So Peter would have been sixty-three goddamned years old today. And it still makes me disgusted and angry that that time has been stolen from him. What would he have done, what would he have created?
Anyway, here are a couple of cool things - a wonderful remembrance by Michael Gentile: Remembering an Artist's Wild Life
with a photo by Cindy Heidel:
Photo: Ann Haskell, about 1976. Photo courtesy the estate of Ann Haskell.
Here's the obit for our mother; her husband, Dick, included the photo, which I had forgotten about.
Ann S. Haskell, 81, died peacefully in her sleep at home on 10/22/10. Survived by her husband, Richard Koepsell, her mother, Elizabeth Sullivan, and her three siblings, Paul (Blake) Sullivan (Fredericksburg, VA), Margaretta Smith (Ashburn, VA), and Glen Sullivan (Fredericksburg, VA). She is also survived by three of her four children: Constantine (Dean) Rasmussen (Ipswich, MA), Mark Haskell (Washington, DC) and Gretl Rasmussen (Brooklyn, NY), by two loving daughters-in-law, and by six grandchildren.
Ann was born in Washington, DC, in 1929 and grew up in Arlington, VA. While raising three children on her own, she was among the first women to graduate from Clemson University and was awarded a Woodrow Wilson Graduate Fellowship. She received her Doctorate with honors from the University of Pennsylvania in 1964. She went on to teach at the English Department of the State University of New York at Buffalo, specializing in Chaucer and Medieval Life and Literature and in Children's Literature, for thirty-seven years. She was a mentor and advisor to hundreds of students whose lives and careers she enriched with her generosity and scholarship. Her many academic publications include the books, "Essays on Chaucer's Saints" and "A Middle English Anthology," which has been in print since 1969.
Ann wrote Op-Ed columns, personal essays, and articles on food and numerous other subjects for publications such as the Smithsonian, the Washington Post, Baltimore Sun and New York Times. She maintained a home in Provence in Southern France for forty years and she and her husband taught a program abroad on the Culture of Provence. Ann leaves friends in Western New York, Charlottesville, VA, and Provence, France. She thanks the Gynecological Cancer staff at the University of Virginia.
Friday is the first anniversary of Peter's death, and I've spent a lot of time thinking about what I learned from him, which I know he'd think was important too. He'd probably say he taught me about good music, which he did; Liza recently told me that Peter took "a kind of big brother pride in the fact that he turned you on to David Bowie" - and X, and the Blasters, and on and on. But actually the most important thing he taught me about, accidentally maybe, was women. When I was a kid I knew that it was crucially important for a woman to be "pretty," and was very concerned about how I'd ever end up attaining that state myself. Now I realize it was always a losing battle for me, as pretty is about smallness, fragility, quietness, and blending in - all fine qualities for lace doilies and baby bunnies, but not so good for adults. My brother didn't hang out with women like that, and because of him, while I was still a teenager I met or saw performances by Exene, Lydia, Heather and Pat Oleszko - who were, to a woman, loud, weird, abrasive, fascinating, kind, and feared no one. They were completely mind-altering, especially in the bland hell that was Buffalo in the Reagan 80s. I remember being 17 and hearing Lydia, then all of 25 herself, remark that if a man tried to rape her she'd just laugh in his face. Had I been more self-aware at the time, I would have proposed to her on the spot. They were - and are - so powerful. But they also tended to be amazingly nice to me, maybe just because I was Peter's little sister, but I hoped that they also saw that I was a little bit like them. So thank you, Peter: I am loud, often irritating, and somewhat strange, and extremely proud of it. I love you. Gretl
Pat Oleszko, Roamin' Holiday: A View from A Broad (www.patoleszko.com)
From Zuade: "a portrait I took of Peter in front of our place in Los Feliz" (Photo by Zuade Kaufman)
When Mark and I went to LA in January to clean out Peter's storage space, we had no idea what to expect in there. It was way the hell out in some college-y looking CA town, and we went in a three-car caravan with Beth, Zuade and Paris. I should have taken a picture of the contents, which roughly broke down to food (dorm fridge, mixer, blender), decrepit furniture bits, clothes (Peter's old leather coat fit Paris perfectly and became his), lots of fishing gear, some music equipment, and several large bags of tools - serious tools that you could build a house with. Of course there were tapes and DVDs and CDs. There were books of every description from library sales and used book stores that he picked up like a magpie. There were tons of rolls of heavy tape. And there were pieces of art-to-be: sparkly, glittery, shiny, and patterned; fabric, paper, lights, paints, and colored glue; all of which for us was just pretty trash. Mark said that Peter would have been furious that we were fucking with his stuff that way. It was awful.
From Heather: Hey Gretl, just found this, thought you might get a kick out of these dolls Peter made long ago, for our first issue of Rattler though we didn't use them. He made a mask of Medusa for the cover instead, can't remember why. (Art by Peter Haskell) He sculpted them all by hand out of papier mache, then hand painted them. We had a lot of fun finding the props and stuff. I helped sew some of the clothes, which reminded me of making stuff for my Barbies-but they are purely Peter's creations. As you can see, there is a tourist couple in the front, then left to right, a "gay cruiser," as he put it, a cholo, a bag lady and a new waver.
Photo courtesy of Heather Haley From Heather: "...this was taken at the Cathay De Grande by Gary Leonard (I think) on the occasion of our Rattler Magazine benefit which included Dave Alvin, John Doe, Exene Cervenka, Carlos Guitarlos, De De Detroit, Phast Phreddie, Ivan Roth, Victor Noel, Tequila Mockingbird, Doug Knott and Michael Mollet on the bill. The bands that played were Greg Burk's Dred Scott, Seditionaries, Minutemen, Off, and Malocchio (Jhim Pattison and Byron Baker's neo-surrealist band of madmen)."
More: Poster for "Bad Day," a film by Modi Frank and Exene Cervenka featuring Peter Haskell; courtesy of Heather Haley:
Zero One Club poster by Peter Haskell; courtesy of Heather Haley:
Zero One Club poster by Peter Haskell; courtesy of Heather Haley:
From Ralph Easton: "Last night here in Roanoke VA we hosted an art/poetry event. Performance artist Id M Theft Able was the headliner. We also had a few sculptures & paintings on display. We projected some videos on the wall. Friends from New Jersey called in, & read poetry over the PA. We made collaborative art works during the event. I put up these photos of Pete, & made a brief dedication of the event to Pete. This event is part of a series of events that we do here, & another part of what we do is create, & post all documentation to a flicker photo set. For this event I came home with 130 photos." You can take a look here: www.flickr.com/photos/textimagepoetry/sets/72157607347527450
Peter Haskell died in Los Angeles on September 11, 2008, at age 51. He was a filmmaker, artist, writer and musician,
and is survived by his son Paris, his mother Ann, his siblings Constantine (Dean), Mark and Gretl, and by many steadfast friends and creative co-conspirators.
Please contribute your art, photos, or reminiscences about Peter by emailing me at gretlr hotmail com.
Copyrights are owned by the individuals listed. Uncredited materials on this blog are owned by me. If you want to reproduce something or see a mistake or omission, please contact me at the email listed above.
Main image: Peter and Bella, photo by Eliza Walsh.
Further details about Peter's death can be found in Paul Cullum's LA Weekly article of July 7, 2009: http://www.laweekly.com/2009-07-09/news/beautiful-loser-tortured-killer
Unless otherwise noted, all contents copyright 2008-2011 G. Rasmussen
