pictures from kathryn's lry archives

Star Island '81 and Villa Afterwards

“here we go / moving across the water / here we go / turning my whole world around...”

Arrivals and Departures...

hank spies the viking queen. austin, hannah, claudia and margo are amused, maybe.
photo by kathryn price

? , ? , ? , Hank Pierce, Austin Smith, Hannah MacElroy, Claudia Center and Margo Hobbs, on the steps of Oceanic as the daytrippers and latecomers disembark. I'm not sure what was going on here, only that when Hank set foot on the Island, much loud chaos ensued.

hanging out on the porch of Oceanic

wesley derbyshire and michelle walter, june, 1981
photo by kathryn

This is one of the negatives that has some problems (not enough detail in the emulsion), but I decided to use it anyway. Michelle and Wes can also be found in the front row of the official conference picture (farther down this page), third from the right.

“Hit the Road!”

hank pierce and prince (mike davis) bonding
photo by kathryn

These two got into this schtick where they'd walk up to people, gently touch that person's clothes and politely ask, “Is that felt?” Then they would answer their own question by bellowing, “IT IS NOW!!! HIT THE ROAD!!!!” It was sort of funny the first, um, few times (well, a little bit, i guess). But it got damn annoying pretty quickly. However, they seemed determined to continue with it until every conference member was subjected to the routine. Either that or until someone tossed them off the pier.

“Psycho-Sweater, Qu'est-ce que c'est?”

Hank's KARMA comes due on the porch of Oceanic. June, '81.
photo by kathryn price

erin o'keefe, ? , ryk mcintyre and hank pierce.

Ryk takes matters into his own hands. The rest of us are relieved. And we laugh. A lot.

Group Picture, Star Island LRY Week, Summer Solstice, 1981

Click on photo for enlarged version

O.K., this is an absolutely HUGE file (554k). If your image card can't handle it I'll do a smaller version. I made it huge so you can pan around and see all the faces, because at a lower resolution the people in the back turn into anonymous pixel-blobs. You'll have to be patient while this one loads. I don't know who took this photo.

“and the background’s changing / out of focus...”

neil osgood, ? , ? , jay pharmakis and keith knost on the porch of oceanic. june '81.
blurry photo by an under-caffeinated kathryn

Geez, everyone looks so awake, despite my bleary blurriness. Maybe the picture's so blurry 'cause that's what everything still looked like to me, being b.c. and all (before coffee). This was on the last morning. I remember rushing to get packed after spending the night freezing to death in Parker, and feeling a bit resentful for getting no sleep. (Thanks ryk, for bringing us the blanket, btw. Even if it was damp with sea-spray from your evening on the rocks. And me, scrawling poems on bits of driftwood while the sun rose over the cliffs. So dramatic...)

hanging out on the porch some more

dave saxman, bob morris, ? , and john foord
picture by kathryn

Ah yes... Dave was real into his live-action role-playing game that week. I recall he and Suzan actually slept on the cliffs one night. And of course Father Bob, of Interweave, led a deep and moving psychic development workshop that had a serious impact on a number of us. It certainly was a turning point for me, spiritually. And Bob was one of the first people in whom I confided about some of my psychic experiences. That part of LRY was a lifesaver for me - finally finding people I could talk to about these psychic and spiritual experiences I'd had since childhood. It was something that had made me feel so alienated from my friends in school. To finally have people I could share these things with was a revelation. Bob also lead a Summer Solstice circle at Star - my first ever. John did an improv dance piece with Kaity Granda, Margo Hobbs and myself, that grew out of Kaity's dance workshop. So many turning points...

Suzy Q Ritual, Taco Villa, June, 1981

Hank Pierce, Erin O'Keefe, Keith Knost and Kathryn Price. Behold the Mystery...
photo by ryk mcintyre, who had to perch atop kathryn's dresser to fit us all in the frame

After Star, a bunch of people came back to the Villa. Michelle Walter drove us all in her dad's van. I still can't believe how many people we managed to squeeze into that van; people were literally piled atop one another, and with a towering pile of backpacks wedged in behind us. I could barely see Michelle up front, she was so small (and I had people piled on top of me). She bravely piloted that heavily overloaded van - it must have been like steering a ship in a strong side-wind, there were so many of us. Then we got stuck in this total-gridlock traffic jam on the bridge coming into Boston. I think we sat on that bridge for hours (and some of us had to pee real bad! TORTURE!).

Many of us had missed breakfast on the Island (still asleep, wandering in a lack-of-sleep daze, or frantically packing). We had the serious munchies by the time we reached the Villa, and a few of us made our way over to the market to score some edibles. Someone saw the Suzie-Q's, procured some (whilst giggling madly), and we ran and hid in my room. In this picture we had Suzie-Q innards all over our hands and faces. What a mess. (I still don't consider Suzie-Q's edible, by the way, which probably has something to do with the expression on my face.)

ryk mcintyre and the dead baby discuss the state of affairs

taco villa, june, '81
photo by kathryn price

Ryk gets surreal. Note wraparound sunglasses and earmuffs on dead baby.

Geez, no wonder we hid in my room with whatever semblance of food we had, it looks like everyone else bought beer, beer, and more beer. Wasn't anyone else hungry? The hazards of living across from a liquor store. Or maybe everyone was living on Nan's granola... (eek!) (and sorry Nan, these 18 years later, for surreptitiously eating your granola when some of us forgot to buy food. Tacos do not live on caffeine alone. Though some of us tried.)

More Star pictures to come as I find them and get them scanned in.

“I find you in the morning / after dreams of distant signs / you pour yourself over me / like the sun through the blinds”

“Thugamar fein an samhra lin'” “'Tis we have brought the Summer in.”

For other pictures of Star Island, see:
Ursula's pictures of Star Island 1980 Page 1 and Page 2
dave caputo's photo pages, with pics from Star '83 and
A virtual tour of Star Island

next page: Con Con '81

soundtrack: through the mists of time and memory
side two: “in the moment” march '81 - june '81 (continued):
ghost dance - patti smith
avalon - roxy music
break on through - the doors
cuts you up - peter murphy
i melt with you - modern english
shelter - lone justice

“Thugamar fein an samhra lin'”
-- from blackmantle by patricia kennealy-morrison

“Can you see what I see? Can you cut behind the mystery?”

pictures from kathryn's lry archives
picture index & soundtrack notes
the midwest, fall '79 - summer '80 | office and villa, fall '80 | joe taco's housewarming party, fall '80
spring '81 | star island '81 and villa afterwards | con con '81 | tacos on tour, summer '81
fall of '81 | cog in the eighties | the tribe(s) in the nineties and beyond
how i wound up doing this site

copyright on all contributions belongs to the individual artists.
unless otherwise noted, all text and images copyright ©1981-1999 kathryn price theatana & kpt/katharsis ink
site copyright ©1999 kathryn price theatana for big electric celt productions
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