Faux Painting: Finished Mural

Village Interviews: Dr. Aaron Moss

Dear Friends,

The following can be viewed on any high-speed computer anywhere or on TV in Manhattan:

Today, Wednesday, January 16 at 7:30 PM, on my shoestring cable show Famousx2, on channel 67, I am re-airing the first of two 29-minute programs of interviews I did with Dr. Aaron Moss- Socialist, hippie, hypnotist and founder of dental hypno-anesthesiology- in 2001, when he was 92 years old on Manhattan Neighborhood Network. Dr. Moss was a fixture at political meetings and demonstrations for decades, so you may recognize him if you don't know him already.

Aaron died last month at the age of 98! See our mutual friend Rick Hill's notice about him below. Aaron will be missed by many of all ages.

Dr. Moss, who was raised in Newark New Jersey, talks about how that town was a center of progressivism and radicalism in the first half of the 20th century. He talks about coming from a very dysfunctional Polish-Jewish immigrant family and how he discovered Communism. He details the kind of primitive equipment used in dentistry in the 1930s, when he began his practice, from which he retired almost 40 years ago. He discusses the techniques he developed to introduce hypnosis into the field of dental anesthesiology. He discusses some of his philosophy of life, which kept him physically and emotionally healthy into his late 90s.

If you are in Manhattan and have access to Time Warner, you can see it today, Wednesday, at 7:30 PM (EST-that's NYC Eastern Standard Time) on channel 67. On the RCN system, that should be channel 85.

If you are outside of Manhattan, anywhere in the world, and you have a decent
high-speed connection on your computer, you can go to mmn.org and click on
channel 67 to see it at the same time.

Sometimes MNN does screw up broadcasts, but usually they air things without too many problems.....Be patient if it screws up for a while.

Best,
Jason Howard


AARON MOSS, 98, died 8:30 PM Sunday, Dec. 23, 2007, in hospice at Cabrini Hospital on 19th and 3d Ave following declining health. Born in Newark, he was a dentist and oral surgeon and leader in dental hypnotism writing a book on the subject and lecturing about it. He also recently authored a self-published book SELF ANALYSIS. He leaves his son Jerry, a NYC social worker. Aaron got a PhD in psychology in Spain and was a supporter of the Hemlock Society and an avid Marxist and activist traveling in recent years to Vieques, Puerto Rico to protest the shelling by US Navy, to Cuba and to Philadelphia to support Mumia Jamal. He'll be remembered for his loyalty, compassion, determination, idealism, generosity, objectivity, organizational skills and candor. He played the violin. He could be a fierce combatant in intellectual exchanges yet always tried to maintain the deeper harmony on a personal level. Locals may recall him in the 90's power walking on the sidewalk around the perimeter of Washington Square Park. In recent years he soldiered on heroically despite, as he said, spending 95% of his time just trying to stay alive with the help of medications and supplements, an Oxygen tank, visits to doctors and hospitals, and the help of a team of rotating live-in care givers.
Best, Rick Hill

Dr. Moss' obituary here.

Faux Painting: Green Marble and Travertine

Green marble and travertine stone (without pits), flat latex house paint on canvas.

Faux Painting: Architectural Rendering

This theatrical architectural rendering I just completed would look great on an interior wall painted kraft paper brown. You could of course expand upon the design to cover an entire wall or room. Or, render it at the end of a long hallway/corridor.

Faux Painting: Mural

This is a mural I am currently working on.

It is only about half way done.

Stay tuned for updates!

Great Artists: Pia Sjolin

Pia in the snow this morning, dressed in a Pia Sjolin Feather Duvet Cover.

Pia Sjolin

Village Interviews: Izzy Young

Dear Friends :

Happy 2008, we hope.

The following can be viewed on any high-speed computer anywhere in the world or on TV in Manhattan:

This Wednesday, January 2nd at 7:30 PM, I am re-airing a half-hour program combining two interviews I did with Izzy Young in 1994 and 1999. Izzy, who used to be known as "The Mayor of Greenwich Village", founded and ran the Folklore Center from the 1950s to the 1970s, first on MacDougal Street and then on 6th Avenue. The center was a combination music shop , performance space and mecca for everyone involved in the so-called folk-music scene of that era. Izzy is well known as the man who organized Dylan's first official concert in NY and conducted the first interview with Dylan back in 1961. In this program (which is one of my all-time favorites), Izzy walks the streets of the West Village, drops in at Matt Umanov's Guitar store to pick up some mysterious money and winds up on MacDougal St., where he coincidentally runs into characters he hasn't seen in decades as if they had been waiting all these years for his return- in January! Along the way, he discusses his childhood in an immigrant and pro-union household in the 1930s, comments on how the Village and Manhattan have deteriorated culturally and then discusses the things that originally brought him to the Village in the late 40s and 50s, including the semi-infamous Joe Gould, whose notebooks Izzy acquired, decades before the movie about him.

For those of you who knew my father, you will catch some glimpses of him (as he was able to accompany us at a time when he could still walk easily) and hear his voice and infectious good-natured laugh in this installment.

If you are in Manhattan and have access to Time Warner, you can see it this Wednesday January 2nd, at7:30 PM (EST-that's NYC Eastern Standard Time) on channel 67. On the RCN system, that should be channel 85.

If you are outside of Manhattan, anywhere in the world, and you have a good high-speed connection on your computer, you can go to mmn dot org and click on channel 67 to see it at the same time.

Sometimes MNN does screw up broadcasts, but usually they air things without too many problems.....

Best,
Jason Howard