WordCitizen 1 - 'American Dreams'

Henry David Thoreau

I had my first monthly WordCitizen show at the Merlin International Theatre (Budapest, Hungary). I opened with two recently created video pieces – 'American Dreams' (the music of which can be found as an AudioGuide, on artportal.hu) and ‘Peter Halasz Overture’ (set to music from my 'Downtown Blues' CD) – then proceeded with free talk about Peter Halasz and the ongoing saga of the 'Yippie!' book. I gave an overview on the history of civil disobedience (from Henry David Thoreau to Abbie Hoffman) in America. I talked about the beats (William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Paul Bowles, Jack Kerouac, Gregory Corso, Ken Kesey), about the birth of the hippie generation, about the yippies, the gentrification of New York and the conservativism of the new generations. I detailed the parallel history of Hungary in the 1960-70s and referred to the current situation, both local and global. I talked for about 90 minutes. The audience (about 2 dozen people) consisted mostly of old and new friends, there were only about 3-4 people I did not know personally. The show was not publicized well enough, which explains why so few people came. It was partly my fault: I promoted the show as part of a series, instead of saying that it is going to be a unique event, which gave people a good excuse for saying that they will rather attend the next performance instead of the current one. I could not avoid the usual very Hungarian type technical catastrophe: the stage lights did not work, so I talked in semi darkness, only the video projector and a small candle provided some light. Nevertheless, the audience liked the show. Today afternoon I am going to give an interview to the Hungarian public radio about the project.