a memoir
by Owen Plotkin
©2023 Owen Plotkin All content
“Wishbones and Bows” © new work in progress
wishbones and bows
I’m tired of my own reflection
I’m tired of
the sound of my guitar
to the best of my recollection
I’ve never crawled out this far
I’m an architect kickin out windows,
a gardener who’s gone colorblind,
a bookend on a park bench sighin’
out memories of our skin
and breath entwined
Is love a circle forever,
or just some words on a page
is it granite or gold or never,
old wishbones and bows tied on a cage
i need the full moon to feel
I need to know my heart is real
I’m a grown man in a candy store cryin’
theres nothing left here to steal
the shape of your body’s lyin’
across somebody’s else’s big brass bed
i just had to give up tryin
and finish our song instead
©2022 owen plotkin
©2021 Owen Plotkin
owen plotkin journal
My little garden
here I am
my dear little garden
be mine.
you are quiet and
you are patient
you ask little,
just room to grow
my little garden
in a little space
your green, delights
your color, magnetic.
your fragrance,
is subtle, seductive
to bees.
You live and bloom
bloom again and die
and live again.
Each day, with sleeping
and coming awake, we live
like a garden. Only, finite.
my little garden digital video Owen Plotkin
Seen a lot in my time in New York City. Saw the rise of CBGB’s and I’ve seen the end of it. Stood next to Joey Ramone playing pinball. Walked down Joey Ramone Place cursing cancer. Watched the South Tower fall in silence with my bare eyes from across the river in Jersey City. Saw my next door neighbor’s grief, knowing her son would not return from Cantor Fitzgerald that day. I lost family, I lost friends and I lost coworkers to the monster named AIDS in the 80’s and 90’s. Thousands of New Yorkers were murdered by that monster. Saw my hero walking down the street just like any average New Yorker. Felt proud he chose to make this town, his town. He was gunned down right in front of the love of his life, at the Dakota. New York City. Full of bluster,full of bombast,full of pride and covered in filth. I celebrated our empathy and loathed our apathy. It’s a tough place, filled with pricks,assholes and kind souls. I’m not special. I’ve just walked around here for a while and I just don’t want to forget. Did you see me around? I saw you.
there’s an AIDS memorial being built in NYC. At a place that used to be St Vincent’s Hospital. “The New York City AIDS Memorial Park at St. Vincent’s Triangle.”
http://nycaidsmemorial.org/ #911 #CBGB # Joey Ramone #JohnLennon #ActUp
audio montage and collage by Owen Plotkin
Pity the warrior, he lives in the worst of us
When you’ve seen the face of man
what the fuck is left to us?
In places where death is the meager mercy offered
to spit in the dust like a cowboy movie maestro
no spurs jinglejangle just a bowl of bullets and powdered milk
marchin’ straight and stoic solemn faces shambling minds.
Hail the Chief, hands painted white to hide the stains
a fistful of dollars tossed onto his salad plate
truffle oil to help make the paper go down
shame in the back of his mind faded by the sun like
a lopsided sofa on a sidewalk sale,
the family mourning their possessions
with an eye to their fortunate future.
The mobster spits on the medals he bestows
and shines them with his white cuff just to gaze at the
reflection of his expensive dental work in the brass,
the casualties sliding to the floor from the printer
and caught under his shoe.
Parades where Mothers tell children to wave,
have you ever seen waves of grain?
there is no diving and swimming among them.
only dirt.
thank them for their service with a sigh of relief
you do not know their grief,
as you send them to face the face of man.
As we send them to face the face of man.
As we send them to face the face of man.
stone and glass © Owen Plotkin
We are all of stone and glass composed,
the stone is gray and rough as rock,
the glass is clear and fragile as glass,
when we let light pass through the glass it rainbows the stone,
light is love, love is light
“Follow back.Follow me.I search my phone for a tree.” If There Is A Tree Left On Earth – © owen plotkin
#tbt the first generation iPhone went on sale and we were there handing out free buttons and talking to people on the lines about hunger in America. I was in the Hungrr costume, hijacking G4’s shot. Support your local foodbanks. Thanks to Mark Frauenfelder and Farhad Manjoo we got some NICE PRESS in SALON !
And in 2007 student/journalist Alex Rosenblatt interviewed me..
1. What is your name and title?
Owen Plotkin, founder, Hungrr, LLC.
2. What do you believe are the root causes of hunger and food insecurity in America?
Illiteracy. Poor public education. Loss of manufacturing jobs in the US. Low minimum wages in most states. Food stamp rules and application requirements that are too complicated for many uneducated, elderly and handicapped individuals. The general public’s lack of awareness of the facts surrounding hunger in America. An unwillingness on the part of politicians and corporations to acknowledge the facts surrounding hunger in America. And sadly, unrealistic yet rampant materialism, corporate greed and a growing meanness in our culture.
3. Does the term food insecurity differ from hunger and if so, how?
“Food insecurity” includes hunger and the specter of impending hunger, but the term is also used by the current administration to remove the politically dangerous word “hunger” from the discussion of poverty in America.
4. What part of the population would you say is most vulnerable to food insecurity or poverty?
Low income workers and their children, single parent households, minorities, the elderly, handicapped and disabled people.
5. Hunger in America does not manifest it self in the same way as it does in other nations (distended bellies and starvation). Is it as a serious of a problem?
It is not about starvation. Sadly, the problem is often hidden malnutrition, and that especially effects children, their normal development and ability to learn. There is the problem of obesity caused by people filling up on cheap junk and fast foods rather than eating more expensive healthy foods including fruits and vegetables. It is very serious because of the growing disparity between the rich and the poor and the disappearing middle class in this, the richest nation on Earth.
6. Do you believe that U.S. food assistance programs such as food stamps and the school breakfast program are effective at abating hunger?
Every little bit helps. Weekend and summer programs – where available – help too.
7. Are food banks effective at abating hunger?
Yes, but there is a growing need for assistance.
8. Some people say that food banks create a situation of dependency do you think that this is possible?
I think it is much more likely that a lack manufacturing jobs, career opportunities, training and adequate public education in poorer urban and rural areas, create real need.
9. Do you believe there are programs the government should implement in order to encourage food self sufficiency?
I think there are many ways government can help overcome hunger in America. And I don’t think it is necessary to create more programs or bureaucracies or “throw money at the problem” to do so.
10. Do you believe that empowering low income urban residents with the ability to grow their own food would be an effective way of solving food insecurity?
Yes, but another public garden was destroyed just a month ago in NYC. Skyrocketing rents and housing values in many cities are making urban gardens more and more difficult to sustain.
11. How important is increasing the awareness of the public?
In my opinion, awareness is more important than anything else.
12. Is there anything else that you believe is important concerning the situation of hunger?
I think there is a socially destructive dearth of civic responsibility on the part of businesses in America and the world. I think that business must take responsibility for the society that allows it – by providing an open marketplace – to thrive.
American Rocking Chair (welded steel) by Owen Plotkin 1980
we made a Hungrr cookies ad starring np and rp , clarinet by np,
– owen plotkin
http://www.owenplotkin.com
https://owen-plotkin.com
Apple Store iPhone Incident – @ owen plotkin 3:18
the day the original iphone was released I put on the orange Hungrr suit and this happened..
We were surprised they let us into the museum that day
and not surprised when they asked me to leave the garden…
Museum of Modern Art hungrr in the garden – owen plotkin (1:50)
Psynk (5:48)
images and sound and music ©owen plotkin
warning: flashing light could cause seizure in epilepsy
TOO CLOSE • A 2001 REACTION (3:48) © owen plotkin
“The attack occurred, I stood and watched
the buildings fall with my own eyes, smelled
the burning plastic from across the river,
later at home, my eyes and ears were unnerved
by the television as it became an unrelenting fear machine.
A Prayer in May. instrumental improvisation – owen plotkin 2008 (1:35)
Oh Great Machine – a song about Google censorship and China (1:13)
Jan ’06, when Google censored China’s Google search engine,
I wrote and recorded this song. – owen plotkin
Plutonian Ode (12:14) by owen plotkin
The images and audio in this film are public domain and/or
offered by creative commons and are available for download and reproduction
at the internet archive, the Prelinger archives, C.E. Price
and from the U.S. Department of Energy
National Nuclear Security Administration Nevada Site Office
Allen Ginsberg recorded Naropa Inst.