
Pat played drums with Absolute Grey back in the eighties. Their first lp was on Earring Records. His bandmate, Mitch, was in the audience with his two daughters. We all had dinner back at our place on Friday and had a great time.
Leave a comment