UMBRELLA HOUSE

A bit of ave. C history. Umbrella is one of the earliest squats and is just across the street from me. It was called Umbrella House because it had not roof and they used umbrellas. There are wooden police barricades built into the masonry. I have the utmost respect for Umbrella House and some friendships with it's tenants. I think they bought the building from the city for a dollar at something I don't know there's an article in the Times. The entire hallways are being hand steel brush painted and there are oil paintings of religious scenes 2x the height of my ceiling! And that's just the hallways, not inside the apartments. They've done a beautiful job.



At the top of the building they kept an original Anarchist political stencil made by... well someone who is a trip but probably wants to remain unknown. I can tell you that it is a stencil of Kembra Phaler of the Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black and the scoring across the images are gashes made by firemen and police during an inspection/raid back in the day. Law enforcement doesn't tend to like images of 'Molotov Cocktails'!

CAPTURED PREMIERE FRIDAY THE 13TH JUNE 2008

I saw so many familiar faces (and many departed) in Clayton Patterson's unbelievable documentary compilation "Captured" premiering Friday the 13th by Rooftopfilms.com atop the Seward Park High School on the Lower East Side. I didn't see so many familiar faces in the audience as almost everyone there was playing with a cabbage patch kid during the time this film was made in the East Village in the 80's to 90's. I can't begin to tell you how much they tried to squeeze into the movie of his even more gigantic archive.

The roof was on the 7th floor but each floor was double in height of that of any walkup due to the huge ceilings so it was a very intense 13-14 stories. We felt the burn. Lila was a real trooper. Free water bottles and please recycle after the show campaign in effect.

Clayton Patterson ,Billy, Joe Coleman


The space was a gigantic well maintained rooftop holding over 800 with two wings with separate movie screens. You could see the moon above, the financial district and Chrysler Building.

A few faces on the screen I pasted together. Far right, the late performer John Sex. Please click on any image for panoramic view.

This shot is a meld between portrait images, but I swear I that neither of them was this blond lady. I Think it's a Lower East Side ghost (there was that contingency).

I lived so much in this world that he captured. Things have changed so much since then that it seems that this was so so long ago but it is part of our recent history, Clayton reminded us. I don't know what we are living in right now but after seeing this movie i was reminded of an entire voice I felt that I have inside that has been somehow been completely squelched, distorted into something far removed from any relevance in this world. I don't even know why I still live in the East Village.