HALLOWEEN MADNESS WITH MY NEIGHBOR

 

HALLOWEEN MADNESS WITH MY NEIGHBOR

by Larry Baumhor

(All photos and interviews by Larry Baumhor unless otherwise noted.)

 

   His name is Poison Nature Wolf. And he’s my neighbor. I was sitting at my desk working on my computer next to my window. I stood up to look out the window which I often do. And there he was across the street in the parking lot of the adjacent building. Mr. Wolf was shirtless with his pants falling and he was creating some kind of installation. In a semicircle there was a main exhibit, not far was another chair and then there was a kid’s mini car.
 
   What the fuck is going on here, I thought. I grabbed my camera and began shooting from my window. I was too far away and did not have a telephoto lens. I took my camera outside with my recording device and the madness began.
 
   “My name is Larry, I’m a photographer and writer. Do you mind if I photograph and interview you?”
   “No,” answered Poison.
   “What’s your name?”
   “Poison Nature Wolf. The city of Philadelphia gave me poison.”

 
   I immediately understood I was dealing with a person who suffered from madness (a hip term for mentally ill) and I was fascinated. I had a connection with a madman. I myself am mad with an artistic form of bipolar (glamorized bullshit). Is there a connection between bipolar disorder and creativity? Dr. Jamison in Touched with Fire thinks so. Poison was possibly suffering from schizophrenia or bipolar. You decide.
   “We of the craft are all crazy,” remarked Lord Byron about himself and his fellow poets.   “Some are affected by gaiety, others by melancholy, but all are more or less touched.” The opening statement in Touched with Fire by Dr. Jamison.


   I was intrigued by Poison’s ritualistic ceremony as he danced around the three installations chanting gibberish and carrying an ax. It seemed to me that he was engaged in the Booger Dance from the Cherokee tribe with ritual masks driving away hostile spirits and providing comedic relief for members of his tribe. I was sold hook, line, and sinker. I was a member of his tribe. I was transfixed into his spirit. The masks worn by the Cherokees drove away white trespassers. That was me.


   And so it begins: have a look and a listen. Perhaps you're touched with madness too?







Comments

  1. AnonymousNovember 25, 2023 at 7:18 AM

    Very intriguing! I want to know more about his life..

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousNovember 25, 2023 at 3:23 PM

    like the masks, because i collect them and hung some on my wall. interesting name, think he should add a feather headdress to the madness

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I LOST MY MIND AT OLD FRIEND PHOTOBOOTH IN NEW YORK CITY by Larry Baumhor

Image
  I LOST MY MIND AT OLD FRIEND PHOTOBOOTH IN NEW YORK CITY   by Larry Baumhor (All photos outside the booth are by Larry Baumhor)    I was intrigued when I read online that Old Friend Photobooth develops your photo with a film-type process. When I arrived at the photo booth at 117 Orchard (the corner of Delancey and Orchard) I began to feel excitement in my veins, a rush of adrenalin, and an increase of norepinephrine as though I was high on pot. It seemed like a cultural phenomenon with extreme thrills in the booth and waiting for the photo to develop. The owners of the photo booth are Brandon Minton and Zoe Lazerson as seen in the next photo.       How did you develop the idea for a film photo booth in NYC?    Zoe: We lived in Paris and we visited a film photo booth. Brandon and I, when we first started dating found film photo booths and took our own photo strips. We were moving back to NYC and thought they have no film...
Read more

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: Not a Movie But a Happening

Image
Photo by Alexi Lubomirski "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" (Not a Movie But a Happening) by  Larry Baumhor I'm not a big Tarantino fan, but this movie is going into the Library of Congress as a cultural phenomenon, a historically significant cinematic masterpiece.  Tarantino’s best work. The film, Tarantino, DiCaprio and Pitt will be nominated for Academy Awards. Once Upon a time in Hollywood opened in theaters on July 26 th ; by August 3, 2019 I saw the movie 6 out of 9 days. The movie is a happening, an event that you feel part of. You time travel back to the 60s on Hollywood Blvd, the cars, stores, clothes, restaurants, the Manson compound at Spahn Ranch with the hippies, the movie sets at Columbia studio, radio commercials, a Batman promotion and even 60s comic books lying on Cliff’s table. Tarantino is meticulous for detail. It seems like small TVs invaded Hollywood in 1969 playing the FBI, Man From Uncle, Mannix, western genre flicks and you n...
Read more

JUSTICE FOR STEVE BUSCEMI BUT NOT FOR THE ORDINARY CITIZEN IN NEW YORK CITY by Larry Baumhor

Image
JUSTICE FOR STEVE BUSCEMI BUT NOT FOR THE ORDINARY CITIZEN IN NEW YORK CITY   by Larry Baumhor “Hooray for Hollywood
 -- That screwy ballyhooey Hollywood
    Where any office boy or young mechanic
    Can be a panic...”    ...and become a movie star, treated like royalty with special privileges. This was the case with Steve Buscemi who was clobbered in the face by a homeless man on the street in New York City. Buscemi suffered an eye injury but was not seriously hurt. Judge Marisol Martinez Alonso sent assailant Clifton Williams, to Rikers Island jail on $50,000 cash or $150,000 bond, court records show, and charged him with second-degree assault, a felony punishable by up to seven years in prison.    My assailant was arrested and released. He was ordered to appear for two court hearings. He never appeared in court. What was the assistant district attorney thinking when he was released?    My defendant has prior drug charges. Pleas...
Read more