Month: February 2014

George Forss launched his Kickstarter Project “The Way We Were” a few minutes ago, it looks wonderful and is wonderful. The brilliant photographer Gordon Parks wrote of George’s work nearly 30 years ago that “the photographs of George Forss confirm the notion that true genius will emerge despite the greatest odds.” I was very proud to be the first backer of “The Way We Were,” I pledged $500 and will receive a silver gelatin print of one of George’s New York City landscapes, brilliant evocations of the world before the tragedy of 911.

George has offered a range of pledge choices from $25 to $500, all with different rewards so that almost anyone can support his project if they wish. George is a true genius and his creativity has never waned, despite some of the greatest odds a human being can face. His priceless work was interrupted and overshadowed by the tragedy of 911, he moved to upstate New York and opened an art gallery, he has never stopped taking wonderful pictures. George and I have become close friends, he is like a brother to me, he is a gift and light unto the world.

His New York photos need to be seen, they are important, they must not be lost or forgotten. They show us the majesty of New York, it’s power and glory, and also what was lost in that awful destruction, that sense of peacefulness and confidence. The famous photographer David Douglas Duncan – the man who discovered George peddling his photos outside of a Manhattan hotel –  said of George that despite the poverty from which he emerged, the things he suffered, he never stopped looking for the beauty and romance in the world. In these photos, we can all see it. We are planning a fund-raiser for George here in is hometown of Cambridge, N.Y., details to come.

There are a lot of demands on the money of people, but if you can, please consider supporting George’s Kickstarter crowdsourcing project. Every dollar will help him reach his goal of $8,000, what it will cost to publish this book and his photographs. Every dollar above that will be very important to George, he will use it well. You can follow George on his blog (he is a veteran UFO investigator, among other things, his idea of the universe is never dull) and also on the website of his beautiful gallery, The Park Slope Gallery in Brooklyn.

Ansel Adams wrote that George has given all of us the gift of “extraordinary vitality. He sees with an incisive eye and haunting spirit.” George is a romantic,  a warrior for love and the nobility of the soul. You can join him in that quest.  Help him bring his work back into the world if you can. George has 30 days to meet his goal of $8,200. If he does not receive all of the money, he will receive none of the money. He may keep any funds over $8,200. No money will be charged to anyone until the funding goal is met. People can lower, raise or cancel their pledges at any time. Anyone with an Amazon user name and password can pledge in seconds. Right here.

In my daily cat meditation this morning, I thought of my friend George and his project. I wish him well with it, I wish him success. He is seeking $8,200 so he can publish his great works from New York in a book called “The Way We Were,” he is a good and honest and gifted man, I love him and am grateful to know him in my life. George is a prophet, he speaks in tongues he sees the world so clearly. I am going over to his house now and we will put the finishing touches on the project and then I will come back to the farm and launch it from here, as George’s computer equipment was made about the same time as Steve Jobs went into his California garage to make the first Apple.

He is a deserving man, genius survives even the longest odds.

King and I met one morning,

earlier this week,

are you one of the inmates, he asked me,

anxious, backing up?

Yes, I said, but I have not taken over the asylum,

I have hidden for years,

they are still looking for me.

What happens when the inmates take over?, he asked me,

anxiously. Tell me the truth.

Well, I said, I will tell you the truth,

it is awful when the inmates take over,

when the angry people take over,

when the righteous people,

take over,

and are in charge.

There is argument everywhere,

and confrontation,

reason and truth rush to hide,

behind their blogs and Facebook pages,

it is always the innocents who pay,

they have no blogs,

or Facebook pages,

the poor and the animals,

just like Jesus said.

I will be honest with you, King, I said.

When the inmates take over,

there is no one to talk to,

anger lives in the streets,

in messages online,

in cruel and shouted chants,

no mercy or compassion,

no talking or listening,

for who is there who will listen

to you

or hear what you say?

When the inmates take over,

we will all be judged,

sentenced to ride for all eternity,

in eco-friendly electric carts,

you will be shunned and banished,

sent away, there is no place for you,

in the asylum, you will be chased from the world,

either to live on some hidden farm,

where you will eat and dump your manure,

and disappear from sight,

or to the butcher, who will chop

you up and feed you to the dogs.

Either way, my friend, you will die,

one kind of death or another.

For reason and truth and compassion

dies too.

That is what happens,

when he inmates take over,

the asylum.

It is very cold again, -10 here this morning, Maria thinks of the animals often, she goes out every morning with bits of alfalfa, bread scavenged from restaurants, grain sometimes, bits of carrots. The animals gather around her in a circle, the Peaceable Kingdom, they are all patient, they gather around her in a circle,  I can sometimes see the warmth from her emotions, from her big heart move through the cold air to them, it is sustaining for them, they value the food, they value the attention.

I was taken with the big horses that came pouring out of the West Side Livery Stables, the oldest working stable in the city. It is a few blocks away from Hell’s Kitchen, it is surrounded by encroaching development, big developers are drooling over the property, and every big-deal politician in the city and animal rights group in the city is vowing to shut them down. Given that, I have to be rooting for them to survive. I talked to a firm that buys and sells horses at weekly auctions in Pennsylvania and New York – one auction is held very close to me.

He says older draft and farm horses will almost surely go to slaughter, he said it was most likely most of the carriage horses had been rescued in the first place and would probably be dead if they were not in New York. There are few horse rescue farms, he said, and most of them are overwhelmed and nearly destitute, the number of animals without work or purpose or people who can afford them has exploded.  It is difficult for me to quite grasp why a city would be so eager to ban such beautiful creatures, but then, I love to be around animals, it lifts me up to see them and be near them.

I got to the stables a bit early, as snoopy journalists and photographers always do and I was taken aback to find this big fellow waiting for me, standing a few feet from his carriage, waiting patiently to be hooked up. He gave me a look from the underside of his blinder and I came up and rubbed his forehead, which he enjoyed. How wonderful to see him there, the commuters driving by honked and waved at him, I suppose some of them see him every day.

I went up to him and apologized for the human race. You deserve to be here,  have work and purpose, I said. People are fighting for you, I do not know if they will win or lose but the thought of you being sent to a rescue farm or a slaughterhouse is a painful thing to contemplate.  I am sorry you have to face it. You seem to me to belong right where you are, showing off your grand style to all of these drab commuters and their harried lives. You are a handsome and healthy fellow, you make everything around you look shabby and gray.