The Sky Opened Up with Answers julia dzwonkoski & kye potter the sky opened up with answers Interviews by Julia Dzwonkoski & Kye Potter onestar press onestar press DZWONKOSKI_COVER.indd 1 23/03/09 13:57:50 The Sky Opened Up with Answers Interviews by Julia Dzwonkoski & Kye Potter RICHARD WICKA / Te Home of the Future 5 ANIMAL CHARM / Bacon, Eggs and Sweet Mary Jane 23 WYNN SATTERLEE / Painting and Prison 37 NAOMI UMAN / Te Ukrainian Time Machine 47 CHARLIE NOTHING / 180 Needles into Sonny Rollins 61 ERNEST GUSELLA / I’m Not a Believer 71 BRIAN SPRINGER / Te Disappointment 85 HENRY FLYNT / Te Answer You Like is the Wrong Answer 99 TWIG HARPER & CARLY PTAK / Livin’ & Feelin’ It 115 THEO KAMECKE / Trow the House in the River 133 DZWONKOSKI_INT_150.indd 2-3 6/04/09 10:26:36 Te Home of the Future An Interview with Richard Wicka Buffalo, New York, August 1, 2007 Richard Wicka has been producing public access television shows at his Buffalo, New York home, Te Home of the Future, for over 20 years. Hundreds of people have visited the HOTF to work on TV shows, film shoots and radio programs. We talked with Wicka about the history of the HOTF and the social and artistic vision behind it. JULIA DZWONKOSKI & KYE POTTER: Can you tell us the story of the pond in your backyard? RICHARD WICKA: I went to nurseries and said: “How do you put a pond in your backyard?” Tey all told me the same thing: “You’ve gotta dig a hole at least three feet deep.” Why? “Because water freezes in the win- ter but never to a depth of three feet. You’ve gotta let the fish get down there. Tey’ve gotta have water to swim in. Tey can’t stay in a block of ice all winter like the Frankenstein monster.” And I said: “Tat is deep. I don’t like that idea.” I have this theory and I try to apply it to all aspects of my life: Learn by experimenting. You should solicit the advice of experts but you should also use the experimental method to find out what works for you. So I go to Kmart and I buy a kid’s toy chest, which is about 18 inches deep. It’s good plastic. I dig a hole big enough for the toy chest and I put it in the ground. Tere were people telling me: “In the winter that chest will become brittle and crack and all the water will leak out.” I get a pump to keep the water clean and I know that moving water will not freeze. Te question is: will the pump work year round? Next came the question of fish. So I go to the pet store and I ask: “What’s a good, hearty, wholesome fish?” And he’s showing me these fish, you know, like 15-20 bucks a piece. I say: “What about those fish right behind the counter in that water that’s very murky?” He says: “You don’t want those. Tose are feeder fish. We feed those to the fish that prey on other fish.” I say: “Tose fish are all gonna die?” He says: “Tat’s right.” I say: “How much are they?” He says: “10 cents a piece.” I say: “Gimme six of them.” I put them in the backyard and I tell you what, those fish have lived in that pond for the past seven years, winter and summer. When winter comes and the snow falls, I don’t feed them. Tey go four to five months, no food, no nothing. I go out there in the spring to feed them and they’re 5 DZWONKOSKI_INT_150.indd 4-5 6/04/09 10:26:37 Pond at Te Home of the Future (detail) United States more at his trial. We never heard his testimony, but when he had the world stage he could have buried a lot of people. Tell us about Te Home of the Future. What is Te Home of the Future? RW: It’s a concept… and a place. It started out as a place. After both my parents died, my brother said to me: “You really should own this Pond at Te Home of the Future house.” Tey left us the house and the money in their bank account. He said: “I’ll take the money, you take the house.” So I got the house and I not interested at all. I don’t know how they survive. But now in July and started transforming it and people started coming over right away. I was August, I go to feed them and they see me coming. Tey’re at the top: sitting with some friends in this room where we’re sitting now and I said: “Come on, come on, let’s get the food.” It’s really nice that I was able to, “I have to make some changes to this house. For one thing, I’d like to you could say, beat the system. paint this room black. And they said: “You’re going to have a room that’s black in your house.” I said: “Well this is not a typical house. Tis is a And is that Saddam Hussein above the fish? home of the future.” Tat’s how it got started. I had no idea that so many people would gravitate to this place. Tere RW: Yes. Saddam is sitting in prison and he’s saying to the fish: “Tis is are days where I don’t feel like I own it. It’s a very curious thing the way where you are, the place and the environment and it is not a practical people who come here often feel a sense of ownership. People will come joke.” Here’s a guy who cooperated with the Americans, did everything to me and say: “I’ve got an idea of something I’d like to change.” Or peo- they wanted him to do. Ten he decided that he was going to switch ple will bring other people here and show them around. It’s like they’re the oil currency of Iraq from dollars to euros, which means it would go showing their own place. I never give anybody a tour because I get so through the European treasury and the US treasury would lose their much enjoyment out of seeing other people give the tour. One guy Sal, cut of all the money coming in and out of Iraq. I thought he would be he brought someone from work and he brings them into this room and perfect with the fish. Here he is being held prisoner and he’s thinking: says: “Here’s where we edited three movies. We do three TV shows a “I can’t believe this is happening.” I’m surprised he didn’t implicate the week,” even though he’s not involved in any of them. 6 7 DZWONKOSKI_INT_150.indd 6-7 6/04/09 10:26:39 Ten there’s Jim who has his MySpace fetish. I set up a computer and put up a sign, Te Community Computer, because people were always asking to check their email. Jim started coming here to sit and play on his M ySpace account. He’ll come here at 7:30 at night and leave at 5:30 in the morning. I feel like I’ve got a night watchman. I’m in bed, I’m sleeping and I can hear little clicks going on in the other room and I’m thinking: no one’s ever gonna break into this place because he’s on the computer all the time. It seems that technology and what you can do with it personally has been a major part of what’s happened here. You’ve always used technology to bring people together. RW: Tat is true. I do use technology to bring people together. I never phrased it that way, but it definitely fits. I mean the radio station, boy Ron Ehmke and Richard Wicka, does that ever bring people together. Tat came about because there was Snap Judgments an actual radio station in town, AM frequency WHLD. Tey decided they would be radical, a radio station with progressive, political con- la ndscape. And then there are people who come here with just regular, tent. Tey put up a call for work: Anyone who wants to can have their almost public-acce ss ideas for shows like Jim’s show. own radio show and do it for free, once a week. And all these people went to WHLD. Tey loved having their own radio shows. It was a Te MySpace call-out show? pretty cool thing. But they mismanaged the funds at the station and soon they were actually saying to the people who had their own shows: “We RW: Which is pretty much what it should be called. Jim meets people could be getting $400 a week for that slot and if you wouldn’t mind pay- on MySpace and then asks: “Can I interview you for my radio show over ing us the $400, we’ll let you keep your show. Otherwise we’re going to the phone?” So he interviewed a filmmaker and tonight he’s going to sell it.” Well that wasn’t going to happen so people started jumping ship interview a singer/songwriter from another part of the country. Tere’s and before you know it, the whole station collapsed. People were coming a comedian who does his comedy skits on his show.