Years ago famed skateboarder Jocko Weyland published my story FAMOUS FOR NEVER in Elk Books.
My failure versus the success of Jean-Michel Basquiat.
The celebrated artist painted my refrigerator.
I had my girlfriend from West Virginia wiped off the images.
My jealousy had a stiff price tag.
At least a million dollars.
Jocko went off to be the curator of MOCA Tuscon.
No money.
Some prestige, but Tucson was Tucson.
A city most people love to leave before it’s too late.
Jocko returned to New York this summer for an opening of his artwork.
Images of ruined Detroit.
Paintings of the mysterious Gowanus Canal.
No nudes.
Jocko was a vagabond.
He was staying out in the Rockaways with his girlfriend.
She could have been his uncool niece, but she was plenty cool.
I crashed at the gallery.
No bed.
No shower.
It was only two blocks away from the 169.
I slept there too.
Last week Jocko had an opening at Printed Matter in Chelsea.
He re-published all the Elk Books.
There were many.
FAMOUS FOR NEVER was one of them.
Jocko was with his girlfriend.
They were a happy couple.
Her name and Alyssa.
She read aloud a paragraph of FAMOUS FOR NEVER.
“After midnight Times Square was awash with wickedness. We posed on the sidewalk with the pimps, whores, and drug dealers. Clover reveled in her role as a rich man’s mistress and I passed for a detective in my pinstriped suit.”
1978 was a long time ago.
Decades before Alyssa’s birth, but she was cool and we drank beer, toasting the many volumes of Elk Books.
And there were many.
I no longer sleep on the floor.
At least not tonight.
And I still have a drawing from Jean-Michel.
He’s not alive, but he remains famous.
And me I’m just living.
A vagabond.
Like Jocko Weyland.
ps besides skateboarding, Jocko is a wicked skier.
A legend.
Especially in Tahoe.
Go see the Elk Books collection at Printed Matter.
231 11th Avenue
New York, NY 10001
Today until 7 pm
And you can purchase FAMOUS FOR NEVER at this url
https://www.printedmatter.org/catalog/49540