link back to Front
Page of Monte Capanno 1970
July 11, 2009:
Monte Capanno Reunion. A group of interested former residents of
Monte Capanno assembled at the St. Claire Hotel in downtown San Jose for a
reunion. For more information, write
gordo110@yahoo.com;
an extensive array of photos are available at his pages on Facebook.
The group gathered outside Original
Joes', on First St. in San Jose.
Pictured (front row): Linda Green Bowen, Cathee St.
Clair, Jan (Hammond) Gentes,
Mary Zuccaro, Sue (Rutz) Shaffer, Wes
Shaffer, Marti Kramer. Gordon Bowen in rear.
sJuly
2, 2009: Webmasters have received a letter from Mark Fissel
(mfissel@aug.edu
), former resident at MC-70 and able researcher in the quest of the
subsequent fate of the missing members of that experiment. It concerns
Mark Cohen, aka "Gomar," and it makes for some unsettling reading:
"Greetings,
gents. Back in 2007, Wes demonstrated that he hasn't lost any of his
research skills. He tracked down an MA address for
Mark Cohen (plus David and Nettie's home numbers in LG). Sorry I
have been so long in getting back to you. Since then some of the
people-finding search engines have figured out how to pair up relatives,
etc., with the individual you are searching for. The bad news is
that is seems more likely that the "Majestic Rose" Mark Cohen, who was
prosecuted for a
Ponzi scheme, is our dear old friend.
The Mark Edward Cohen that had residences in Los Gatos and Marina
Del Rey is definitely Gomar. The age (58) and the parents also match.
He has also a Tarzana address (and I wrote to him there, but got neither
a reply nor the letter returned), and the MA addresses that Wes tracked
down. The killer is that among all these is a
Boca Raton address,
and the transcript of the
legal proceedings indicate that the
Mark Edward Cohen
who did this stuff did so for the most part out of his
Boca Raton home.
Our "Los Gatos" Mark
Edward Cohen is the only Mark Edward Cohen with a Boca Raton
address.
One has to believe that Mark would have entered his own name in a search
engine during the last 8 years or so. If so, he'd see our Monte Capanno
site. Perhaps he has indeed discovered what we have been doing but is
somewhat sheepish about contacting anyone given the trouble he's been in
(the court found for $7 million in damages, I think).
I have NOT called his parents because they might think we were tracking
him down for irate swindled investors. I am attaching the transcript URL
below, which really is unbelievable. Note that the Mark Edward Cohen in
the legal document has a law degree and specializes in business, as was
the case with Gomar. Say it ain't so, Joe.
MCF
http://www.donaldbeckner.com/CM/SampleBriefs/SampleBriefs15.asp
"
June 27, 2009: Word has arrived from an internet
reader, David Kadarauch (
kadamendo@comcast.net
), offering more information about the formative influences that shaped MC-70
Professor David Zack. Anyone who has more information about the senior
Zacks, Arturo and Elena/Edith should feel free to write Kadarauch directly:
From:
Subject: David Zack
Hello,
I came across the web page on Montecapanno, and it brought back memories
of the Zack family in the late 50s and early 60s. At the age of 13 (1959)
I started studying the cello with his father, and met David only once or
twice, as he was already at university, and shortly thereafter teaching at
the
University of Puerto Rico. ( I distinctly remember his mother
showing me a journal he edited there called "Outlet" - it would be
interesting to see a copy, but perhaps none survive.) David somewhat
resented me, as I was his fathers protege, and the father, a very strong
personality, was terribly disappointed that David never showed much
interest in the cello (at least at that stage).
The letter on your website written by his mother is undoubtedly genuine,
but her name was Edith, not Elena. As her middle initial was E. perhaps
Elena was her middle name.
Amusingly, she refers to her husband as Arturo - in earlier times it was
always Arthur. Perhaps they were reinventing their names a bit. I
believe she died in 1984, and Arthur in 1985.
Poor David must have gone through childhood with the lid clamped down on a
seething mass of contradictory input. I am convinced his mother was a
lesbian, or at least bisexual - her dress, manner, and haircut all pointed
to this. And Arthur also had homosexual tendencies, as I discovered in
the lessons. That, together with the restrictive mindset of a smallish
Midwestern city in the 1950s must have been a lot for a sensitive,
brilliant young mind to deal with.
I would appreciate any additional information you have on his parents -
their lives in Mexico,
circumstances of their deaths, etc., as they were the ones I knew, and
have memories of.
Sincerely,
David Kadarauch (Berkeley, CA)
kadamendo@comcast.net
November 3, 2008: David Zack
Retrospective at Calgary, Alberta.
Istvan
Kantor (contact at:
amen@interlog.com ) has submitted
many photos from the David Zack
exhibit
he assembled for an October - November 2008 show about Zack's mail art that
recently took place at the New Gallery, Calgary, Alberta. Two reviews of
the show from the
Calgary Herald and other local publications, including further background
about the life of David Zack and the origins and international influence of
his "mail art" or "correspondence art," also are now hosted here at Monte Capanno 1970:
Calgary Herald review,
Swerve review.
Additionally, here is a link to a profile of Zack that Kantor provided:
http://www.ccca.ca/artists/artist_info.html?link_id=13323
August 21, 2008: New
pictures from 1970.
Joel Agee has sent in three new pictures
he has found of his family's time on the farm at Monte Capanno with us.
Two are small group shots with students Terre Eakins, Terry MacDonald, Mary
Zuccaro, and Jan Hammond included. The wild Australian, Denny Kelly,
appears in all three. But, unfortunately, Joel himself was behind the
camera shooting these, and isn't among the subjects photographed. The
pictures now are placed among a re-arranged set of photos of guests who
visited Monte Capanno in 1970, and can be viewed by
following this link to our
Photos of guests page. (The new pictures are near the bottom of that
page).
August 10, 2008: New word from Tutorials people from 1967-69.
Webmasters have in recent months received
word of new interest in thinking about the Tutorials Program at San Jose
State. This summer our inbox brought us this:
Linda - I
don't think you and I ever met, but I was a student in the Tutorials in
Letters and Science Program in 1967-1969. One of my friends forwarded your
web address to me. I was at the gathering in Santa Cruz in July 2002 that
Merv
Cadwallader mentioned in the note posted on your web site. I am
attaching several photos of that
gathering. I also have prints of each of my classmates taken in 1969
that someday I will try to scan and perhaps post. Seeing as next year will
be the 40th anniversary of our graduating from Tutorials in Letters and
Science, I may work with some of my cohorts to get together and celebrate.
I agree with the tone of your web site, that these were grand and (to me)
successful experiments in education. Thanks for organizing and maintaining
this. I am passing the link on to some friends and perhaps we can generate
more content in honor and memory of those days!
Mark
Silberstein:
Silbermud@aol.com
Read more
recent discussion by (non-Monte Capanno) graduates of the Tutorials Program
at San Jose State by following this link.
June 4,
2008: David Zack Retrospective Show.
Istvan Kantor --aka "Monty Cantsin"--,
longtime associate and collaborator with David Zack, has written to announce
that a show he has organized to display Zack's works will open at
The New Gallery, Calgary, Alberta (Canada) on October 10, 2008.
He continues:
"it will be based mostly
on the works I collected from David throughout our collaboration from 1976 to
the late 80's, but also will include material I received from others as
contribution for the show, as the gallery is not very big it won't be a
monumental show just a smaller scale commemorative retrospective, but it will
be extended through the internet and the publication of a catalog,
I'm still collecting stuff and if any of you of the Monte Capanno project
would like to include something please let me know, I'll definitely link the
Capanno site to the exhibition and include it also in my intro to the
exhibition and catalog."
Kantor can be
reached at
amen@interlog.com , or by mail at:
Istvan Kantor
163 Sterling Road Unit 3B
Toronto, Ontario
M6R 2B2 Canada
Kantor also
expressed interest in attending the next Monte Capanno 1970 reunion.
Unfortunately, webmasters are unaware of a plan for one in the near future.
Perhaps in 2009?
May 23, 2008:
From Concord, CA, the Monte Capanno 1970 website has
received email from Mitch Ward (Tutorials, 1965-67), in which he assesses the
Tutorials experiment in general and finds great value was added to his
education, especially in the area of critical thinking. Read more by
following the link.
Separate from the item
above, from Halifax, Nova Scotia (Canada) we also have received a large packet of materials written by David
Zack from the 1960's to the early 1980's, courtesy of his daughter, Rose. These
reflect his "mail art" and other aspects of his life. All are
PDF files linked here, and include:
-
Zack's resume, which along with the usual
things includes some humorous entries, e.g. a listing of a referee entitled
"General Schmuck."
-
A series of
unpublished poems and other unpublished
writings by David, including: "The Game," "Birthday 42," "My Horoscope,"
"Diabetes," "Would you rather be an under-water diver or a dead man afloat?,"
"What will be written on Cavellini's tombstone?," "Why do Italians all talk at
the same time?," "Railroad Images," "The Shell," and parts of a review of a
concert by Nicolas Kynaston.
-
Calgary Art Trends, a May 1980
grant proposal to the Calgary Regional Arts Foundation.
-
An essay entitled "Calgary
Process," which seems to be from about the same period.
-
A revealing May 1979 two
page letter from 74 year old Elena
(presumably Zack's mother) to Ruth (one of Zack's wives, and mother of
Rose Zack), in which Mom conveys understanding for the difficulties Ruth had
with David, comments on the impact of "the cultural Revolt of the '60s" on
David. This new item is especially worth reading, as it includes a frank
assessment of the man, including the following: "I
feel he allowed himself to think brain-activity was the sole object of living
and denied the importance of the heart and what, in old anglo-saxon are called
the guts, in building a sane and full life. And perhaps good old
commonsense. He and I always had a close relationship but in recent
years it is strained for I have tried repeatedly to awaken a sense of reality
in him... Now that he is 41 years old I must accept the fact that he is a
grown man and not receptive to motherly criticism."
-
An
organ concert review.
-
Some other published
Zack papers from 1980, complete with marginal
comments by David, and a line drawing apparently by him, all focused on the
San Francisco art scene, and related topics.
February 23, 2008:
From the San Francisco, CA area, the Monte Capanno 1970 website has
received a letter and some of Maija's art from that
period from Maury Polse, one of David
Zack's students at Laney College (Oakland) in 1968. Polse fondly recalls
the Zacks, and their "Rainbow House" in San
Francisco's Fillmore District. To read more, and to view the piece of
Maija's art he owns, go here.
September 22, 2007:
Monte Capanno 1970 has received news from Monte Capanno. The Count
has been injured in an auto accident, but now is out of the hospital and is
recovering at home. We wish him a speedy recovery. Read more about
it, and view pictures of the Count today, by following this link.
July 14-15:
The Monte Capanno 1970
reunion 2007 took place in
Glen Ellen, CA. Hosted by Marti Kramer, martiLK@aol.com,
a good time was had by all attending. Pictures
of the event are linked here.
April 28, 2007:
Joel and Susan Agee have told us of the birth of their grandchildren, Johanna
and Beckett, to daughter Gina and her husband, in Los Angeles. Check out
the cuties, and our first glimpse of Gina since 1970
here.
March 3, 2007:
Count Giuseppe Vicarelli has sent some
wonderful pictures of Monte Capanno
over the years, and a nice set from the 1990s and 2000s now is available
here: follow the link. Included is one group shot with Andre, Giuseppe,
and La Contessa at a large family reunion a few years back. The pictures
were given to Cathee when she and Greig visited in summer 2006.
January 4, 2007:
Happy New Year, everyone. Webmasters have had a lovely winter so far,
chiefly visiting the Shawnee, Kansas home of our new granddaughter,
Maggie (who was born last
month), and her family.
-
We recently have
received an inquiry from a researcher, Justin McKeown, who is looking into
the life of David Zack. McKeown's email to us has been posted to the
message board.
If anyone wants to help him out, he left his email address there.
-
We also are delighted
to report that Cathee and her husband Greig visited Monte Capanno in 2006
and were hosted by the current Count, Giuseppe Vicarelli, son of La
Contessa. Ample gorgeous pictures from both Cathee and the Count
await posting here. She also produced a stunningly moving DVD about
her return to Monte Capanno. Write her at:
stclair@usamedia.tv
April 30, 2006:
Mary Zuccaro has a new email:
maryzrn@comcast.net .
Change your address books.
March 20, 2006:
Out of the blue, yet another of the residents at Monte Capanno in 1970 has
found us: Terry Tarrantts, known and remembered as "Tall Terry" at MC-70.
He wrote:
"I was telling friends
about the interesting memories of interesting people and events during my stay
with the community of Monte Capanno and found this website that Gordon put
together. Flooded with memories. Being at the farmhouse was one the many
experiences of my life that has lingering influence. So Hello! to
everyone who remembers "Tall Terry" That's me Terry Tarrantts. Including
you Gordon"
Terry didn't leave an
address. Webmaster's seek his involvement with the project.
December 7, 2005:
Happy traveler Lisa Aiello, a Canadian friend of the current Count of Monte
Capanno (i.e., Bepi), has written
again to convey that the repairs
to the castle of Monte Capanno (about which she reported earlier in 2004
and 2005), now are complete. She can be contacted at:
lisa.aiello@rogers.com
October 16, 2005:
New memories on various topics have been added to the Memories sections
lately, including:
