“Dear Down Boy Ups” – *A Letter From Ray
1) In New York one need not consider the existance of other geographies.
2) The drive away co. kept our $150.00 deposit. They claim we stole the C.B. radio and burnt holes in the upholstery.
3) We live in an apartment we call a box (home sweet box, there’s no place like box, bless this box.) The landlords call it a studio, which is a very polite way of putting it. It’s a sub-sub-sublet and the landlord found out so we have to vacate said box at the end of the month. We have to find a real place to live anyway – so they can bang they box upside they haid.
4) I work at a sign shop doing layouts (drawings) for $250.00 a week (not enuf) It’s a good shop, and I’ll probably be making more money soon – just have to prove myself. The guy I work with, a brit named Ansley is an ex- record producer and indi- label head (rasta, funk, r&b) his wife couldn’t hack all the musician types + coerced him into moving to Brooklyn. He’s got a reggae buddy who wants to put a studio in his basement and Ansley has the bucks and the temptation so he’ll probably get into it again. I hate working for a living.
5) Run DMC are the kings of rock and their heralds blast them on the street everywhere.
6) I paint all the time – I’m working on six paintings. The east village gallery scene is uninspiring, so is everything else (soho, midtown, noho) but it’s summer and rather low key. The work I’ve seen is lame, no craft, no ideas, no guts.
7) Liberty weekend was wierd.
8) I haven’t thought of playing music – although there is a lot to go listen to. All the bands bitch about the lack of clubs (they keep getting closed down) I hate the door men at the ones that are open.
9) New York stinks something awful in the summertime.
10) The buildings and streets are beautiful, a frontal continuous wall of hard textures broken by non sensical decoration like it’s just been caught ripping off your t.v. set. I walked to work from the subway for almost 2 weeks before I noticed the empire state building was only a few blocks away looming over me like just another bunch of windows and bricks. When I noticed I realized I was only paying attention at street level. I look all around me now. Fuck’em if they think I’m a tourist – I am always.
11) If we get hungry at night, we can go eat anywhere. All night long. New York’s agogo + everything tastes nice
12) A man attacked commuters with a samari sword at the statten island ferry last week – god told him to kill all Haitians + people from the midwest.
13) I have seen John Lurie, Allen Ginzburg, Stiv Bators, Bernard Goetz and various bums who used to be somebody on the streets.
14) I hope there’s not a garbage strike this summer.
15) Fuck is used every other word here. The best was fuck you you fucking fuck.
16) All you guys should be here.
17) I have learned to eat while I walk.
18) We went to check out a homestead building (squatters) on our block, everybody bummed cigs. The entrance way was huge but filled with trash, no electricity, water or heat, just an empty shell of the building. We walked past the entry in the dark, back into the rear of the building over more trash and busted down doorways. The stairs had been ripped out long ago and a system of old fire escape ladders was the only thing to get up or down on. The building looked like what we would live in should the bomb go off.
The people who lived there were just camping out mostly punks, bums and fringe types, that weren’t really interested in working on the place or buying it from the city – we stayed and talked + smoked cigarettes for a while anyways. I was sitting on the last available chair like surface in the room which was a cage turned on it’s side with a rat on the inside. Guess we’re not gonna live there.
19) I cut all my hair off, real short.
20) David Byrne hasn’t had us over for lunch yet.
21) Everybody communicates through their answering machines here.
22) Today is Tuesday, the 10th or 15th or somewhere around there. It’s after midnight I have to go to work in the morning.
23) The $10.00 is for busfare for the typewriter Jud. Could you ship it out for us on the greyhound to the Port Authority – Stick it in a box if you could. Please, we’d really like to have it. Address is Ray Abeyta … E. St NY NY 10009 PH# (my work) xxx – xxx- xxxx – Ask them to have New York call me. Thanks
24) Scratch you cats later.
Love Ramon
*WI Note: I have left all incorrect spellings in order to preserve the integrity of this letter.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wormintruder/4057767928
http://dicemagazine.blogspot.com/2009/09/ray-abeyta-brooklyn-ny.html
http://www.rmartinabeyta.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/05/realestate/05habi.html?_r=1
http://guestofaguest.com/directory/ray-abeyta/26448
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