Sunday, June 27th, 2004: I slept in all I could after a night on the floor with little sleep. I met with my tour group at 2 PM and it was a good turnout of about 14 people. I wore my Tecumseh tee-shirt again, very comfortable. We handed out yellow ribbons again as tickets, and also as prayers for the Creator to bring our troops back home sooner and safer. As it turns out, our prayers were heard, in that at 2:26 AM (later that night) the Iraqis were given a marginal self-rule of their country, days before expected. Hopefully that will lead to an earlier resolution of the problems and an earlier return of troops.
It was a windy day, but no rain and lots of sun. I used the bull horn more than Saturday. Everyone especially liked my “Hog sign” lecture about the real meaning of New York. Most of the information on the tour is included in Touring Native New York, the booklet, (Resonance Communications) although I get to add different things each time, depending on what we run into. One thing we ran into today was the Gay Pride Parade. As we stood on the sidelines, I commented that some Algonquin sources indicate a division of genders into many categories, including non-gay transvestites as an important group, separate from gay transvestites, and mentioned that bi-sexuals were considered gifted at resolving husband and wife disputes. Just then, a drag queen strutted by, probably one of the best examples of a drag queen in the entire parade—very feminine but obviously male. I had to stop talking as he/she swished by me, to keep from laughing! The timing was awesome. As I always say, “You can’t pay money for that kind of coincidence!” There has always been at least one such coincidence on each of my tours.
We could not cross at Christopher Street, so we went north and crossed at Fifth Avenue just above #25th. The river of dancers and floats was flowing along the banks of the Manetta Creek. Ironically, synchronistically, that part of the parade turned out to be made up almost entirely of Indigenous dancers from various countries in South America. There was a giant cardinal as well. I encouraged them to watch for ten minutes, although one or two left, and then the actor from Last of the Mohicans walked by; I just saw his back. Then we walked east and in a few minutes were at the powwow grounds of the Munsee, the Kintecoying, “the place where they are dancing.” (now called Astor Place/Cooper Square) I stated that dancing similar to that which we saw in the parade may have occurred here, and that the Wappingers/Canarsie group had South American influences in their culture.
We joined in a circle around the Astor Place Medicine Wheel and sang songs and smudged and did ceremony. No Goddesses came from the West, however. We lost one or two more people who elected to go home, and arrived at St. Mark’s with a strong group of about 7. Suzannah H had made it all the way, as did several others, who said they loved the tour. My feet were tired and hurting, and I didn’t want to move. Later I said to my assistant and professional tour guide Roxy that I had a thought in my mind for Mexican food, and we found Burritoville down the block. We ate there, but I got really sick an hour later, and had such a pain in my stomach that I could hardly walk. It got worse, much as things got worse for the Aztec Emperor Montezuma, as his battle against the Spanish wore on. Somehow his thirst for revenge found its mark in me, even though my sister was at that time in Mexico, and she did not get sick. Perhaps I saved her from certain death through some sort of unintentional shamanic transference. Once I realized this, I passed it on to the spirit world as a healing. Rainbow Hawk, you owe me a Burrito!
60 Minutes was on TV and I was amazed by the stories; someone I knew personally was being interviewed, the inventor of Imclone, the wonder cancer drug. I had performed for the guy’s party when his patent came through. It was “A Tribute to Excellence” and they had “the world’s greatest French Chef,” the “world’s greatest hotel, the Lowell Hotel, a five star joint uptown, and I was “the world’s greatest guitarist.” Expectations were high. I apparently did not disappoint them. The thing that impressed me most was that there was no place to park so a doorman watched my illegally parked pickup truck for four hours! Anyway, after the party and speeches, I went over and talked to the man for whom this honor was being given, and he was very open to talk to me as an equal, and also very respectful, which is not usually the case when entertaining for a dinner party of rich folks, who are inclined to confuse servants with slaves. He explained to me how the drug worked and he was not patronizing. I felt I was finally among a crowd of Renaissance men and women, and by the way the pressed liver from France was superb! It was one of my favorite gigs, everyone was in a good mood; someone had patented a cure for cancer. Well, according to this story, his stock went high and then the FDA turned down his approval and stock went down suddenly. He knew this would happen and told his daughter to sell stock, and he was caught for insider trading. Also, Martha Stewart (his friend not mine) heard from someone inside the FDA that it was getting turned down, and she sold out, and that’s what brought her down. He swears he never mentioned it to her. The reason the FDA turned it down, and this was just after 9-11-01, was for insufficient documentation, a technicality of sorts, but he got mad because it killed the stock value, and made a few mistakes of judgment. He was convicted, the ownership apparently went to the pharmaceutical company, and the FDA approved the deal and now the stock is higher than ever, and he is going to spend several years in jail. It all sounds kind of funny to me, sort of like an ideal situation for the pharm company, and of course I think Conspiracy Theory, what if he KNEW about some secret deal behind 9-11-01 and had to be silenced? You know they always go after us geniuses. On the other hand, he now admits that he did a number of foolish and illegal things. Things you and I would NEVER have done. And therein lies the difference. You have to always be ethical in everything you do. It all comes around. Another story was about how Raytheon, the same people who make V-MADS and space weapons, made the Patriot Missiles, and this story revealed that they didn’t work at all in Desert Storm, only shooting down 4 out of 44 atttemps, and that they often shoot down friendly jets, with friendly pilots inside, our pilots. I think three were shot down in Desert Storm, almost the same number of planes as scud missles, and more in this new war. They never fixed the problem! And since it is all computerized, they can’t stop it. Is that dumb or what? I mean, no Algonquin Indian would create a machine like that! Only Raytheon. That was a story for someone to do more research on! There were other great stories as well, and of course a great bio doc on Michael Moore himself, which was very entertaining, and also revealed the man behind the camera, saying that he is very shy, and “hates having to confront people,” but he’s so successful at it he can’t give it up.
I had some peppermint tea and watched a one-sided Mets-Yanks double header. Hot liquids are not recommended for this, but I didn’t have my health book with me, Prescription for Nutritional Healing. Rice is most recommended, and all sundry vitamins and minerals. Do not take Immodium too soon. Gatorade is the natural impulse, and it is a healthy one.
MoPress 