"Beautiful Radiant Things"

I lived on E. 13th St. b/t 1st and 2nd Ave for several years and I was happy to find out that Emma Goldman had lived down the next block. The sign always felt a bit more like a warning than a memorial.
Across the street on the same block is a large empty lot that I would always walk by that went through to the other side on 14th and I'd imagine all the wonderful things that could be built there-like more green space. The owners would keep paying to have all the trash removed, but it would just get filled up with garbage and weeds immediately because it has no purpose but to sit there and wait for it's property value to go up for real estate. Friends said that it's been empty for at least a decade.

I decided that it would be a good place to have Emma Goldman Park--a workshop oriented communtity center for gatherings with a playground, a garden, lots of trees for birds, and composting. I looked up the property under government zoning because if it was public property there would be chance to make this happen. Unfortunately it's privately owned by GrossBuilders...yup that's their name.
So my friend David Matorin said he met an artist named Veronica Jay Clay who is doing a Serenading Architecture project and that we should serenade Emma Goldman Park as part of her project. Why not create the large park out of sound with a pop sensibility for the passers by? The lot's history actually included being an old vaudeville theater that Mae West and the Marx Brothers performed at so we thought to include my friend Kamala on accordian. So what took place was me, David Matorin, Kamala Sankaram, and Gabe Moylan breaking into the lot with battery powered equipment and playing and singing for passers by. An official looking person was starting to motion for us to leave but as we started singing he stopped and listened. Kamala was on accordian, me on field recordings, David on effects, Gabe vocals, Che shot some video. I'll try and get the audio up on my website...when i get my website. for now some photos: