It is Spring. Here and elsewhere in the northern hemisphere. On a day dedicated to walking around the city, I left the house forgetting my hat. It was yet another wintery cold day, so before i began the East Village Poetry Walk I went by Search and Destroy on St. Marks and picked up a black beret. I had been meaning to go on the poetry walk for a long time and had been reminded of wanting to do so while talking to a friend of mine over at Wise Men at their anniversary party. He was talking about the lineage of culture that included people such as Rene Ricard and Taylor Mead and the fact that nobody seems to give a shit in the recent New York City of bourgeois buy ins. He said he was pointing out where Marcel Duchamp lived at one time in the East Village and there was a universal ignorance in the group of people he was with, of who Duchamp was ...and what he had contributed to culture. He told me of a another time ...when at a landmark of Charlie Parker …...the same type of ignorant response. It is strange how things go. I thought a lot about the symbolism and humor of the black beret. I have included a few pictures of the black beret. Buster Keaton, John Lydon . Matti Pellonpää (one of my favorite actors from one of my all time favorite movies …. La Vie De Boheme by Aki Kaurismäki ).

I read this in an interview with David Byrne a couple of days ago:::::

"What's at stake is not so much the survival of artists like me, but that of emerging artists and those who have only a few records under their belts (such as St Vincent, my current touring partner, who is not exactly an unknown). Many musicians like her, who seem to be well established, well known and very talented, will eventually have to find employment elsewhere or change what they do to make more money. Without new artists coming up, our future as a musical culture looks grim. A culture of blockbusters is sad, and ultimately it's bad for business. That's not the world that inspired me when I was younger. Many a fan (myself included) has said that "music saved my life", so there must be some incentive to keep that lifesaver available for future generations."

- David Byrne