Putting together a package deal around Aughts Philly, I chose the title Over the Schuylkill, from one of the Apparition Poems. It seems to me that, as a seed to plant, this is as comprehensive a statement as we're likely to make. Why it would have to be that I'm particularly proud is that my finger-in-the-air vibe indicates that, for those of us left standing in the stalemated iciness of this recession, there's really no sense left of being in a rush. We have many issues to face- the cost of living, of food and health insurance especially, is so inflated in 2014 that the media's continual unwillingness to admit population depreciation in the United States is an abusive molestation of the remaining population, and a pestilential one to boot.
In a situation like this, art has to be over to the side, to be picked up or dropped as needed. People interested in the arts have varying and variable reactions to why/how art works for them- some can only immerse themselves in the aesthetic in times of prosperity, while others can receive necessary stimulation from art even during a steep recession and its aftermath. I am of the latter type- the recession has not particularly dulled my appetite for the aesthetic. One thing Over the Schuylkill can do for whatever audience we wind up having is to manifest for them a kind of ideal around possibilities of intimacy, deep companionship, and the redeeming power of profound human connections. I have called 2014 a "scum-scape," in which genuine individuals have largely been replaced by well-protected, powerfully-backed goons, corporate drones, and other types/forms of fraudulent hucksters. For those genuine people, especially genuine artists who have survived the deprivations of the recession, who need to have their humanity affirmed (against the scum), we can offer that particular good/service to them, among others. This collection is a big, bold voice assuring its audience that they are not alone, and that the '14 human scene is not a complete pigsty. So, as the Aughts Philly/Neo-Romanticism juggernaut ambles along, the door is wide open for others of our ilk to follow us. There was/is a certain amount of armature covering us and our endeavor, but we were /are a scene and a city with a soul.
