Urban bytes: Interviews in Pittsburgh and Beyond.

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Victor Navarro Jr; Coffeehouse Denizen, Artist at Large, Survivor of the 60's and Muse to the Avant-Garde

photo: J.McClung


Victor Navarro Jr: Coffee House Denizen, Artist at Large, Survivor of the 60"s and Muse to the Avant-Garde. interview 1

Quotable Quote "Anarchy is the Spice of Life through anarchy we learn our Art,
Music and Literature"

Interviewed: in late November 2007, Crazy Mocha Coffee House, Bloomfield Neighborhood, Pittsburgh PA. Posted March 15th 2008.

Note: Victor is an old hand at this...he'd been interviewed for City Paper on more than one occasion, by various college students for a host of term papers, etc. etc. And Victor is always on stage ...not faking it (well OK he exaggerates, but I'm not always sure he knows he's doing it!), but always onstage. He is a person where one could say that he and his art are one, 24/7. Victor is also sort of my brother in law, as he is my significant other's brother. The reader may notice some family-like squabbling from time to time....

Jean: Why do you think it
is that so many people who are in their twenties like to talk to you?

Victor: Well, because they may think because I’m so old that I maybe
have more experience than them. Or, because of what they’re
into, like their art or their music or their writing. I have published
three books, I have done a lot in fine arts since I was thirteen years
old. And I’ve been trained musically from age three on by two professional
pianist that I grew up knowing and took lessons from for twenty years. So
I know quite a bit about those things. Some from my own studies...self taught..... and some from professionally taught professionals like the piano which I
studied for about twenty five years until I was around thirty years old.

Jean: Well but don’t you think it’s more then that though because, I mean
that’s part of it probably..........but

Victor: My accomplishments have something to do with it.

Jean: Yeah, but what else?

Victor: But even if I had no accomplishments, I have definite ideas
about the arts, music and literature which they seem to like, therein,
their artistic ideas. And a lot of these young people who are more
advanced then we were in the sixties, the fringe element of these young
people they are very, very astute and very intelligent, much more
intelligent then the majority of young people today. That’s why I
look in coffee houses and out of the way places to find the, the winners,
instead of the average loser.

Jean: So they, ah, part of it is the fringe element factor............

Victor: These people are on the fringe of society, they have no
money. If they have jobs at all they’re crappy, they do great Art, Music
and Literature and get virtually nothing for it, in fact they lose money
at it. In fact let’s face it, they’re on the fringe they are no-accounts.
That’s the way I always was and I’m happy being that way and I’m happy
having a few people appreciate my work.

Jean: Yeah okay, because part of what I’ve always thought is, part of it
is the connection between like you were a bohemian hippy type and still
are, right?

Victor: I was a rich bohemian when I was younger. When I was{in contrast to} these
people in their twenties, when I was in my twenties, I was very wealthy, I
was a bohemian, there’s no doubt about it.

Jean:(Confused) Now you weren’t very wealthy.

Victor: I was very wealthy and I had a lot of money, what in those
days was a lot of money.

Jean:(tentatively...more confused than ever) Okay..........

Victor: It’s virtually nothing now. The way prices are going up. I
mean in those days I had a ton of money. I mean I was a big investor in
stocks and bonds. I played the ponies, gambled on football. I had money to
burn.

Jean: (perplexed) That’s not true.

Victor: That’s not true?

Jean: That’s not true.

Victor: It is true. You didn’t know me in my twenties,

Jean: Well yeah but,{turns tape reorder off, vigorous debate with Victor ensues. Much discussion about what does "very wealthy "mean?we reach a compromise.}

Jean: But okay, well anyway, so you
had more money than they do, now.

Victor: I had more money in my twenties, a lot more money in my
twenties, and a possible chance to become very wealthy as opposed to these
young people I know today, most of them have nothing compared to what I
had. Some of them had nothing growing up compared to what I had. So I feel
that if I were worth millions of dollars I would pay them handsomely to do
their Art, Music, and Literature, so they wouldn’t have to work these
crappy jobs to pay their rent.

Jean: Well okay, you’re not always sitting around talking to them about
Art, Music and Literature right?

Victor: Pretty much am, except for these goof balls who want to talk
about the weather and their dog and all the other shit.

Jean: Okay. Well. Okay, so do you think, not to be too leading of a question
here, but do you think that any part of it is because you’ve kind of
maintained your own individual identity? Do you know what I mean? I mean
you’re not like the typical fifty-nine year old person. I mean you’re
like, you’re sort of your own unique person.

Victor: Well I am, I succeeded in having a small public pretty much
late in life. Into my late forties, and into my early fifties so in that
sense the last ten years I’ve been succeeding more and more as time goes
on. So in a sense I’m about twenty eight years old in terms of my success
rate. I usually start around sixteen or eighteen getting your stuff out
and by the time you’re twenty eight you’re pretty much into it. I’ve only
been getting my stuff out since I was about in my late forties, early
fifties.

Jean: Yeah.

Victor: So that’s why. Another reason why I hang out with the up and
comers is because I’m still up and coming.

Jean: Okay. Well what you say that, and we’ll get off this subject in a
second here, but what would you say that the twenty something people, what
would you say they would say, they like about you?

Victor: Well they might think I’m entertaining. Verbally I’m a very good communicator.
I kind of spoof language and
I kind of try and be humorous. And I think it’s my humor that is that has
attracted a lot of these young people towards me, my iconoclastic and
artistic humor. Oh these people can all go to hell,but let’s laugh at them
and sit back and enjoy it, rather then be all gung-ho about killing them or
doing damage to them.

Jean: Okay, yeah.
Victor: It’s kind of a non-violent philosophy mixed in with
iconoclasm that really would liked to see everything ripped down, but I
don’t want to be one of the rippers, or one of the rippees either for that
matter.

Jean: So what have you read lately that you’ve liked?

Victor: Well I like reading magazines pretty much rather than books.
I subscribe to about five weekly and monthly magazines.

Jean: You do?

Victor: Yeah, I’m pretty well informed. I subscribe to TIME, US News,
New York Magazine, you’re getting me subscription of the New Yorker
supposedly.

Jean: Yeah, I am.

Victor: I appreciate that very much. I used to get that for many
years. And Art Forum.

Jean: How do you get those magazines?

Victor: Subscribe.

Jean: You do? I had thought there was a
problem..... Tony said with like you would get the magazine subscriptions and
you wouldn’t pay them and he’d thought you’d been blacklisted from every
magazine on the planet.

Victor No, absolutely not.

Jean: Okay.

Victor: Now if a friend of mine that writes the books, if I know them
fairly well, or know and like, an acquaintance or friend that I like
writes a book, I would maybe buy or get it for nothing from them and read
that. I’ll read that cover to cover. Like Che Elias wrote all those books,
I read all his books cover to cover. I sold and gave you some of them and
made money for Che and he dropped me as a friend, and back then he was my
friend and I won’t do it for him now but I did then.

Jean: Yeah.

Victor: He’s done nothing for me in over a year and refuses to
publishes anymore books when he said he would publish everything I ever wrote
ever did write in the future. So he lied to me. And that’s why I call him
Che’ liar instead of Che Elias.

Jean: It's too bad you'all had that falling out...you are both pretty sensitive.

Jean: Now you were in New York {City} quite a few times during the sixties.

Victor: I’ve been to New York about ten different times.

Jean: Well you were there a lot in the sixties weren’t you?

Victor: I was there three or four times in the sixties, yes.

Jean: What do you remember about it, anything interesting?

Victor: Well in the sixties when I was in New York, I was kind of a
hotel baby. I stayed around my hotel room and just kind of went out as if
I lived in the hotel and had lived there for years. I was familiar with it
by sixty nine when I went. I stayed a month and I kind of didn’t go to too
much music or art or anything like that. I kind of stuck to the, well, the
strip places that kind of thing.

Jean: What hotel was it?

Victor: The New Yorker.

Jean: Where was that?

Victor: Thirty fourth and eighth avenue.

Jean: Was it a dive?

Victor: No, just antiquated. It was very clean, antiquated, very
inexpensive. In sixty nine it was like twenty dollars a night. Now it’s
probably two, three hundred easily.

Jean: What was Pittsburgh like during that period of time?

Victor: Pittsburgh in the late sixties? Oh the acid, grass, I was
into speed which was a really a rare thing for people to be in to, but
there was some people who loved to speed and sped with me and we did speed
all the time, and smoked grass on the speed, did very little acid.
But some people were heavily into acid and downers like, what are they.....
Phenobarbital and heroin and stuff like that. I never got into that. I
was only into speed. Dexedrine,methamphetamine , that kind
of.............

Jean: Okay. There were more than just drugs on the scene I assume?

Victor: Yes, that’s evident in my novel, Victorious Delusions. All that
speed taking is very nicely cataloged in that novel that I wrote
Victoria’s Delusions, which I think should be in area because I’d like
people to order a copy of it from Borders, Barnes and Noble, or Amazon.
And......

Jean: I thought it was out of print?

Victor: It’s not out of print. Borders can get you copies regular
price....it's a hundred dollars on Amazon.

Jean: Oh, really.

Victor: {Leans into tape recorder and speaks loudly and distinctly}Go to a Borders bookstore and order it.

Jean: You’re so subtle.

Victor: It’ll tell you all about the sixties in Pittsburgh, it had
nothing to do with activism, the Vietnam War.

Jean: Oh, come on.

Victor: Nothing to do with that, the book.{that is} All it has to do is with
the speed, acid, and artistic pursuits of people then and the love
interest. That’s it. A life style, not anything political, or social.

Jean: Okay. Well so let’s see. Now was, Andy Warhol was long gone I guess?

Victor: I was never a fan of Andy Warhol until ninety one. Then I
got into him heavily, read everything, read everything he ever wrote, and
read maybe twenty, thirty books about him or about his work. Critiques and
artistic critics writing books. And I found that in the years
up until Warhol was shot, { shot but not killed by Valerie Solanas
} the film making and the artistic pursuits and music making {in NYC}were similar to what happened in Pittsburgh with
us except it was on a much, much more in larger scale with a much larger
audience.

Jean: So would Warhol have made you a superstar if he had known you?

Victor: He might have. I don’t know. I don’t know if I have this kind
of persona back then. I was kind of, there’s so many like me, in the
background. I wasn’t a great star back in the sixties, but I was friends
with many of them.

Jean: You mean you were introverted then?

Victor: Yeah I was more introverted then, I kind of was in the
background. They ask for my opinion, they gauged how they were going by
what I thought of it. But other than that I was just another creep who was
making the scene.

Jean: So what got you to starting, I know it’s a different name now, but
the Delusionals?

Victor: The Delusionals was my first band 2003, Paul Teacher, The Preacher, Wynne
Lanros and I started it in summer of 2003. We did about thirty gigs as the
Delusionals, thirty music events, performances and then, we broke up.
The new group is the Anonymous Schizoids and we have done one gig.

Jean: I thought you were the Psycho Phonics? What happened to the Psycho.....?

Jean: No the Schizo Phonics, but there’s another group with that name so
we had to change it.

Jean: Wow. Okay, well what moved you to start doing the Delusionals to
begin with?

Victor: The Delusionals was Paul Teacher, The Preacher and I. I got him an
Irish tin whistle. I had already been playing it for a while, and got him
a harmonica, and he showed me tremendous talent on both of them. And I was
developing my harmonica style and we decided to do a weird band where we
just had wind instruments. Flute, Irish Whistle, harmonica, and
incorporate Wynne Lanros in with violin. That was, we three were
the original Delusionals.

Jean: Well and you had Tony (Navarro, Victor's brother) in the very beginning?

Victor: Tony, Tony did solo, with the Delusionals. He did not do
group ensemble. So The preacher, The Preacher was also solo.

Jean: Well I remember,for maybe your very first performance there was a message on Tony’s answering machine from you saying, "Dude, dude, you have to come tonight. You’re the only one who actually knows how to play an instrument."

Victor: Yeah, right. {Victor notes he was also afraid not enough of the players would show up...other people, Wynne for eaxmple, is professionally trained}}
Victor Continues:Well I know keyboard, but I don’t like keyboard.
I don’t think I’m that good on keyboard, compared to the keyboardist, we
have four keyboardist in our group now, me, Nathan, Eric and Jessica, and
any one of us can go on for fifteen or twenty minutes but I think Eric
and, Eric, Nathan and Jessica are far superior to what I am on keyboard,
which is why I don’t play it too much anymore. Our group now, we record
one or two albums or every month. We come out with one or two CD’s every
month now.

Jean: What?

Victor: Yeah, starting this December {2007}. Yeah, we’re going to be coming
out with one or two CD’s every month. Our own burning, we’re going to burn
the CD’s about ten, twenty copies, and whoever wants to buy them, can come
to Crazy Mocha Dreaming Ant, in Bloomfield, and purchase one from either
me or Nathan, they’ll be ten dollars if you want to purchase one. They’ll
be new ones every month. You can have a whole set of them if you want. If
you’re a good customer I’ll reduce the price eventually.

Jean: You’re starting to sound like
your uncle Hugo.

Victor: Yeah well I worked with my uncle Hugo in advertising and PR
for about ten years and the PR is getting free public relations. Free
advertisement is very important for an up and coming artist, musician, or
writer, very important, very important. Otherwise you’re not going to make
any money.

Jean: Well you guys{the Navarro family and uncle Hugo Iacovetti} had various people come to the house right? Performers who were in town?

Victor: Oh yeah. Tony Bennett had dinner at Hugo’s many of
times, he was a good friend of Hugo’s.

Jean: Tony Bennett did?

Victor: And Phyllis Diller.

Jean: Phyllis Diller, Tony told me.

Victor: Rodney Dangerfield, Hugo even knew Bob Hope on a first name
basis. I didn’t know Bob Hope though, but I met Tony Bennett, Frankie
Lane, Phyllis Diller, Tiny Tim. I knew them all.

{Shifting Gears}

Victor: First of all there are quite a few anarchists in my little
scene here in my little, it’s a real big clique. It involves maybe ten or
twenty small cliques and then one, but it’s all like one big clique, people
knowing each other as acquaintances and knowing who they are. And there
are quite a few anarchists involved in it. And quite a few who are anything
but anarchistic, but they all seem to interact and be doing the same things
which are, art, music, literature, film making that kind of thing.
And I really think that the scene is fruitful for seeing how people go about
getting some support. Whether it’s an audience or actual financial support
for their work,
I’ve known some people who’ve gotten grants from Sprout
Fund to do murals and have made a little bit of cash. And they’re mural
is going to stand there for a long time. These are really, these people
have turned on other people to it and they’ve been successful because they
knew those people, they’ve started becoming successes at their art. Now
art is a more, art is a more lasting thing then music or writing, because
it will be there to be seen you know if it’s a mural it’s going to be
there. It’s right in front of a lot of people.
But I think that music and
writing can get you a much bigger audience nationally then art ever will
and that’s not why I like music and writing better, I just think I’m
better at music and writing.

Jean: Well your art {The interviewer is specifically referring to painting here}is pretty darn good.

Victor: Art’s my main love, I like painting and sculpture but it’s
just very difficult to get much of an interest in that especially when
you’re self-taught.

Jean: Well, but yeah like you were saying, people having a community is
really important and that’s part of why
artists tend to congregate in urban areas because then there’s this
support, I mean of other people at least and a chance to talk about
things.

Victor: Musicians too, musicians thrive in urban areas because they
can get love, they can sell CD’s and get gigs for maybe fifty or a hundred
bucks a week. But you know that old maxim starving artist will let their
art go cheap. It’s so true because most of them are in a sense starving.
They’re starving for a public that they’re probably never going to have
but you have to give them credit for keeping up and going it anyway. And I
do it for the sake of doing it. I don’t do it for some kind of big reward
down the road.

Jean: And a lot of people, well not a lot, but a fair number of people
come to think of it that you know aren’t artists though right. I mean
they’re people who......

Victor: Well there’s a few people I know that aren’t doing something
artistic or creative but they’re really rare in this particular life style
that I’ve had the last seven, or eight years.

Jean: Oh?

Victor: I mean you, Tony you’re all creative in musical, art for you,
music for him

Jean: Right.

Victor: I mean Al is the only one that does nothing, and Shannon does
nothing, the rest of them were artist at one time.

Jean: Candice? Does Candice do anything like that?

Victor: Candice was a musician, a singer.

Jean: She was, oh I didn’t know that. What about uh, she had the dreds and she cut them? I can't believe I can't remember....

Victor: Hillary. Hillary brought herself a banjo a year ago and she wants to
be a musician with a banjo. She’s going to be a school teacher, but she’s
still wants to play banjo. She’d like maybe to be in a group some day.
There’s nothing wrong with that.

Jean: And Andrew writes some right?

Victor: Oh, and Andrew is a musician.

Jean: Oh he is?

Victor: Yeah. He has a band, Hot Dog. Andrew McKeon from City Paper.

Jean: And I guess in a way Dean, well Dean does the film thing, in terms
of the, he has the film store {Dreaming Ant}

Victor: Well he was interested in making films about three years ago
but he’s been so busy with his two stores, he kind of, he had me doing his
pod cast on the internet. I did about six pod cast and we haven’t done one
in over a year. But he has dipped into that, he’s dipped into the creative
element of it. He’s a pretty good director of film, he knows how to direct
the film and knows how to make a digital film. Yeah I know a lot of
filmmakers. There are a lot of filmmakers around here in Bloomfield,
Friendship area, Garfield.

Jean: Well, I see what you mean! Ofcourse You know Jae {Ruberto}did photographs of
you and then well at least several people............{Victor interrupts, but I was going to say have made movies with Victor in the film, or drawn Victor and incorporated him into their artwork. Ladyboy, a Pittsburgh artist, has done some great images of Victor.}

Victor: Jae was a, Jae started out when I knew him, he was an artist
and filmmaker. Now he’s a photographer full time. But he originally was a
filmmaker. Jay Ruberto, the photographer, he originally was a filmmaker
and I appeared in several of his films. Some of them short films, some of
them full length feature length. So in a sense I started out my whole
thing with this particular crowd here as an actor in film. Which I’m
really not into, but I happen to publish the books already and anything
else. So I still, I broadened out into a fourth dimension music, art,
literature and film acting. So I don’t know.

Jean: One thing too, I think one would say that also when they talk about
somebody’s life being their art, you can kind of say your life is your art
because it’s sort of all.

Victor: My life is not my art, the art is what I do. If somebody does
something that has nothing to do with their daily activities, they go out
and seek materials or seek a pen and a pencil to do it, that’s something
they are doing, that’s what this remains. But on my lifestyle might be a
little different then being the lifestyle of an artist, musician, or
writer it’s more of a critic. A walking critic. One who criticizes the
life of the society, one who criticizes the money interest in America and
the world that kind of thing.

Jean: Yeah that’s true and that might be, a good thing for us to......

Victor: And I’m especially sharp as a critic, a critic of art. Not
necessarily a painter painting, but a critic of painting I feel I’m on the
mark. And a lot of artists will agree with me I am. A critic of literature,
a writer of books but also a critic of literature. A critic of music, I
mean I’m not just a musician I also am a promoter of music and a critic of
music. Almost more of that then I am an actual performer. So far anyway.

Jean: Yes.

Victor: And I already know I couldn’t get any where doing art, music
or literature so I never got anywhere at it. I’m an example, if you want to
wind up like me, then abandon it for something else. Get into science or
computers.

Jean: Yeah, although you certainly though do have a lot of independence
right?

Victor: I have a lot of independence. What I can do for others I’m
limited too, I don’t have the financing. These people need money to pay
their rent and everything like that. They can’t, I mean, I’m retirement
age, I got an income. But some of these people have to work, work like
dogs to make as much as I do. I feel bad about it.

Jean: So back to, what were you saying {before the tape went on}about Van Morrison, Dylan outpaces Van
Morrison?

Victor: No Van Morrison is greater than Dylan and Dylan is greater
then Donovan and Donovan is greater than Lucinda Williams and Iris Dement
is greater then all of them.

Jean: Who?

Victor: Iris Dement.

Jean: Who’s that?

Victor: I-R-I-S D-E-M-E-N-T. Iris Dement. Excellent singer
songwriter, alternative country, turn it off so I can....

Jean: Okay, who’s that?

Victor: So you’ll have to do some extrapolation.

Jean: Extrapolate.

Victor: Anarchy is the Spice of Life through anarchy we learn our art,
music and literature. I’m not an activist at all. I don’t protest, I’m not
against or for the Iraq War. I think that most of the world and most of
the people in this country are complete fools and idiots. I just have no
hope for them, but these young people some of them, I believe they’ll get
through it all and go on to a greater life and greater things and if they
don’t their grandchildren or descendants will and that’s my political,
that’s my social stance right there. I don’t, it’s like Dylan said in that
one song, "My debutante gives me what I need, you give me what I want."
{??}

Jean: Do you have any kind of regrets that you haven’t had a more
conventional sort of life?

Victor: No, none at all.

Jean: Well how so?

Victor: I had conventional growing up with, and I turned against
convention. I rebelled against conventional at age 16 – 17. I went the way
of poetry and literature.

Victor: Of course I did nothing most of my adult life.

Jean: Nothing?

Victor: No, I did nothing until the last five or six years.

Jean: What do you mean by nothing?

Victor: Nothing musically, nothing writing, nothing writing
artistically, I had no success at all with it.

Jean: But some of the paintings you did are older then that, aren’t they?

Victor: Yeah I did paintings and wrote books, but to no avail. I got
no, I had no public. Now I have a public. Small public, but a public all
the same. Maybe a few hundred people know about it. That makes a pretty
big public, compared to some pople have no public at all.

Jean: Well that’s true. But You do have a public, you do have a public now.

Victor: But I’d like to be known nationally, maybe even all over the
earth as a decent writer or musician or artist.

Jean: But when did you write Victorious Delusions? {One of several books he has written, and my favorite}

Victor: 1987.

Jean: Well I thought so. I thought it had been a while. The Smoker, the
painting of Smoker when did you do that?

Victor: Smoker was done ’90 oh I say it was done about ’86, or
Jean: Okay that’s a while. So it’s just you didn’t have an audience but
you were doing............................

Victor: No. I was in programs for the mentally ill, they didn’t help
at all with writing, art, nothing. She even said none of you will ever be
published. We do this writing just to keep you busy. She can eat crow now
because I’ve been published three times. I don’t know. It’s just, these
organizations that are out to help you, they don’t do any harm. They don’t
help and they don’t do any harm. They waste your time. They’re a waste of
time. Group therapy and outpatient renaissance center it’s a waste of
time. It’s a fuck off place. It’s a place for you to go and fuck off.

Jean: OK.

Victor: They key to great writing is to sit down and write your
story, poem or book or essay or biography, to write it, to stick to a
topic and to finish it. I have no problem sticking to the topic. I have no
problem writing, I can’t finish a damn thing, that’s why I’ve abandoned
writing. But art, I can finish a painting, I can finish a sculpture, I can
finish a song I’ve written for music. I can finish a performance, I can
finish an album that’s why I’m sticking to painting sculpture and music as
opposed to writing, even though I began as a writer.

Jean: You know recently.....what did you say, "I’m not nearly as
great as I say I am." I’m not sure what that was in reference too, but ...... {I was going to say, but Victor interrupted me, that one never knows what he will say}

Victor: I think my music is great, my writing is average, and my art
is below average.

Jean: I don’t think so................

Victor: My music is on the great level, my writing is average among
writers, and my art, my painting and sculpture is below the, below the
norm of the artists I know.

Jean: I don’t think, I don’t think so..............

Victor: Well that’s just the way I see it Jean. I’m sorry and I’m
quite a critic remember.

Jean: Who are visual artists you like?

Victor: I don’t know too many visual artists except the locals here.
I like Jae Ruberto, I like Eric Hauser my keyboard player, realistic
artist, does beautiful art. I like the Preacher’s water colors. Michael
Antonopolos, his water colors and I like your art Jean, I like the newest
installations. Jen Bechak is a good installation artist here in
Pittsburgh. Jennifer Bechak B-E-C-H-A-K, Kate, her sister Kate is a very
good artist. She’s also an architect. Tommy, Lady Boy is a good artist.
Carolyn a friend of mine, twenty one year old Carolyn she did a fine work
of art for me. I can show you that at my apartment a beautiful thing, bird
of paradise a very good art. Laura Borrasso my friend here she’s an artist.

Jean: Oh you are too? {Victor is referring to a young woman who at that moment was sweeping the floor at Crazy Mocha, sort of provingVictor's earlier poinnt about struggling artists}

Victor: She sticks to drawing but she does great illustration, great
drawings. They’re a bunch of them, I can go on and name.

Jean: What about some of the famous people? I just got this great
biography of Pollock, I never saw it before. It’s like nine hundred pages
long. It won a Pulitzer Prize, I had never even heard of it. What do you think
of Pollock?

Victor: Oh I thought it was good. He was definitely creative,
original, now it’s passé now what he did. I think the one that’s still
living on today even though years ago fifties is Willem Dekooning.

Jean: De Kooning , yeah.

Victor: I think De Kooning, I’ve seen his realistic work before he did
that weird shit and he was a hell of an artist. A hell of a painter, yet
he did this creative stuff and it really comes across, it’s greater then
Pollock in my view. Pollock was great but De Kooning was one of the greatest
of all the abstract expressionists in my opinion. Wassily Kandinsky the
originator of it {abstractionism} Can’t be touched. Unbelievable.
Jean: Yeah, I agree. I agree. Did you ever read any of his stuff about art?
Victor: Yeah "Concerning the Spiritual in Art."
Jean: Yeah, isn’t that a great book?
Victor: Yeah.
Victor: Well I don’t know, we should close this out Jean for a while.
Jean: Okay that’s good.

NOTE: THE ANONYMOUS SCHIZOIDS will be appearing SUNDAY MARCH 30th, 2008, at Howlers, Liberty Ave. Bloomfield, Pittsburgh. 9 pmLinks:
The Anonymous Schizoids are: Victor Navarro Jr.,Wynne Lanros, Nathan Kukulski, Eric Hauser, Richard Jarik, and Jessica Trinlath.

Images of Victor by Ladyboy

http://www.flickr.com/photos/48638850@N00/82137480/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/simple-pleasure/24385987/

Dreaming Ant: A great video store. Unbelievable range. Now with 2 locations. AND
Victor has been employee of the month....and employee of the year.........


http://www.dreamingant.com/dae/about/EotM/EotY-2003-Vic.shtml

Photos by Jae Ruberto

http://www.flickr.com/photos/patrujo/

Victor's coffee house of choice these days is : Crazy Mocha in Bloomfield

http://www.crazymocha.com/