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Re: WATER MUSIC
At 6:36 PM -0500 10/1/02, jim palmer wrote:
>i hadn't ever gone looking for his stuff online, but i just found this:
>http://www.well.com/~demarini/pomeroy.html
An excellent article; it really does Jim's work justice. Paul
Demarinis was naturally familiar with Jim Pomeroy, both being active
on the Bay Area arts scene throughout the same period.
The "Hat Dance" was my favorite of Jim's performances. Paul D's
description is good, but omits some details that made the piece
especially effective for me.
Jim's stage persona was especially powerful because Jim himself had a
commanding presence. We was a long tall Texan with a strong jaw and a
dimple in his chin, rather jowly and with a well-cultivated beer gut.
He was massive and obviously strong. He could have been threatening,
but instead he chose to be amusing and bear-like.
When Jim hit the stage wearing electric hat and white Long Johns he
had some of the character of an overstuffed sausage. When the striped
projections hit his body the stripes really wrapped around, forming
concentric ovals. His demeanor was innocent, almost infantile, and
when he approached the interface between the light-field of black and
white stripes and that of bright red, he did so with equal parts awe
and curiosity.
At first he poked an index finger tentatively into the red light,
probing gently and marvelling as his digit turned bright crimson. He
pulled out out and it reverted to black and white stripes. Then he
thrust his whole hand through and wiggled his fingers. Then he
inserted the entire arm and flopped it about, growing more exuberant
all the time. Finally, will full commitment, he threw his entire body
across and he turned completely red as he danced a frenzied jig. At
this precise moment he also hit a foot switch that turned on a fuzz
box, so that the previously gentle tinkling of the wind chimes on
his hat abruptly burst into a searing cascade of distortion.
>check out the mr. wizard reference.
>interesting how the circles back around...
I was another rapt fan of Mr. Wizard, though I never got into the Boy
Mechanic thing the way others did.
Don Herbert, who played Mr. Wizard, was sponsored by the American
Breakfast Council, and there was a single "commercial" that was
integrated into the show. At some point one of the experiments would
reveal the letters "FCMBB" in a clever way. It might be an invisible
ink experiment or a demonstration of anamorphic lenses, but it always
fit into the flow of the show. The letters stood for Fruit, Cereal,
Milk, Bread, and Butter, and Mr. Wizard would spend a moment
reminding his audience that a good breakfast was an important start
of any day.
--
______________________________________________________________
Richard Zvonar, PhD
(818) 788-2202
http://www.zvonar.com
http://RZCybernetics.com