Poem, photography and graphic design copyright 2013 by Michael W. Kohlman, with the exception of the photograph of Darryl Read whose author (CatWizzard777) made this available for use under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Darryl Read has been many things including actor (film/TV), drummer, guitarist, singer, poet, writer and radio personality; but to me he became known as a friend though be it though Email and Facebook.

Far more a nuts and bolts person, as opposed to enjoying the celebrity nature of things, this relationship with Darryl started as I enquired about his working with Ray Manzarek (Doors fame) on two poetry/music CDs, which was something I had planned to do.

I never expected him to take enough of an interest to send a Facebook friend request. It is through this relationship that I discovered his music and a published book of beat poetry called, "SET."
Despite his age he was very happy and a hard worker as he regularly traveled, preformed, and did album projects. In August 2012 Darryl was featured in Pattaya People along with Khun Jeab as couple of the month. He died in Pattaya on June 23, 2013 as a result of a motorcycle accident he couldn't be revived from.

His death came as a shock and has been the second hardest I have taken, though the first eclipses his death by a factor of a thousand. First what got me was he was so happy with his doing what he was doing and all the projects he had line up, and second; though only via Facebook, he was a genuine friend and supporter to me and I also loved introducing him and his music to local musicians.

The funniest story was how he seemed to have lost contact with me, but out of the blue sent a personal message on how sorry he was about this and provided the reasoning as he had a lot of projects he was working on.

My favorite story was in a collaborative work with Darryl and myself. I was neither an Occupy Movement supporter or believer, yet the Occupy camp in Baltimore lent itself to being photographed as this camp help much symbolic imagery and was well worth the aggression that some Occupy members sent my way.

However, Darryl with his beat poetry and attitude did a wonderful poem titled, "Occupy," and I couldn't agree with it more so I combined his poetry with the imagery from Baltimore's camp and he felt it worthy enough to post on his website as well, allowing me to post it myself.

The Baltimore Sun in one of their social posts on Facebook asked what acts would you like to see brought into Baltimore, and I responded that I would like to see a promoter bring both Ray Manzarek and Darryl Read to Baltimore and explained why, as I felt that there are many people here who would have benefitted from the experience.


Artscape is a multi-day event held in Baltimore since 1982 and one of the largest free arts events held in America. This festival has drawn over 350,000 attendees and 150 artists that cover all facets of visual arts and design, as well hosting performance and music.



This was my first year in attendance as I was planning to view Dr. Bob Hieronimus' art car and mural titled, "We the People...," as well as ask him questions about the Visionary Arts Museum of Maryland as I am including it with my, "Baltimore's Museums," project of poetry, information and photography.

In a misguided attempt at minimizing my exposure to the heat, so I could cut the lawn later, I was planning to slip in and out. But leave it to MTA to create a 2 �?�½ hour wait and a mile walk to get to the festival and then a two mile walk and hour wait to get the bus home. I got home and totally crashed as my work week also caught up with me...

Usually known as Dr. Bob, he is known for his esoteric subject matter on a show he hosts along with his wife Zoe, called 21 st Century Radio, which airs on WCBM 680, Sunday evenings from 8:00pm-10:00pm; as well his art such as murals and art cars. He is also hip deep in the study of symbols, and into music such as Jimmy Hendrix, the Beatles and Bob Marley.

Dr. Bob has also published several books, appeared on TV Shows and is considered Baltimore's first Hippie by many. I have heard the term of, "Hippie," applied to him as both a compliment and a slight.



Explanation of imagery:

Dream Whiskey, a term I heard Darryl Read apply to his poetry and is included in his definitions of his, "Neologisms." Darryl Read states that Dream Whisky is, "Drink to increase Shamanistic vision and insight." To me since I prefer a good Manhattan, feel one's mind is also involved.

I wanted to differentiate Artscape from other fairs and festivals, and perhaps it was the heat, but it was relatively quiet except for the band of road construction people that paraded by. They had something called No Passport Required and hosted performance and visual art.

They had a tent set up where initially when I walked by, they played music with a TV set up to relay imagery, but because of the glare, you really couldn't see it; and a guy banging on a drum, or pipes. When I passed though this are to leave, the guy was with four foot long drumming dowels and there was a tall thin woman dancing.

The thing of it was, the crowd seemed to watched them more than they paid attention as both visually and sound wise everything was discordant and out of time and I felt I could have done a better job than the two of them.

She also had a blow up vinyl thing that appeared to be the tip of a lizard's tail that she seemed to be using as a corkscrew, and she banged on this politically correct and safety minded plastic mirror that was made up to be broken and produced no sound. The rockin' roller in me told me, "Use a real mirror to real effect!"

To see Dr. Bob's art car titled, "We the people..." involved a trip to the area where Artscape held the Art Car Show and there were many interesting entries. At least I could find a little time to sit, relax and chat a bit. What flipped me out was Dr. Bob had a bubble machine on top of his as his assistant was wiping off, the bubbles that landed on the car.

I considered her the lowly lass merely for the sake of the imagery as I fought the compulsion to pick up a rag and help. His assistant wears many hats and is also a coordinator, research assistant, editor, as well the producer for the radio show. Because of the hard work, devotion and the many chores she willingly does, I actually view her as a work equal.

I also held back the urge to photograph her wiping off the bubbles from the car, as I was there for the stated reasons and didn't want to do anything to creat misunderstandings. Also the poetic gaff that resulted me in being escorted out and banned at the Jewish Museum also has me a little gun shy, as it sent my biography into a tangant and complicated another poetic project.

The bubbles were also a fancy to me because in 1984 I exhibited unprotected photographs at a fair and someone had the bright idea to give all of the kids bubbles. I remember this older man constantly wiping bubbles off of his car and he was such an angry cuss about it, no one wanted to walk up and look at his car or talk to him about it.

If anyone should be mad, it should have been me, because bubbles would permanently damage my prints. Instead I enlisted the services of kids who outgrew the bubbles, but still wanted to be army members, cattle wrangles and super heroes to get the bubbles before they landed on my works. I even enlisted a couple of scouts from my troop who needed community service time that I could sign off on; definitely made for an interesting board of review.

I added a reference to the Beatles because that is one of Dr. Bob's bands he study and embraced. While I am not that way with the Beatles, I am the exact same way with the Doors, and the fact Darryl Read grew up around many of the big British band members, felt it warranted such an inclusion.

With Darryl's passing, and the fact his poetic writings talked about such spaces, it seemed best for me to turn this not only into a tribute to Darryl's life, but the lives of all artists, musicians and poetic writers.

For further reading, copy and paste into your browser:

21stcenturyradio.com
Darryl Read Wikipedia (has good synopsis of his career and discography.)

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