TOXIC NOSTALGIA

This 1999 performance consisted of spoken word, songs and a slide show that closed out a spoken word night at the Fort at Sidewalk hosted by Anne Husick.  Other performers that evening included The Bitter Poet (Kevin Draine), Dave the Poet, a member of the band "No One Will Marry You," and Jon Berger.  It featured a "carousel" of slides not from an estate sale, but rather from my 1982-84 photography collection.  This presentation (with its parallels to the penultimate scene from Carnal Knowledge)  revealed limitations and tendencies to avoid close personal relationships, and its occurrence remains an embarrassment to this day.  To make matters worse, the photographs are the result of extended experimentation with moderately good camera equipment and a variety of film stocks. Thank you, Jon Berger, for operating the slide projector.  

The above .jpg image is a scanning experiment from 2001 of plus-x negatives developed from a Nikon FE 50mm set at 1.4. (negatives reversed).  

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