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During my last year in high school (Grade 13) the principal said, “You have the wrong attitude. If you leave this school today you will starve to death in two weeks. Where do you think you are going? I have not given you permission to leave.”

“To see if you are right,” I told him.

I was 20. Today I am 78.

Clearly I am still alive.

I came to Toronto from Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario because I thought I had a friend here.

I thought wrong.

I found friends.

Here are just a few.

1. Billy Veltzel. Drinking age was 21. I wasn’t. After learning I was friendless and homeless I walked into a bar. No sooner had I walked in then the police came right behind. An older man said, “Drink you beer and talk with me.” When the police left he said, “You’re new. Do you have a place?” In the morning he said, “Meet me tonight in the same bar.” “That man you went home with last night is a bad person. Are you looking for work? Come with me,” said another man. “There’s a bed in the basement,” he said when we got to his place in the middle of nowhere. “Turn around,” he said when I got to the bottom of the stairs. I looked up to see him standing in the door with a hammer in his hand. He said, “Give me what I want or I will kill you.” Later when I met him Billy said, “Had I warned you would you have listened?” I said, “Not yesterday.” Billy helped me find a job as a bank clerk. I learned his mother had been a prostitute. She put him to work at ten giving oral sex to her clients. With a mother like that we either murder her, kill our self or become extraordinarily strong. One day Billy said, “I am psychic.” I laughed. He said, “After your 34th birthday everyone you know will turn against you. You will celebrate your 35th birthday in a psychiatric hospital after you lose someone very close to you. Don’t worry about it. When you come out you will be the richest man in the world. You will be living in a house filled with extraordinary people from your late forties on.” I laughed. I did not believe in psychics.

2. John Herbert, author of FORTUNE AND MEN’S EYES, the only play by a Canadian author whom the whole world stood up and saluted. Jack entered my life at the bank where Billy got me a job. He became a great mentor. He was tough.

3. “Captain” George Henderson. Captain George opened two book stires: Viking Books on Queen Street West and MEMORY LANE in Markham Street (Mirvish) Village.  He invited me to show films from my small collection of 8mm silent movies. To my screenings came Elwy Yost, Pierre Berton and many others.

4. Bruno “Buzz” Weckerley. “Can you sleep in the park?” Bruno asked. I said, “It is supposed to rain. You can get arrested as a vagrant. What’s the problem?” Bruno replied, “My dad said,’my way or the highway.” I said, “You made the right choice. Come with me.”  Bruno took me to a party where I saw a fellow on the floor reading a book. I asked, “What is this?” He replied, “THE I CHING.” The next day I bought my first copy. I decided to live the life it teaches. It teaches the best work for neither kings nor princes. That meant not looking for a job. http://www.pantherwebworks.com/I_Ching/index.html  .

4. Jane Jacobs, the author of THE DEATH AND LIFE OF GREAT AMERICAN CITIES. Her last book, published in 2004 was titled DARK AGE AHEAD. Critics said she was wrong when DARK AGE AHEAD was published. We are living in proof she was right. How did we meet. She saw a street poster in September 1968. the year she arrived in Toronto. . She brought her family to my programs at THE PUBLIC ENEMY at Yorkville and Yonge. . I knew her for two years before I knew of her books. Naturally, I read them. hen you walk into my life automatically you enter the world of ideas that matter. Ironically no one who has written about Jane has talked with me. I say ironic because her kids tell me, “Our mother loved you.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YonLUG7gRyY

5. Judith Merril, the mother of modern SF (Speculative Fiction). In 1961 I bought my first issue of FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND magazine. Edited by Mr. Science Fiction, Forrest J Ackerman, the magazine introduced myself and a multitude of others (Steven Spielberg) to the worlds of Fantasy, Horror and SF. I began to read SF. Judith Merril edited THE YEAR’S BEST SF. The stories she chose were first rate. Her brief introductions even more so. Shortly after Jane Jacobs came into my life  Some people at my program told me they were from Rochdale College which I knew nothing of. They told me Judith Merril was there. “You scared the shit out me the first time I met you,” Judy told me decades later. Judy was afraid of nothing. She said, “You belong at Rochdale.” I said, “What is Rochdale. She said, “Rochdale started as a student high rise. Along the way it morphed into the boldest experiment in education ever. There are no teachers. Each person here is called to be their own teacher.” THE I CHING says that if learning and doing are not one both are dead. That was the Rochdale idea. I became part of Rochdale. The powers that were decided to allow within Rochdale the use of hashish, LSD, marijuana, mescaline and peyote. Rochdale was 18 floors. The higher up we went, the higher we got. There is a three part epic movie to be made out of the Rochdale Story. It needs a Martin Scorsese although Scorsese has so far only made  big budget “B” movies. “When we make a ‘B’ movie we use a script. When we make an ‘A’ we improvise,” said David O.  Selznick. This means like the great poet Milareppa, “We weave it out of the air.” How many today weave movies or poetry out of the air? I do.

6. Bob Clampett, creator of the wildest, most hallucinatory Warner Brothers cartoons. I brought Bob to Toronto for three days in 1979. With Bob came his wonderful wife, Sody. Through Bob I was introduced to Tex Avery, Friz Freleng, Chuck Jones, Bernard B. Brown, Grim Natwick and Shamus Culhane. Through Grim Tisse David and Mrs. French came into my life. Bernard B. Brown played first violin in the orchestra which accompanied THE BIRTH OF A NATION (as THE CLANSMAN) for the 365 days of its first run in Hollywood. He told tales of rats running around the feet of the musicians during the performance. That means through me you are at ground zero for the birth of the movies as an art and industry. During the 3 days Brownie was in Toronto I learned a helluva lotn about sound and the power of sound (which he taught after retiring at UCLA).

7. Al Aronowitz was a crime reporter in the 1950s. His editor’s son was hanging out with some queer dudes in Greenwich Village who smoked pot, spouted poetry and flashed switchblade knives. His editor figured Al, being a crime reporter, would write a piece that would get the cops to bust them. Al said, “I realizes that for the first time I was in the presence of living poets. Instead of the hatchet piece he was supposed to write Al wrote the first positive press about Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs.\ and Allen Ginsberg. Sent by the POST to  interview a young musician who had been taught how to write protest songs by Jane Jacobs  Al said to the the kid, “Come with me.” The kid went. Al took him to meet Allen Ginsberg. Taking one look at the very beautiful and young Bob Dylan Ginsberg’s blood left his brain. He said, “Come with me.” They disappeared for three months. In 1980 Al Aronowitz said to me, “I have written a book. No one will give me a reading.” I said, “Come to Toronto.” My CineForum Al told me was his favourite place to present his work. So when you walk in my door you automatically come into contact with THE BEATS.

8. Peter Sumadh came into my life and changed it for the better in 1992. Through him I got the inspiration to finish my re-telling of the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh. Peter introduced me to Verlaine and Rimbaud. We were Verlaine and Rimbaud. Right now Peter lives in Belfast. He was asked to go to Charleville where he performed in the house Arthur Rimbaud grew up in and slept in the bed Rimbaud had slept in. If that isn’t cool, tell me what is.

9. Jerzy Zaborski came for my presentation of GILGAMESH. He stayed after everyone left. “This place is like a university. People can learn here,” he said. I said, “Some do. Most do not. What do you do?”

Jerzy said, “I teach archaeology, Egyptology and Sumerology. You are a Crazy-Wisdom-Yogin.”

I said, “I hear crazy often enough. What does the rest of that mean?”

He said, “That you are living absolutely the life you are teaching. It is the highest compliment I, as a Buddhist, can pay. If you quote me put a flame after my name to indicate my rank.”

I said, “I would not say that. I know how far below the mark I fall. Would you care for a beer?”

Said Jerzy, “Sure.”

We talked for hours about things most do not dream about including the darkness descending on the earth which is reaching its penultimate moment now.

I always keep a good supply of beer.

10. Barrie Schwortz was raised as an orthodox Jew. He became a professional photographer. After doing some work for NASA Barrie was asked to accompany about forty scientists to Turin, Italy to photo-document their study of the Turin Shroud. Said Barrie, “That is a Christian thing. Why me? I am a Jew.” “So am I. So is the man on the cloth. Think of the science,” he was told. Barrie did. He went to Italy. I bought a full sized authorized copy of THE TURIN SHROUD from Barrie. Then I accessed the science. The science is astounding. I am as welcome in churches as Jesus was so I stay away from them. However, when you walk into The CineForum you are in the presence of The Man on The Shroud. He was a dirt poor peasant from buttfuck Galilee who liked to hang out in public house and taverns, never said a harsh word to anyone except politicians, priests and lawyers.

11, Petunia who walked in one day to see a show, hung out, then walked out to become a troubadour:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sfsGzV7S5I&t=196s    .

12. Stedmond Pardy, the best new poet on the scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vj7TaNZUW4M .

13: WIZTHE MC who emailed, “I’m homeless. Have you room?” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WizTheMc ,  , https://web.archive.org/web/20230210215325/https://www.forbes.com/sites/rileyvansteward/2022/02/03/wizthemcs-built-success-brick-by-brick-with-constant-content-and-community/,  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmMrakJeCgk&t=16s

14: Forrest J Ackerman, the man who started me on the path of imagination and wonder, came here, hung out and had fun. We must always honour our fathers.

15: MARK SLEEP had just arrived from Australia. He was living in a hotel. I met him in a bare was drunk. I said, “you are spending too much money. I have room for you?” After I left he said, “Who’s he?” She said, “Someone whose offer you should accept.” Mark cooked a dinner here from THE SALVADOR DALI cookbook. That is a story told elsewhere here.

On March 18, 2018 a man who came here asked to access the internet. A few months later on May 22, 2018 the police arrived. Someone had downloaded child porn on my internet. For three years I lived in Hell. The fire kept me warm.

In 2021v the police dropped the charges as they had found nothing to back them up.

What gave me the strength to endure. The wonderful people I had met because, told I had the wrong attitude, I walked out of school.

You do the same.

THE TURIN SHROUD is the most inspirational document in our world. Drop by and drink a beer to the man whose images dances on it.–Reg Hartt 2024–08-26.

MASS MEDIA is a lynch mob. Always has been. Always will be.

My friend Andrew Cecil created THE MICHAEL JACKSON FAN CLUB in Ontario. Andrew ordered the transcripts of Jackson’s trial. The moment he finished  reading the transcript of the first day Andrew said, “He is innocent.” The rage that followed was huge. Andrew said, “Put your money where your mouth his.”

Andrew collected huge for keeping the faith.

The media, however, not content with the verdict of the court, is determined to lynch Jackson. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0K0vEq9RNZo

Pop Stars are the Corn King. Feted for a time then murdered in the fields to generate the crops.

Photos: Al Aronowitz, the greatest force in American pop music, holding host at THE CINEFORUM in Toronto.  The man inspired several generations. He was the only journalist THE BEATLES would talk with when they played Shea Stadium. Al brought along Bob Dylan. Learning THE BEATLES had never smoked pot, Al turned them on. Luckily all they had to do was stand on stage and fake playing their instruments. The crowd heard their records. THE BEATLES were so grateful they gave him part of an album.

 

 

 

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