Summer Solstice. 10:42 PM EST

 

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Flashback Friday

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(My mom) Gail DeNoyelles (June 19, 1938 - May 15, 1999)

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School's Out!

Dad n' me June 14th 1979 -  Graduation Day!

Carrying over from the weekend with Flag Day and Father's Day...It's the time of year when school is out for the Summer. I graduated High School June 14, 1979 - Flag Day appropriately. My Friend Tom's green VW Bug pulled up in front of my house just after dinner. Someone kicked the door open letting a big cloud of blue marijuana smoke out. Jammed into the car was Tom (the driver), Poinzy, Phil, Scott and John. Sort of my possy I guess. I managed to squeeze in, sitting on John's lap. Someone opened a bottle of Michelob for me, stuck it in my hand along with a joint, our journey began. We were pretty wrecked by the time we got to Pascack Hills on Grand Avenue in Montvale (NJ). But we were happy, happy to be done with a place we had nothing but a healthy contempt for. The commencement ceremony was held up on the football field, it was hot and humid. We were directed to line up loosely by height. Tallest near the end. My friend Scott was one the tallest kids in Hills and Poinzy was the shortest - somehow we arranged for him to be at the very end of the line.  We were loud, rowdy, irreverent. I told off a cheerleader (Mary Jean ______)  I'd never had any use for - a rich kid whose father was the fucking Mayor of Woodcliff Lake ( a very expensive Bergen County suburb).  It was a chore mounting the stage to retrieve my diploma but I did it.  I gave the middle finger to the Board of Ed, stumbled, & nearly fell off the stage exiting. It was a lot of fun. It was over.

I met up with my folks up near the baseball field where they had to park. My parents were proud of me, especially my dad,  who didn't graduate high school since, at age 16, he enlisted in the Navy and went to fight for his country.  That's where the above photo was taken - the baseball field parking lot. He finally graduated with me!  We went out to dinner at New Jersey's finest steak house Stan Bader's Stake Out in Park Ridge with my aunt Sue and my Grandmother. My friend Scott's family was seated at an adjoining table by chance and every now n' then we'd look over at each other and crack up laughing. Later that night Phil, Poinzy and myself headed down to Seaside Heights to party until the milky light of dawn arrived while listening to the sounds of the sea. The next day we hung out at Island Beach State Park where we got viciously Sunburnt. I remember later that night (back home at The Gran Saloon) hanging out, feeling the heat radiate off my body, red as a lobster.

Yes! We smoked pot, we drank beer (we were all of legal age back then). We were irreverent, reckless. But it was fine. We didn't settle our differences with guns & bombs.  We weren't full of the contempt & hatred today's youth are filled with. Sure, we didn't really dig the President (useless Carter) but we respected him on some level. It's disappointing to see the shit going on today. Clueless rich kids with Oppression Envy, kids who want to kill entire races of people. Kids who are not a sand's grain as smart as we were. Violent, blind sheep with no sense of morality, basic decency or basic sanity. I'm glad none of them are mine but mine wouldn't be there. Why? Because they'd have been taught the value of individualism, hard work and that Activism, Collectivism, Idealism & Utopian thinking is intellectual masturbation embraced by those who have no courage to do any real work on themselves.

School's Out!

Father's Day!

June 1962

 

Flag Day 2025

 

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And a very Happy Birthday to President Trump!

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Brian Wilson (June 20, 1942 - June 11, 2025)

What a week. The loss of two of the most inventive musicians and writers to grace our airwaves. For some reason the passing of Brian Wilson hits me very hard. He suffered immensely for the gift of genius. His struggles with mental health were well documented for decades -  through childhood abuse & trauma, drugs, crippling bouts of depression, you name it....yet he never gave up on himself.  He gave us so much beauty, joy and hope in his music. Nothing short of miraculous. He influenced endless tides of songwriters - the Velvet Underground's John Cale counts him as one of his primary influences. What a legacy he leaves. Kudos.

I've seen my share of great concerts - including legendary gigs by Frank Zappa (Halloween '77 & '78), Patti Smith, Blue Oyster Cult, The Grateful Dead & Jefferson Starship (with Grace Slick). However ranking amongst my top three gigs is easily The Beach Boys Central Park free concert on September 1, 1977. I was 17 and about to start my junior year of high school in a few days. I went with my rather young uncle Scott ( Two years older than me  - through marriage, I may add) and his wife playfully called my " Auntie Jewels." We got there early enough to get reasonably close. The weather was perfect (early September in New York is always gorgeous), the Great Lawn was packed, the crowd easy going, varied and really into it. Joints, hash pipes and beer circulated around freely. I quite literally copped the best high I ever had in my life (it was all downhill from there). The Beach Boys were flawless,  playing everything you wanted to hear  At 17, being a way too cool  kind of guy to dance or move at a gig, I somehow managed to dance n' sway along with the rest of the crowd. I had a blast. It was exhilarating. It was also the first time I got to hang out in NYC & the first time I ever rode the subway! 

I've chosen my personal favorite Beach Boys song to share here. It was a toss up between this, Good Vibrations or Wouldn't It Be Nice. First thought, best thought! This song has always resonated with me.

So, sending Good Vibrations to Mr. Wilson, thanking him from the bottom of my heart, wishing him God Speed, celebrating  the peace he has finally found. Leaving this plain on Tibetan Buddhism's most high holy day is certainly auspicious. Sail on Sailor! God Bless Brian Wilson,  an American Original!

Saga Dawa 2025

 

The day that commemorates the birth, enlightenment & parinirvana of the Buddha!

(My friend the late John Giorno's favorite day - "I love that day!" he'd say)

RIP Sly Stone - With the defining moment of Woodstock!

(wait for it)

 

 

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American playwright & Author David Mamet gets it!

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 "...No one can tell it but the electric fan that may

revolve in your room & the series of moths who so valiantly

display Summer for us & the voices of ice that last all year

in certain caves on the tops of some mountains & me."

- Bernadette Mayer 

from Biography of Bill DeNoyelles (1994)

 

 

 

 

Memorial Day

 

Link:

Vietnam Veterans Virtual Wall

 

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https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/name/donald-denoyelles-obituary?id=58452907

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Honoring Poet Bernadette Mayer (May 12, 1945 - Nov. 22, 2022)

Bernadette Mayer - Spring Street, NYC. May 1985

 

Mother's Day

 My mom - Gail DeNoyelles (6.19.38 - 5.15.1999)

Ma Kali - (Here Now)